doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
I hope it isn’t his only idea for helping out the “beast-friend” ranger. My primary conception of the ranger is a magical class with an animal companion. I’d be fine with having spells that primarily boost the pet, though. Like a pet friendly version of mage armor, or being able to cast Absorb Elements for your pet, etc. I’m fine with being able to burn slots to make my pet more effective, not with having to choose between soellcasting and an effective pet.Yeah, he copy-pasted something he had worked on in a previous episode for a Book of Nine Swords style Fighter subclass.
Basically, making spell-casting Rangers, Beast-friend Rangers and Martial Rangers work off of the same math of spell slots, just different uses.
I use Favored Enemy all the time. I ask my DM specific questions about monsters and he lets me make an appropriate check with Advantage. E.g., "How far away do I have to be so that the Purple Worm cannot attack me without moving for a round?"
Of course, players who memorize the Monster Manual don't get much benefit from this.
Or players whose DMs don’t make them roll for stuff like situational awareness of things like a creature’s reach, etc.