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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morgenstern" data-source="post: 584321" data-attributes="member: 5485">Because most aspects of such an ability don't really seem utterly exclusive to the ranger. Make them new uses for the Wilderness Lore skill, and you've expanded the options of (my) rangers, while not screwing the barbarian or druid who is willing to put in the time and skill points.You say that like it's a bad thing to not steal another class' coolness. The ranger doesn't have eyes in the back of his head like a rogue- he has a keen mind for locations, and how they can be used to get a tactical advantage in a fight. He's always looking for places he could ambush someone from- and checking if there's someone already in those spots waiting to get him! It's in keeping with their abilities seen in past incarnations, and it is a small ability that grows steadily throughout the ranger's career, rather than dropping a huge incremental boost all at once. (Sorry if I'm alittle tired of seeing folks multiclass for one or two levels to cherry pick the low end abilites like evasion...). Further, small abilites tend to not draw criticism as an overpowered class. I'm looking for flavor, not brute force.'Cause they are sneak-y, fight-y types. There's no real reason for a thiefly type to have sneak attack at all, but they get it so they have some flavor in combat. This ranger has some unique flavor too- he's good at the overwhelming alpha strike at the begining of combat. And the two abilites taken together provide a good reason to actually multiclass between the two (Ranger/Rougue) in a somewhat balanced fashion (a few levels of each)- an argument directly against the frontloading problem they have now.Maybe the Beastmaster refference wasn't clear. A familiar can do a lot of things an animal companion doesn't. The empathic link is way more useful to a scouting-minded character than the extra HD of  guard dog following you into a fight. That the other familiar abilities encourage -effectinve- multiclasing with the arcane casters gives the ranger class another way to work alone or be useful in a multiclassing combination. It makes them more playable, while giving them another flavorful option. And, having dumped spell casting (any easy out in my mind), These ranger's wouldn't get animal companions throught spell use.Because monks can be fun, but they aren't game breaking either <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.</blockquote>

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