YAAR (yet another alternate ranger)

[Jake_Baker]

Aren't you sick of reading about alternate rangers yet? No? Ok, then, read on....

My intention in this ranger is to change what the ranger does to more closely match my conception of a man of the wilderness, skilled in tracking and hunting.

My alt ranger is the same as the PHB ranger in hit points, skill points, skill list, and BAB, save and spell progressions. The only difference is in special abilities, which are as follows:

* TWP/Ambi is dropped.

* Track is still gained at first level

* Favored Enemy is morphed into Favored Terrain, which adds +1 (or +2 on up, like the Favored Enemy progression) to Hide, Intuit Direction, Knowledge (nature), Listen, Move Silently, Spot and Wilderness Lore in the favored terrain. Additionally, the favored terrain movement penalty is either ameliorated for terrains with a +1 bonus, or entirely eliminated at higher bonus levels.

The first Favored Terrain is chosen at first level, and then again at fifth level and every five levels thereafter.

* Hunter's Mercy - once per day at second level, and an additional time per day every three levels thereafter, a ranger may make one ranged strike which, if it hits, automatically threatens a critical. If the attack misses, the usage per day is still lost.

(It seems to me that Hunter's Mercy is not singularly more powerful than a paladin's smite evil ability, and the additional uses per day compensate the ranger for having fewer abilities than a paladin.)

---

Ok, that's it, what do you think?

 

[hong]

* Hunter's Mercy - once per day at second level, and an additional time per day every three levels thereafter, a ranger may make one ranged strike which, if it hits, automatically threatens a critical. If the attack misses, the usage per day is still lost.

(It seems to me that Hunter's Mercy is not singularly more powerful than a paladin's smite evil ability, and the additional uses per day compensate the ranger for having fewer abilities than a paladin.)

Um. Smite evil adds the pal's level to damage, which essentially means it maxes out at +20. An auto-crit with a bow multiplies all damage by 3, which at high levels can mean +30 or more. Add levels of deepwood sniper (crit multiplier up to x5), and it just gets worse. That's not even counting how smite only works with melee weapons, so the pal has to expose herself to return attacks.

Notice how the Power Critical feat in MotW is limited to 1/day, melee attacks only, and can only be gained at 12th level minimum.

 

[Frostmarrow]

In my latest alt.ranger I use Hunter's mercy too only I call it Marksmanship and it you don't have to activate it until you know you've hit something! I don't think there is a huge problem with combining this with the Deepwood Sniper. I've seen more devasting destruction cause by a guy a spiked chain

I love these repeated ranger-threads. If I was working at WotC I'd proclaim an Alt. Ranger Competition and promise to publish the best one. I mean they would get more proposals to this competition that they got to that campaign setting thingy!

This is my latest ranger; I call it the nimrod and I think it's pretty neat. Read on.

NIMROD

Alignment: Any.

Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills: The nimrod’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Animal Empathy (Cha, exclusive skill), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intuit Direction (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumbling (Dex), Use Rope (Dex), and Wilderness Lore (Wis).

The nimrod receives 16 skill-points at 1st level and 4 skill-points at each level there after.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A nimrod is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light armor, medium armor, and shields.

TABLE: The Nimrod
Base Ranged Weapon Fort Ref Will
Level Attack Bonus Attack Bonus Save Save Save Special
----- ------------ -------------- ---- ---- ---- -------
1 +0 +1 +2 +2 +0 Track, Archery I, Marksmanship I
2 +1 +2 +3 +3 +0 Archery II
3 +2 +3 +3 +3 +1
4 +3 +4 +4 +4 +1 Archery III
5 +3 +5 +4 +4 +1 Marksmanship II
6 +4 +6/+1 +5 +5 +2 Archery IV
7 +5 +7/+2 +5 +5 +2 Animal Call
8 +6/+1 +8/+3 +6 +6 +2
9 +6/+1 +9/+4 +6 +6 +3 Marksmanship III
10 +7/+2 +10/+5 +7 +7 +3
11 +8/+3 +11/+6/+1 +7 +7 +3 Sleep with one eye open
12 +9/+4 +12/+7/+2 +8 +8 +4
13 +9/+4 +13/+8/+3 +8 +8 +4 Marksmanship IV
14 +10/+5 +14/+9/+4 +9 +9 +4
15 +11/+6/+1 +15/+10/+5 +9 +9 +5 Wyld Call
16 +12/+7/+2 +16/+11/+6/+1 +10 +10 +5
17 +12/+7/+2 +17/+12/+7/+2 +10 +10 +5 Marksmanship V
18 +13/+8/+3 +18/+13/+8/+4 +11 +11 +6
19 +14/+9/+4 +19/+14/+9/+5 +11 +11 +6 Low-light vision
20 +15/+10/+5 +20/+15/+10/+6 +12 +12 +6

Track: A nimrod gains Track as a bonus feat at first level.
Archery: The nimrod may pick one of the following feats for free: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Far Shot, Rapid Shot or any other feat with shot in the name for which the ranger qualifies. (DM’s discretion).

Marksmanship: The nimrod may treat any ranged weapon hit as a critical threat 1-5 times per day.

Sleep with one eye open: The nimrod is alert even when sleeping. The nimrod gains a +2 competence bonus to any listen checks while asleep.

Animal Call: The nimrod can call upon an animal once per day to come to the nimrod. The animal arrives after a few (1d6) minutes and is considered unfriendly. It approaches whithin 90'. If no animal of the type exist in the nimrod's current surroundings no animal show up.

Wyld Call: As Animal Call but an entire company, pack, school or similar organization of the animal's type show up.

Low-light vision: The nimrod can see twice as far in starlight, moonlight, torchlight or similar conditions of poor illumination. The nimrod retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

 

[Jake_Baker]

Thanks for the thoughts, hong. I hadn't considered the higher critical multiplier.

Would you still consider it unbalanced if I changed the wording to require a full-attack action to use Hunter's Mercy? That is, trade all of your actions for the turn in for one Hunter's Mercy ranged strike. I think that would be balanced. Do you trade your five normal shots in for one good one? Hmm...

Frostmorrow: Nah, I don't think everyone has an alternate ranger. Now, a "design a new core class" competition might draw a lot of entries.

And... yeesh... your ranger is way more powerful than mine!

 

[Capellan]

Would you still consider it unbalanced if I changed the wording to require a full-attack action to use Hunter's Mercy?

That would be a good way to reduce the power level, I think.

Another might be to say that the ability can only be used in situations where the target would be denied their Dex bonus, which would emphasise the stalker/hunter aspect of the Ranger. Only problem is that it might be a bit too much like Sneak Attack.

 

[hong]

In my latest alt.ranger I use Hunter's mercy too only I call it Marksmanship and it you don't have to activate it until you know you've hit something! I don't think there is a huge problem with combining this with the Deepwood Sniper. I've seen more devasting destruction cause by a guy a spiked chain

Hm. We have a 15th level master of chains in our party, and if anything, I think the player's getting bored at not being able to kick as much butt as he'd like. He gets 6 attacks per round (spiked chain of speed, Improved TWF) but each individual hit doesn't do that much damage. Plus if he does get close enough to unleash a full attack, that means the monster can do a full attack on him next round, which is generally not good when facing CR 15 monsters. So he tends to use Spring Attack to get in a couple of hits, and then move out of range. Contrast this to my 13th level archer, who can spend each round safe behind the lines and get off full attacks on monsters while not getting attacked in return.

Melee characters get teh shaft in high-level D&D, I reckon.

This is my latest ranger; I call it the nimrod and I think it's pretty neat. Read on.

NIMROD

Um, sorry. I am now thinking of the line from _Pulp Fiction_: "Jules, if you give this nimrod fifteen hundred bucks, I'm gonna shoot him on general principle".

 

[Frostmarrow]

My point is that many classes can be exploited by a clever powergamer to dish out some serious damage. It still won't affect the game too much. I mean what is so bad with a 5d8 arrow attack when the 7d6 sneak attack, Harm spell, or worse already exists in the game? What's the difference from being able to do 2d8 damage once per day from a far when the rogue can deal 2d6 on every sneak attack?

The Nimrod was balanced with the core classes through the use of some class-calc engine. Then I added the animal call, wyld call, sleep with one eye open and low-light vision just for flavor since they are rather pointless abilities. They are sort of like the druids ability to travel through briars and thorns, imho. Hong, weren't you in that thread too?

Now, let's look at your ranger, Jake. I think it looks pretty good. I'ts certainly better than the PHB one. But there is one thing I don't fancy with it. Allow me to explain: In fiction the man from the wilderness always possess a range of strange skills and knowledge which amazes the city folks. The savage becomes a curiosity. However, as the story progresses the savage always manage to prove to the city folks why his skills are just as usable in a civilized setting as they are in the wild. There are countless examples; Crocodile Dundee and Tarzan to name just a couple. This is why I don't like the favored terrain ability (or that enemy nonsense for that matter). I don't think it should matter for a man of the wild where he is. I mean in my mind, a ranger is the best survivalist out there regardless if he is in the outback or on the streets of New York. In the jungle or in London.

 

[Relic]

Here is my alt.ranger, more a woodsman/Davy Crockett-type of class: http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27922

I tried to do something similar like Hunter's Mercy in my version. Your version of Hunter's Mercy is not bad... It definitely works with your version nicely.