D&D (2024) Ranger playtest discussion

[Micah Sweet]

Hope that is not a preview of the death of the exploration pillar.

Perhaps they're abandoning it to 3pp designers who actually care about it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Shrug. Hey, people like what they like... but to me a spell-less Ranger that replaces spells with "Ranger features" results in the exact same thing-- a Ranger that does nature stuff. And to me... there is no actual difference between the game telling me that the Ranger PC healing someone via herbalism and herbs versus healing someone via Cure Wounds, or that the Ranger giving his party a bonus to stealth checks via some weird Ranger stealth feature versus casting Pass Without Trace. If the results are mechanically the same, I don't see the need for two different names and mechanical systems to represent it. But I know a lot of folks here on EN World get all bent out of shape about "too much magic" thing... so it is what it is. I just don't think the WotC designers have nearly the same problem with magic that the players here do, so everyone's kinda out of luck.

This is what I've been saying. For whatever reason, WotC does not care about this concern.

 

[Haplo781]

My ideal ranger would be like 90% martial but have the ability to cast primal spells with the ritual tag.

They'd also have Hunter's Mark as just a thing they can do without needing spell slots.

 

[Minigiant]

So low-magic is part of the character archetype.

No. It's that most fantasy outside of video games and anime is low magic.
D&D isn't low magic. Hasn't been since the mid 90s.

Then he wouldn’t be Jon Snow.

Sure he would.Jon Snow only doesn't use magic because there wasn't have any to have.

Eventually the Starks used every bit of magic they had access to.

 

[Charlaquin]

My ideal ranger would be like 90% martial but have the ability to cast primal spells with the ritual tag.

They'd also have Hunter's Mark as just a thing they can do without needing spell slots.

That sounds like a cool ranger.

 

[Charlaquin]

No. It's that most fantasy outside of video games and anime is low magic.

It’s still part of the archetype.

D&D isn't low magic. Hasn't been since the mid 90s.

Ok?

Sure he would.Jon Snow only doesn't use magic because there wasn't have any to have.

But if there had been, it would have been a different story, and he would have been a different character.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Welcome to 1D&D, you've already lost that battle.

Look at the last playtest: nearly every race has some type of spellcasting or supernatural ability (like tremorsense). Several feats (and thus backgrounds) give magical abilities. 1D&D is doubling down on easy access to magic, not removing it. I'm fairly sure most PCs are going to have access to magic, be it from race, feat or class/subclass.

Anyone hoping for low magic D&D should start looking for a good fantasy heartbreaker, because D&D is stepping on the gas.

Plenty of room for low-magic fans over here in Level Up-ville.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Hunter was a more or less unique subclass in having specific feature choices to make at various levels. I really wish they would have embraced that approach for more subclasses (not all, but giving every class at least one flexible subclass that worked like that would be better). Instead they nerfed Hunters.

That said, while I don't think the level 6 ability to know vulnerabilities, etc of an enemy they Hunter's Mark is particularly powerful, I really like it. It gives the character a unique, evocative combat roll of being the guy who can tell everyone how to best kill the enemy. It should probably be a base class feature, as it seems a waste to lock something that feels both not overpowered and suitable to any Ranger behind just one subclass.

 

[Haplo781]

Hunter was a more or less unique subclass in having specific feature choices to make at various levels. I really wish they would have embraced that approach for more subclasses (not all, but giving every class at least one flexible subclass that worked like that would be better). Instead they nerfed Hunters.

That said, while I don't think the level 6 ability to know vulnerabilities, etc of an enemy they Hunter's Mark is particularly powerful, I really like it. It gives the character a unique, evocative combat roll of being the guy who can tell everyone how to best kill the enemy. It should probably be a base class feature, as it seems a waste to lock something that feels both not overpowered and suitable to any Ranger behind just one subclass.

Sir this is 5e... err 1DD. Meaningful choices are verboten.

 

[Azzy]

Personally, on first blush I like the new ranger. I wish hunter's mark from favored enemy didn't take a spell slot, but otherwise not bad. They screwed the Hunter subclass, though.