Celondon
Explorer
The most recent UA Ranger has significant balance issues and power creep, especially when looking at MCing.
The Ranger as written in the PHB has a couple of abilities that are incredibly niche and provide little in the way of tangible bonuses -- namely Favored Enemy, Natural Explorer and Primeval Awareness. On top of that, there are issues with their Spells being overly limited. Add in the clunkiness of the Beastmaster spec and you have a problematic class.
Favored Enemy has out of combat advantages, but does little in combat. Advantage on Knowledge checks and Tracking is just an "Okay" bonus. The main benefit comes in identifying the weaknesses of a given monster in a combat situation.
Natural Explorer let's you travel and survive in your favored environment better than others, and you can extend that to your party members, as well. It's a good ability, but again, has no combat utility.
Then, there is Primeval Awareness. Use a spell slot to know if a specific type of monster is present somewhere nearby. Note it doesn't say where, specifically nor how many of that creature type there are. Only a binary "Yes/No".
The Ranger DOES have some good class abilities -- Hide in Plain Sight, Vanish and Foe Slayer, but those come fairly late and don't make up for the weaknesses in other areas.
The Rangers spell selection is pretty cool. They have a lot of abilities which increase their combat damage or alter terrain or hamper opponents. However, nearly all their effective spells are Concentration effects. Hunter's Mark, Silence, Barkskin, Spike Growth, Conjure Woodland Beings, Grasping Vine, Stoneskin -- all Concentration effects. Hunter's Mark or Swift Quiver is necessary for the Ranger to be competitive in terms of damage done compared to Fighters, Barbarian's and Paladins meaning a great many of your spells will be ignored in favor of one of these two in most combat situations. Even in non-combat situations, you end up having to decide whether or not casting Goodberry to help heal a party member is worth the loss of several d6 potential damage in the next combat. There are simply too many restrictions on an already fairly limited pool of effects for the Ranger.
Lastly, we have the Beastmaster. In theory, they aren't bad, but in practice, the pets do not have enough survivability and the fact the Ranger himself has to give up actions to command the beast every turn or it stands there stupidly means that in actual play it just *feels* bad and is relatively ineffective.
You can make a Ranger that is fun to play -- I've played one up to level 7 and enjoyed it immensely. I went into it, however, knowing the weaknesses of the class and was therefore not disappointed by it.
The Ranger as written in the PHB has a couple of abilities that are incredibly niche and provide little in the way of tangible bonuses -- namely Favored Enemy, Natural Explorer and Primeval Awareness. On top of that, there are issues with their Spells being overly limited. Add in the clunkiness of the Beastmaster spec and you have a problematic class.
Favored Enemy has out of combat advantages, but does little in combat. Advantage on Knowledge checks and Tracking is just an "Okay" bonus. The main benefit comes in identifying the weaknesses of a given monster in a combat situation.
Natural Explorer let's you travel and survive in your favored environment better than others, and you can extend that to your party members, as well. It's a good ability, but again, has no combat utility.
Then, there is Primeval Awareness. Use a spell slot to know if a specific type of monster is present somewhere nearby. Note it doesn't say where, specifically nor how many of that creature type there are. Only a binary "Yes/No".
The Ranger DOES have some good class abilities -- Hide in Plain Sight, Vanish and Foe Slayer, but those come fairly late and don't make up for the weaknesses in other areas.
The Rangers spell selection is pretty cool. They have a lot of abilities which increase their combat damage or alter terrain or hamper opponents. However, nearly all their effective spells are Concentration effects. Hunter's Mark, Silence, Barkskin, Spike Growth, Conjure Woodland Beings, Grasping Vine, Stoneskin -- all Concentration effects. Hunter's Mark or Swift Quiver is necessary for the Ranger to be competitive in terms of damage done compared to Fighters, Barbarian's and Paladins meaning a great many of your spells will be ignored in favor of one of these two in most combat situations. Even in non-combat situations, you end up having to decide whether or not casting Goodberry to help heal a party member is worth the loss of several d6 potential damage in the next combat. There are simply too many restrictions on an already fairly limited pool of effects for the Ranger.
Lastly, we have the Beastmaster. In theory, they aren't bad, but in practice, the pets do not have enough survivability and the fact the Ranger himself has to give up actions to command the beast every turn or it stands there stupidly means that in actual play it just *feels* bad and is relatively ineffective.
You can make a Ranger that is fun to play -- I've played one up to level 7 and enjoyed it immensely. I went into it, however, knowing the weaknesses of the class and was therefore not disappointed by it.
