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]

Isn't the favored soul just better than the sorcerer then? It gets everything the sorcerer gets plus medium armor/shields, two attacks and 10 more spells. Or does it not get metamagic?

Draconic Resilience + Elementally Affinity or Tides or Chaos + Bend Luck are pretty powerful though.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Isn't the favored soul just better than the sorcerer then? It gets everything the sorcerer gets plus medium armor/shields, two attacks and 10 more spells. Or does it not get metamagic?

Yep - imo favored soul is a lot better than the two other sorcerer subclasses. I like the spell-less ranger better than the other ranger subclasses too!

 

[asorel]

Draconic Resilience + Elementally Affinity or Tides or Chaos + Bend Luck are pretty powerful though.

The Favored Soul receiving Medium armor offsets Draconnic Resilience to an extent--DR has the potential to be superior if you have a high DEX score, but most casters aren't going to invest heavily into it. The HP bump certainly isn't bad, but at the end of the day it's a maximum of a 20HP difference on a character that tries to stay away from the front lines as much as possible anyways. Elemental Affinity is pretty nice, especially coming online as early as it does. All in all, they aren't bad options, but they don't compete with 10 extra spells, medium armor and simple weapon proficiency, especially when those 10 extra spells nearly double the Sorcerer's spells known.

As for the Wild Mage, I don't think one extra use of Inspiration per day and a wannabe Bardic Inspiration are enough to compete with the options provided by either the Draconic or the Favored Soul bloodlines. In general, the Wild Mage seems like it has potential, but it's wasted by so much of the class being placed under the DM's purview.

 

[MoonSong]

This list overlooks the strengths of the sorcerer, such as their sorcerery points and metamagic, which are pretty potent.
(Ritual casting would also be wasted on the sorcerer. )
This does seem to be the failing of the class. A small boost to hitpoints wouldn't be a bad idea. An extra 1 hp each level would not be out of line.
They do provide the disclaimer than the Unearthed Arcana articles are untested.
I like that the favoured soul, the chosen of a god, is not just locked into the healing role, and even the chosen of other gods gets some neat spells.

But the metamagic is only as good as the spells you modify, and without the right spells it feels useless -from my point of view, remember I hate being forced to blast. All this subclass does is swap blaster features for utility spells and basic weapon proficiency.

Hmm looking at those domains...

Knowledge: some good divination spells like identify, augury, and legend lore. Good if you want some utility magic.
Life: yeah baby! Cure wounds, lesser restoration, revivify, and raise dead to replace your need for a cleric, plus bless for buffing.
Light: Pyromancers will love this. Save slots on fireball and wall of fire for other stuff now.
Nature: a few good druid spells. Spike growth and grasping vine makes good battlefield control.
Tempest: A few great thunder and lightning spells, which you can augment with spells like lightning bolt.
Trickery: lots of good utility magic, like charm and dispel magic for free.
War: this almost makes you want to go into melee. Shield of faith raises that AC, stoneskin will reduce that damage taken. Tack on a few more buffs for allies and you'll be real poplar.
Death: if allowed, animate dead is potent but few others match you normal should spells. Worst of the bunch.

Really, the hp issue is a feat away, and this gives the sorcerer more versatility then you can imagine. This almost allows them to replace a wizard or cleric, depending on the domain.

I believe it was genius to use the favored soul, it was a veiled way to add 8 subclasses by the price of 1. With this subclass the sorcerer finally feels on equal footing with the wizard.

Perhaps not, but is it in keeping with the theme? I would say no. The previous version of the favored soul did not get a whole bunch of arcane spells.

Plus, access to extra spells isn't going to make me want to get any closer to the enemy, whereas more hit points would.

I think what I would prefer is if, instead of getting extra spells, the favored soul instead swapped out the sorcerer's spell list for the cleric's and then got an extra hit point per level on top of that. That would make it more like the favored soul from 3e.

Lack of spells known -and variety- was the main complaint from players like me. HP? I can live with it, the d4 never stopped my sorcerers from gishing in 3e.

Isn't the favored soul just better than the sorcerer then? It gets everything the sorcerer gets plus medium armor/shields, two attacks and 10 more spells. Or does it not get metamagic?

It gets metamagic, what it doesn't get is blaster features that help for alpha striking with spells.

In short the favored soul answered the four things that bothered me with the sorcerer: Lack of simple weapons, lack of spells known, lack of spell variety, and being forced to choose between a monster or a timebomb, the favored soul is pretty normal in comparison.

 

[Bacon Bits]

One thing I noticed is that there doesn't appear to be any restriction on how often the Ranger does his poultice fetch. The restrictions are that it takes an hour, you can't get more than 1 per point of Wisdom modifier bonus (min 1), only you can apply them, and they're useless after 24 hours.

Technically, you could search, use all your poultices, then search, use them all again, etc. Granted, the ranger basically has to spend an entire short rest searching instead of resting himself, but it's an incredible amount of potential healing. A lever 8 Ranger with 14 Wis and access to herbs could heal 8d6 about every hour.

Combat maneuvers are nowhere near as good a hunter's mark, however. Honestly, though, I feel like that spell should have been a class feature like the Paladin's Divine Smite.

 

[CrusaderX]

I like the spell-less ranger better than the other ranger subclasses too!

The spell-less Ranger isn't a Ranger subclass though, is it? Can't you be a spell-less Ranger Beast Master?

 

[CrusaderX]

Combat maneuvers are nowhere near as good a hunter's mark, however. Honestly, though, I feel like that spell should have been a class feature like the Paladin's Divine Smite.

I agree. Since I first saw the 5e Ranger I've thought that a Hunter's Mark type ability for the Ranger that works like the Paladin's Smite would be a great fit for the class.

 

[ingeloak]

a couple of problems with the "spell-less Ranger": if you are going to replace spells with abilities, be careful to implement those abilities at the same times they would get them as a spell-casting variant. for example, the level 9 ability to enable a poultice to cure a poison effect is quite late, seeing as how a Ranger gets Lesser Restoration at level 3.

i would enable poultices to heal and cure poisons, etc. from the start. that has long been a staple ability of someone who knows Herbalism, which includes making salves and poultices for medicinal purposes. the level 9 ability should be something more powerful. perhaps a speed increase in forested terrain, or an ability to move nearly invisible and silent in the woods. you could use the 3rd level spell list for inspiration.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

The spell-less Ranger isn't a Ranger subclass though, is it? Can't you be a spell-less Ranger Beast Master?

That's correct. It's a "base class" rewrite, in that it doesn't (technically) touch any of the subclasses, it only rewrites the "chassis" upon which the subclasses sit.

I say "technically" there because, as the article notes, some of the Ranger subclass features depend on having spells (specifically the high-level Beastmaster one). They gave a recommended fix for that, so it's very clear that the "spell-less Ranger" is intended to take one of the subclasses in addition to the abilities that replace spells.

It's unfortunate that we don't have a nice, solid term for "the thing that subclasses slot into" that doesn't implicitly include the subclasses themselves.

 

[Gundan Shadeslinger]

Now I can work on my Aasimar Favoured Soul.