D&D General Ranger Identity Patch (+)

[Minigiant]

who?

One of the Protaganists of the ASOIAF & GOT Series.

Ranger Commander
Medium armor
Stealth
Tracking
Wolf Companion with nonverbal communication
(Spoiler)

But he wields a magic greatsword

 

[Horwath]

But he wields a magic greatsword

Well, ackshually... It's a longsword/bastard sword.
As for magical, it' would be common/uncommon item, maybe. It's just special material.

 

[Horwath]

Wolf Companion with nonverbal communication

this is more racial/background feat than class training.

 

[Minigiant]

this is more racial/background feat than class training.

Same with Aragorn but he us the prototype

TBH over half the examples of magic in media for most classes are racial, lineage, or personal features. Few characters are pure learn by doing.

Classes are more about outcome.

 

[CleverNickName]

The best ranger "patches" for me have been prestige classes (or subclasses, in 5E) for the fighter. I like to take the framework of the Fighter class, and add on a handful of good hunting, tracking, and wilderness/nature features.

Sort of like splashing green in a white soldier deck, for those who play M:tG.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In your post, you were talking about social interaction.

Overall, the ranger identity in social interaction.

Overall rangers are "poor" at social. They don't prioritize CHA and often dump it. Their only social skill on their list is Insight. They need to take Fey Wanderer for mechanical strength.

So, like i said, getting over the siloing of what skills can do so that it is normalized to use insight to convince people would help the ranger.

The ranger role in social interaction is usually the Linguist.

Not in media. Only in 5e due to mechanical choices.

If the target doesn't or can't speak Common, the ranger is more likely to speak their language because.

1. Rangers get bonus languages.
2. Rangers get Speak with Animals and Speak with Plants.

Outside of that the iconic ranger thing is to stay silent and use Insight to discover the speakers' moods, tells, bluffs, and truthfulness.

Since when? In what media?

The biggest issue is page space.

If you aren't doubling up and reusing the text of spells via the references the ranger section balloons in size. WOTC would never. Even more 3pp don't give the ranger the room.

Look at 2014's Natural Explorer.

1. Difficult terrain doesn’t slow your group’s travel.
2. Your group can’t become lost except by magical means.
3. Even when you are engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.
4. If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.
5. When you forage, you find twice as much food as you normally would.
6. While tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.

That's 6 bullet points. 6 sentences. And Natural Explorer is a Tier 1 Feature. So you'd have to do it 3 more times.

Why? Simplify it. Don't include every bullet point.
It literally doesnt need to be any more page space than the Warlock of original Artificer.

Favored Enemy is 4 long sentences. So 4 tiers of that is 7-16 sentences.
Nonmagical healing is at least 4 sentences. 10 more sentences.
Beast Companion. HA. 3 stat blocks and at least 2 pargraphs.
Favored Foe, Tireless, Deft Exploror, Nature's Veil, Feral Sense, Vanish.
You are hitting 3 pages easy. And 5 if you do it right and add art.
This is my biggest gripe with most ranger knack homebrews. It's usually a page and a half of "weak" Tier 1 stuff that becomes irrelevant at level 6 if your party has a full spellcaster.

Warlocks manage because a lot of Invocations are "You can cast SPELL at will" or "You can cast SPELL once pr long rest".

Not anymore, first of all. Secondly...so lots of knacks could be spells like i already said.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

if they delete half the awful 2024 PHB art, you could find 5-6 pages for decent ranger class.

The art on the phb is overwhelmingly good to great.

 

[Minigiant]

Since when? In what media?

Aragorn the prototype speaks many languages and uses them to calm to animals.

Not anymore, first of all. Secondly...so lots of knacks could be spells like i already said

I haven't seen many nonmagical ranger snacks that aren't multiple sentences.

Secondly, I dont see the point of removing Spellcasting just to add it back in a restrictive case-by-case case basis.

Might as well keep spellcasting.

There is the point of ckntention. Things big as Beast Companion and Spellcasting arent equal. So you really cant make them optional without making one of them suck.