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Message: <blockquote data-quote="niklinna" data-source="post: 8433553" data-attributes="member: 71235">Finally home and just finished reading it! I love this take on the ranger. It has everything and more I expect of a ranger, so much so that there are difficult choices to make for several features (see below). And to top that off, rangers eventually get to choose knacks from three other classes as well! Talk about a surfeit of options.Two of the three "core" archetypes are great, very distinct in feel and clearly competent in their area of specialization. The Wildborn is the first spellcasting ranger I would want to play, the non-spellcasting features are just that cool. The Beastmaster doesn't seem to shine as brightly as the other two, and I've got some thoughts about that in the list below. I doubt I would want to play this Beastmaster, which is a disappointment.Specific comments, including small corrections (I used to be a technical writer so I can't help but point them out):<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p220: "Await" doesn't take a preposition, so the phrase should be "awaits his queen's presence". I might even suggest "awaits his queen", but that's moving past correction to style comments. (Not that I don't have more. <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😉" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" title="Winking face    :wink:" data-shortname=":wink:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p221: "The ability to make these judgment calls quickly makes rangers valuable adventurers," (verb agreement).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p221: "... or sources of food where there seem to be none" (verb agreement).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p224, Trained Accuracy: Do you get both Accuracy Bonus and Accuracy Reserve? So many subsequent features are "choose one", and I wonder now if this was supposed to be as well.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p224, Accuracy Bonus: Interesting that this uses reaction rather than bonus action!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p224, Trained Accuracy, Accuracy Bonus: If you use this to do extra damage, when do you declare it? Before your attack roll, before determining whether the attack hits, before rolling regular damage, or after rolling regular damage?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p224, Accuracy Reserve: Wording is problematic. I can see some people interpreting this as an accumulating bonus if you stay still over multiple turns. Also, "that turn" refers to the last turn, not the current turn, but it's already over. I might phrase it as, "you gain a +1 bonus to attack weapon rolls for your current turn".</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p224, Wilderness Mystique: The first of several multiple-option features where you only get to choose one. Kindred Spirit is my favorite, but  I love all three options, and might want to have two of them (eventually). It'd be nice if, when a higher-level feature comes up, I could choose another option from a lower-level feature. But, that's a fairly big change.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p225, Game Hunting: This feature doesn't grab my interest, but every class has its marginal features.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p225, Explorer's Instinct: Now this is a hot feature! Really really like it. All the level 8–10 features very in line with what I want in a ranger.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p225, Wilderness Lore: Another "choose one" feature where I might rather be able to get both, eventually. Pendulum trap should be able to knock prone as well as dealing damage.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p225, Waste Not: "If sold to a collector, naturalist, or <s>other</s> druid...." Rangers aren't druids, no need to say "other".</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p226: Argh, more "choose one" features! I want to be able to pick from the whole set of features I'm eligible for at my level. Why aren't these all just <s>exploration knacks</s> with level requirements? (Edit: More like the separate category Adepts have with their Focus Features.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p226, Hunter's Blind: Anyone who also has this feature should be able to make use of the blind without harming it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p226, Under the Stars: I guess this is useful if someone interrupts the party's long rest? But in general the others have to do the full long rest anyhow. Something more useful would be if you refresh on a short rest a feature that normally requires a long rest, and/or grant that benefit to a party member.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p227, Beastly Attack vs. High Ground: Another "choose one" feature, and wow, there's just no comparison here. High Ground gives you so much more.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">227,  Nature's Scion: I assume you get the Master Tracker exploration knack as part of the feature, rather than gaining at-will use of it if you already have it? If so, and you had previously taken it, can you retrain it out for a new knack?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p227, Nature's Scion, Elemental Mastery/Summon Stampede: Now these are some capstones! Love them both, and for once I can accept that you only pick one or the other.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p227, Summon Stampede: Is "initiative count" a new term in A5E?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p229, Build Shelter: The time gating is silly. It already takes 8 hours to build, it shouldn't be something you forget how to do for a week.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p229, Ear to the Ground: I'm not sure what this would be useful for. I guess you could determine how many creatures are inside/outside a tent, or past a door?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p230, Longwalker: This is the kind of ranger ability I love, helping others in the team rough it, rather than just being able to rough it on your own.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p230, Poisons and Antidotes: Does this require proficiency in a poisoner's kit?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p230, Survivalist: How does the Befriend Animal activity compare to the Beast Friend knack?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p229, Beast Friend vs. p231, Beast Whisperer: Typography for CRs (1/8 and ¼) are done differently, as I've done here.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p231, Beastmaster: I might expect the Beastmaster to automatically get Calls of the Wild (or better) too, at the very least for their own Beast Friends. A Beastmaster should be able to ask their beast friend to go scouting or patrolling or hunting for dinner, or to deliver an object/message.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p231, Beastmaster: When you use your bonus action to order your beast friend to attack, does it do so immediately, or when its turn next comes up? (I far prefer how the new Tasha's Primal Companion acts during the ranger's turn.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p231, Hunter's Pet: This feature seems pretty weak. Maybe I am missing something. I might have expected the beast friend becoming able to attack on its own without the ranger needing to spend a bonus action.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p231, Beastmaster: It looks like the pet's attacks never gain the ability to count as magical? How much of a problem is that?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p231, Friend of a Friend: Very cool to have a potential mount + a regular friend, but doesn't compare well to Warden's Saddled Up.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p231, Loyalty's Reward: Not my bag for a capstone archetype feature, but I don't deny it could be useful.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p231, Saddled Up: Wow, Beastmaster's friends stay dumb, but the Warden gets an intelligent mount that understands language! Now I really think the Beastmaster's friends should at least get Calls of the Wild.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p232, Spells Known: Rangers should prepare spells like (O5E) druids do, unless you've changed druids to have spells known.</li> </ul>I could have gushed about more features I think are really cool, but this post is already really long. Great job!</blockquote>

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