Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Modifying Classes & Spell-less Rangers

WotC's Rodney Thompson takes a look at how to customize and modify character classes in the latest Unearthed Arcana article, including an example of a spell-less ranger similar to Lord of the Rings' Strider (an often asked-for class option). There are aslo notes about each of the other classes, discussing what to be careful about changing.

The article is here.

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[doctorhook]

Aragorn.

Is that good reason?

Well... then your options are either to make up some options yourself, or because this article was specifically mentioned as a kind of "playtest" version... send Rodney an email going over your concerns and possible solutions so that if this is ever published officially, it will have received the same testing as the books themselves did.

Yeah, with the current release schedule, I've sorta resigned myself to making the options and features that I want. It's not a bad thing; in previous editions, I was unwilling to consider 3rd party or homebrew material, but now I do.

Hadn't considered forwarding my concerns to Rodney, but I will consider it now.

For the cleric, domains are the subclass, and their job is to make different religions distinct and play differently.

For the favoured soul, the domain spells are a magic boost to just one subclass, and a pretty huge one. Even if every domain spell comes from the sorcerer list, a favoured soul with almost twice as many spells known as the dragon sorcerer next to him is going to have pretty distinct capabilities.

Fair point. I'm feeling like a balance needs to be struck. How 'bout favoured soul works like sorcerer, but chooses from the cleric spell list? Actually, that kinda sounds just like the cleric.

Cleric and druids don't use poultices nor know how to make and maintain them because they don't need them as much, they have magic.

Merfolk don't create scuba gear, right.

What about anybody else who has the medicine skill but no spells? Why do rangers get special "rangers-only bandaids" that can only be created by them?

 

[Mouseferatu]

What about anybody else who has the medicine skill but no spells? Why do rangers get special "rangers-only bandaids" that can only be created by them?

Same reason only battlemasters (or, well, this ranger variant) get battle maneuvers, and only rogues get cunning action. Some classes are better at/have more training in certain specific non-magical abilities than others.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Samwise knew a lot about herbs, but only Aragorn could make the poultice that kept Frodo alive long enough to reach the elves.

 

[Warbringer]

Is that good reason?

It's the motivation and its a pretty standard archetype for the ranger in d&d.

In my old 2e d&d campaigns the rangers didn't follow this mould, but were specialists "hunters" with appropriate abilities to hunt mages, undead, giants/orcs/goblins and I think aberrations (can't remember). So in the context of 5e I'd throw a couple of different features than those posited for the "Tolkien" archetype

 

[MoonSong]

True, but if they get it for "free" from the domain, that allows them to pick something else from the Sorcerer list for their "regular" known spells.

Regarding the Favoured Soul, some people are claiming the additional spells known make it overpowered. I'm just wondering, does it really make the FS that much more powerful if the number of spells it can cast remains the same? Some additional flexibility is given, but it's not going to increase the character's damage output during any individual combat. I'm not saying it's not any better, but it's not that much better.

I'd say the damage output in fact is reduced, lacking CHA to damage or rerolling 1s in damage reduces it.

 

[Skyscraper]

That's it, the favored soul is THE SORCERER, this is how the class should have been from day 1.
.
The only thiing that bothers me, is the effort I made was wasted: I worked on a spelless ranger option that used superiority dice (they started at 1d4 and scaled over time to be d10s and in number went from 3 to 7)

I even worked some unique maneuvers (inspired by 4e exploits) that were available to the ranger to aid in exploration and combat (replace martial die for superiority die):

Adrenaline rush.- When you kill or incapacitate an enemy, you can expend a martial die to roll a hit die and heal that amount of hp as a free action. Add the martial die to the gained hp.

Aggressive sidestep.- Spend a Martial die, you can Dash as an Extra action.

Evasive Counter Attack. When an enemy makes a melee attack, you use your reaction and spend a Martial die to move 5' and make a weapon attack against that enemy. Roll the die and add the result to your attack roll.

Manyshot.- When you make a weapon ranged attack, you can expend a Martial die to shoot an extra arrow, bolt or bullet with the same attack. If you hit, roll the die and add it to the damage.

Mark Prey.- As an Extra action, spend a Martial die and mark an enemy. The next attack that hits it, causes extra damage equal to the Martial die result.

Opportune Interruption.- When an enemy attacks an ally of yours, you can expend your reaction and a Martial die to attack that enemy, if you hit, the enemy has disadvantage on that attack.

Shroud in shadows.- When you are hiding, spend a Martial die, roll it and add it to your Stealth.

Unexpected Slash.- You can spend a Martial die to make an attack with a melee weapon as an Extra action. If you hit, roll the die and use it for damage instead of the weapon damage die.

Twin slashing.- You need to hold two melee weapons. As an action, expend a Martial die to attack the same enemy with each weapon -make one attack roll per weapon- if both attacks hit, add the Martial die to damage.

Wild empathy.- You can spend a Martial die, roll it and add it to any Cha check you make when interacting with animals.


Well, at least the dragonrider variant is still kosher....

Cool idea to have specific manoeuvers for the ranger. I like most of the ones you developped, including adrenalie rush and agressive sidestep.

 

[IchneumonWasp]

I also don't think the Favored Soul is overpowered or really that much stronger than the standard dragon heritage sorcerer. It is more flexible, but not really stronger. Like others have mentioned, it trades raw (mostly range) damage output for a slightly bigger list of known spells (mostly buff and utility) and armor/weapon proficiencies to be a more effective (melee) combatant too.

It might look like the Favored Soul gets a lot more, but in actual play, I think it won't make that much of a difference. Not all domain spell are spells you would actually want to take or use and if you want to cast them, you lose the ability to cast a sorcerer spell instead.

 

[doctorhook]

Why would druids and clerics learn to make these? They have healing spells. If you have a calculator, you don't waste time learning to use an abacus.

That's one of the controversial topics in math education, as it turns out.

*EDIT: Not literally abacus-use; I mean aided vs unaided calculation.

True, but if they get it for "free" from the domain, that allows them to pick something else from the Sorcerer list for their "regular" known spells.

Regarding the Favoured Soul, some people are claiming the additional spells known make it overpowered. I'm just wondering, does it really make the FS that much more powerful if the number of spells it can cast remains the same? Some additional flexibility is given, but it's not going to increase the character's damage output during any individual combat. I'm not saying it's not any better, but it's not that much better.

Good assessment, on both counts.

To answer the second question, because the feature was clearly intended to replace the Ranger's few Healing spells. Second Wind allows restoring HP to the individual only, where the spells and poultices can be used on others. Also, natural remedies seem to fit the outdoor ranger theme better, which is one of the points of consideration in the main article.

That's understandable.

The more I think about this, the more I realize that my objection is to poultices being ranger-exclusive. I can't wrap my head around the idea that this mundane skill is totally restricted to members of a single class, even when their fellows (druids, barbarians, nature clerics) live and die in the same environments and under the same conditions.

I think I would be much happier if poultice-power came from a feat, and if no-spell rangers got it as a bonus feat. I'd probably have training in Medicine + either Nature or Survival as prerequisites. This is how I'll probably run it in my game.

Samwise knew a lot about herbs, but only Aragorn could make the poultice that kept Frodo alive long enough to reach the elves.

See I have to admit to never having finished LotR (blasphemy, I know) and not having recently seen the films. I hadn't realized rangers with band-aids was such a strong archetype, but the community here seems to get it.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I wanna have this article's babies.

That is all.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I think I would be much happier if poultice-power came from a feat, and if no-spell rangers got it as a bonus feat. I'd probably have training in Medicine + either Nature or Survival as prerequisites. This is how I'll probably run it in my game.

I hadn't realized rangers with band-aids was such a strong archetype, but the community here seems to get it.

There already is sort of a feat for that, though I don't remember the name (Healer?). It basically boosts the use of Healing Kits. I've always sort of assumed the Healing Kit would take different forms for different classes or even subclasses - i.e., if a ranger or druid took it, it's more of the natural herbs and moss bandages, where a cleric of healing it's more like a medieval medical doctor's black-bag.

But the idea of a nature warrior knowing how to find special plants, moss, bark, mud-packs, etc. is a trope that goes beyond just LotR. But at the same time, I see where one might reasonably expect the concept to extend to barbarians and druids. In a class-based system like D&D, you're always going to run into instances where the need for balance and some niche preservation is going to conflict with "realism" and verisimilitude.

In this case, I think the spell-less Ranger fills in the gap between druid and barbarian. Druids draw directly from the magic inherent to nature (no need to actually rip-up a living plant to heal someone), and barbarians are in touch with their primal instincts and animal nature, but aren't necessarily that knowledgeable about nature in general.

The no-spells Ranger is very knowledgeable about nature, but particularly about natural applications, especially since, by definition, they can't rely on magic for said application. Again, druids probably also know about these applications, but are reluctant to utilize natural resources this way.

Also note, it's not that mundane of a skill, since it's much better than even the Healer Kit feat. It's non-magical in nature, but the Ranger obviously knows how to make his "bandages" much more effective.