What does the ranger need? [3.5]

[Teapot Salty]

Hey guys. So in my never ending quest to balance all the classes, I've done numerous ranger fixes, and learned some important lessons about homebrewing. But something I've never tried (or at least remember trying :smalltongue:) is ask for the help of the playground before I do. So I ask now, what should the ranger be good at, what holds them back (I,E, making them tier 4 as opposed to tier 3) and what should they have on the other classes? I personally like the idea of making them strikers and damage dealers, but rogue and barbarian hold those, so help there on what there main role should be is also helpful. Thanks, and as always, go nuts.

[ryu]

They can already hit tier 3 if they take wildshape ranger. They can go beyond that if they also take mystic ranger and sword of the arcane order.

One gets them a third of a druid which is pretty big in itself. The other combo nets them slightly less awesome wizard casting.

In other words the answer to this question is the same as it pretty much always is. Tier 3 and above require some sort of magic or magic like substitute.

[toapat]

what does the ranger need? Really just Swift Hunter without the drawbacks of the feat. They also need More options for the combat styles but thats it.

Ranger is pretty much the Rock of Gibralter of the entire system. They got enough buffs that they werent screwed but never enough to bring up their power. Giving them full skirmish would bump them up to fully balanced.

Archery, however, needs inherent Dex to Damage.

Also, the casterlevel increased to either Class -3 or class.
Full companion progression at the cost of druid's entire pet

[Cuaqchi]

Due to the fact that Ranger attack sets are generally based on volume of attacks rather than singular hard hits and the fact that the most accessible combat styles (Two Weapon/Archery although others exist via Dragon et al.)are actually hurt by DR due to low base damage yields. A simple addition for killing power would be to negate DR on favoured enemies which is actually part of what makes Swift Hunter nice (allows skirmish damage against them regardless).

What they already have: skills which are good, spell options which are good, and an animal companion which is mediocre. Thus anything which improves the value of those items - makes the class more than just a straight up melee chassis. They started in many ways as the non-broken druid...

[ngilop]

a tiny bump.

I feel the ranger is so close to 'tier' 3 that its not funny.


give the ranger back his full animal companion (take the druid's away on that note as well)
make the combat styles mean something. give actual abilities instead of just bonus feats and give them a new one at 16th level. the ending at 11th is nonsensile
make favored enemy do more than just tiny number. allow it to apply to skills AC and such and again tie some cool abilities to it, like status effects like shaken or dazed
fast movement. maybnot as barb/monk but this is SUPPOSED to be the woodlands guy
freedom of movement at 18th
and a cool capstone (better than the on pathfinder gave them)


I could ad in some more like favored terrain, but I think those push the ranger into 'tier' 3

[Andion Isurand]

I think rangers (and paladins) should be given more spells per day and a minimum caster level equal to their class level - 3.
However, I feel giving rangers spells from the beginning takes something away from what should be a more practical and reliable approach to survival and getting along in the wild.

[RavynsLand]

He needs to go home -- he's drunk.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I think rangers (and paladins) should be given more spells per day and a minimum caster level equal to their class level - 3.
This would probably do it alone, especially if you've got access to Spell Compendium spells. Allow the option of a full-progression animal companion or skirmish+fast movement and you're golden.

[Telonius]

The Ranger is pretty close to Tier 3 as it is. My main fix for him is trading animal companions with the Druid. (i.e. Ranger's companion gets Druid progression, Druid gets Ranger's progression). There are a couple of other fixes that involve the Combat Style feats. TWF scales for iteratives; Improved and Greater decrease the penalties. Rapid Shot scales for iteratives; Manyshot decreases the penalties.