Unearthed Arcana UA subclass second chances

[ECMO3]

?? 2024 can prepare the same number of spells, only difference is that only hunters mark is fixed where before more were fixed with Tashas.

Tasha's Ranger gets multiple spells prepared that do not count against their total - Beast Sense, Speak With Animals, Speak with Plants, Locate Creature and Commune with Nature, additionally they can cast each of these once per day. This is a substantial spellcasting boost. It is a boost in both spells known and spells cast.

Vanish was combined into the Natures Veil on level 14 and thst got an upgrade you are now invisible until the end of the next tuen not beginning. You are right you lost some part of it.

No it wasn't. Nature's Veil was a huge upgrade from Hide in Plain Sight, but the Tasha's Ranger already had it and they had it 4 levels earlier!

Nature's Viel was in Tasha's Ranger, it replaced the 2014 level 10 Hide in Plane Sight (not Vanish) and they got it at 10th level, then Tasha's Ranger got Vanish at 14th level in addition to Nature's Veil.

At 10th level Tasha's Ranger can turn invisible as a Bonus action PB times per day using Nature's Veil, then at 14th level they could additionally hide as a Bonus action using Vanish at will.

The 2024 Ranger can't do anything of this sort level 10-13. They finally get Nature's Viel at level 14, but they can't use it to hide as a bonus action, it is a limited use invisible ability that Tasha's Ranger had been using for 3 levels until then.

When I was listing the downgrades I actually forgot to include Nature's Veil at level 10!

This does not work. Since you only deal the damage to the favored foe "The first time on each of your turns that you hit the favored enemy and deal damage to it"

Yes you can, note bolded:

"The first time on each of your turns that you hit the favored enemy and deal damage to it, including when you mark it, you increase that damage by 1d4."

It is the first time you hit the enemy after it has been marked, the underlined shows you clearly do the damage to the enemy when you mark it.

You can already prepare hunters mark for next turn (in case you have other uses of bonus action then)

Yeah except Ranger's have notoriously weak concentration saves. I rarely used Hunter's Mark on 2014 Rangers, so I don't have a lot of experience there, but I play more Rangers in 2024 than any class except Warlock and as a result I use Hunter's Mark because they all have it, and many times, maybe even most times I have tried this I did not get to use it at all, and that also presumes you don't have another bonus action to use (like Nature's Veil).

Yes in these cases Favored foe is better. So when you don't have any bonus action you deal 1d4-1d8 more damage in your turn,

Up to 3d4-3d8, but otherwise yes.

You can also cast hunters mark before combat in some cases (it has non combat use) and start combat with it.

And in some cases lose it before your turn even comes.

I think these is just one of these many cases where you play and grade options different to 90% of 5e players.

My observations are based on a ton of experience with the class, using both rule sets, both low and high level play. Those observations may be different than 90% of 5E players, but I also think I have more experience playing 2024 Rangers than 90% of 5E players.

 

[Tigris]

Maybe "stomp" or "lumber" would have been a better word! FWIW, the Circle of the Titan performed well enough that we could have refined that design in house, but we wanted to get more feedback on it. We are optimistic about it! And yes, those are solid suggestions for a more companion-focused subclass.

Thats the thing it should have been easy to refine the circle of titan in house before releasing it the first time.

The problem was mostly numbers and thats something anyone with a solid math background should have been able to see from the start.


Things like this just feel like a wasted UA. Instead of testing something new, one has to test the same thing again, because the first time it was released in an unecessary bad state.

I think there should be a bonus program (like 30% of the salery is bonus) or something for the designers. And if an UA thing needs a 2nd iteration the bonus is cut in half, if it needs to be cut no bonus.

UAs are already here to design by popularity, so then one should at least make it efficient.


I mean I get it 5e is popular partially because its so easy to "improve it", thats why there is so much homebrew (sold stuff and free), so having the design be not too perfect can be an advantage (like there would be a lot less talk about the 5e 2024 ranger if the level 20 feature would not be as abyssmal so this obviously bad design generates a lot of "free advertisement" in that sense), but many of the UA designs feel like really low effort (like no one even did the math to compare it to othter existing things which would take like 2 hours max).

 

[J-H]

I wonder why we never got an Unearthed Arcana presenting alternative character sheet designs? The WOTC character sheet is terribly designed for actual play, with a bunch of random biographical stuff on Page 1 and no designated place for players to keep track of Reaction or Bonus action options. The spellbook pages aren't much better given the lack of space and ways to checkbox or easily track Concentration/no, range, save targeted, etc.
I've said it before and probably will again: The bad design of the WOTC character sheet (and the Beyond printoff version) makes the game harder to play for no good reason.