Proposal - new Ranger archetype

[Eltab]

After paging through the SCAG earlier this week, I was inspired to try to re-create the Impilturan Demonslayer paragon path for 5e.
Constructive criticism welcome. Editorial comments and opinion requests in red.

Ranger Archetype: Impilturan Demonslayer
Impiltur, the land of the Paladin-Princes and long a bastion of civilization, is now besieged by foul abominations from the depths of the Abyss. Demons are the stuff of most adventurers’ nightmares, but your training and dedication grant you the power to lay these otherworldly horrors low. You seek to cut a swath through their foul legions and purge their dark influence from your once-great kingdom and the lands around it.

Prerequisites
Favored Enemy: fiends (or demons)
Favored terrain: coast, forest, mountain, or swamp
What other terrains would you assign to Impiltur?

Extended Spellcasting
You gain a list of associated spells. You gain access to these spells at the levels specified. Once you gain access to these spells, you always have them prepared. (They do not count against your “Spells prepared” limit.) Although these spells do not appear on the Ranger spell list, they are nonetheless Ranger spells for you.
Ranger Level Spells
3^rd Protection from Evil and Good
5^th Magic Weapon
9^th Magic Circle
13^th Banishment
17^th Dispel Evil and Good
Trying to emulate the Paladin Oath spell mechanics. Are there other spells that help with containing and/or destroying fiends?
Should I work this whole concept as a Paladin Oath instead, assigning a skill set and background as prerequisites to taking this Oath?

Demonslayer’s Weapon
At 3^rd level, you gain the ability to imbue a weapon with a deadly quality for a short time. As an action, you can cause any weapon you are wielding to gain the following properties: You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with the weapon. When you hit your favored enemies with it, the target takes an extra 2d6 damage of the weapon’s type. These properties last for 10 minutes; during this time the weapon is considered magical. If you are not wielding the weapon, the imbued properties on it end immediately. You may use this ability once per short rest.
If your favored enemy was Dragons, this would be a Dragon Bane weapon; I worked it through from the opposite direction.
I intend that you can imbue ranged weapons as well.
You cannot imbue one weapon, drop it, pick up something different, and still get the Bane properties.
You cannot imbue a weapon and give it to somebody else to use its properties.

Demonslayer’s Defense
At 7^th level, when you are hit with an energy attack by your favored enemies, as a reaction, you can gain Resistance to that energy type until the end of the triggering enemy’s next turn.
May be useless if most demons at this level have one-shot-only typed attacks (acid, fire, &c) - or none at all.

Demonslayer’s Preparations
At 11^th level,your attacks against your favored enemies ignore their Resistances.
So you can pick up a Flaming Sword and surprise the beastie - and your DM.
Also at 11^thlevel, you may add double your proficiency bonus to Intelligence checks made to discover knowledge about your favored enemies.

Demonslayer’s Dismissal
At 15^th level, you gain the ability to imbue a weapon with a special property for a brieftime. As an action, you can cause any weapon you are wielding to gain the following property: If you hit your favored enemies with the weapon and the target is reduced to less than half its original Hit Points, it is treated as if you cast the Banishmentspell on it (without expending a spell slot or any material components). This property lasts for 5 minutes; during this time the weapon is considered magical. If you are not wielding the weapon, the imbued property ends immediately. You may use this ability once per short rest.
Duplicates 3e Dismisser weapon property.
Picked the duration so the sword could permanently dismiss 1+ nasty per use.

 

[Macv12]

Unfortunately my Insider subscription has expired, so I can't see the original thing you're trying to adapt. Before any in-depth evaluation, I wonder why you want this to be a ranger archetype, instead of paladin? The favored enemy is fixed, you need to give a bunch of extra spells to deal with that enemy (which ranger archetypes never do, afaik, but paladin archetypes do), and it has a distinctly divine-caster flavor with the banishment and faux smites and whatnot. I would never know this was a ranger. I would think there should be some more...ranger-y stuff in there, to justify using this archetype instead of multiclassing something that can hit this flavor out-of-the-box.

 

[Eltab]

I had Ranger handy, so I started there first.
Part of the backstory for the archetype is that Impiltur (FR nation) has a history of dealing with demons, so the special techniques needed could be learned there.
Is there something that a 'standard Ranger' has that could be subtracted, as part of this specialization?

Thanks for the reply; "with many advisers there is wisdom" (Proverbs, lightly mangled).

 

[Matthan]

It feels like a paladin oath to me. Demonslayer's Weapon is essentially a Channel Divinity feature as written anyway. I think that I would use that class for the mechanics you have here. To make it a Ranger archetype, I agree with Macv12 that it needs something to feel like a Ranger. That's a hot button topic at the moment, but maybe something that wears down the demon? An attack that would break its resistances for a time? I don't know how to begin to balance that, but I tend to think of a ranger as kind of harrying his foes instead of going bold and all in which feels like a paladin.

The overall balance is hard for me to peg, but it feels a little strong to me. Demonslayer's Weapon is better than the Devotion paladin's Sacred Weapon for an ability of the same level and same idea (make the weapon better). I'm not fluent enough in the higher levels to really critique the later abilities though.

 

[Eltab]

Unfortunately my Insider subscription has expired, so I can't see the original thing you're trying to adapt.

Aha, I found my xerox'ed copy - 4e Forgotten Realms Players Guide

 

[Macv12]

What differentiates a ranger from a paladin, to me, is mundane ability. Paladins lean heavily on divine power and raw charisma, whereas rangers are a lot more "practical" in their focus (survival and stealth, versus diplomacy and religion). Ranger class features are entirely mundane with the exception of Primeval Awareness, their archetypes are made of non-magical abilities, and even their spells can often be reflavored as non-magical techniques.

One thing you might consider would be to tie some of your offensive effects to Hunter's Mark. It's still magical, but it's something the ranger already has, as well as something that's fairly iconic for them.

I agree that Demonslayer's Weapon is quite strong. +1 to attacks and damage, +2d6 damage, and effectively doubled for ignoring resistance (unless you already had a magic weapon, which 5e never assumes). I might make this remove the target's resistances, and change their immunities to mere resistances, similar to Matthan. Flavor-wise you're disrupting their unnatural power so natural things can harm them; even fire, from the natural world, now hurts a demon you've sabotaged. (Whereas Demonslayer's Prepararion feels like a paladin-ish "only my holy blade can pierce this evil" effect, a temporary disruption emphasizes that you're fighting on behalf of nature/humanity itself, sort of.) This would be an effective damage doubler for the ranger to, if the target was strong vs B/P/S damage. Doesn't enforce a lone warrior "cutting a swathe" through demon hordes, but then D&D is a team game anyway.

Demonslayer's Defense feels a bit too weak to me. You have to keep eating your reaction every round, and that's only if the enemy has the courtesy to keep using the same damage type over and over. Unless your intention is that you get resistance against the triggering attack, as well?

Here's another "defensive" feature to consider. It's fairly limited, so giving both this and some other feature is what I would recommend.

Horde Stopper
"When a creature you can see within your weapon's range attempts to summon other creatures, as a reaction, you make make one weapon attack against the summoner. If successful, the creature's action is wasted, and no creatures are summoned."

If you use my idea above, Demonslayer's Preparation becomes redundant. You could change it to give a boost to Primeval Awareness: when you use it to detect demons, you know what kind of demons are around and their approximate direction or location. This might help you actually prepare for what that specific demon can do. Monster lore checks aren't really a codified thing in 5e, but you could achieve a similar effect by saying that after using Primeval Awareness, the ranger can pick one type of demon they detected and give themself advantage on saves against that demon's abilities (which would include stench, grapples, etc) as a result of being knowledgable and prepared to face them.

For Demonslayer's Dismissal, I don't really have any other great ideas, but I would maybe make this an additional effect when the ranger uses Hunter's Mark.