Last D&D Survey Results In! Plus What's Up With The Ranger?

As you may know, WotC has a monthly survey/feedback system going. I report on it each month. Last month's survey was about product expectations Gen Con, and the results report was much shorter than usual - just a couple of sentences. "In terms of product, setting books and monster books proved the most popular. We were also happy to see that many of you had played in our published campaign worlds or wanted to try them out. We also saw plenty of support for new character options, with a consensus that most players are happy with our current pace of "slow but steady." I personally feel that my - anecdotal - experience with the online community says the opposite about the current pace, but a survey's a survey!

There's a new survey up, covering the recent Ranger playtest. As WotC mentions, the Ranger is the least popular class, and they intend to approach the class in a number of different ways over the coming year. The Ranger is interesting, because it attracts a lot of snotty comments (not as many as the very concept of a Warlord, but that's another thing).

Click here to take the Ranger survey.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[UnadvisedGoose445]

I get that- especially the liking the animals!

But that's why I think the Beastmaster, as a class, is doomed to failure (again, IMO). 5e tries to simplify. Which is a good thing! Part of the simplification is making sure that we don't have too much in the way of "pet" classes- again, a good thing.

But that means that the Beastmaster will be underpowered and weak for those that really want to play a pet class, and will still be ruled out at tables (such as mine) that don't like pet classes. It's a compromise that doesn't seem to be helpful to most people.

But if it's working for people, that's good. It just seems that the people it *should* appeal to aren't very happy with it.

Also a very fair viewpoint. You mentioned vidja game in your last post, and I come from a strong background of that, so maybe that's why I do like the concept so much. Your point about it being not so conducive to this format for gaming might be spot on. It's a lot of book keeping to manage several different "mini-characters" for one person to handle.

Personally though, I'm happy with the basic bones of the Animal Companion as is. My only beef is not having any way to get around resistances, and not having a method of gaining Dex saving throws for the pet. But those are relatively easy "house fixes", so to speak.

I appreciate hearing a different viewpoint on the idea and concept as a whole though. Happy gaming!

 

[lowkey13]

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[Staffan]

I had one idea on how to improve the Ranger somewhat.

One of the traits that I see a lot of people agree on that the ideal ranger should represent is being able to learn about a situation and then prepare to take that situation on. Know what would be a good representation of that? Prepared spells!

The ranger currently has spells known, equal to half level (rounded up) +1. Replace that with half level (rounded down) + Wisdom modifier (like a paladin, except different casting stat). This would reward the ranger for scouting out a situation ahead of time and let him or her get ready for that particular situation. Yuan-ti temple? Protection from poison. Stealth mission? Pass without trace. Need to find something? Locate object and/or locate animals or plants. And so on.