D&D 5E your tweaks to the Revised Ranger

[GlassJaw]

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?

 

[thethain]

I think he is a bit front loaded.

Advantage on Initiative
+2 damage vs humans
+1 language
Adv Tracking humans / recalling info about
Ignore difficult terrain! (all difficult terrain, this is silly)
Favored terrain bonuses at all times.

All of this for a 1 level dip is almost irresistible for a rogue or even a fighter.

If you take a second level you get a fighting style, a spellcaster level (including hunter's mark).

 

[Blue]

I played a revised ranger up to 11th in a rather highly optimized Storm King's Thuinder campaign. I like it, but it's got some things that I think need to be looked at as too good.

1. It's not been balanced against multiclassing at all. (A known point - Mearls said that happens in a later pass, after feedback from UA surveys to see what to keep.) Natural Explorer gives out really, really nice abilities for 1st level, and they are even nicer to cherry pick. The Beast conclave is based around proficiency, which means that even if you multiclass out it still advances and you lose very little. (Also to note that you can get you "beast extra attack" with Coordinated Attack at 5th, and then get an actual extra attack at 5th from some other class.

2. I mentioned Natural Explorer and front-loading - the first set of bullet points should be scattered around 3rd & 5th levels instead.

3. Both I took, and every other UA Revised Ranger I've heard about, took Humanoid as first favored enemy. That suggests that grouping is a lot more prevalent and/or dangerous than the others, and also likely keeps being useful at all levels better with level.

4. Primeval Awareness is not too powerful, but can be hard on some DMs. Say you look for all undead within 5 miles. DM knows there's at least one dungeon as well as a ruined temple that she hasn't detailed yet. Do they have undead? Hmm, don't know. Or with Humanoids: "How many humanoids are in that building?" We found it useful just to telegraph what we were looking for: "Do I get a read on any giants ahead of us."

It wasn't egregious, but it was definitely a notch above the PHB classes in general power at the lower levels.

 

[GlassJaw]

100% agree on the front-loadedness.

My initial thoughts:

Natural Explorer:
- Require a choice of terrain like the PHB Ranger, perhaps with 2 at 1st level. Grant at least 2 additional terrains at higher levels.
- Grant double proficiency on Int and Wis checks like PHB Ranger.
- Advantage on initiative in a selected terrain only, possibly even lowering to a +2 bonus. Or even better, make this a separate ability and start the bonus at +1, increasing to +3 at higher levels.

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.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

I'm playing a Deep Stalker Ranger in an OotA game. Currently we are 7th level.

My thoughts:

Immunity to difficult terrain is really, really powerful. We've changed it to immunity to naturally-occurring difficult terrain. The ranger can move normally across swamps and ice and rockfalls, but gets slowed by hunger of hadar.

The awareness one is pretty much unworkable, placing a massive demand on the GM. Hey, I use primeval awareness in the centre of Neverwinter. On the other hand, in the convoluted spaghetti map of the Underdark, knowing that there are humanoids 400 yards away doesn't really help much.

Darkvision is an interesting social feature in the Underdark. Wait, you're a human, how the heck are you seeing in the dark??? In a party of half-elves, my human character stands out. If you play one of these, get goggles of night. Darvision 150ft FTW!

The front-loaded combat utilities are great when you get the drop on the enemy (three attacks at advantage with hunter's mark damage, oh yeah!). When you don't get the drop, not so much. It is an interesting contrast between the paladin, who gets to choose when to nova, and the ranger, whose nova is determined by initiative dice.

 

[pukunui]

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".

 

[nswanson27]

I think the designers need to release a 2.0 revision of what they are currently thinking. As has been mentioned, it's not been balanced for multiclassing, and until that is addressed I think the design tweaks of what we currently have released will be moot, by and large.

 

[Blue]

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".

Unfortunately, if you go with the existing Primeval Awareness, the answer will NEVER be "lots". It will be enumerated counts including general direction and distance.

A hobgoblin village with an ambush force on a road and three hunting parties out might be:

"18 humanoids to the NE about a mile away, another 50 or so in about a 10 degree arc to the ESE about four miles away, and three groups of 5-6, east half a mile, another east but about 4.5 miles, and last N about two and a quarter miles out.

And that assumes not a single other humanoid within 5 miles to add to it.

If you want to just say "lots", then house rule it and tell the players before they pick it.

 

[Blue]

I think the designers need to release a 2.0 revision of what they are currently thinking. As has been mentioned, it's not been balanced for multiclassing, and until that is addressed I think the design tweaks of what we currently have released will be moot, by and large.

Yes, but having no way to force that nor having any idea if or when (next year's crunch book), we can still discuss how to make it usable for play right now. Heck, a campaign could start, run and finish before they release it if it's 12 months from when XGTE comes out.

 

[pukunui]

If you want to just say "lots", then house rule it and tell the players before they pick it.

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?"