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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9519783" data-attributes="member: 6877472">You know what the worst part of Hunter's Mark being integral to the class is?  You've closed the design space.  How would you go about designing a spell that improves upon Hunter's Mark?  Or functions like the Paladin's various Smite spells, giving you alternatives?You'd basically be saying "well, those class features are pointless now" unless you made something like "Scout's Mark: this spell is considered to be Hunter's Mark for the purposes of Ranger abilities"- except not even that, because let's say you decide Scout's Mark does d4's for damage, but offers advantage on ranged attack rolls...but you still have the Ranger capstone saying "but it does d10" damage.And since we know WotC is allergic to making changes to the PHB (RIP Revised Ranger), there's never going to be a class redesign.  Hunter's Mark will likely be the, ahem, "benchmark" for Ranger spells for the next 10 years.While everyone else will get new toys, you'll have some guy on the design team saying "Hey there, Chief, that's a nice spell you want to give the Ranger.  But we're going to have to veto that because it's better than Hunter's Mark.  Maybe we can give it to the Wizard?"</blockquote>