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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 8136869" data-attributes="member: 93670">Ranger is usually the most bland class but there are a lot of really interesting things in here that make this quite interesting in ways carving out a niche of its own other than "crappy fighter with crappy druid casting" I'm going to assume that movement related AoOs will be going back towards 3.5/4e style  provoke if you don't take a 5 foot step/shift even harder than I did before as not provoking them for movement seems to get mentioned even harder & some of the abilities just don't make sense if those stay as irrelevant as stock 5e<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">favored terrain: being able to replace familiar terrain to accommodate campaign shifts is great</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Studied adversaries: This is all great, I really like the communication bit as it addresses a problem that came from how bonus languages changed from 3.5>5e.  Back in 3.5 people tended to have a bunch of random languages while 5e has common, your race(who also probably speak common), one other, maybe another yet 5e still lists creature languages like the 3.5 days rather than biting the bullet of change to do something like <a href="http://keith-baker.com/lightning-round-2-26-18-languages-elementals-and-pirates/" target="_blank">this</a>.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Maneuvers: I've spoken at length about each of the maneuvers in the fighter & rogue thread so don't see much reason to go over them in too much detail again.  The assortment of maneuver groupings seems logical & fitting while allowing ranger a few ways to shape their combat role in the party.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Stride & seek: The choose one at 2 & get the other at 5 seemed a little odd when I read it, but after reading the options & thinking about the maneuvers I think that I like it giving the player a chance to grab the one important to their style early & put the other off till they are a little bit more developed to the point of being able to branch out into other styles in a fight. I also really like how it includes concentration "as if you were concentrating on a spell" to sort of set the martial ranger apart from some multiclassed gish like rangerN/warlock 1 hex<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sniper's target: I like the fluff, feel, & mechanics... but it feels a little costly for the nonscaling benefit& concentration requirement, especially with the 9th level improvement improving what is a fairly useless component. For one exertion & concentration you get +1 to hit & +1d6 damage against one creature for one hour but to pick another creature apparently requires another point.. very few fights last for much more than a minute or two let alone an hour. The concentration requirement means that it needs to be much better & can be good enough that breaking that concentration is an important if not critical goal of the foes.  Half proficiency bonus d6 or +proficiency bonus added again to attack roll seems like it might be a reasonable ballpark target if it remains 1 point for 1 creature & concentration.  Alternately allowing the ranger to shift it to another target during that hour (at some action cost) might make the current values make sense</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Swift feet: a point of exertion & concentration for being exempt from provoking AoOs with movement for 1 min seems a reasonable as that can be a huge benefit to get behind the front line to pound on the more dangerous squishier foes. The fact that (if I'm reading it right) you can end it early to get an extra 30ft of movement or advantage on a weapon attack makes it even more interesting as the ranger can pretty much have two abilities i one this way giving them a interesting depth of flexibility,</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Trained accuracy: I like the idea, but the costs are wayy  too high when you get 2x proficiency bonus exertion points & recover them on a long or short rest. You could almost remove the first two options (add them to sniper target or split one into accuracy reserve maybe?) &restart the 1 exertion cost at the  +2d6 option.  I disagree with  [USER=6879661]@TheSword[/USER] & @silvefiresage on the bonuses being too good though, you only need to look at the no cost every round sneak attack dice rouge gets as an example of why these lesser at cost ones are too insignificant with the pseudo-no cost ones  not making up the gap.  Yea ranger gets  second attack at 5 & rogue doesn't, but the cost & possible concentration requirements are too high to justify the spread.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Accuracy reserve: this is an interesting incentive to keep a bit of gas in the tank</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ranger archetype: I like how it splits off & changes the fluff+mechnanic supporting the spellcasting of some archetypes in a way that feels fitting given all the martial stuff they get.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wilderness mystique: I really like how itadds some reciprocity with other PCs & gives the ranger new things they can do<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Answering Silence: The fluff is neat & it adds some nice justification for letting some other pc do the check if the ranger fails or simply says "Umm... I'm not that kind of ranger" when it comes up.  Compared to the other two however it feels lacking.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fearsome mysticism: Again great fluff/feel & allows ranger to branch out into other areas fitting the class that they usually aren't really considered for.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Kindred spirit: The sense another expert goes well with something similar fighter gets while adding some really useful mechanical boons to that ribbon</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Adversarial focus: getting another adversary at 6 is fitting & the +1 to the limited subset of adversaries is fitting</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Game hunting: an extra familiar terrain at 6 is fitting & shortening the time to swap from two weeks down to one is a good middle ground between "your a n00b & probably shouldn't travel too far if you want to live" and "you want to be able to swap before leaving the new area".  Advantage to locate/catch game animals (in any terrain?) seems ftting & works much better than the outlander's stupid automatically feed everyone if you are playing in an adventure/setting where scarcity of food is intended to be a significant factor.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Versatile  exploration: Makes sense that the class midway between druid & fighter could eventually pick from the list of either</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rapid fire: the fighter packet has a biting zephyr maneuver called "Volley", but I couldn't find missile volley .  If Volley's the right maneuver it makes sense & seems fitting to reduce the cost & reuse it as a class feature like that rather than pointlessly duplicating it as something new that will get awkward as soon as feats/magic items/spells change one</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Trackless hunting: This seems like a fitting reduction to two days at level 10 & third terrain needs to come sometime so why not ten <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  Two days is a nice time period of "we got here, setup camp, & spent a day doing stuff"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Exploration knacks: These are dramatically better & more interesting than the druid's disappointing knacks.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Beast friend: at cr1/8 nonscaling the "won't attack except as a reaction to being attacked" effectively makes an already instant dead creature even less of a threat.  While the fluff is cool, the result is pretty sad & shows the need for the return of multiple types & probably better scaling on this.  With the other knacks beig generally mechanically useful the need to improve his is even greater.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Calls of the wild: This is a nice way to shift the generally too costly animal messenger spell to a neat little ability that could really shine with the ability to send out reports often & maybe get the occasional return message/package.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ear to the ground: uhh.. for how long?... as written this is an always on ability for the rest of the charater's life after they spend that one point & it's not linked to any specific position. I like the idea, but it needs a duration and/or maybe a location tie to where it was activated.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Grub hunter: I like the idea & how it twists goodberry a bit, but there should probably be a phrase like "in a suitable environment" as the RAW works in both the king of the cleanfreak empire's throne room as well as a lava flow & riding a spelljammer/airship through empty space/sky.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Healing salve: The fluff & feel is great, but I'm going to agree with [USER=27385]@aco175[/USER]  & say that it needs to scale better than 1d4.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Herbal Bitters: exhaustion by default in 5e is one of those thins that's too difficult & death spiral inducing for the gm to really use resulting in it almost never coming up except for that one barbarian, this is an interesting way of putting in some temporary mitigation  4 hours is a nice window for the party to rest for a prepared caster to swap in then cast a life saving spell if bob is really going to die after it ends.  With that said, it probably wont change much & will just be something to help that one barbarian archetype... so here's to the return of <a href="https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Ability_Damaged" target="_blank">old school ability damage</a></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Master tracker: I like the feel even if it will sometimes make my life difficult as a gm <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />   Stipulating "Outdoor area" is a great limitation.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Monster Mimic: neat flavor & interesting application of social engineering since studied adversaries can include humanoid races & various pseudo-humanoid beings like fiends/fey/elementals & whatnot.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Poisons & antidotes: The rogue mentioned chapter 4 & 12 while this mentions chapter4 making it hard to judge the value.... but given what the sorcerer could choose to do with poison this could be extremely useful if we start seeing that kinda stuff in monsters too</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Read the room: Interesting way of gathering information in social situations.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Relentless pursuit: This seems interesting but opens up a difficult can of worms when you add things like pass without trace, the sorcerer strange traces, or even "here they cast fly/used their wings & left the ground"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">See the unseen: Interesting ability that includes a duration to improve on ear to the ground.</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Soldering maneuvers: There are some very interesting things in here that are real winners  to enable certain kinds of fighting.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Riding Leap: this allows for some really interesting mobility of mounted combatants but it's not clear if the "your movement does not provoke AoOs" applies to a leap, the 30 feet in a straight line, any movement at all</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Share shield:  battlemaster has something like this, but IME it tends to be a trap that leaves them pleading with an uninterested group to stay within x feet. The artificer artillerist partial cover aura works a lot better even if it's something like splitting your shield bonus between yourself & all allies within your reach.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Soldier Combat Stance: This is an interesting way of making sword & board play different from 2h weapons & dual wielder. I really like it</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Strafe: I like this  & feel like it's a much better flavor than tacked onto the mobile feat</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rearing strike: Mechanically I like this, but the name breeds confusion as you don't actually strike at anything & the targets don't actually need to be able to see you for this to work.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sacrifice shield: I just love this coupled with all the fighter's ways of autosucceeding or getting an extra wack at saves this makes for a potentially really crunchy sword & board character while making another nice distinction between how sword & board differs in play from other styles.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Trample:  It was good in the past & it's good again</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Launched strike: This kind of on demand crit makes mounted combatants into a new & interesting sort of threat level combatant without being an always thing.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sacrifice mount: I wonder if the cost is a bit high given the difference that usually exists between pc & mount but also wonder if there should be a second one that allows you to redirect to self if not an option baked into the maneuver itself.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Shield self: Interesting way of making gaze attacks &  "a creature you can see" spells interact with shields but hope that casters feel suitable love elsewhere since adding this kind of thing to baddies is so trivial it should almst be expected.</li> </ul></li> </ul></blockquote>

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