Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6663096" data-attributes="member: 2067">Just some random ideas...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> The Ranger is a slayer of dangerous things in the wilderness. They are a protector of civilization, a canary in the coal-mine. They are "rangers" because they range far and wide across the wilderness, investigating the evil that happens, and then seeing that it is attended to. They have lore and knowledge that gives them an edge. If a Wizard knows what a Type VII Demon is because they saw one in a manual of monsters, and the Cleric knows what it is because of the legends of demons vs. gods, the Ranger knows what it is because she's seen them before. So Rangers know how to fight monsters from their own experience, or the direct experience of some other member of their organization. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> The different subclasses of Ranger might be different organizations, defined by what they are experts in. One is allied with the circles of druids and knows about beasts and animals and plants (these know some druid spells and get an animal companion). Another is perhaps allied with a town military and knows about the various humanoids in the area and their lairs (these are spell-less guerrillas with martial prowess and survival skills). A third knows the streets and back alleys of towns, and knows how to hunt the people that pose a danger within a city (these might know some divination spells, Int/Cha-based skills, and perhaps grab sneak attacks!). In each example, the ranger is the character operating alone at the fringes, the survivalist, the scout, the private eye - the organization is mostly for the purposes of recruitment and knowledge-sharing. Note that "wilderness" here includes urban wilderness and dungeons as well as actual wilds - the point is that they are at home in places where others fear to tread.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Mechanically, this might mean that all rangers have a mechanic that lets them learn something about an enemy, and that they have an edge when they know a thing. Their "favored enemy" (which a subclass might define) is simply an enemy they know better than others. For instance, all rangers might be able to get a "defensive edge" on a monster - maybe, after getting hit with an attack, the ranger gains an AC bonus against that particular monster. If that monster is also a Favored Enemy, the AC bonus turns into a bonus action to negate an attack roll. Thus your "ranger learning" is a category of thing (in addition to "defensive edge", there might be something like, miss an enemy -> gain a bonus to hit; hit an enemy -> gain a bonus to damage; enemy makes you make a save -> gain a bonus to saves), and, if the creature you apply that against is also a favored enemy, it turns it into something more. Favored enemy is broadly determined by subclass: a Druidic Ranger can apply it against beasts; a Hoardbreaker Ranger can apply it against humanoids; an Investigator Ranger applies it against humanoids of the same type as themselves, etc.</li> </ul>I dunno, just some random ideas.</blockquote>

Verification