Trading Abilities

[Galethorn]

As a DM I've been thinking about trading all five Favored Enemies for Fast Movement at first level, Uncanny Dodge (dex bonus to AC) at 8th, Uncanny Dodge (can't be flanked) at 13th, and an additional 10 feet of movement at 20. (F.Y.I. I'm using the variant ranger in the Book of Hallowed Might)

This wouldn't be for all rangers, just a specific one.

My only question is weather this is unbalanced in any way, either for or against the ranger.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I think this is rather underpowering the character in the swap-out front.

He gets some useful defensive abilities and a bit of extra mobility but losing all of the classes offensive punch (the favoured enemy).

I'm not familiar with the "hallowed might" ranger, but if I compare this character with the Barbarian (no rage, lower HD, better skillset, no damage resistance, some paltry spells) he doesn't look very appealing.

As a thought experiment, if the character was multiclassed as a Ranger/Barbarian (e.g. rgr6/bar2) then at 8th level he would have uncanny dodge, fast movement, two favoured enemies and all the other ranger goodies, and probably isn't even shafted on the important skills front since the Barb has a lot of good ones. Plus he gets to rage every so often, which is always a help!

If he continued along this route, by 13th level he could be rgr8/barb5, gets the uncanny dodge (can't be flanked), a few more spells and hit points etc.

He then continues as ranger until he reaches rgr15/barb5, has four favoured enemies, rage, uncanny dodge, fast movement, ranger skills pretty much where he wants them etc. etc.

So at the end of this thought experiment, my judgement would be that the proposed character would be considerably weaker than an existing multiclass.

Would you consider allowing him to use the Monk movement rate instead, perhaps?

Cheers

 

[Galethorn]

My Reply

Now that you say that, it looks like monk speed is the way to go.

(The BoHM ranger doesn't have twf, but gets better spell progression, and 5 bonus feats from a fairly specific list.)

Anyway, for offense, I could give him an ability I though of...you could give up all your extra attacks for an automatic hit with maximum damage, but it would only be usable once per day per level/4 (once per day minimum). You would still have to roll high enough to get a threat and critical though, so no keen rapiers with imp. crit. getting a critical on a 12 even though the guy its hitting has an AC of 30+. It also will only work with one type of weapon, which you get to choose.

As an example, let's say Eolan the 14th level ranger has a +2 longsword, and 16 str, resulting in an attack bonus of +19 to his first (and only, in this case) attack. He's fighting a monster with an AC of 35. He uses his automatic hit ability, and proceeds to make his attack roll. He rolls a 19, which is a threat, but his critical roll is only 14(+19=33), which wouldn't hit the creature, so he does 13 damage. He uses his second auto-hit, and rolls a 3, so he does 13 damage again. With his last auto-hit that day, he rolls a 19 and 20, so he does 26 damage.

How does that sound? It would come at 10th level, and the two uncanny dodges would be at 5 and 15.