D&D 5E your tweaks to the Revised Ranger

[Greenstone.Walker]

My tweaks for the ranger going into ToA:
- remove "can't get lost except by magic"
- remove "find 2x food/drink"

The first two make it so having a ranger in the party is like having an "I win" button for the exploration pillar. Lame!

If you interpret bullet point one as "Can always find their way back to where they started" instead of "Can always navigate to any destination they want" then it becomes much less of an instant-win button. The party has the confidence of always being able to get out, but can still be challenged by not knowing where they are or how to get to their intended destination. On the other hand, there are plenty of other instant-win buttons for this sort of thing (scrying, familiars, shapechange).

 

[Blue]

I don't think it needs a house rule. Perhaps just a caveat: "You sense that there are a lot of them out there. Is there any particular direction you'd like to focus on?"

If the rule says "you get numbers and general direction and distance for all in five miles", then using the rule should get you all. Giving something different is sort fo the definition of a house rule.

Now, when I was playing it we did exactly as you said - I telegraphed what I was looking for and it worked just fine. "Any giants ahead of us?" "I'll be checking every 10 minutes or so during my watch, let me know if any groups of humanoids or giants move closer than they currently are." But that was how we changed it so it wasn't unreasonable on the DM.

"House rule" isn't a naughty word, it's just setting expectations so your interpretation and the players interpretation is the same. If you aren't planning on running it by-the-book, just let them know.

 

[Horwath]

Ranger in UA is a bit front loaded.

But imho, all that shenanigans could have been solved with expertise in few skills and not overcomplicating.


Skill proficiencies: ranger is proficient in Stealth,Nature, Perception, Survival.(multiclass ranger gets 2 of those proficiencies at 1st level). If you have proficiency in any skill from race/background/class take other ranger class skill.

1st level: Expertise, you gain expertise in two skills from Stealth, Nature, Perception, Survival list. At lvl6 you gain 2 more expertise.
That is all you need for natural explorer.

 

[clearstream]

I know the consensus is that the UA Revised Ranger is superior to the PHB Ranger - that's certainly the case for me.

However, there are a couple of tweaks I've been considering and was wondering, for those that are using it: are you using the Revised Ranger as-is or have you made any additional changes for your game?

Revised Ranger is (and I will use the technical term) stupidly front-loaded: an imba MC dip.

I'm using core Ranger with the following adjustments (these amend or add to existing wording, so need to be read with the PHB)

Favoured Enemy (choose two, ignore some resistances)
Amend—Choose two types of favoured enemy: aberrations, beasts, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, giants, humanoids, monstrosities, oozes, plants or undead. Each time you choose humanoids, choose two races (such as elf and orc). Gain one language from among those your favoured enemies speak. At 6th and 14th level, choose two more types of favoured enemy and gain one more language from among those your favoured enemies speak.
Add—Your weapon attacks against favoured enemies ignore resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing.

Natural Explorer (choose two, advantage against slower enemies, at 3rd advantage on initiative)
Amend—Choose two types of favoured terrain: aquatic, arctic, coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp or subterranean. At 6th and 10th level, choose two additional favoured terrain types.
Add—In favoured terrain, on your first turn during combat you have advantage on attack rolls against creatures that have not yet acted. At 3rd level, in favoured terrain you have advantage on initiative rolls.

Primeval Awareness (no slot cost, senses favoured enemies)
Amend—By spending 1 uninterrupted minute in concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), you can sense whether any of your favoured enemies are present within 5 miles of you. This feature reveals which of your favoured enemies are present, their numbers and general direction and distance (in miles) from you. If there are multiple groups of your favoured enemies within range, you learn this information for each group.

Foe Slayer (may impose condition on target)
Add—When you modify a damage roll this way, you may have your target make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. If it fails and is a creature that can be blinded, deafened, frightened, incapacitated or prone, inflict one such condition upon it. That condition lasts until the end of your next turn. Once you use Foe Slayer this way, you cannot use it to inflict a condition on a creature again until you finish a short or long rest.

 

[Blue]

Favored Enemy:
- Require a choice of 2 races of humanoids instead of all humanoids.
- Add one additional level of favored enemy that allows the player to select one additional favored enemy. I'd probably keep the damage bonus at +4.

I'm in complete agreement about reducing humanoids to two races. But I would make a small other change in that case - also allow humanoid in the list for the Improved Favored Enemy (it's a different list). They scale well so should be included in the high level list as well.

Also, if you take it in both, then it really is all humanoids. For someone who wants to play the ultimate bounty hunter, at the opportunity cost of not having a second favored enemy.

 

[Nebulous]

My tweaks for the ranger going into ToA:
- remove "can't get lost except by magic"
- remove "find 2x food/drink"
- no multiclassing

The first two make it so having a ranger in the party is like having an "I win" button for the exploration pillar. Lame!

I agree that the new Primeval Awareness could be problematic but I'm just going to roll with it for now. The jungle is teeming with life (and unlife). Most of the time the answer he'll get will be "lots".

I hate those all or nothing abilities, it's one of those areas of 5e where they simplify it into stupidity. NEVER lost at 1st level as a neophtye ranger? Really? NEVER impeded by ANY kind of difficult terrain? I myself would probably only enforce the latter in their preferred terrain, like jungle or heavy forest,
but it would not pertain to running across ice, or wading waste deep through a swamp or bog.

Primeval Awareness is chock full of its own problems as well.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

If you interpret bullet point one as "Can always find their way back to where they started" instead of "Can always navigate to any destination they want" then it becomes much less of an instant-win button.

"Becoming lost" has a specific definition in the DMG, pp. 111-112. It means you travel in the wrong direction for 1d6 hours. Never becoming lost, then, just means that if you want to go west, you can be sure you're going west. Which is already one of the benefits of the Keen Mind feat, and hardly an unreasonable class feature for the freaking ranger, I don't think.

The party has the confidence of always being able to get out, but can still be challenged by not knowing where they are or how to get to their intended destination. On the other hand, there are plenty of other instant-win buttons for this sort of thing (scrying, familiars, shapechange).

Yeah. Also keep in mind that the Wanderer background does much the same thing without even a single class level investment.

 

[Ancalagon]

I think Outlander also has the never lost feature.

I think it was a good idea to widen the benefits from a natural terrain to all of them, but some of the powers are too broad and seem "always on" (ie even in the middle of a city). And as many said, it's ridiculously front loaded.

That being said though... there is a lot of good material in there. It's worth fixing.

 

[pukunui]

The Outlander's feature doesn't actually say you can't get lost. It just says you have a good memory for the general layout of terrain and can essentially navigate using landmarks and things. I'd say it's more useful in familiar territory, and the most useful in open terrain. It's hard to keep sight of landmarks and the general layout of terrain in your head when your in a jungle.