[Bo9S] The Martial Ranger

[Prophet2b]

Sorry for all the new threads, guys (I know I'm new and I don't mean to be spamming the forums or annoying anyone or anything like that ) - I've just come to realize how awesome your advice is on all matters D&D.

That said, in conjunction with my Valadeen Human "sub-race" I modified the Ranger to use the Book of Nine Swords.

In short I...

* Removed the Ranger's spells
* Removed Animal Companion
* Added Maneuvers Known, Readied, and Stances Known as per Warblade
* Added Balance, Diplomacy, and Sense Motive to his list of class skills
* Added Available Disciplines as Heaven's Arc, Iron Heart, Setting Sun, Tiger Claw, and White Raven.

The attached file doesn't say much more than that, but I included it anyway as it has the Ranger's table in it.

Comments? Questions? Advice? Suggestions?

 

[Nifft]

Warblade recovery mechanism is fundamentally incompatible with ranged combat.

Take a look at the Martial Ranger (post or two down in that same thread you linked for Heaven's Arc), which is similar, but distinct, from the Warblade's progression.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Prophet2b]

Warblade recovery mechanism is fundamentally incompatible with ranged combat.

Take a look at the Martial Ranger (post or two down in that same thread you linked for Heaven's Arc), which is similar, but distinct, from the Warblade's progression.

Cheers, -- N

Damn... how'd I miss that? I looked all through your thread hoping you had a Martial Ranger, and somehow I completely flew right by that!

 

[FireLance]

My gut reaction is that warblade progression for maneuvers and stances (especially if five schools are available) is too much of an advantage for just the spells and animal companion. A better balance might be to reduce the maneuvers known and readied (say, a single maneuver known and readied at 1st level, maneuvers known increase by one every odd level, maneuvers readied increase at the warblade rate, so that a ranger's maneuvers readied is always two less than a warblade of the same level), and to limit the martial ranger to a single school, which could be tied to his combat style. A ranger using the ranged combat style could have access to Heaven's Arc, for example, and a ranger using the two-weapon style could have access to Tiger Claw.

I'm not so sure about the flavor of rangers you are aiming for, but Iron Heart, Setting Sun and White Raven don't seem to gel well (at least to me) with the idea of a wilderness warrior. I'd also remove Balance, Sense Motive and Diplomacy from the list of class skills since I wouldn't give rangers access to these schools.

In addition to ranged combat style and two-weapon style, I can also imagine a stealth-focused ranger (Shadow Hand school, Stealthy/Skill Focus (Move Silently)/Skill Focus (Hide) as bonus feats) and a tough ranger (Stone Dragon school, Power Attack/Weapon Specialization/Greater Weapon Specialization as bonus feats).

Another idea to balance the martial ranger is to make the favored enemy bonus a stance and to give the ranger access to one stance at 1st level, and a new stance at every even level. The ranger can learn a stance from the school he has access to, or a favored enemy stance (there could be a "Giant-Killing Stance", a "Dragon-Killing Stance", and so on). The bonus provided by the favored enemy stances starts at +2 at 1st level, goes up to +4 at 5th level, and increases by +2 every 5 levels after that until it reaches +10 at 20th level. In this way, a ranger can use his favored enemy stances when he is fighting his favored enemies, or his school stances when he is not.

 

[Prophet2b]

FireLance,

Actually, I just decided to go with a slightly modified version of Nifft's Martial Ranger, and he addresses every point you raised (I think).

EDIT: Actually... I like your "Favored Enemy Stance" idea. I will have to see about this...

EDIT AGAIN: Hmm... At second look, Nifft actually raised the maneuvers known and readied and such. So I guess he doesn't address your concerns. But we'll see how this turns out anyway.

 

[Prophet2b]

Okay, here's the revised version. I liked sticking just with the Warblade's progression. I have this thing about creating my own progressions for basically... well... anything. I tend to avoid it at all costs if I can just use a core progression (this has to do with a serious mistake I made early on with one of my very first created classes ).

I kept the Ranger's Special Abilities the same, too - in the same progression. However, I used Nifft's ideas for Maneuvers and Stances (with a little modification to the Recovering Maneuvers - it's a move action all the time to recover a maneuver). I also used his skill list and bonus feat idea.

Anyway, the attached file pretty much explains everything.