Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Another New Ranger Variant

*Deleted by user*

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

They do gain HP as the Ranger levels RAW - HP=4*Ranger level. Between Death saves, and overnight healing they are nearly as sturdy as the party's wizard or sorcerer.

Or are you referring to increasing the per level HP?

By my spreadsheet the old companion lags the spirit companion by only a few HP, but has better AC and attack bonus. (4*level vs. 1/2 Ranger HP).

Sorry, I wasn't thinking clearly and so what I wrote was muddled. To clarify:

1.) I don't necessarily have a problem with the Beastmaster as written from a game-balance perspective, just from a RP perspective I hate the "stand around drooling" aspects of the beast.

2.) I do also think that 4 * level isn't a lot of hit points, especially for an animal that doesn't get increased HD and therefore short rest healing as it levels up. An 8th level Beastmaster's pet brown bear would have IIRC +3 to AC and 32 HP, which is somewhat of an improvement over a regular brown bear, but not enough to convince me that it will actually be an impressive or survivable tank. Worse AC than a melee PC (IIRC 15, vs. 18-20), much worse HP (32 vs. 60ish), no class features like Cunning Action or Rage or Mobile. I think the bear will be the first party-member to drop in any tough fight, even before any wizards. If it were a disposable minion that would be fine, but if your bear is essential to your identity as a ranger, to the extent that killing the bear ends your fun as a player, the Beastmaster is not designed to provide the required level of durability.

3.) Maybe adding a special "Bestial Revivify" spell to the ranger list (300 gp; works only on beasts) would be enough to make the concept work, but the thought of a brown bear which is less tanky than a wizard still kind of weirds me out, if the bear is dying and reviving constantly.

4.) Therefore, if I wanted to "fix" the Beastmaster to work with lifetime companions, I'd remove the Beastmaster's ability to bond new animals, but give him his choice of three options for his animal companion: either it can Rage like a basic barbarian of half the ranger's level (not a subclass, just a regular Rage using the basic Barbarian level chart); or it gets the Mobile feat; or [I need a third option here but can't think of one]. If your animal companion dies, tough luck, you're permanently gimped until you can resurrect him, in the same way that a fighter with one arm is gimped.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

And WotC can stop trying to achieve the impossible: to give us animal companions that doesn't suck but also doesn't make the ranger suck BUT ALSO doesn't steal any spotlight. OF COURSE a character with a wolf or a panther needs more than his share of spotlight, he's running two characters. That doesn't individually suck.

The really odd thing about the beastmaster is that he is the only one who gets singled out for a gimped companion this way. A paladin's steed is an intelligent mount which can act independently; so is a high-level Necromancer's pet Wight; so is a druid's Planar Bound Pixie. It's not like 5E is short on ways to acquire henchment.

 

[Minigiant]

The really odd thing about the beastmaster is that he is the only one who gets singled out for a gimped companion this way. A paladin's steed is an intelligent mount which can act independently; so is a high-level Necromancer's pet Wight; so is a druid's Planar Bound Pixie. It's not like 5E is short on ways to acquire henchment.

But those come from spells and use spell slots. And to get combat power, you must use one of your top 3 levels of slots.

The warloks chain pet is weak and slotless.

The issus is Ranger + Pet or Warlock + Pet, one of you have to be hampered harshly.

 

[jodyjohnson]

Black Bear CR 1/2 - over the CR 1/4 limit.
Brown Bear CR 1 Large - over the CR and size limit.

Or maybe players are getting them via Animal Friendship, Animal Handling, and general roleplay as true pets rather than Class features.

Dogs, cats, horses, ferrets, elephants, pack mules, dude who carries my stuff, dude who announces my presence - last I checked you can get these things without being a Class Ability.

 

[El Mahdi]

2d6 HD. Rangers are tough. Toughness as in ruggedness and enduring. Not battle tough tanks. Not past the first 2 levels.

Toughness is not determined by just one thing in D&D. It's a combination of how much damage you can put out per round (kill the other guy before they kill you), armor class (how hard it is for the other guy to hit you), and Hit Points - along with other less direct aspects that affect survivability.

Looking at the totality of this Ranger and compared to other classes, it's not tougher than Fighters or Barbarians. It's probably not as tough as Monks either. That puts this Ranger right where it should be: below these previously mentioned classes, but above everybody else.

You can't look at just one aspect.

 

[El Mahdi]

Just give them a d10 plus "bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that you take from non-magical weapons is reduced by 3".

Yeah...that's not clunky at all. Welcome back to 3E DR.

 

[MoutonRustique]

My gut reaction (not having played it) : most of those things are very cool abilities - however, they don't "feel ranger" to me.

Extra-action-at-start = rogue? (actually, I dislike that one...)
Ultra-stealth = rogue
Spirit companion = druid, or barbarian (or warlock - were it a "typed" creature)

I guess ranger is mash-up of those classes in a sense... but, yeah, nothing in there said "ranger!" to me.

As a whole : interesting, don't like it, but interesting.

 

[El Mahdi]

This kinda proves to me that there aren't any true ranger fans on the design team now if were any.

Oh good grief...

I didn't say they didn't play rangers.
I didn't say they aren't ranger fans.
I am saying they aren't true fans or the true fans got outvoted.

Oh good grief - Oh good grief.

(I'm doubling-down on your double-down...)

 

[El Mahdi]

Speaking of, I'm glad I got to see this UA revision, because the next PC I'm playing is a tiefling ranger based off of this mini, and I think I'm gonna use this new revision.

Wow! That's definitely no Puck or Tumnus! If Lucy had met him in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, it would have been a whole different story!

 

[jodyjohnson]

Following Mike's tweets this is following the Playtest method of start overpowered and pull back.

Concentration pet lasting after PC unconsciousness is an artifact of earlier draft - i.e. they disappear on PC dropping.

Treat Primeval Awareness as Once per short rest for 5 minutes.

I expect Ambuscade will be toned down after all the ramifications of 'extra turn' are cataloged.