D&D 5E [+] Rangers should have monster fighting spells equivalent to Paladin's Smite spells. Discuss!

[Shardstone]

Thanks! I'm still mulling it over. I like the shape of it in my mind, but. Don't want to let it become too niche, too ubiquitous, or too cumbersome when actually rendered.

So I've been thinking about it.

You want a catalog of spells, but don't restrict them by creature type. Instead, they should be inspired by some creatures.

Trollbane -- Study of trolls has taught us the many ways a creature can regenerate. Cast the spell, make a weapon attack as part of the spell, if you hit deal extra damage and turn off regen for 1 min or until a save is passed.
Dragonfall -- Learn to cripple the wings of a dragon and you can cripple the wings of anything. Similar to an already existing spell, but does damage and inflicts some other effects depending on the exact creature type.
Oozeburn -- Killing an ooze is difficult since it has no head or organs. Oozes aren't the only such creatures. Ignite the creature and reduce maximum hit points equal to the damage delt.

Some of these spells overlap, so Oozeburn can work in favor of Trollbane, meaning Oozeburn should be a higher-level spell.

You could eventually have spells for countering Legendary Actions and Resistances at 5th level, etc etc.

 

[Rocker26a]

So I've been thinking about it.

You want a catalog of spells, but don't restrict them by creature type. Instead, they should be inspired by some creatures.

I was somewhat leaning towards that sort of system, yeah. The ideas in the first post there, it's more that they key off of particular traits a given creature has than absolutely requiring that they belong to that umbrella category. For instance; that Pac-Man effect for Ghosts (or similar) that prevents Incorporeal Movement, which'd belong to the "Undead Bane" (or whatever it'd actually be called) spell, would also be problematic for Phase Spiders. In my head, I think that could work and could be neat. Maybe. Possibly.

Trollbane -- Study of trolls has taught us the many ways a creature can regenerate. Cast the spell, make a weapon attack as part of the spell, if you hit deal extra damage and turn off regen for 1 min or until a save is passed.
Dragonfall -- Learn to cripple the wings of a dragon and you can cripple the wings of anything. Similar to an already existing spell, but does damage and inflicts some other effects depending on the exact creature type.
Oozeburn -- Killing an ooze is difficult since it has no head or organs. Oozes aren't the only such creatures. Ignite the creature and reduce maximum hit points equal to the damage delt.

Some of these spells overlap, so Oozeburn can work in favor of Trollbane, meaning Oozeburn should be a higher-level spell.

I like these! Not far off at all to what I'm thinking of, just maybe a little different in the actual mechanical expression. The bit of introductory flavour given before each effect is important I think.

You could eventually have spells for countering Legendary Actions and Resistances at 5th level, etc etc.

I was considering this for Ranger, nullifying or ignoring Legendary Resistance, particularly in relation to a 10th level feature I was messing with recently, "Equalizer". I discussed it a little bit in this other thread. Part of my thinking for the feature before it really took shape was, that it's effect(s) cannot be Legendary Resistance-d. I may yet work something like that in to the last two or three features I have to figure out, I think punching above your weight (successfully) is a very Ranger thing.

 

[Minigiant]

That's something I specifically want to avoid, I don't want to inundate the spell list with new stuff. No more than there are types of creature, if that many at all.

But beyond that, the idea for this I've got in my head is just what you might call "Banes". I don't know that I'm set on that as a name for this class of spell (Bane already being a thing n' all), but. Yeah. For the sake of argument. A few different "X-Banes".

Again that would require either

1) Give rangers spellbooks
OR
2) Give monster types strict features common among them and stick to it in or to create general spells that counter them.

 

[Rocker26a]

Again that would require either

1) Give rangers spellbooks

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not sure I see what you're getting at there. Why would it necessarily require Rangers to have specifically Spellbooks? What's the correlation as such?

2) Give monster types strict features common among them

Obviously it's not true in absolutely every case, but it's pretty close to that already. Almost every creature with "Zombie" in it's name has Undead Fortitude. It's just, "Zombie" isn't a strict subcategory of creature under the Umbrella of Undead codified in the rules. Maybe that's not a great example though.

or to create general spells that counter them.

I think I'm more leaning more towards this! It's just complicated, and I don't have a perfect idea ready to go for each thing I would want covered. Some come more easily than others.

 

[Minigiant]

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not sure I see what you're getting at there. Why would it necessarily require Rangers to have specifically Spellbooks? What's the correlation as such?

Because 9/10 these type of spells are very niche.

Rangers are known casters and don't have enough known spells to memorize these super niche spells.

So you either have to un-niche the spells or give more spells known.

 

[Rocker26a]

Because 9/10 these type of spells are very niche.

Rangers are known casters and don't have enough known spells to memorize these super niche spells.

So you either have to un-niche the spells or give more spells known.

Refer to the first post!

(Also, for the sake of this discussion; just assume Ranger is prepared spells. So you can do that thing where, you investigate what you're gonna be facing, and you can choose one of these spells when you prepare a spell list, and once you're actually facing the problem or just about to, you can select the affect you need.)

 

[Remathilis]

So I've been thinking about it.

You want a catalog of spells, but don't restrict them by creature type. Instead, they should be inspired by some creatures.

Trollbane -- Study of trolls has taught us the many ways a creature can regenerate. Cast the spell, make a weapon attack as part of the spell, if you hit deal extra damage and turn off regen for 1 min or until a save is passed.
Dragonfall -- Learn to cripple the wings of a dragon and you can cripple the wings of anything. Similar to an already existing spell, but does damage and inflicts some other effects depending on the exact creature type.
Oozeburn -- Killing an ooze is difficult since it has no head or organs. Oozes aren't the only such creatures. Ignite the creature and reduce maximum hit points equal to the damage delt.

Some of these spells overlap, so Oozeburn can work in favor of Trollbane, meaning Oozeburn should be a higher-level spell.

You could eventually have spells for countering Legendary Actions and Resistances at 5th level, etc etc.

This was what I was thinking.

Rangers don't need a suite of spells for every monster. They don't need charm undead or speak with ooze. But a few spells that allow you bonuses against a specific type of creature or ability would be nice. Ranger magic is too focused on druid magic, some "martial magic" that uses magic to "augment" martial ability (something akin to conjure barrage, but actually useful) would be nice.

 

[Corinnguard]

"martial magic"

More like Ranger-specific combat traditions.

 

[Rocker26a]

This was what I was thinking.

Rangers don't need a suite of spells for every monster. They don't need charm undead or speak with ooze. But a few spells that allow you bonuses against a specific type of creature or ability would be nice. Ranger magic is too focused on druid magic, some "martial magic" that uses magic to "augment" martial ability (something akin to conjure barrage, but actually useful) would be nice.

Exactly! (And I'm always happy to see Conjure Barrage pointed out as lame.)
Rangers are the typecast Monster hunters, but when monster hunting is just "dealing lots of damage", they can't really embrace that role.

 

[Gorck]

Trollbane -- Study of trolls has taught us the many ways a creature can regenerate. Cast the spell, make a weapon attack as part of the spell, if you hit deal extra damage and turn off regen for 1 min or until a save is passed.

I was thinking about this one in particular:

Trollbane - You coat your weapon with a substance to counteract regenerative properties. Your next successful attack does an extra 1d4 acid or fire damage. This substance continues to affect the target each round for 1 minute.

ETA: I realize this is too similar to the crappy old Smite spells, so perhaps make the spell act like the new Playtest Smites that are Bonus Action casts after a successful attack.