I was thinking about what could make a ranger feel unique mechanically. Being a generally tough, high-damage combatant is covered by fighters, and the current ranger Hunter mechanics don't feel (to me) like they create a distinctive role in combat. If a ranger's "thing" is deeply understanding her foes and exploiting that (still hotly under debate), I had some ideas about mechanics to represent that.
This is still a bit of a skeleton, but the basic idea is to replace spellcasting and the fighting style with a Hunter's Quarry feature plus a healing feature (keeping all of the other class stuff like Favored Enemy), then rework the Archetypes including a spellcasting subclass.
Hunter's Quarry: At 2nd level, you learn to carefully observe your enemies, predict their attacks, and exploit their weaknesses. As a bonus action, you can designate a creature you can see as your quarry until the start of your next turn. Once on each of your turns when you make a weapon attack with a one-handed or ranged weapon, you can make an additional attack against your quarry with a different light or thrown weapon. When you are attacked by and can see your quarry, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll.
For the archetypes:
Hunter: At 3rd level, you learn a fighting style (Archery or Defense) and the attack granted by Hunter's Quarry deals an extra 1d6 damage. At 11th level, the extra 1d6 damage applies to all of your attacks against your quarry.
Beast Master: At 3rd level, you gain a companion in the same manner and with the same stats as per the PHB, except for how it attacks. When Hunter's Quarry would allow you to make an additional attack against your quarry, you may instead have your beast companion make an attack against your quarry. At 11th level, you may have your beast companion make two attacks or use its multiattack action.
Warden: Gain spellcasting with the same progression as an Eldritch Knight, but choose your spells from the druid spell list. Once on each of your turns when you cast a cantrip, you can make an attack against your quarry with a light or thrown weapon. You cannot make this attack and the attack granted by Hunter's Quarry on the same turn.
The healing feature could be similar to the poultices from the UA variant ranger or something like "Student of Anatomy" that e.g. lets someone spend a hit die when you use a healing kit on them (can't be affected again until after a rest).
So... what does that get you?
Rangers would be doing something that feels different from other combatants almost every round -- they'll be naming a quarry, making an extra attack, and possibly avoiding their quarry's attacks with a reaction. Damage is quite competitive, I believe, maybe even a bit too high, though there's no nova capability.
Hunters have a compelling reason to fight with two weapons or to use a combination of ranged and thrown weapons (e.g. longbow plus thrown daggers or darts). The latter is a bit unusual, but I think it differentiates them from a battlefield archer (fighter) by having them fight closer in and use different weapons as their quarry presents openings. They'd also be perfectly competent as regular archers without using the bonus attack.
Beast Masters work similarly to the PHB version, but your companion can attack using (effectively) a bonus action instead of one of your attacks, which I think is a pretty significant change that would make the beast feel more relevant.
Wardens would be new, and having access to cantrips would give an even more magical feel than the current ranger, I think. Not sure if it's the best idea, but it at least passes the test of a subclass that I'd find fun to play. The interaction of cantrips with quarry would also allow interesting setups like using Thorn Whip or Poison Spray plus a weapon attack.
Would something like this feel distinct from the fighter, rogue, and druid? Do you think it would be fun to play? Would it feel like a ranger to you?
