*Deleted by user*
It doesn't even necessarily have to be damage. Maybe enemies have disadvantage on attacks against rangers as long as they're moving. That would let rangers get right in the thick of it and create more of a "wear them down with repeated attacks" style as opposed to the rogue's "surprise! you're dead" style.I was about to make this exact suggestion. I think extra damage or extra attack after movement makes far more sense for a "skirmish ranger." Combine that with an ability that lets them get an extra movement at the start of combat, for positioning, and an ability to go first without necessarily going extra, and I think it'd capture the feel better and be more mechanically sound.
That's also once per day. Compare it to the wizard and a fireball.
I am fine with granting the poultice. I would, however, prefer spell casting to be a subclass or other feature that the ranger can opt out of and gain something in return.The poultice idea from an earlier UA was also neat. Maybe drop the range down to 1/3 caster rather than 1/2 and give it some poultices and similar abilities.
I prefer to keep fighting styles. I don't want to force 2e's weapon niche of archery and/or two-weapon fighting. Some rangers might be good archery. Some might be good at two-weapon. Others, however, might be good at, sword and board, great weapon, spear fighting, thrown weapons or some other weapon and this was reflected in 1e by allowing Rangers to specialize in a weapon as could a fighter (see 1e Unearthed Arcana).I'd also remove the fighting style choice and just give all rangers a small perk to two-weapon fighting and archery. They're good at both.
It's odd.I thought your spirit summons comes back on a short rest. Is that mistaken?
Agreed. This ranger is basically ranged only.My other issue is the extra round means that melee rangers get hosed. Since you can't move and very few encounters start in meter range, what's the point? I can hide but only if I'm already in a position where hiding is possible. Again, I can't move.
Why would anyone play a melee ranger when one of his major powers doesn't work?
This is basically a free action surge every encounter. Sure it's a bit more limited than an action surge but it's still pretty darn good for any archer type.
I just finished a reread of the 1e-3e rangers and I don't get the "rangers lost their flavour" argument. 3e spread out two-weapon fighting, stealth, and tracking but those weren't the only bits of flavour. They've had the ability to track and slay giants consistently through the editions, and the twin swords popped up in 2e, along with a wild empathy analogue.
So the major traits of the ranger seem to be: wild empathy, tracking, stealth, and being good at killing giants.
So it's not that rangers lack an identity, it's that WotC doesn't want to use the identity they have.
Favoured enemy is the "problem" in that it's inconsistant damage, making it awkward to balance. This is because it's dependent on the adventure and DM to place those monsters in adventures. But looking at 1e/2e, the category of enemy was super broad. Pretty much all evil humanoids were considered "giants".
So do something comparable and give rangers a small damage bonus to humanoids, giants, and beasts. Those foes are common enough that 75% of adventures will feature one. Just make it a small bonus, like an extra 1d4 dmg once per turn that might go up as you level. Bam. Fun and different.
Tracking is another major part of the ranger. Natural explorer covers that. Kinda. While in a favoured terrain that ability allows the ranger to "remain alert to danger" (whatever that means) and "While tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area." But the wolf totem ranger can track while travelling at a fast pace, so the ranger isn't the fastest tracker in the game. Really, unless the ranger is tracking a favoured enemy or in their favoured terrain, they are no better at tracking than any other character.
Kinda a failure there.
How do you fix the ranger? Well, something akin to the rogue & bard expertise mechanic applied to Survival and Animal Handling would be nice.
Plus, instead of taking an action to attack with a beast, just swapping out an attack for one of its attacks should suffice. Maybe slip in an extra attack with it at higher levels. Oh, and having animal companions automatically stabilize or have advantage on death saving throws would also be handy. So the animals go down, but can be revived after the fight. That's much simpler than making them magical spirits.
It's odd.
You regain your ability to call on your spirit companion when you finish a short or long rest, which is the call power. But, also, once per day you can command the spirit to become flesh.
So once every short rest (1-3 encounters) you can trigger the stalker spirit's power to gain 2d6+wis damage. But the wolf spirit only manifests and can attack once per day.
Though all this is kind of melee-centric. The pattern for ranged skirmishers is pretty different. Attach to archetypes? I'm not sure I like that.