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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gladius Legis" data-source="post: 7541964" data-attributes="member: 68748">III. Ranger ArchetypesHunter: Of the two PHB Ranger subclasses, this is the more combat-focused, and by far the more effective overall. And it’s customizable at each stop, too. This archetype is meant to reflect the tactics the Ranger uses to fight against his or her most targeted enemies, moreso than the old Favored Enemy bonuses of the previous editions did. It’s a respectable subclass still, though it’s lost some of its luster with the XGTE subclasses’ arrival.Lv. 3, Hunter's Prey: Pick one of the following.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Colossus Slayer: This one is geared toward single-target damage with its extra once-per-turn 1d8 damage on an enemy that's already injured. A solid pick for both melee and ranged that makes you more effective in focus-fire assaults against strong enemies. Also, the important thing to note about this damage being once per turn, as opposed to per round, is that it also applies on your Opportunity Attacks or other reaction attacks you make, making those more threatening.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Giant Killer: A reaction attack after an enemy Large or larger hits or misses you. Sounds good, right? It does ... until you realize that the enemy has to be within 5 feet of you, and if a creature is Large or larger, chances are pretty good they have reach. Even if you ended your turn bearing down on the enemy, there's a chance it can attack one of your allies instead from its position. If you have the Sentinel feat, you can still get an attack in that situation and make this feature actually work for you indirectly, but what does it say about a feature that requires a feat to be remotely useful? If you're an archer, don't even think about this one.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Horde Breaker: On the one hand, it is a chance of getting an additional attack every round, which always counts for something. On the other hand, it’s never against the same enemy, and the second enemy you attack with this has to be right next to your first one, making this a bit situational.</li> </ul>Lv. 7, Defensive Tactics: Pick one of the following.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Escape the Horde: OAs against you at disadvantage. This does wonders for your survivability, mobility and targeting ability when navigating a horde or a group of multiple enemies. Overall, this one is typically the melee Ranger's favorite pick at this level (especially with Whirlwind Attack coming four levels later).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Multiattack Defense: This one is good for defense against strong enemies (often bosses) with multiple attacks in a single action, making their focus-fire attempts against you more difficult with a hefty +4 to AC after it hit you. Likely a ranged Ranger's favorite, but it’s a good choice in general.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Steel Will: Plenty of higher-level bosses can frighten you, and frightening is a rather annoying condition, so advantage on saves against that seems like a good thing. Problem is, Rangers do not have proficiency in WIS saves (which frightening typically targets), and only DEX-Rangers (in particular archers) will have a WIS high enough to make this advantage work for them appreciably. You can take the Resilient feat for proficiency in WIS saves, which does make this better, but that means not taking that feat for CON save proficiency, which is typically the better choice for Rangers. If you started as a class with WIS save proficiency and multiclassed into Ranger, then this gets better, as well. But, overall, you should stick to one of the other two options at this level.</li> </ul>Lv. 11, Multiattack: Pick one of the following for what is effectively your at-will AoE.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Volley: This ranged weapon option is overall the more effective of the two, with double the area of effect (10' radius) of Whirlwind Attack. The ammunition requirement for each target generally limits this to arrows and bolts, however, as opposed to thrown weapons. With Sharpshooter's damage bonus and Archery fighting style in play, you can deal quite a lot of damage to a group of enemies at once.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Whirlwind Attack: The melee option isn't quite as sexy, targeting enemies within 5 feet of you only (even if you're using a reach weapon). And getting in a position to attack a significant number of foes with this can be rather hazardous, to say the least. (Escape the Horde helps A LOT there.) If you took Horde Breaker, that one does work with this for a nice double-tap against one enemy, so there's that.</li> </ul>Lv. 15, Superior Hunter's Defense: Pick one of the following.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Evasion: 8 levels after the Rogue gets it. Better late than never with this wonderful ability, though. If you absolutely, positively want to ensure you survive a dragon's breath, accept no substitute.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Stand Against the Tide: Meh. Very situational, and typically for not a whole lot of damage even then.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Uncanny Dodge: Cut one hit's damage in half with your reaction. It’s alright, but no Evasion.</li> </ul>Beast Master: I tried. I really did. I wanted to give this subclass a chance, hear the case in favor of it, wait for errata. But nope, sorry — the Beast Master is just plain awful. It’s not the theoretical white-room DPR figures, which actually check out OK. And, yes, some companion choices even have some utility functions. It’s that the beast just has no damn hit points. 4x your level, on a companion that’s supposed to contribute meaningfully to combat, is just asking for the poor animal to get ganked after one or two rounds. AND if you lose your pet — and you most likely will — you have to sideline yourself to first find another animal buddy, which could take Silvanus knows how long, and then ANOTHER 8 hours on top of that (!!!) to form the bond, and who has time for that in a typical campaign?That said, fun is the most important thing, and if this subclass is your idea of fun, then more power to you. Generally, your best options for a pet will be Wolf, Panther, Boar, Pteranodon, Giant Crab, Giant Centipede, Giant Poisonous Snake, or Giant Wolf Spider.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ranger's Companion (Lv. 3): Aside from the MAJOR issues already listed above, for the first four levels as a Beast Master, you have to give up your action to get the beast to actually do anything other than move or (after latest errata) Dodge.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Exceptional Training (Lv. 7): Finally, you get some basic functionality. Now your beast can Dash, Disengage or Help with your bonus action instead of taking up your action. The bonus-action Help is particularly nice, letting you effortlessly grant advantage to someone (yourself or an ally) on one attack every round — assuming your beast can stay alive long enough. Oh, and as of the latest errata, your beast’s attacks can overcome resistance to nonmagical attacks, so, yay.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Bestial Fury (Lv. 11): Your beast can now attack twice if you give up your second attack on your Attack action. (Or use multiattack, but that’s weaker for the one CR 1/4 beast that has it … we hardly knew ye, Giant Badger.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Share Spells (Lv. 15): Your beast becomes affected as well when you cast a spell on yourself. There are some good spells to take advantage of this (Freedom of Movement and Stoneskin, to name two).</li> </ul>Gloom Stalker (XGTE): This archetype is an ace in the first round of combat, typically the most important round. And it’s just generally the best Ranger subclass for maintaining focused assaults on one enemy at a time.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gloom Stalker Magic (Lv. 3): Like all the newer Ranger subclasses introduced in XGTE, the Gloom Stalker comes with a list of bonus spells at each level the Ranger will eventually be able to cast, many of which aren’t on the Ranger’s default spell list. These bonus spells give the newer subclasses quite an edge over the PHB archetypes. The Gloom Stalker specifically gets three spells that are quite useful: Rope Trick to guarantee the party a safe short rest, the top-tier crowd control/debuff spell Fear, and then the especially lovely Greater Invisibility, though that last one not until Lv. 13.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dread Ambusher (Lv. 3): Your Attack action gets one extra attack the first round of every combat! And unlike the Hunter’s Horde Breaker, you can focus-fire this attack on the same enemy you used your other attacks on! And on top of that, this extra attack does an extra 1d8 damage! This feature is a lot more reliable than the Assassin Rogue’s Assassinate in a similar function. And with Sharpshooter or Great Weapon Master feats in play, it can even result in a considerably more damaging alpha strike, every single combat, than Assassinate, with the Assassin Rogue not catching up until the early teen levels. Oh, and you also add your WIS-mod to initiative and are 10 feet faster in the first round, which is just extra gravy on an amazing feature.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Umbral Sight (Lv. 3): Oh, hey, free Darkvision if your race didn’t have it already. Extended range of Darkvision if your race did already have it. Messing with your enemies’ Darkvision only comes up occasionally, but it’s nice when it happens.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Iron Mind (Lv. 7): Wisdom save proficiency. Good. (Or INT or CHA saves if you somehow had WIS save proficiency already.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Stalker’s Flurry (Lv. 11): Well, they weren’t going to give you the Fighter’s third attack outright, but this is still quite nice. Thing is, unless your hit chances are already 75% or higher, you’re actually more likely than not to get the additional attack from this feature. (e.g. 70% hit chance = 49% chance you’ll hit with both attacks = 51% chance you’ll miss with at least one attack and thus get this feature’s additional attack.) So this feature can help encourage you to use something such as the -5/+10 hit/damage trade from Sharpshooter or Great Weapon Master more often. And it especially works wonders during your Dread Ambusher round, since your chances of hitting with all three attacks there are even less. (e.g. even a 75% hit chance for Dread Ambusher = 42% chance of all 3 attacks hitting in that first round = 58% chance of the additional attack happening.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Shadowy Dodge (Lv. 15): Reaction for disadvantage to one enemy attack. It’s just alright, but after 12 levels of greatness you can handle one average feature.</li> </ul>Horizon Walker (XGTE): Mobility is the name of the game for this archetype. It’s powered by a strong bonus spell list, and later on you’ll be doing wonderful things like walking through obstacles and teleporting all over the battlefield.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Horizon Walker Magic (Lv. 3): Misty Step at Lv. 5! Haste at Lv. 9! And the other spells on the list aren’t bad, either. If you’re playing a melee Horizon Walker, especially, do try to get Resilient (CON) and/or War Caster by Lv. 8 so you can better maintain concentration on Haste and have some fun.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Detect Portal (Lv. 3): Ribbon feature. Comes into play in campaigns involving a lot of planar travel.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Planar Warrior (Lv. 3): Sort of an odd duck as far as Ranger extra damage features go, not overly powerful, but interesting. It takes a bonus action every round for its extra 1d8 damage, which really means Horizon Walkers should not be dual-wielding or taking Crossbow Expert or Polearm Master. On the other hand, it turns all your damage on the attack into force damage, which is almost never resisted. And it does give you a bonus action to use every round with a typical sword-and-board, longbow archer or great weapon build that otherwise doesn’t use many bonus actions, making it especially good for rounds in which you don’t need to apply a Hunter’s Mark. And at Lv. 11, the extra damage scales up to 2d8, which is nice.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ethereal Step (Lv. 7): A short-rest recharge, 1 turn bonus-action Etherealness spell allows you to move through walls, enemies and other worldly obstacles to get to wherever or whoever you need that round.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Distant Strike (Lv. 11): Now you’re literally teleporting all over the battlefield on every Attack action. Fun, and a terrific mobility boost. Your Attack action becomes better against multiple foes, too, getting three attacks if they’re all against different enemies. While a Hunter’s Volley has a higher number of potential attacks than this, this isn’t limited to a 10-foot radius, actually making this better in a fair number of instances.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spectral Defense (Lv. 15): It’s literally Uncanny Dodge with different flavor text. So, it’s just OK.</li> </ul>Monster Slayer (XGTE): A specialized archetype with extra defenses against enemies that cast spells or use other nasty save-inducing effects against you. Unfortunately, you sacrifice quite a lot of offense compared to most other subclasses for features that are a bit on the situational side of things.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Monster Slayer Magic (Lv. 3): Well, Protection from Evil and Good is decent if you’re facing the creature types it protects you from. Other than that, it’s two situational utility spells at Lv. 5 and 9, and then two combat spells at Lv. 13 and 17. Eh.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hunter’s Sense (Lv. 3): Even if you’ve studied your Monster Manual, some DMs will consider it metagaming to apply that knowledge in-game, so this is essentially a cover-your-butt power for that scenario. It takes a whole action to use, though, which is not ideal. Useless if your DM isn’t that strict about metagaming.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Slayer’s Prey (Lv. 3): This ability can be used at will, it's just the benefit against an enemy that expires on a rest. And it only takes one bonus action at the start of combat to activate on an enemy, which makes it alright. Note that the 1d6 extra damage is once per turn, so it can apply on any reaction attacks you may have, as well. Casting Hunter's Mark is still generally superior with the same bonus action in the first round, but at least this can be stacked in subsequent rounds if you have bonus actions yet to spare. Also higher-level features of this subclass key off this one.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Supernatural Defense (Lv. 7): Basically this feature exists to encourage you to use Slayer’s Prey before Hunter’s Mark against enemies that cast spells, have some other nasty save-inducing abilities or are good at grappling. An extra d6 bonus on saves and grapple escapes is solid against those kinds of enemies.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magic-User’s Nemesis (Lv. 11): Where every other Ranger subclass gets a substantial at-will boost to their offense, you get a situationally useful 1/short rest Counterspell-ish type feature that works off your spell DC and also stops teleports. Which just isn’t nearly enough to make up for the weaker offensive capability at this keystone level, if you ask me.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Slayer’s Counter (Lv. 15): Another feature that encourages you to use Slayer’s Prey as early as possible against a spellcaster or anything that forces you to roll saves. Getting a reaction attack and a possible auto-success on a save is pretty nice, I’ll give it that.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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