Rangers: Leave them alone!?

[Stalker0]

Origianally posted by Stalker0
I find it interesting that the classes people most often complain about beig underpowered, the Ranger and the Bard, are the ones who dabble in a little bit of everything (stealth, magic, fighting, skills).

There is a very good reason this is so.

When people consider the power of a class, what it really boils down to is "what cool things can I do with this class?"

As a player, I want to shine. Not all the time, but there are times when you player wants to look around and say in this situation "I am the man!!"

Most of the classes can do this. Fighters and Barbarians shine in combat, but in different ways. Paladins shine when fighting evil doers. Wizards, sorcs, and clerics shine by the coolness of their spells. Druids also by their spells and wildshape. Rogues get to be stealthy, and few things are more exciting than a good sneak attack. Monks get all sorts of cool abilities and lots of attacks. Bards have bardic music, which is a unique ability that can do some interesting things.

But when you look at the ranger, it just doesn't seem to have this. The bard is also somewhat lacking, but not as badly. Sure, power wise they may be balanced. And there's nothing inherently weak with being a jack of all trades. But its....boring. Favored Enemy is nice, but its not interesting. Skills are nice, but there not interesting. An animal companion is nice, but a ranger's companion isn't usually strong enough to help him shine.

So when it comes down to it, its not about making the ranger stronger, its about giving them some uniqueness that when the situation is correct, they truly shine.

 

[Witness]

I'll I agree that not shining may look boring on paper, but in application I've found that being able to participatte and contribute in almost any siuation is more fulfilling as a player than being the only one able to do 1 thing really well on a rare occasion. I think it boils down to a matter of personal taste, and ones experiences playing and running different games.

I always try and give my characters high Int for the skill points. That way they can be prepared to deal with anything the group encounters. The Ranger epitomizes this ideal; He has the skills, spells and figthting ability to get into and out of any situation. The Ranger may not shine as bright, but he'll shine the longest.

 

[Steverooo]

 

 

[Steverooo]

 

 

[Wanderlust]

You do realize that the whole idea being described about the Ranger as an infiltrator makes him sound a lot like a NINJA!

C'mon, let's look to fuedal Japan for inspiration!

Seriously, though, I don't see a Ranger infiltrating and disguising himself. But a Ninja... The Ranger is too much of a solitary person, but one that will rip you to shreds in his own environment.

Anyway, I just had to post this, because Ninjas are cool and I study Ninjutsu.

Oh, and one more thing: was the feat Skill Mastery your own creation or does that have a source from some published material?




Wanderlust

 

[Witness]

Skill Mastery is one of the special abilities that Rogues can get at highe levels. No published works tht I've seen so far have turned it into a feat.

 

[Steverooo]

 

 

[Steverooo]

 

 

[Witness]

What are YOUR ideas? Contribute, please!...

Okay since you asked...

One idea I've been toying with is tying the Ranger's special abilities to the type of favored enemy they choose. So rather than getting bonus feats or some special ability that Rogues or Druids or Fighters have, they would have unique special powers that represents a supernatural empathy with a kind of creature. For example, if the Ranger chose a type of Elemental or Outsider as a favored enemy, she would also recieve resistance to a related energy type (Favored Creature Fire Elemental = Ranger gains Fire resistance). Choose Animals as a favored creature, and get a bonus to Handle H and Animal Emp or to max HD of Animal Companions. Choose Orcs or Drow as a favored enemy and gain darkvision. Choose Dragon as favored enemy and cast a a few low-level arcane spells as (Sorcerer's Blood). etc, etc...

The virtual feats they get at first level could be integrated into this system, and maybe like Cleric domains, each Favored Enemy would grant access to certain additional spells. Of course the name would have to change from favored enemy to a favored creature to represent a supernatural connection to the specific creature type.

I'm not sure this is neccessrily the best solution, but I've been playing around with it recently in my head, and you did ask...

 

[dkilgo]

I do believe that the Ranger is lacking in many ways that the other classes are not. For one the class just isn't appealing enough to play for one. Not enough benefits in the long run. To answer your question, yes I do think that the Ranger needs fixing. But, are you sure that any of the things that you obviously have spent so much time thinking about are the appropriate methods to deal with this situation? Now, I am not saying that you are wrong in any way, but nor am I saying you are right.

The Ranger needs some stability biult in to its structure. That is all. Whether you accomplish this with feats, skills, or special ailities I don't know.

But, I will say that it quite possibly is a little of both since the Ranger is the woodland version of a jack-of-all-trades in my book. They represent many qualities of several different classes like the fighter, druid, and rogue. That in itself creates a pretty uniwue character in itself, but it still needs some tweaking before it turns out right.

When, not if, I come up with some way I could show you how I would fix this then I will present it.

Thank you for your time, and hope you all had a very merry Christmas.