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.

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

"Rangers with Band-Aids" should be a Led Zeppelin cover band. ;)

Thing is, though, even without Aragorn, it wouldn't bother me. As I said above, there are any number of purely "mundane" abilities that only certain classes are trained in. Anyone can take the dash action, but only rogues can do it as a bonus action. Anyone can be proficient in a skill, but only a few classes get innate bonuses to chosen skills.

So I really don't have a problem with only rangers having this degree of proficiency with herbs and medicine. :)
 

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Minigiant

Legend
Supporter
The ranger is basically

"I punch orcs for a living, ogres live near my house, and i can help you survive an ambush from bugbears riding manticores."

In the old days, the ranger just OHKOed these things whereas all those monsters missed like crazy.

Now that every monster doesn't whiff 90% of the time anymore, rangers need bandaids at level 2!!!

"Bounded Accuracy sucks" Jimmy M, forest ranger.
 

Dausuul

Legend
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.
"Unaided calculation" is the Medicine skill. Poultices are the abacus. Healing spells are the calculator.

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.
What you're objecting to is inherent in the class system. You could raise the same objection to any class ability. How come barbarians, who spend just as much time in combat as fighters, don't have Second Wind? How come rangers, who spend just as much time ambushing enemies as rogues, don't have Sneak Attack? How come wizards, who spend just as much time manipulating magic as sorcerers, don't have metamagic?

The answer is that each class is a package of skills and talents, chosen to represent a particular "career path" for an adventurer. This list of career paths is not, and was never meant to be, comprehensive. A druid could learn to make poultices, but the typical druid doesn't, because healing spells are better. If you want to be the oddball druid who does know how to make poultices, you have two options:

1. Multiclass ranger for a couple levels.
2. Work with your DM to create a homebrew druid variant that gets poultices.
 
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I'm A Banana

Potassium-Rich
IThematically, "favoured soul" isn't really the same as a celestial bloodline, either; bloodlines are genetic, but the FS is supposed to get their powers from a sliver of a spark of divine fiat. (Then again, maybe I just don't like the, "everything's babies are sorcerers"-approach to fantasy genetics, Pathfinder.)

Part of what I really like about the FS as a sorcerer is just that - it helps clarify that sorcerers aren't about bloodlines in 5e, they are about magical origins.

"I have a draconic ancestor" is a magical origin.
"I am touched by wild magic" is a magical origin.
"I am the chosen of a god" is a magical origin.
("I have awakened the power of my mind" could also be a magical origin, psionics!)

Takes them a bit away from their "x-men" tendencies, but not far, and in a way that makes the class open to a lot more possible character types. Which is really great.
 

Plus, added to what KM just said... If a god decides "I'm gifting this guy with a divine spark and it's changing him down to the blood (or DNA, if you want to get modern about it)," are you going to tell him no? If so, I'd stay away from anything conductive. ;)
 

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.
"Unaided calculation" is the Medicine skill. Poultices are the abacus. Healing spells are the calculator.


What you're objecting to is inherent in the class system. You could raise the same objection to any class ability. How come barbarians, who spend just as much time in combat as fighters, don't have Second Wind? How come rangers, who spend just as much time ambushing enemies as rogues, don't have Sneak Attack? How come wizards, who spend just as much time manipulating magic as sorcerers, don't have metamagic?

The answer is that each class is a package of skills and talents, chosen to represent a particular "career path" for an adventurer. This list of career paths is not, and was never meant to be, comprehensive. A druid could learn to make poultices, but the typical druid doesn't, because healing spells are better. If you want to be the oddball druid who does know how to make poultices, you have two options:

1. Multiclass ranger for a couple levels.
2. Work with your DM to create a homebrew druid variant that gets poultices.
"Rangers with Band-Aids" should be a Led Zeppelin cover band. ;)

Thing is, though, even without Aragorn, it wouldn't bother me. As I said above, there are any number of purely "mundane" abilities that only certain classes are trained in. Anyone can take the dash action, but only rogues can do it as a bonus action. Anyone can be proficient in a skill, but only a few classes get innate bonuses to chosen skills.

So I really don't have a problem with only rangers having this degree of proficiency with herbs and medicine. :)
All of you sorta hit on the fact that this is a verisimilitude-breaker for me, which is definitely true. For me, "only ranger poultices work" is a bridge too far.
@'Sir Brennen' I had forgotten all about healer's kits! In practice I think those fit the bill, but they still have problems. Healing systems are tricky.

@Dausuul used the example of why some classes get sneak attack and others don't; that never concerned me because HP (and, by extension, damage) is an abstraction, and because backstab/sneak attack is a sacred cow. Sorcerers and wizards are magical and get magic from different places, so sure, why not have different powers? But with poultices, I imagine someone going into the woods and picking herbs and other junk for a poultice, and I just can't square that with other characters in the woods their whole lives, learning nature stuff, but never how to roll two herbs together.

@Mouseferatu I lol'd out loud out loud at your cover band joke. Rangers with Band-Aids--I'll play the cowbell, can you do vocals?

Part of what I really like about the FS as a sorcerer is just that - it helps clarify that sorcerers aren't about bloodlines in 5e, they are about magical origins.

"I have a draconic ancestor" is a magical origin.
"I am touched by wild magic" is a magical origin.
"I am the chosen of a god" is a magical origin.
("I have awakened the power of my mind" could also be a magical origin, psionics!)

Takes them a bit away from their "x-men" tendencies, but not far, and in a way that makes the class open to a lot more possible character types. Which is really great.
Good call. I think that's a more versatile approach anyway.
 
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Minigiant

Legend
Supporter
Ranger poultices are probably hard to make and require special training only an nonspellcaster ranger would bother with. It's not just snagging a leaf and rubbing it on a cut. You're healing 1d6* 50% ranger level and removing disease.

I imagine it is aspects of 4 proficiencies:

  • Proficiency in Nature to identify the herbs
  • Proficiency in artisans tools to extract the herbs.
  • Proficiency with herbalism to turn the herbs into poultice
  • Proficiency with Medicine to apply the poultice

A druid or outlander might be able to identify a plant put doesn't know how to turn the plant into medicine. Likewise a cleric or sage might not know how to identify the plants. Most Doctors don't make their own meds anymore. Most Pharmacists don't pick herbs anymore. Most Botanists don't do emergency first aid anymore. Magic classes would skip the years or learning and say "Screw that. Cure wounds!"

And we're just assuming that all a ranger's poultices he carries are general and not symptom specific.
 

Ahrimon

Bourbon and Dice
There's nothing saying that the rangers poultices are 100% mundane. The ranger is spell-less, not magical-less. It's easy enough to beleive that when the ranger makes a poultice it has a small amount of magic in it that allows things to work. If anyone else puts those herbs together it works as a band-aid but it doesn't do what the rangers does. The ranger has that little magical catalyst that makes everything work better when it comes to poultices.

That's how I'd look at it anyway.
 


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