Ranger Customization Continued

[Roman]

Thanks for the Iaijutsu description - I don't have the Oriental Adventures book so I cannot comment on how balanced it is.

 

[GreatLemur]

I kind of like the idea of letting the player choose more specific Favored Enemies (such as "soldiers of the Stragos Empire" instead of "humans") in return for larger bonuses. The same can work for Favored Environments ("the Briarwoods" instead of "forest").

Of course, that would only increase the Ranger's most annoying limitation: He can only use his primary ability when the DM feels like serving up some of his favorite victims. So I also have to bring up a the possibility of more general Favored Enemies. I honestly don't think it would be terribly unbalancing to lump all humanoids together (or into savage and civilized humanoids?), as well as all animals and vermin (and nonsentient magical beasts?), all constructs and undead, etc.

Another alternative would be to let the Ranger change his Favored Enemy from time to time. Obviously, the restrictions on this option would have to be pretty severe. I'd either make them story-based ("Now that Zaela has finally defeated the goblinoid horde that menaced her town, she can dedicate herself to fighting the rising tide of undead that plague the eastern reaches."), or task-based (like a few days of research involving a good library and a few skill checks, then one or two direct combats against the intended target species before the bonuses start kicking in).

New combat styles, of course, are a great idea. Has anyone ever heard of an option allowing Rangers to focus on herbalism (for both healing and poisons)? Or maybe trap-building? Those seem like very appropriate alternatives; somebody must have already tried them.

 

[Quickleaf]

Have you looked at Szatany's Ultimate Ranger class at the WotC messageboards? Definitely check it out.

My favorite replacement ability is....

Safe Passage: When traveling overland in natural settings, the ranger and the group he/she guides may get along more easily when moving overland. The group may perform one of the following actions without affecting their overland movement rate. Normally these actions all require that the group reduce their movement.
• Travel at normal rate while foraging and hunting. (See the Survival skill)
• Travel at normal rate while hiding the group’s tracks. (See the Tracking feat)
• Travel at normal rate while protecting themselves from dangerous weather. (Survival skill)
• Travel at normal rate in darkness or fog. (See the Adventuring Chapter)
• Travel at normal rate while avoiding encounters and remaining unseen.

I like the idea of having different abilities based on different ranger archetypes. For example, a "Scout" archetype might have the lookout ability....

Lookout: The maximum distance for spotting the presence of creatures is increased by 50% for the Scout (e.g. when in the desert, instead of (6d6x20) 360 feet, the Scout would detect creatures at up to 540 feet). Also, when spending a minute scanning the area in his/her field of vision, the Scout can maximize the base die roll to determine maximum spotting distance (e.g. 720 feet in the desert).

Archetypes that fit the ranger include: Bandit, Bounty Hunter, Guide, Nomad, Scout, and Wanderer. Perhaps as a ranger gained in levels, he would get an extra ability associated with the archetype he was currently pursuing.
For example: Bandit I (demand toll), Bandit II (ambush), Bandit III (band of merry men)

 

[Roman]

Have you looked at Szatany's Ultimate Ranger class at the WotC messageboards? Definitely check it out.

My favorite replacement ability is....

Safe Passage: When traveling overland in natural settings, the ranger and the group he/she guides may get along more easily when moving overland. The group may perform one of the following actions without affecting their overland movement rate. Normally these actions all require that the group reduce their movement.
• Travel at normal rate while foraging and hunting. (See the Survival skill)
• Travel at normal rate while hiding the group’s tracks. (See the Tracking feat)
• Travel at normal rate while protecting themselves from dangerous weather. (Survival skill)
• Travel at normal rate in darkness or fog. (See the Adventuring Chapter)
• Travel at normal rate while avoiding encounters and remaining unseen.

I like the idea of having different abilities based on different ranger archetypes. For example, a "Scout" archetype might have the lookout ability....

Lookout: The maximum distance for spotting the presence of creatures is increased by 50% for the Scout (e.g. when in the desert, instead of (6d6x20) 360 feet, the Scout would detect creatures at up to 540 feet). Also, when spending a minute scanning the area in his/her field of vision, the Scout can maximize the base die roll to determine maximum spotting distance (e.g. 720 feet in the desert).

Archetypes that fit the ranger include: Bandit, Bounty Hunter, Guide, Nomad, Scout, and Wanderer. Perhaps as a ranger gained in levels, he would get an extra ability associated with the archetype he was currently pursuing.
For example: Bandit I (demand toll), Bandit II (ambush), Bandit III (band of merry men)

Wow, these are great! Are these from the Szatany's Ultimate Ranger that you mentioned? If so, where can I find this class?

As a note, I would add the "Nature's Warrior" or "Nature's Defender" to the Ranger archetypes - kind of like a holy warrior of nature.

 

[Storyteller01]

Thanks for the Iaijutsu description - I don't have the Oriental Adventures book so I cannot comment on how balanced it is.

It seems to work IMC. Skill was Cha based, by the way. The Sniper Focus varient is only really effective if you stay hidden (if you ca't stand still to aim, you can't get the damage). but then, that's what TWF is for...

 

[the Jester]

Thing to remember when doing this is that the existing styles have rather high prereqs on the later feats in the style, prereqs you don't have to worry about when getting them as bonus feats. Both Manyshot and Improved TWF require BAB +6 and Dex 17 (plus assorted other stuff), and both Improved Precise Shot and Greater TWF require BAB +11 and Dex 19. It's tempting to make, for example, a Mounted path starting with Mounted Combat at 2nd level, Ride-by attack at 6th, and Spirited Charge at 11th... but all of those are available to a 1st level human fighter, making them less "special" than the existing styles.

A very good point. In some cases, the higher-level style abilities may require the creation of new high-level fighter feats (again, imho a very good thing- there need to be more of those anyway!).