New Prestige Class: The Ranger Lord

[Aaron L]

I've made up a new PrC for my home setting, the Ranger Lord, to bring back the flavor and abilitis of the 1E Ranger class, a tough commando-style, Special Forces type warrior who goes into enemy territory and takes the enemy head-on, having to live off the land to survive, as opposed to the 2E and 3E version of the Ranger class, a Druidic wilderness warrior with ties to the natural world and a mystical affinity with animals.

While the 2 and 3E style of Ranger is a fine archetype for a class, it isn't what I want for my Rangers. I want my Rangers as commando humanoid slayers with arcane and divine spells, wearing any armor they want and fighting however they want, not Druidic mystic warriors with an animal companion wearing only light armor and wielding a sword in each hand.


Also, in my home setting I had specific reasons why the Ranger class came about the way it is, and I like the history I had created for it and don't want to have to change it (it was fairly important to the history of my world.) But most importantly, I just plain love the 1E Ranger! So, I want to bring back the 1E flavor and abilities, so I made up this prestige class. The problem is; I'm horrible at balancing classes, and it's probably way overpowered. I'm submitting it here to get help making it balanced.


I'd also like to expand it into a full 20 level class, and replace the PHB Ranger (renaming that class the Warden) and using my new 1E style Ranger in it's place in my campaign.


I's appreciate any comments and help you can give me.


I'm attaching the class writeup as an RTF, because I'm horrible at formatting tables on the forum If I get ambitious later I'll try putting it directly into a post, but for now it's going to be an attached RTF.


Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

 

[dagger]

Well, expanding it to a full 20 levels and giving it arcane/druid spells would be something I would like to see.

I have looked over your prestige class and nothing jumps out at me right away as unbalanced. I will look at it some more today and tomorrow to get a better idea about it.

 

[monboesen]

That penultimate class ability, Ranger lord mastery, is way over the top crazy powerful. Expect to see loads of ranger lord pc's armed with scythes or picks to get those *4 criticals for free.

I also don't like the armor abilities. Why would a ranger move more easily in armor than a fighter (who likely has more training with armor). Why not make up some armor feats that eases armor penalties and are available to anyone instead.

In fact I don't see the need for your prestige class. IMO a few simple tweaks to the ranger class would suffice to get the result you seem to want.



This would be my suggestion.


1. Remove the animal empathy and animal companion abilities.

2. Remove the combat style, improved combat style and combat style mastery abilities.

3. Don't add armor proficiencies (if the ranger wants heavier armor he can multiclass or burn feats). IMO even medium armors conceptually look like a horrible idea for a commando/guerilla style combatant. A chainmail or breastplate isn't just a shirt or plate covering your torso. They are full body style armors and would be uncomfortable, noisy, impossible to swim in and in general a bother.

4. Add bonus feats, from a selective list of combat and movement related feats, at 2nd level and every 4th level thereafter (2, 6, 10, 14, 18).

5. Allow the ranger to learn and prepare wizard spells as they where druid spells one spell level higher (so magic missile would be a 2nd level spell for the ranger). Keep wisdom as the casting stat, rangers have enough ability scores to worry about already. This is a big power up as it allows the ranger to use scrolls, wands and any other magic item that a wizard could use. Even if he will never be able to learn the actual spells.

About the scrying idea. Well the above changes allows the Ranger to learn and cast clairvoyance/clairaudiance and use any item of scrying as the spell is on a spell list they have access to.

 

[Aaron L]

That penultimate class ability, Ranger lord mastery, is way over the top crazy powerful. Expect to see loads of ranger lord pc's armed with scythes or picks to get those *4 criticals for free.

You're probably right about that, and I'm going to change it.

I'm not worried about my players suddenly using scythes and such to exploit a mechanical flaw, our group just doesn't do that kind of thing (and I'm always baffled at the horror stories people tell about players; where do you guys meet these people?), but I still want it to be balanced.


However, it's the ultimate class ability, penultimate means next to last.

 

[monboesen]

penultimate means next to last.

Hehe. Thats how it goes when english isn't your first language. Mistakes creep in.


What did you think about my suggested ranger tweaks, as an alternative to your prestige class?

 

[the Jester]

Hehe. Thats how it goes when english isn't your first language. Mistakes creep in.

That is actually probably one of the top ten most misused words by people whose first language IS English, too, actually.

I misused it myself for years.

 

[Aaron L]

Hehe. Thats how it goes when english isn't your first language. Mistakes creep in.


What did you think about my suggested ranger tweaks, as an alternative to your prestige class?

Heck, don't worry about it. You speak English better than I speak your native language, whatever it is, so you're quite a bit above me in the language area.


As to the changes to the existing Ranger class, I was planning on using that class alonngside my new one, as I think that class is a fine one. I just wanted a Ranger that was as close to the 1E Ranger class as possible using the 3E framework of rules (I think 3E is far and away the better game, but I miss the 1E Ranger.)

Perhaps commando was a bad way of describing what I wanted. Stormtrooper is perhaps a better term. Someone who storms in with a take-no-prisoners attitude, who also has the ability to live off the land and is woods-wise and a pragmatic attitude toward magic, which is what the 1E Ranger represents to me.

I wanted to give the Ranger Lord improved movement abilities in Heavy armor, above and beyond what the Fighter has, because that's what 1E Rangers had; improved chances to surprise opponents regardless of what armor they were wearing, and they weren't restricted to only using their abilities in light armor. I don't want my Ranger's use of heavy armor to require them multiclassing with Fighter. Plus, plate armor isn't as restrictive and hard to move in as is popularly thought (I'm talking about strong individuals who are trained in it's use, not the average modern person wearing full plate for the first time); knights were able to do all kinds of things while in full armor, and with the extensive training this class would represent I want Rangers to be able to effectively ignore the armor they are wearing. I've seen people on documentaries doing somersaults and tumbling all around in full plate armor, and knights were expected to be able to vault onto their horses and kip-up from a prone position. The Knight class from the PHB II gets similar abilities to ignore armor movement penalties.

I want to keep the Arcane and Divine magic use separate, because I want the Ranger to have the ability to learn whatever Wizard spells he finds that are useful, and to use a spellbook. I also want to keep the feel of an eclectic mish-mash of magic skills picked up because they are good tools, rather than magical abilities granted by a mystic connection with nature.


I'm changing the Ranger Lord Mastery ability to an increase to the critical hit damage multiplier of any weapon used against his favored enemies, because the original ability was too extreme. I'm also changing the Improved Favored Enemy ability to a +1d6 damage bonus every odd level instead of a bonus to hit, because I want to emulate the 1E Ranger's increased damage against giant-class enemies, but without adding this damage to the ncresed critical hit multiplier (which bonus dice of damage don't do.)

 

[monboesen]

OK. So the Ranger lord over 10 levels get.


+10 BAB
10d8 HP
+7 Fort and Will (Will saves being the traditional warrior achilles heel)
+3 Refl
Heavy armor proficiency (You might want to add medium armor proficiency as rangers don't have proficiency in that either)
+5d6 damage vs. 3 types of favored enemies
Arcane spellcasting in any armor (equals one of the major abilities of the spellsword prestige class/equals a series of three feats from one of the complete books)
A heavy reduction of armor penalties and complete removal of armor speed penalty (better than the Knight class similar ability)
The use of a 7th level spell (greater scry) at least once per day
3 bonus feats
Increased critical multiplier against 3 favored enemies
1 and 2 level wizard spells (and therefore the ability to use all kinds of wands, scrolls etc. of arcane spells)
3 and 4 level druid spells (like the standard ranger)
+10 caster level (for a total of 15)
+40 skillpoints


Compare that to a fighter

+10 BAB
+7 fort, +3 Refl and Will
5 bonus feats
+20 skillpoints


or a ranger

+10 BAB
10d8 HP
+7 Fort and Refl
+3 Will
+2 favored enemies (and +2 damage against four current ones)
Camouflage ability
Hide in plain sight ability
3-4 level druid spells
+60 skillpoints



IMO your Ranger lord outclasses both the standard fighter and ranger. It gives too many, too diverse and too good abilities. Unless you are set on increasing the power of all classes you should nerf it. A lot.


My suggestion would be that not every Ranger lord has all the abilities you describe. Structure the class so that players have to choose what they are good at. Something like the following





Keep your table, but remove the special abilities and replace them with Ranger lord magic at 1st level and the choice of 1 of the Ranger lord abilities described below at every even level.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Ranger Lords gain proficiency in medium armor. (Still think they should burn a feat to get heavy armor. Outdoor guys don’t usually wear full plate)

Ranger Lord Magic: Rangers Lords continue learning magic.

Half their Ranger Lord levels stack with Ranger levels for determining druid spells per day, but their Caster Level is equal to half their levels in Ranger and half their levels in Ranger Lord. (You stated less druidy flavor, so lets avoid BETTER druid spellcasting than the standard ranger)

In addition, they learn to cast a small number of Arcane spells, chosen from the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list. Ranger Lords cast spells as Wizards, learn 2 spells of any level they can cast at every level (4 at first level), and require a spellbook. Their caster level is equal to their Ranger Lord level. They may freely add more spells to their spellbook as they become available.

Ranger lord ability (they get 5 of these total)
Armor Mastery I (EX): Ranger Lords are able to use all Ranger abilities in medium armor, and may cast all Ranger Lord arcane spells while wearing medium armor.

Armor Mastery II (EX): Ranger Lords gain the ability to ignore speed penalties from wearing medium armor.

Armor Mastery III (EX): Ranger Lords are able to use all Ranger abilities in heavy armor, and may cast all Ranger Lord arcane spells while wearing heavy armor.

Armor Mastery IIII (EX): Ranger Lords gain the ability to ignore speed penalties from wearing heavy armor.

Improved Favored Enemy (EX): The ranger lord adds +1d6 damage to any weapon damage roll against his favored enemies. This ability stacks with itself and the normal favored enemy ability. It can be taken up to three times.

Ranger Lord Scry (Sp): Ranger Lords may use Greater Scrying as a spell like ability a number of times per day equal to their Intelligence bonus, with a minimum of once per day. In addition, they may use any spell trigger or spell completion item that functions as or emulates Scrying, Greater Scrying, Clairvoyance, or the like (any remote detection spells) as if ithe spells they emulate were on their spell list, but only to use it's Scry-like effects.



Major perks are:
Arcane spellcasting. Not so much for the actual spells (though they will be nice) but for the ability to use arcane spell completion items.
5 ranger lord abilities (you can easily add more abilities to choose from)
Good Will saves.


The Ranger lord pays with:
Less skillpoints than a ranger
Loss of camouflage and hide in plain sight
Fewer favored enemies
Bad Reflex saves
Animal companion improvement (not a major thing, ranger animal companions are fragile no matter the level)


This looks more balanced to me.

 

[monboesen]

Here is an alternative 20 levels ranger that should be more 1ed style (disclaimer: I don't remember the 1ed ranger very well, so I'm going on your work and other threads about 1ed rangers).

 

[Notmousse]

Maybe it's just me but it sounds like you want a PrC like the Dread Commando.