I like a lot of it, but I'm going to start with my big complaint, which may hurt a bit: I just don't like Survivalist dice. I know how you were trying to avoid giving the Ranger warmed-over Sneak Attack dice, but I feel these are instead just warmed-over Combat Superiority dice that have kind of gotten into everything. I think a lot of your new ranger abilities are great but don't really gain anything by being tied to the new mechanic. And I even think the combat applications, which to be fair are modeled closely after the Battle Master fighter, could be done in another way that doesn't involve a resource you have to track.
I think you should go back to your original idea. Make Hunter's Mark/Quarry a core feature that applies to a chosen target that can't be switched until the target is defeated or you take an action to do so. You can either apply 1d6 damage, or forgo it to power some combat effect. If it's a reaction power or similarly outside your normal turn, you can't apply the bonus damage or use another power until the end of your next turn. That makes ranger powers a sort of currency, but one that you don't have to track from turn to turn. It also ties ranger combat to focused pursuit of a target, which seems very evocative to me. For non-combat powers, either make them always on or powered by a skill check of some kind.
So that's the real critical stuff. Now to other thoughts!
-Favored Enemy: I like the addition of combat utility here. With Quarry dice I might make it an additional Quarry die instead of advantage to attack. Sort of like Smite vs. demons and undead.
-Survival Expertise/Exploration Specialist: Taking the "expertise" out of Exploration Specialist and making it universal keeps things simple. I kind of miss the flavor of having expertise apply in your favored terrain. Maybe retain the proficiency bonus for Intelligence and Wisdom checks that aren't Survival. Also, even though it's redundant, I'd add Survival to the class skill list.
-Primeval Awareness: I would have maybe built this off a Perception check, but I like this, especially since it doesn't require a resource.
-Survivalist's Step: Good, though it needn't cost a resource in my opinion.
-Survivor's Rest: I have my own idea of how to handle ranger healing, again without any sort of resource tracking. I'll keep it to myself for now.
-Land's Stride: Good. I like the climb/swim speed additions. I thought they might be too much, but the Thief rogue gets a similar set of powers at third level. I'm curious why you omitted the advantage to saves against magical effects.
Hide in Plain Sight: New power is interesting, but maybe not very ranger-like. Aragorn/Strider certainly didn't blend in with the locals, as I recall.
Vanish: The chance to evade magical tracking is good. I was wondering what happened to Hide as a bonus action, but I see the stalker Hunter gets it.
Ready for Anything/Ranger's Warning: Initiative powers feel great with the ranger. Ready for Anything is one that could be powered with the Quarry die as mentioned, which would just mean you couldn't declare a quarry until your second turn.
Hunter Archetype: I like the new powers. The damage-dealing ones would need some consideration if they are to work with Quarry dice. Maybe you can reroll a 1 or 2 on any Quarry dice you roll, sort of like Great Weapon Fighting.
Beast Master: Interesting that they don't get Combat Style; I guess having a pet is the style! I like that the companion can act on its own while still requiring some actions to direct. I'd be inclined to keep the companion's original choice of actions since those are clearly defined. Mostly, it's Protect that strikes me as either vague or redundant. I do like Retrieve and Detect, and I like that Attack doesn't need to be reissued every turn.
Magic Fang seems a little out-of-place in terms of flavor, but I absolutely see the need for something like it. The maneuvers are great. Again with the Quarry dice: I would make a core feature of this archetype the ability for the companion to use them, though maybe they could only work for the ranger or his companion on any given turn. At any rate, this makes Quarry dice suitable currency for maneuvers.
Spellstrider: Great name! Good Tolkien reference. Why WotC didn't make spellcasting for the ranger an Archetype like this, when they already had models for it in other classes, I just don't know. Bonus druid spells on top of the normal Ranger spell list are great. I'm worried about spell progression. I'd make it more like the Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster, and if you want to include 5th level ranger spells, just make selecting one of them a Spellstrider power at a higher level, sort of like the Warlock's mystic arcanum.
I think this is a great framework for reimagining the ranger, much better than the Unearthed Arcana variants WotC has put out. It gives me some ideas for trying out my own variant. I'm interested to here what you think of my feedback, as that may shape my own approach to the ranger.
1Mac - you know, it's funny, the survivalist dice are the end result of me really wanting to have a Hunter's Quarry mechanic, but being unable to fit it in with - you guessed it - the Beast Master.
I'll go through my thought process when I designed them:
I knew from the outset that in order to make the class as a whole work (particularly in regard to the Beast Master, but also in general), I'd need to have as few "identifying" combat boosting features in the base class as possible. That way, the identity of the ranger beyond the extreme level of exploration and travel power could be taken care of entirely according to the player's desires. If the whole ranger got a hunter's quarry as a base damage/utility mechanic, that would not only focus the combat aspect of the ranger's identity far more than I was comfortable with, but would also limit the room the Beast Master need to feel fun as well as balanced. Additionally, while chasing down a specific target might apply to many people's ideas of the ranger, it's also far from a
core aspect of the class. I feel like making Hunter's Quarry the identifying feature of the core class takes away from what makes the ranger different as a character - the exploration and survival stuff. The combat stuff is important to the identity, but the actual application of that combat stuff is such a matter of debate that to force any one combat mechanic onto the ranger seemed like a bad idea.
However, the class still needed a unifying mechanic, and I figured, what better way to unify the exploration and combat aspects of the ranger than to have them pull from the same resource? At the same time, I didn't want ranger players to have to make dedicated choices
between the two - focusing on one aspect in one situation shouldn't make the other aspect weaker, so a turn-based recharge seemed the best call - in essence, the ranger focuses their knowledge of the land and terrain between pure combat and utility in different levels on each turn, depending on the situation. Additionally, the ranger is the only class to have a refilling-pool mechanic like this, which adds a lot more identity than spellcasting ever did, and while certain aspects pull more from the rogue or from the fighter in certain situations, that's due to the fact that those elements of the rogue or the fighter hit the same notes I felt I needed to hit with those areas of the ranger - teamwork in combat (and out of it) for the Beast Master, fighting more on your own terms as the Hunter, and mystical, magical hunting as the Spellstrider (glad you liked the name, btw!). Again, the difference between these identities, combined with my focus on the subclasses as the combat house in order to really let the Beast Master (and the ranger in general) be whatever it needs to be without being everything at once, made an adapted Hunter's Mark feel more like a half-measure and placeholder than an identifying feature.
In the end, survivalist dice are a mechanic that can cover the same design space as Hunter's Mark did, but with a lot more flexibility, ease-of-balance, and identity. Ultimately, playtesting will be what make or break them - they're very different to other mechanics in 5e, even though I feel they fit the overall spirit of the game, and it might be hard for people to get a bead on them from simply reading it. My personal guess is the refilling pool mechanic combined with their usage as a utility and combat feature make them more than unique enough to carry the identity of the ranger - it says that "no matter how a ranger fights, its combat strength is as much to do with its knowledge and usage of the land and creatures around it as it is is about pure martial training".
Primeval Awareness: I would have maybe built this off a Perception check, but I like this, especially since it doesn't require a resource.
Glad to hear you approve! This change has been one of the most universally-well-received changes. I would recommend that having it just work is best, as an hour of info-gathering seems more than adequate to guarantee a
Survivalist's Step: Good, though it needn't cost a resource in my opinion.
I don't really consider Survivalist Dice much more of a resource than Sneak Attack dice, as they both work off a per-round/turn basis. You'll never go more than a few turns without them. The main idea is that you sacrifice some damage on one turn for some utility and hardiness.
Land's Stride: Good. I like the climb/swim speed additions. I thought they might be too much, but the Thief rogue gets a similar set of powers at third level. I'm curious why you omitted the advantage to saves against magical effects.
I wanted to stay away from magical effects as much as possible in the core class, but I can easily see myself adding the advantage against magical effects to the Spellstrider in some way.
Hide in Plain Sight: New power is interesting, but maybe not very ranger-like. Aragorn/Strider certainly didn't blend in with the locals, as I recall.
This was more that I wanted the Urban Ranger to be something people could play without needing another subclass. The main difference between classic rangers and the urban ranger is simply the terrain. everything else - the knowledge, the info-gathering, the movement through weird and tricky terrain - can be just as easily applied to a ranger in the city as a ranger in the wild.
For your points on the Spellstrider:
- Glad you like the name! I've been worried about this one - I wasn't sure if it had enough identity compared to the other two, but I think it's pretty solid.
- The spell progression is a tetchy issue. A lot of people are adamant that the ranger be a half-caster, and because the ranger doesn't have many combat boosts in the base class like the fighter and the rogue do, I feel it's balanced to include full half-casting spellcasting, but you're right in that it doesn't fit the subclass spell progression. A Mystic Arcanum-type solution might be best.
TL;DR - I don't think a Quarry mechanic in the base class would work, even with utility options, because (a) it pushes the core identity of the ranger too hard in a general-combat-focused direction, where survivalist dice are just as much a utility option as they are a fightin' one, and one that ties back solidly to the explorer identity, (b) any core class features have to be balanced with the Beast Master, and thus should not boost combat powers more than absolutely necessary - again, the survivalist dice are far more flexible and modular in their balance, and (c) any obvious adaptation of Hunter's Mark to the base class may very well come across as an adaptation of an old mechanic for the sake of old mechanics just as much as the new identifying mechanic for the class.
I'm glad you like the other changes, and your suggestions for things like Land's Stride "advantage against magical effects" and Exploration Specialist adding the proficiency bonus to non-proficient Int and Wis checks related to favored terrain have been noted with interest!
Thanks for the in-depth feedback - it's really valuable!
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. So I've been reading and thinking about your ranger with great interest, as it tracks with my own thoughts about how to change the class.
