Palanan
2012-02-10, 02:54 PM
I could use some advice on adapting the wild defender, which is a variant ranger from Dragon 324. They'd fit well into my campaign, but the class is a little weak and I'd like to shore it up a bit.
The wild defender loses the favored enemies and combat style of the standard ranger, and a couple other middling benefits, in exchange for a taste of spellcasting and a mishmash of minor druid and paladin features. The least useful of these, at least for my purposes, is the smite evil ability, which I'd drop in a heartbeat.
The main advantage of the wild defender is that spellcasting begins at first level; it also picks up an animal companion, although this is a little delayed compared to the standard ranger. The spellcasting is never overwhelming, just a nice assist, which is what I'm looking for here. (I should also mention that I'm aware of the mystic ranger, and I have other plans for that one.)
So, I have two questions, for those who are familiar with the wild defender. Since it's weakish to begin with, could I drop the smite evil ability, and instead give it the animal companion at first level, as a druid? There's no wild shape, and nothing remotely in the league of druid spellcasting, so this won't even be a junior druid; just a ranger with a slightly better animal companion and slightly earlier casting.
And second, given that the casting is very lightweight, would it be too much to switch to a favored soul progression, using the ranger's spell list? This is territory I'm not too familiar with, so comments welcome here. I'm not set on any one approach, just looking for some simple adjustments.
The wild defender loses the favored enemies and combat style of the standard ranger, and a couple other middling benefits, in exchange for a taste of spellcasting and a mishmash of minor druid and paladin features. The least useful of these, at least for my purposes, is the smite evil ability, which I'd drop in a heartbeat.
The main advantage of the wild defender is that spellcasting begins at first level; it also picks up an animal companion, although this is a little delayed compared to the standard ranger. The spellcasting is never overwhelming, just a nice assist, which is what I'm looking for here. (I should also mention that I'm aware of the mystic ranger, and I have other plans for that one.)
So, I have two questions, for those who are familiar with the wild defender. Since it's weakish to begin with, could I drop the smite evil ability, and instead give it the animal companion at first level, as a druid? There's no wild shape, and nothing remotely in the league of druid spellcasting, so this won't even be a junior druid; just a ranger with a slightly better animal companion and slightly earlier casting.
And second, given that the casting is very lightweight, would it be too much to switch to a favored soul progression, using the ranger's spell list? This is territory I'm not too familiar with, so comments welcome here. I'm not set on any one approach, just looking for some simple adjustments.