House-ruled Ranger

[ravenheart]

Sometime last year during the Era of the Nerfbat, I was caught up in the speculations on how and if they would nerf the Ranger, and especially how they would deal with that infamous at-will power of theirs - Twin Strike.

I pondered long and hard, and after a couple of unsuccessful atempts at a "fix", I concluded (in this post) that the problem with Twin sTrike was three-fold:

1. Doubling up on static bonuses

2. Dilettante/Multi-class/hybrid abuse

and

3. The overshadowing of other ranger at-will powers

I then analyzed these problems and managed to create something that, at the time, was (IMHO) a viable solution:

Twin Strike Ranger Class Feature
If the first attack doesn't kill it, the second one might.
At-Will (Special) Martial, Weapon
Free Action Melee or Ranged weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding two melee weapons or a ranged weapon.
Trigger: You miss an enemy with a melee or ranged at-will attack power.
Target: The triggering enemy.
Effect: The target takes 1[W] damage in addition to any other damage it would sustain from the attack (If you used your main hand weapon for the triggering attack you must use your off-hand weapon for the damage roll, and vice versa).
Special: You can use this power once per round.
Level 21: The target takes 2[W] damage in addition to any other damage it would sustain from the attack.

Eventually, the updates came and went without change to Twin Strike, and other things sparked my interest or occupied my time. My musings on the ranger fell into obscurity and I didn't devote any more thought to it.

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That was then...

Recently I found my old notes, and having studied them and taking into account the experiences and changes to the rules since their creation, I felt inspired to tackle the subject again.

Almost immediately, I realized that the problem was rooted further down. The issues of the class were not all dependant on a single at-will power, and going by my original design wouldn't solve any more problems than it created.

If it were to be a general class feature, it had to be applicable to the entirety of the class - otherwise some builds would be at an unfair disadvantage. Therefore I came up with the idea of creating a subset of class features, all dependant on the fighting style of choice. The archer and two-blade styles gain more damage, the beast master gains diversity and the hunter and marauder gain versatility.

Speaking of fighting styles, I always felt there was one build that was easily overshadowed by its fellow fighting styles: the Beast Master. Seeing how they had handled the animal companion of the Sentinel, I was inspired to recreate the Beast Mastery class feature. I eventually settled on a sort of mish-mash of the original feature and the Sentinels, aswell as adding some of my own touches to spice up and differentiate the beasts from one another.

Another thing I felt needed correction was the apparent blandness of the class. Sure, twink-twinking with a bow all day is all fun, but wouldn't it be nice if there was something else that made you unique? Therefore I deviced a way for the ranger to overcome the resistances of his quarry, and by doing so solidifying his or her role as a swift and deadly striker.

I also wanted the ranger to prioritize Wisdom more than was the case, since it really epitomizes the feel and archetype of the class. Seeing how I had reduced the potential abuse of Twin Strike, I felt that adding it to the Hunter's Quarry damage was appropriate. I also added an option for Strength-based rangers to choose Wisdom over Dexterity by trading Prime Shot/Running Attack for proficiency in chainmail.

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All of these proposed house-rules of mine (and a slight alteration to the Archer fighting style) are attached in this post. Now I'm wondering: are they any good? Too good? What do you think?

Now, just to be clear, I'm not entirely sure if there really IS a problem here. I'm just doing this for the heck of it. And I thought I would share.

I'm not that good with theorethical builds and what kind of feats or items there are out there that could abuse these rules, so I'm hoping someone would be interested in doing a little math and showing it to me in this thread.

Cheers!