D&D 5E What will the final revised Ranger look like

[OB1]

This in itself is impossible, as aside from usability issues (no way to revive the pet easily) one of the big complaints was just that it was a weak class overall. Anything to address this by nature requires the prior iteration to be left in the dust as far as effectiveness goes.

The complaint about power was found to be an illusion. The main problem with the class was feel. As you mention, no way to revive the pet easily. That's correct, in the old version, you had to get a new pet, which takes about the same amount of time as reviving an old pet in the new version, so there is no difference in power, only difference in feel and meeting expectation.

Now, because of the increased power of Natural Explorer, they were able to limit the list of beasts that you have access to, so that you end up with a pet that is made and meant only as a combat helper to the point that the new Ranger looses their personal second attack (and therefor a second use of sharpshooter), whereas in the PHB version, the pet was designed to give additional exploration pilar utility with some combat effectiveness at higher levels. This utility allowed me to use hawks in the forest or spiders in the under dark to scout ahead, find enemies, and set up ambushes for them, giving my party surprise rounds in many a combat, often gaining advantage on top of it where I would unleash a couple of Sharpshooter long bow attacks from a safe distance. I play my Ranger as an Army Ranger with his own personal drone.

But this added utility in the UA Ranger is so good that it also renders half of the Rangers spell list obsolete, with will allow the UA Ranger to focus on picking and casting combat spells that allow the ranger to nova in combat. And this I think is where we get into a fine line discussion about whether that added combat power is about making the Ranger "feel" right, or just catering to "low power" complaints. I can see the argument that this is how the ranger should work, that exploration pillar abilities should be built in with defined, rule based outcomes, leaving spells to primarily increase combat effectiveness.

With that said, I think there is an opportunity for WotC to fix the feel of the Ranger (their stated goal, and the supposed goal of most of the Ranger complaint threads) without giving it a power boost that makes the old Ranger obsolete or the new Ranger the new class power leader.

 

[Dualazi]

The complaint about power was found to be an illusion. The main problem with the class was feel. As you mention, no way to revive the pet easily. That's correct, in the old version, you had to get a new pet, which takes about the same amount of time as reviving an old pet in the new version, so there is no difference in power, only difference in feel and meeting expectation.

You happen to have a link to the post(s) that did the number crunching on the old ranger? I'd be interested in reading it/them.

 

[steeldragons]

A musclebound wilderness warrior of remarkable agility; astride a purple spotted lion animal companion mount with hit points, attack, damage, and save bonuses to match the ranger's own, and four attacks that bypass non-magical weapon resistance per round; with a double-bladed scimitar in one hand and self-reloading crossbow in the other; naming a new/different species of "Hunter's Preferred Enemy Quarry Marked Prey" any/each round they want, which doubles their proficiency and grants advantage on attack rolls or knowing any information about/against them; flanked on one side by a telepathic falcon familiar -through whose eyes they can see or cast spells, as a bonus action-, and a spirit guardian treant -that grants the ranger an additional AC and damage bonus against giants- on the other; doubles all damage against humanoids or beasts of ANY kind -draconic, demonic, celestial, magical, monstrous, or just plain normal sorts- with an any flavor of evil alignment; speaks 11 languages -including sylvan, dragon, universal elemental, and demon; gains level + proficiency to all Perception, Insight, Survival, Stealth, Nature, Arcane, Religion, History and Planar Lore (modern and ancient, naturally), and doubles proficiency with advantage [of course] if any roll involves Tracking a "Hunter's Preferred Enemy Quarry Marked Prey" [see above]; with full caster progression with access to Druidic and -so as not to be overpowered- Sorcerer [instead of wizard] spell lists.

That's what the final Ranger class will look like.

 

[cmad1977]

Judging by the threads I've seen I'd say that the ranger is going to look disappointing.


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[TheCosmicKid]

I'll keep the original ranger for now but I will apply some of the beast master's change except it will start at third level and use the common pattern we all know.

Um... the new ranger's subclasses do start at third level and use the common pattern we all know. That was deliberate.

 

[OB1]

You happen to have a link to the post(s) that did the number crunching on the old ranger? I'd be interested in reading it/them.

Alas, I believe they are a casualty of the great server crash. To be fair, most crunching did find the Hunter slightly behind a Champion or Battlemaster fighter and the Beast Master slightly behind the Hunter, though in some calculations the Beast Master moves ahead of Hunter after level 11.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The final Ranger will have issues for 90% of the playerbase. Only 1 out of every 10 players will find nothing wrong with the new build and be very happy-- the other 9 will find one or more abilities or features they don't agree with and which will make them disappointed or actively upset.

 

[CapnZapp]

Alas, I believe they are a casualty of the great server crash. To be fair, most crunching did find the Hunter slightly behind a Champion or Battlemaster fighter and the Beast Master slightly behind the Hunter, though in some calculations the Beast Master moves ahead of Hunter after level 11.

I didn't see those calculations but suspect they don't account for the pet's great vulnerability.

Remember, an animal companion adds exactly zero damage to the beastmaster's total when it is dead.

But never mind - with the forthcoming revision, the pet gets its own action, making the Beastmaster so much more fun to play that the damage output nearly doesn't matter!

 

[renevq]

I expect it to look pretty much like the UA version with the level 1 features spread out to levels 3 and/or 6 (if taken by itself the Ranger isn't more powerful than any other class, but was is so front-loade that it creates multiclassing issues). I loved the new Ranger and its mechanical versimilitude. Come feedback time however, besides spreading out the level 1 features I'm going to recommend Survival expertise at level 1 to replace whatever feature gets moved up (to keep it idiosyncratic) and add "domain" spells to the hunter and beast conclaves (few spells known is still an issue).

 

[Prakriti]

Whatever the final Ranger looks like, I predict that within 15 minutes of release, a thread will appear here declaring it broken and offering suggestions on how to fix it.

And the cycle will begin again...