Less spells prepared when you consider Primal Awareness, and less spells to cast in a day too, unless you are counting multiple castings of Hunters Mark which is a waste and replaced Favored Foe which was a far better ability.
D&D (2024) Ranger 2024 is a bigger joke than Ranger 2014:
- Thread starter Horwath
- Start date
Less spells prepared when you consider Primal Awareness, and less spells to cast in a day too, unless you are counting multiple castings of Hunters Mark which is a waste and replaced Favored Foe which was a far better ability.
UngeheuerLich
Legend
Ritual casting.
Favoured foes was bad. Only once per turn. With weapon mastery TWF plays nicely with using bonus actions.
So nope.
But lets just say we disagree.
Favored foe is better than Hunters Mark because it did not require a bonus action to cast and could be used on multiple enemies in a turn.
Using a bonuse action to cast or switch hunters mark is a high opportunity cost. Less so with the new TWF rules, but still something that is going to preclude its use a lot.
Sure
The main conflict of the bonus action was that applying or switching marks took the bonus action which could be used for another attack that triggers the mark.
Favored Foe being once per turn means that it itself is trash.
It's just free trash which lines up well to a very power feat pair. And one of those feats got nerfed hard.
The main conflict is using your bonus action for something only slightly better than nothing. That conflict still exists even though you can now make a second attack without using a bonus action (if you have the fighting style).
Making an offhand attack is one of the conflicts, but hardly the only one. When you cast HM or move targets it stops you from doing things like using Nature's Viel or Hiding or using racial or other spells/abilities like Draconic Cry or Misty Step or Fey Step, activating your Sword of Dancing or Boots of Speed or a host of other things.
Also keep in mind under the new rules drinking a potion is a bonus action, so you are giving up that option every time you move a mark.
Favored Foe is not once per turn. RAW it can be used as many times in a turn as you hit with an attack, a single use can only deal damage once a turn but there is no action economy assocaited with it so you can activate it as many times as you can hit with an attack up to your PB.
HM is slightly better than FF in terms of damage if you attack only one enemy and don't use your bonus action to attack (or it is significantly worse if you would otherwise use a Bonus action to attack). But the increase in damage is slight, only 3 points IF you make 3 attacks in a round and only if the bonus action is not needed for one of those attacks.
On some builds at low level this might not be an issue, but on a build with a good bonus action option or any Ranger build at high level this is going to be a regular problem and that is going to include every Ranger build once Nature's Viel and Vanish come online.
The issue is HM is generally a weak spell and more so when you consider the action economy cost of using it. FF is weak too, however it is far more flexible in play than Hunters Mark, allowing you to damage mulitple foes in a turn and it is free in terms of action economy.
I don't know which feat you are referring to as I never saw any synergy between Favored Foe and a particular Feat (maybe Fey Touched and the Misty Step spell?)
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Horwath
Legend
UngeheuerLich
Legend
Nope. Worse within the new rules. Using it more than once a turn burns through it way too fast.
Don't think so.
Good.
UngeheuerLich
Legend
Today it really became clear: with smite as paladin's signature ability, and hunter's mark as the ranger's signature ability, the half casters really got their own niche.
Paladins use their spells mainly to buff their comrades in combat. They rarely use spells outside.
Rangers usually don't, as their concentration is blocked. So they usually use their spells for exploration.
So maybe it was mostly niche protection when keeping concentration on hunter's mark. So now we have two classes that use similar tools in very different ways. And it is more clear why both exist and are not the same half-caster class, but one with a green and one with a white cloak.
Paladins use their spells mainly to buff their comrades in combat. They rarely use spells outside.
Rangers usually don't, as their concentration is blocked. So they usually use their spells for exploration.
So maybe it was mostly niche protection when keeping concentration on hunter's mark. So now we have two classes that use similar tools in very different ways. And it is more clear why both exist and are not the same half-caster class, but one with a green and one with a white cloak.
But it is not very powerful. You only use it when you don't have something good to concentrate on, which is rare after level 6 or so.
The same is true for Hunters Mark, the difference being that Hunters Mark uses that bonus action and does less damage on the turn you use it.
Hunter's Mark is a really, really crappy niche.
