Third-party content, particularly the edgy sort on DDB, has a reputation for poor balance. That's not to say that first-party content is perfect there, but third-party content is often deliberately overpowered as a selling point, and that doesn't really concern the folks at WotC that decide what content they sell on DDB. (They might even encourage it, as we'll soon see.)
Now, balance is a hard thing. Different mechanics have different value in different circumstances, something that's strong against one thing might be weak against something else. You have to balance options that focus on raw combat strength versus those with non-combat utility. Every class, every subclass, every everything is different and meant to do something different.
But there is one specific metric you can assess content by. One particular humble metric that many players might not think much of, but it's a solid indicator of how much a creator tries to balance their content. A metric which a lot of third-party stuff seems to deliberately disregard in the quest to make their player options stronger than other options.
That metric...is the Ranger's 3rd-level damage-boosting feature. 2014 established a clear trend for Ranger subclasses to have a feature that gives them a damage bump at 3rd level, and these features in official content function in a fairly consistent way. They vary, but in ways that give each class a different feel and their features different strengths despite the similarities. Let's look at the 2014 Ranger options in this regard:
But when you look into third-party content, you discover that following these simple metrics...is entirely optional, and pretty easy to ignore when you want to sell player options on the basis of power creep. Let's start with third-party options for 2014, and see where that starts us off.
Of course, there's more third-party optionsand edgy shovelware for 2024 on DDB, thanks to WotC's recent embrace of third-party creators and eschewing of quality control. But let's look at what 2024 has done in terms of official options first:
Now, balance is a hard thing. Different mechanics have different value in different circumstances, something that's strong against one thing might be weak against something else. You have to balance options that focus on raw combat strength versus those with non-combat utility. Every class, every subclass, every everything is different and meant to do something different.
But there is one specific metric you can assess content by. One particular humble metric that many players might not think much of, but it's a solid indicator of how much a creator tries to balance their content. A metric which a lot of third-party stuff seems to deliberately disregard in the quest to make their player options stronger than other options.
That metric...is the Ranger's 3rd-level damage-boosting feature. 2014 established a clear trend for Ranger subclasses to have a feature that gives them a damage bump at 3rd level, and these features in official content function in a fairly consistent way. They vary, but in ways that give each class a different feel and their features different strengths despite the similarities. Let's look at the 2014 Ranger options in this regard:
- Beast Master: One of the two pet subclasses, and the more simplistic. Your beast companion is more straightforward than the Drakewarden and its options, but you get to tame your choice of beast (or pick from three options) and eventually get two attacks for your beast and the ability to share spells with it.
- Drakewarden: The other pet subclass, this one being the more fanciful. Less strong in some respects than the Beast Master's pet, but with bells and whistles like resistance, Infused Strikes, and Drake's Breath.
- Fey Wanderer: 1d4 psychic damage on hit, once per turn per enemy, scales to 1d6. Unique in that this is the only damage boost feature that can trigger more than once a turn if you attack different enemies, offset by being a bit weaker to start.
- Gloom Stalker: An extra attack on the first turn of combat, with a 1d8 damage bonus if it hits. Some DMs decry this, but if you're not making encounters that end in one or two rounds, this is hardly overpowering. It's a strong opener, but it is all-or-nothing—you miss that attack and you don't have your damage boost for the rest of combat.
- Horizon Walker: Use your BA to target a creature and deal 1d8 extra damage to it, scaling to 2d8 at 11th level, and convert all damage dealt by the attack to force damage. The most action-economy-intensive Ranger damage boost feature, but compensates by giving the highest boost especially at 11th level. The ability to convert damage to force also helps bypass resistances/immunities.
- Hunter: Hunter's Prey gives you three options here: 1d8 damage once a turn to a creature below its max HP, a guarantee reaction attack against Large or larger creatures, or an extra attack against an creature adjacent to your original target. All of these are generally stronger than most of the Ranger options, to compensate for the Hunter getting no additional 3rd-level features.
- Monster Slayer: Use a BA to target a creature as your Slayer's Prey, deal an extra 1d6 damage on an attack once per turn. Simple and straightforward, and later features of the subclass interact with your Slayer's Prey to give benefits against the marked creature.
- Swarmkeeper: Your choice on a hit of +1d6 damage, attempt to move the target, or move yourself—with 11th level improving each option. Not as offensively strong as the Hunter's options but more versatile, fitting with the Swarmkeeper's only other 3rd-level features being Mage Hand and its subclass spells.
But when you look into third-party content, you discover that following these simple metrics...is entirely optional, and pretty easy to ignore when you want to sell player options on the basis of power creep. Let's start with third-party options for 2014, and see where that starts us off.
- Corrupted Ranger (Obojima): Gain curse markers when you get hit, or use your BA to fill them to max, then deal 1d4 damage upon hitting a creature. Awkward as a mechanic (you have no choice when to use it on an attack) and scales much more powerfully than other options: starts at 2d4, then progresses to 3d4 at 5th level, 4d4 at 11th, and 5d4 at 17th.
- Rocborne (Griffon's Saddlebag): Guiding Wind gives you, once per turn, an extra 1d4 damage (scaling to 1d8 at 11th level) or lets you redirect a missed attack against a nearby enemy with a bonus to the attack roll equal to your Wisdom modifier. Not bad, but once you know what numbers hit a creature and which don't, it can be easy to tell when to use the latter option to guarantee a hit.
- Trapper (Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting): Trapped Weapons lets you augment a weapon or a bunch of ammo. Once per turn when you hit with the augmented weapon/ammo, you deal an extra 1d8 damage. This increases to 2d8 at level 11.
Of course, there's more third-party options
- Gloom Stalker: Dread Ambusher now lets you do a once-a-turn 2d6 extra damage, limited to Wisdom modifier times per long rest, with an upgrade at 11th level. Until that upgrade comes into play, Dreadful Strikes doesn't compare to extra damage on every turn, and even then the added effects could have existed with their own usage limit.
- Hunter: You only get the 1d8 against damaged creatures or Horde Breaker options, with the latter being made pointlessly awkward (you can only use it against a creature you haven't yet attacked that turn, but nothing stops you from attacking that creature again after the Horde Breaker attack).
- Winter Walker: 1d4 damage per creature you hit per turn. So just like Fey Wanderer...except this subclass gets a feature that lets it ignore resistance to cold damage. So it's the same damage boost as Fey Wanderer, except with an advantage.
- Big Game Hunter (Dr. Dhrolin's Dictionary of Dinosaurs): Choose one of Large, Huge, or Gargantuan creatures; you get +1d8 damage against your choice and +1d4 against the other two. It's an extremely awkward feature that's useless when you aren't fighting creatures of those sizes (which heavily encourages metagaming), but you get to apply it to two attacks per turn, in stark contrast to every other Ranger option. (As an aside, if you want an indicator of the quality of this book, this subclass gets proficiency in all ranged weapons. You know, all the ranged weapons Rangers already have proficiency with.)
- Green Reaper (Grim Hollow): Envenomed Attack lets you apply a poison as a bonus action that gives all of your attacks with the affected weapon/ammo +1d4 damage for 1 minute, Wisdom mod/LR. This increases to +2d4 at 11th level and you also regain all your uses on a short rest and can change the poison damage to acid or necrotic. In other words, this is a Ranger subclass that applies its damage bonus to all attacks without limitation, and eventually gets more damage on every attack than most other Rangers get for one attack per turn.
- Grim Harbinger (Crooked Moon): Omen of Doom summons a pet to harass a chosen target and also gives you a 1/turn +1d6 damage, Wisdom mod times/LR. Not only do you get the benefit of both a damage boost and a pet, but the Grim Harbinger's pet is much stronger than the Beast Master and Drakewarden's pets.
- Primordial Archer (Grim Hollow): As a bonus action, you imbue a longbow or shortbow to deal 1d6 extra elemental damage on all attacks for 1 minute, Wisdom mod/LR. So once again you get a feature that applies extra damage to all of your attacks without restriction. (Glaring, this is much weaker than the equivalent feature of the Green Reaper, from the same book, and its other features are also much weaker than the Green Reaper's!)
- Urban Ranger (Drakkenheim): ...instead of a damage-boost feature, you get advantage on ranged attacks if there's no one within 5 feet of the target or if you're 20 feet or more higher than them. Awkward, and gives nothing to melee Rangers. reads on Oh wait, at 11th level every attack you make with this feature does 2d6 extra damage and crits on a 19-20. (Would you believe the rest of this class's features are even more of a mess?)
- Vermin Lord (Grim Hollow): You summon swarms of rats using spell slots, and you can use your bonus action to command them one at a time. Or you can command all of them to attack/one of them to attack twice, with a usage limit of Wisdom mod + PB per short/long rest. So you get a pet that can make two attacks five times per SR at level 3. Furthermore, at 11th level, all of your summoned swarms can attack twice and inflict Poisoned with no saving throw when you use the above secondary feature. Also, each swarm has better base damage than the Beast Master/Drakewarden pets, but are you really surprised by that.
- Winter Trapper (Griffon's Saddlebag): +1d6 damage once a turn and reduces speed by 10 feet. At 11th level, this increases to 1d8 and prevents the target from making opportunity attacks. This is its only 3rd-level feature aside from its spell list, so that's reasonably balanced. At last, we've got something decent!
