Khrysaes
2015-11-29, 09:49 AM
Hello, I made an account just to post on here.
So some of my classmates and I will be starting a 5e game soon, and after asking the DM, he said he may allow home brew at his discretion of course.
So I wanted to play a hunter, At first I imagined a lycanthropic or Shifter hunter, running around killing things with his bare hands and claws. I wanted something otherwise VERY low magic, and more about tracking and ambushing.
Unfortunately that seems to be all up the rogues ally more. And while lycanthropes aren't horribly overpowered, the clarity on their rules for player characters is lacking. Shifters in the Unearthed Arcana are likewise underwhelming.
So I went looking up ranger variants and modifications to try and get something more of what I want.
Wizards has posted 3 options I found for rangers. Sorry, I don't have enough posts to make links.
5 level Spirit animal one found here: media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/DX_0907_UA_RangerOptions.pdf
This one still has to much of a mystical aspect. It doesn't present any features past level 5, even though it does mention them. And it removes spell casting but doesn't explain how it fixes Primeval Awareness. It grants Skirmisher's Stealth, which has an aspect redundant with Vanish, albeit more limited, and Ambuscade seems incredibly powerful for level 1.
An archetype found Here: media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/02_UA_Underdark_Characters.pdf
It's okay.. not great, not horrible. I think rangers should get Wisdom proficiency anyways, what with their many wisdom related checks and class features. I think that its features are like an under powered Hunter's ones. With the exception of the spells. Underdark scout only is effective in the first round, also has a lot of overlap with vanish. Stalker's flurry is only useful if you miss, but only if you miss, and multi attack seems like it would be better. Stalker's Dodge is a bit like uncanny dodge. though one halve's damage and one reduces the chance of taking any at all.
Lastly, Spell less Ranger dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/modifying-classes
A bit of a better take on a spell less ranger in my opinion, still has to much mystical aspect with Call Natural Allies. Although someone made a humorous comment about it using Mating calls, and that the animal(s) rush towards the ranger to get their freak on. I greatly enjoy the Poultices for healing and Combat Superiority for utility. However what I think is missing is proficiency with Herbalism Kit and a mention towards what you do if you don't wish to make poultices with herbs gathered, or if you are in a locale that isn't conducive towards making the poultices.
None of these really fit my goal of finding a hunter/tracker/forager that pounces on its targets from its unawares.
So I mixed and matched and came up with my own version. Here it is, please be honest. How balanced do you think it is? My only regret on its.. compilation is that I think I chose to many combat options, disregarding one role play option entirely, and one utility option from the Spell less ranger which would have been useful. If there was overlap in a skill, I tended to just merge them together. I also made a couple abilities weaker to compensate.
So some of my classmates and I will be starting a 5e game soon, and after asking the DM, he said he may allow home brew at his discretion of course.
So I wanted to play a hunter, At first I imagined a lycanthropic or Shifter hunter, running around killing things with his bare hands and claws. I wanted something otherwise VERY low magic, and more about tracking and ambushing.
Unfortunately that seems to be all up the rogues ally more. And while lycanthropes aren't horribly overpowered, the clarity on their rules for player characters is lacking. Shifters in the Unearthed Arcana are likewise underwhelming.
So I went looking up ranger variants and modifications to try and get something more of what I want.
Wizards has posted 3 options I found for rangers. Sorry, I don't have enough posts to make links.
5 level Spirit animal one found here: media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/DX_0907_UA_RangerOptions.pdf
This one still has to much of a mystical aspect. It doesn't present any features past level 5, even though it does mention them. And it removes spell casting but doesn't explain how it fixes Primeval Awareness. It grants Skirmisher's Stealth, which has an aspect redundant with Vanish, albeit more limited, and Ambuscade seems incredibly powerful for level 1.
An archetype found Here: media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/02_UA_Underdark_Characters.pdf
It's okay.. not great, not horrible. I think rangers should get Wisdom proficiency anyways, what with their many wisdom related checks and class features. I think that its features are like an under powered Hunter's ones. With the exception of the spells. Underdark scout only is effective in the first round, also has a lot of overlap with vanish. Stalker's flurry is only useful if you miss, but only if you miss, and multi attack seems like it would be better. Stalker's Dodge is a bit like uncanny dodge. though one halve's damage and one reduces the chance of taking any at all.
Lastly, Spell less Ranger dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/modifying-classes
A bit of a better take on a spell less ranger in my opinion, still has to much mystical aspect with Call Natural Allies. Although someone made a humorous comment about it using Mating calls, and that the animal(s) rush towards the ranger to get their freak on. I greatly enjoy the Poultices for healing and Combat Superiority for utility. However what I think is missing is proficiency with Herbalism Kit and a mention towards what you do if you don't wish to make poultices with herbs gathered, or if you are in a locale that isn't conducive towards making the poultices.
None of these really fit my goal of finding a hunter/tracker/forager that pounces on its targets from its unawares.
So I mixed and matched and came up with my own version. Here it is, please be honest. How balanced do you think it is? My only regret on its.. compilation is that I think I chose to many combat options, disregarding one role play option entirely, and one utility option from the Spell less ranger which would have been useful. If there was overlap in a skill, I tended to just merge them together. I also made a couple abilities weaker to compensate.