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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[Minigiant]

This all looks like stuff that was cutt from the DMG. Good to see it appear.

Seems like a lot of the limitations were placed to halt some of our sneak overpowered ideas. They couldn't possible think of every so they nerfed everything.

"Favored Enemy was intentionally designed to provide no combat bonus, because the ranger’s strength in combat should not rely solely on the discretion of the Dungeon Master or the circumstances of the adventure. Although the Hunter archetype’s 3rd-level ability does rely somewhat on the nature of the foes being fought, Favored Enemy is generally useful in the interaction and exploration pillars of the game."

Thank you.
THANK YOU.
Now I don't have to explain it ever again.

 

[Patrick McGill]

Good stuff in this one. I love the new take on the favored soul. The spell-less ranger is also excellent.

I do have a quibble with the ranger's "Herbal Poultices" ability, which is the limit that you can only carry a number of poultices equal to your Wisdom mod. What, do they reach critical mass and explode if you carry too many? Do we need a poultice miscibility table to resolve what happens? If there are two rangers in a party, and one is slain, can the second one pick up the first one's poultices, or will that also trigger explosions? This is a good example of a limit meant to serve a game purpose (prevent rangers from loading up on poultices) without enough thought given to how it affects the fictional world.

I would write it a bit differently:

As you travel, you keep an eye out for healing herbs. Each day you spend in a wilderness or rural area, you find enough herbs to create a number of poultices equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1). These herbs, and any poultices made from them, lose their potency 24 hours after being harvested.

Accomplishes the same goal, but makes a lot more sense in terms of the fiction.

I really like that angle, and will be stealing it forthwith.

 

[Dausuul]

Using this article, I can easily see how to create the Dark Sun bards. Remove spellcasting, add in sneak attack and assassination, maybe some utilities that have to do with poisons, and BAM!!

What's the difference between that and the assassin rogue?

 

[MoonSong]

I wonder if this should be merged with the other thread. they seem redundant.

 

[pukunui]

This really feels like content tha didn't make it into the DMG for space reasons. Like the examples of the eladrin and assimar, this feels like two extra class options they wanted to included in the build-your-own section.

Correct.

And a spontaneous divine caster is a common idea, but folding the favoured soul into the sorcerer is inspired.

I dunno. The basic concept is sound; however, 3e's favored souls couldn't cast fireballs and the like. I wonder if it would've made more sense to have them swap out the sorcerer's spell list for the cleric's instead of choosing a domain.

Also, with just a d6 hit die, what favored soul is going to want to wade into melee, medium armor or no? It would've been nice if they'd at least gotten the hit point boost that a dragon sorcerer gets.

I think rangers will miss the hunter's mark spell a lot, and giving that damage boost would have been nice. But I imagine the extra damage from superiority dice counts.

Yeah, that seems to be the idea.

 

[variant]

One thing this article didn't address is what they consider the warlock spellcasting to be valued at. Similar to a full caster's spellcasting?

 

[neobolts]

Calling the ranger example "Ranger with No Spells" is driving me crazy. Some primal part of me just finds it unsatisfying for no good reason. Call it "Battle Ranger", "Grounded Ranger", or "Traditionalist Ranger."

A name! Even if it's just a "what if" example, give it a proper name! LOL

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Not too shabby. I can't help feeling a little disappointed in the Favored Soul--perhaps I'm just holding it to too high a standard, but compared to a melee Warlock or (especially) a Paladin, it feels like a second-best combatant, and compared to either form of Bard it feels like a second-best caster. In other words, it comes across as "the new 3e Bard": the class that dabbles in everything and is thus good at nothing. I suppose I haven't been considering the metamagic stuff and ways that (for instance) Cleric domain spells could be creatively applied with that, mostly because the article glosses over the universal Sorcerer features. I do think it's kind of a copout to copy two different features from the Dragon Sorcerer, though I will accede that one of them was already part of what a Favored Soul got in 3.5e (the wings). I can agree on the HP issue--the Favored Soul appears pretty squishy, even with Medium armor. No other class that "expects" to go toe-to-toe with enemies has such a low hit die (and, in fact, only Wizards and Chaos Sorcerers currently have that small a die!)

The Spell-less Ranger seems like a good effort, but I would have preferred a custom (or at least partially custom) maneuver list. For example, a maneuver that replicates the Hunter's Mark, or whatever that spell is that lets you fire lots of arrows at once. Plenty of the maneuvers could be copied over as-is, but some would be nice to leave solely for the Battlemaster and it would be equally cool if the Ranger had some unique stuff all to itself. I also feel like the Spell-less Ranger loses a lot more "exploration" type stuff than it gains, and would've liked to see at least a little something to help take care of that, but I guess there are already a few features that apply (and the "once per short/long rest" change to Primeval Awareness certainly doesn't hurt.)

 

[famousringo]

One thing this article didn't address is what they consider the warlock spellcasting to be valued at. Similar to a full caster's spellcasting?

They gets spells ranging from cantrip to 9th level. They're full casters.

The big difference is that where other full casters have a smooth spell power curve across their slots, Warlock output peaks higher at cantrip and 5th level and dips lower elsewhere.

 

[MoonSong]

Calling the ranger example "Ranger with No Spells" is driving me crazy. Some primal part of me just finds it unsatisfying for no good reason. Call it "Battle Ranger", "Grounded Ranger", or "Traditionalist Ranger."

A name! Even if it's just a "what if" example, give it a proper name! LOL

I was goign to call my version "The martial ranger"