What's a Monte Ranger?

[jester47]

Thanks for the clarification MerricB, but I really do understand that. Still, I guess what is causeingme to go on this crusade, becsides the fact that I have nothing better to do, is the language at the beginning of the document that states:

"While I did not change the way favored enemies work in this version, I did add more skill points, bonus feats, better saves, and a slightly more generous spell progression and spell list. There are even som new ranger-specific feats and spells.

By this point, I decided that I had gone too far, to scale him back a bit, he uses d8s for hit dice rather than d10s- a bit of a throwback to the old ranger of first edition."

He says nothing about the virtual feats. Granted they are not in the document. And I would agree that people should house rule it that the virtuals are not there. Still, it makes me wonder simply because he is talking about these changes explicitly and neglects to mention the change about the virtual feats which I think he intended to do. That is my beef.

Aaron.

 

[MerricB]

Did you try asking on Monte's message boards?

Cheers!

 

[jester47]

yeah, I have the "two board posting" feat. I can even do it in heavy armor.

Aaron.

 

[MerricB]

Only two boards? I can post on... err... this one, dragonsfoot, 3ebb, piedpiper, monte's, ng - that's six. No armour though. And I make no guarantees as for content.

I understand exactly where you're coming from, Aaron. It doesn't bother me about Monte's Ranger, but there are other rules...

Cheers!

 

[mmadsen]

I'd actualy make that +2 bonus apply to Wilderness Lore, Hide, and Move Silently too, myself.

I'm thinking +2 competence bonus to Hide, Intuit Direction, Move Silently, and Wilderness Lore in the favored terrain. It's not unusual for a Feat to provide +2 to two (debatably) related skills. Giving +2 to four related skills in a limited environment doesn't sound too bad, does it? Besides, one of the skills is Intuit Direction; it hardly counts.

 

[Hakkenshi]

So, based on Tsyr's and mmadsen's comments, what do you guys think of the Favoured Terrain feat as I wrote it before? To recap, there are two options:

1) When in light armour or unarmoured and fighting in the favoured terrain, you get half your Dex bonus on every attack roll (this is based on the WoT woodsman); or

2) When in light armour or unarmoured and fighting in the favoured terrain, you gain bonuses as though you had 1/4 cover (+2 AC, +1 Reflex saves).

BOTH options also include a +2 competence bonus to Hide, Intuit Direction, Move Silently and Wilderness Lore while in the favoured terrain.

So which would you choose, then?

 

[Crothian]

I vote for number 2.

 

[Psion]

The Rokugani ranger variant is interesting; instead of spells, they get bonus Fighter feats (except for Weapon Specialization) whenever they would gain a new spell level. You could easily replace the Two Weapon and Imp Two Weapon feats with other bonus feats from that list as well.

Congratulations, you have just described my ranger.

I think people who think the PHB ranger is weak are off their rockers. But it is coceptually off, IMO. Letting you swap out the bonus feats for a limited list of other virtual feats lets you shed that unjustifiable two-weapon ability (if you keep it, I let you use double weapons with it, so you could make a staff-weilding ranger, which makes perfect sense to me.) Allowing you to swap the spell levels for feats lets you make a spell-less ranger if you want.

Monte's ranger, OTOH, is overpowered and too fighter like IMO.

If you muse have an alt.ranger, allow me to recommend the mercenary ranger in AEG's Mercenaries. Or my spin on the Rokugan ranger.

 

[Hakkenshi]

Out of curiosity, what's the Mercenary ranger like? Just basic idea, mind you, I'm not asking you to post the whole thing

Personally, if I'm to use an alternate Ranger, it has to ditch the Favoured Enemy ability, which I think is badly written and not very useful at all. The ranger has no advantage whatsoever against his chosen foe if it's nonsentient and immune to critical hits. Apparently he just likes to hit it, for some unexplained reason.

The idea of Favoured Terrain really appealed to me as soon as I read it in the WoT d20 book.

 

[Psion]

Out of curiosity, what's the Mercenary ranger like?

AEG's Mercenary ranger has favored enemy and favored terrain abilities. It doesn't start out with virtual feats and doesn't get spellcasting abilities automatically.

However, it does get "ranger options" and bonus feats as it gains levels. The options can give you spellcasting or other abilities. You can make something a bit like an un-frontloaded core ranger if you pick the right options and feats, or you can go a different direction.

Personally, if I'm to use an alternate Ranger, it has to ditch the Favoured Enemy ability, which I think is badly written and not very useful at all. The ranger has no advantage whatsoever against his chosen foe if it's nonsentient and immune to critical hits.

1) See MotW's "defensive" variant. That should solve the "immune to crits" problem.
2) The problem I see with Favored enemy is that it is inflexible. I don't like the idea that the first enemy is always going to be the worst one. I prefer the idea that a ranger can take "orcs" at first level and move on to bigger targets as he advances.

So what I do instead (borrowed from alt rangers posted here) is:

- you get a +1 "favored enemy bonus" every odd level, and a +1 to EACH favored enemy at 20th level.
- you distribute these between all of your favored enemies as you please, but no single enemy can have a bonus over your ranger level / 3 (round up_
- works as the PHB or the MotW defense bonus (player choice)