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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Acr0ssTh3P0nd" data-source="post: 6870884" data-attributes="member: 6762652">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".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 aI 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. 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.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!</blockquote>

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