D&D (2024) What grade do you give the Winter Walker? Green/Yellow/Red?

[mellored]

I continue to be flabbergasted that this subclass gets a rider to Hunter's Mark but none of the PHB subclasses do.

Hunter 11 and Beastmaster 11 both get extra hunters mark stuff.

Not as much as winter walker.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think it’s as good as we’re gonna get with the 2024 ranger.

 

[Minigiant]

I continue to be flabbergasted that this subclass gets a rider to Hunter's Mark but none of the PHB subclasses do. I mean, that's the obvious design space they were creating, similar to how the Rogue's subclass modifies Cunning Strike. .

They likely thought of focusing on it after the PHB playtesting ended.

It's clear that the T3 ranger is

1. Buff Hunter's Mark
2. Let Rangers cast a specific 3rd or 4th level concentration spell without concentration so they can cast that specific spell with Hunter's Mark up.
3. Do 1&2 by integrating a spell into Hunter's Mark.
4. Focus the class around your 3rd level subclass feature and buff that.