Please critique my ranger!

[Dr. Zoom]

As you say, he needs something to offset the loss of twf, thus the extra skills. Plus those skills symbolize his effectiveness within his microcosm.

I like the idea of skill bonuses for the ranger class. I don't think hardwiring it to the wilderness lore skill works. Give him a choice of skill focuses throughout his career and let him choose which skill to improve. Perhaps he would like to boost his listen and spot or hide and move silently rather than wilderness lore.

To offset the two weapon fighting I think you have to offer something in the combat arena. I offer one real feat in exchange for dropping the two virtual feats. This lets the ranger decide for himself which path to follow. I have also added a "hardiness" ability starting at 2nd level and every fourth level after that (6,10,14,18), but these can be changed to whatever you might think is the right number. The ranger gets the choice of the following feats: alertness, endurance, great fortitude, iron will, lightning reflexes, run, skill focus, and toughness. This gives him a nice choice of "rangerish" abilities without stepping on the toes of the other classes.

It's not a sneak attack. It's a bonus against ONLY his favored enemy. It works just like the phb version, but a lot better.

I just do not like using the sneak attack mechanic for favored enemy. I would prefer a differant method. I give the ranger half his class level to damage rolls, but he has one and only one favored enemy. He also may choose a type of creature each day as his "quarry bonus." Thanks to Jack Daniel for that mechanic.

The reason for the fast movement, is to simulate a ranger, well, ranging. How about if I change it to overland speed, say, where it won't affect movement in combat?

You could do that. I just see no reason for all rangers to have this ability. I have added the Expeditious Retreat spell to the first level ranger spell list. This allows for greater speed for a short time without infringing on other classes who have this ability.

I thought about using charisma as his spell casting attribute, but then they need yet another high attribute. They already need strength, dexterity, constitution, and wisdom - and intelligence if they want to have any skills.

Rangers have always needed more ability scores to be higher than some of the other classes. I think if you go spontaneous casting, it has to be charisma. They will just have to sacrifice some other ability score if you use point buy or get some good rolls with the dice. I prefer rangers to prepare their spells like clerics and druids, anyway. The greater versatility of spells is more advantageous than a few more spells per day, IMO.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Salutations,

As an alternate suggestion for how to handle favored enemy hit/dam bonuses-

If one takes on the concept that the ranger has studied this favored enemy, then have the ranger gain a class-only skill of Knowledge(favored enemy: x). The ranks would determine the bonus to hit/dam.

At 1st lvl they get the favored enemy feat and pick their enemy- and gain the knowledge skill above as a class skill.

Perhaps in each round of battle the ranger can choose to apply half of that number as a competence bonus to hit or dam (or break it up between them).

As the ranger gains more levels, the ranger can choose to take another favored enemy(which would need a new skill of knowledge(favored enemy: y) or could broaded their already choosen enemy: If you had dragons, then it broadens to dragon and dragonkin. Drow to underdark creatures. etc at dm's approval.

FD

 

[Christian]

OK. It's shafted.

Oh, you said critique, I thought you said criticize.

I like the change to spontaneous casting-it seems very appropriate for the ranger class, and adds a unique flavor. (I may steal it for my alt.ranger. ) The Skill Focus and Endurance feats make sense, too, but I'd bump them up a level each (to 2nd and 3rd) to even out those initial levels. The expanded skill list is fine, but it may prove somewhat annoying to players-one of the gripes some people have about rangers is that the 4 skill points per level isn't enough to put ranks in all of the ranger skills you'd like as it is. And if you put one of your high scores in intelligence, that means pulling a high score out of an attribute you need more. Just warning that you'll hear some whining about this one-my personal opinion on this is 'cry me a river, nature-boy'.

The one thing I don't like is the change in damage bonus for favored enemies. One gripe that I actually agree with is that the favored enemy bonus comes in to play when the DM wants it to-if your favored enemy is goblinoids, and there are no goblinoid enemies to fight, your special bonus is useless. Your upgrade makes for a noticeably more powerful ability for the DM to make useless. I'd rather see this upgrade replaced with something more generally useful-or even for the favored enemy ability to be dropped entirely in favor of improvements elsewhere.

Oh, and the move bonus is quite reasonable, but may be seen to infringe on one of the barbarian's perks. An overland movement bonus may work better.

 

[Christian]

OK. It's shafted.

Oh, you said critique, I thought you said criticize.

I like the change to spontaneous casting-it seems very appropriate for the ranger class, and adds a unique flavor. (I may steal it for my alt.ranger. ) The Skill Focus and Endurance feats make sense, too, but I'd bump them up a level each (to 2nd and 3rd) to even out those initial levels. The expanded skill list is fine, but it may prove somewhat annoying to players-one of the gripes some people have about rangers is that the 4 skill points per level isn't enough to put ranks in all of the ranger skills you'd like as it is. And if you put one of your high scores in intelligence, that means pulling a high score out of an attribute you need more. Just warning that you'll hear some whining about this one-my personal opinion on this is 'cry me a river, nature-boy'.

The one thing I don't like is the change in damage bonus for favored enemies. One gripe that I actually agree with is that the favored enemy bonus comes in to play when the DM wants it to-if your favored enemy is goblinoids, and there are no goblinoid enemies to fight, your special bonus is useless. Your upgrade makes for a noticeably more powerful ability for the DM to make useless. I'd rather see this upgrade replaced with something more generally useful-or even for the favored enemy ability to be dropped entirely in favor of improvements elsewhere.

Oh, and the move bonus is quite reasonable, but may be seen to infringe on one of the barbarian's perks. An overland movement bonus may work better.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Up you go!

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Bump!