Acr0ssTh3P0nd
First Post
I've always been a proponent of an alternate non-magic/low-magic ranger, especially as a huge LotR and Drizzt fan - not only do I love all the other features of the ranger and enjoy the idea of a gritty wilderness badarse, but I find it frustrating that one cannot play Aragorn as the class that he directly inspired without either using magic spells - which Aragorn certainly never does - or simply not using the magic and being far less powerful.
So, I had this idea after reading the UA Revised Ranger. See, as important as the idea of a non/low-magic ranger is to me and many of my friends, it's vital that we recognise that a lot of people genuinely like magic rangers in D&D. It's a huge part of the identity of the class when it comes to its place in the D&D game, and a non-magic ranger - whether that be an altered ranger class or a fighter subclass - should thus (a) not be done at the expense of magic rangers and (b) require as little new material as possible.
And the UA Revised Ranger offers a great opportunity to do this. Unlike the core ranger class, none of the class or subclass features rely on the Spellcasting feature in any way. This makes the Spellcasting feature incredibly modular, to the point where replacing it with other features would barely affect any other parts of the class. The exception here is the Deep Magic subclass's Bonus Spells, and since the Deep Stalker's identity relies on extra magic on top of the normal ranger, it is easy to accept it as a low-magic option rather than a no-magic option.
I created Wild Souls to test this idea. At 2nd level, instead of just getting the Spellcasting feature, a ranger instead chooses a Wild Soul, as a kind of secondary subclass. The Spellstrider Soul grants spellcasting as normal - functionally making it completely unchanged - while the World Warrior Soul forfeits the powerful, situational boosts of magic and instead gains five-odd features that are somewhat-less powerful overall but are less situational and either do not use resources, or do not share resources between them.
You can get it for free off the DM's Guild, or follow the Google Drive link if you are skeptical and just want to take a look.
Wild Souls on the DM's Guild
Wild Souls on Google Drive
So, I had this idea after reading the UA Revised Ranger. See, as important as the idea of a non/low-magic ranger is to me and many of my friends, it's vital that we recognise that a lot of people genuinely like magic rangers in D&D. It's a huge part of the identity of the class when it comes to its place in the D&D game, and a non-magic ranger - whether that be an altered ranger class or a fighter subclass - should thus (a) not be done at the expense of magic rangers and (b) require as little new material as possible.
And the UA Revised Ranger offers a great opportunity to do this. Unlike the core ranger class, none of the class or subclass features rely on the Spellcasting feature in any way. This makes the Spellcasting feature incredibly modular, to the point where replacing it with other features would barely affect any other parts of the class. The exception here is the Deep Magic subclass's Bonus Spells, and since the Deep Stalker's identity relies on extra magic on top of the normal ranger, it is easy to accept it as a low-magic option rather than a no-magic option.
I created Wild Souls to test this idea. At 2nd level, instead of just getting the Spellcasting feature, a ranger instead chooses a Wild Soul, as a kind of secondary subclass. The Spellstrider Soul grants spellcasting as normal - functionally making it completely unchanged - while the World Warrior Soul forfeits the powerful, situational boosts of magic and instead gains five-odd features that are somewhat-less powerful overall but are less situational and either do not use resources, or do not share resources between them.
You can get it for free off the DM's Guild, or follow the Google Drive link if you are skeptical and just want to take a look.
Wild Souls on the DM's Guild
Wild Souls on Google Drive
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