Ranger Question (is it officially revised?)

[Mitth'raw'nuruo]

I know there has been a lot of talk of a revised ranger, with some extensive play testing for the same. I expected it in Xanathar's, but do not see it.

Have they officially revised it to bring it up to par?
And if yes, where can I find it?

[TrinculoLives]

The Revised Ranger was not included in Xanathar's, so the most recent version is the UA one that was released quite a while ago. Additionally, the Ranger archetypes in Xanathar's are meant to be used with the PHB Ranger.

[pdegan2814]

Here's what they've said about the release of the Revised Ranger:

- They plan to release it without requiring a purchase
- It will be AL legal
- The Revised Ranger is not replacing the PHB Ranger, both will be options for players
- They plan to release another draft for feedback before the final release

[Arkhios]

Here's what they've said about the release of the Revised Ranger:

- They plan to release it without requiring a purchase
- It will be AL legal
- The Revised Ranger is not replacing the PHB Ranger, both will be options for players
- They plan to release another draft for feedback before the final release

Not to crumble your statement, but providing sources to each bulletpoint would give leverage to their accuracy.

[mephnick]

I think they're going to tone it down a bit before "offically" releasing it. Beast Master needed the Revised Ranger, but it's pretty obviously too strong for all the other subclasses.

[Mandragola]

I think that the revised ranger is probably too powerful as things stand. The favoured enemy bonus to damage is very easy to get, and very large.

I'm DMing Oota and one of my players is running a drow deep stalker revised ranger. I'm not sure if I'll get him to switch to gloom stalker now that Xanathar's is out. Gloom stalker seems to be even better than deep stalker.

A balancing factor is that the group has had a source of sunlight for quite a lot of the adventure, much to the drow's irritation! On the other hand he's found himself some very nice magical gear. His dpr is pretty high.

And incidentally I'm not allowing multiclassing in this campaign. If a deep stalker multiclassed as an assassin the results would be horrendous.

It's tricky because the normal ranger's favoured enemy bonus does nothing much at all, but the revised one does too much. That's probably the only thing I'd want to tone down.

[Biggstick]

I think that the revised ranger is probably too powerful as things stand. The favoured enemy bonus to damage is very easy to get, and very large.

I'm DMing Oota and one of my players is running a drow deep stalker revised ranger. I'm not sure if I'll get him to switch to gloom stalker now that Xanathar's is out. Gloom stalker seems to be even better than deep stalker.

A balancing factor is that the group has had a source of sunlight for quite a lot of the adventure, much to the drow's irritation! On the other hand he's found himself some very nice magical gear. His dpr is pretty high.

And incidentally I'm not allowing multiclassing in this campaign. If a deep stalker multiclassed as an assassin the results would be horrendous.

It's tricky because the normal ranger's favoured enemy bonus does nothing much at all, but the revised one does too much. That's probably the only thing I'd want to tone down.

Humanoids as a favored enemy is much too strong. The level three ability (Primeval Awareness) in which a Ranger can spend a single minute (concentrating) and know the location of every humanoid within a mile is just too much power that can be freely abused. Having no limit on the number of times one can perform this action (other then the 1 minute spent performing the action) is just too much.

One of the other things to think about is Rangers have advantage on knowledge checks regarding Humanoids (if that's their chosen favored enemy). This means all Humanoids are now something the Ranger can roll with advantage regarding knowledge of said creatures. Humanoids includes, but isn't limited to: Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, PHB races, Goblins, Bugbears, Tabaxi, Githyanki, etc. You have advantage on your knowledge roll regarding ALL of these different types of Humanoids. While this is fluff, it's powerful fluff that shouldn't be available to a class at level 1.

Humanoids as a favored enemy should be broken down further, more similar to how the PHB Ranger is, in allowing you to choose 2 races of Humanoids (or even 3), to balance out how powerful it is.

The favored terrain feature for Revised Ranger is also incredibly powerful, and shouldn't be available to the class as early as it is.

[Naanomi]

One of the other things to think about is Rangers have advantage on knowledge checks regarding Humanoids (if that's their chosen favored enemy).
How many knowledge checks of the sort are you making without someone on hand to 'help' you with it and get advantage anyways?

[Theodoxus]

I think that the revised ranger is probably too powerful as things stand. The favoured enemy bonus to damage is very easy to get, and very large.

I'm DMing Oota and one of my players is running a drow deep stalker revised ranger. I'm not sure if I'll get him to switch to gloom stalker now that Xanathar's is out. Gloom stalker seems to be even better than deep stalker.

A balancing factor is that the group has had a source of sunlight for quite a lot of the adventure, much to the drow's irritation! On the other hand he's found himself some very nice magical gear. His dpr is pretty high.

And incidentally I'm not allowing multiclassing in this campaign. If a deep stalker multiclassed as an assassin the results would be horrendous.

It's tricky because the normal ranger's favoured enemy bonus does nothing much at all, but the revised one does too much. That's probably the only thing I'd want to tone down.

In an OotA game I was in, we had a player with this exact character, only he also MC'd into assassin. By the time we were 8th level, he was 5/3 Ranger/Rogue and wrecked all the things. It was pretty insane. He also took Stalker, so he was pretty much one shotting encounters in the first round. It was only demon lords that provided any real challenge.

I did kinda laugh though, as I was playing an elven cleric of Lathander and had Dawnbringer... my daylight ruined his day a number of times.

I'm playing a revised ranger (human) in a SKT game. Just hit 2nd level though... I still think advantage on initiative is too strong for 1st level. Favored Terrain should be split up and increase in power like favored enemy (and yes, having all humanoids as a selection is too OP as well...)

I'd probably at least go "Civilized" (PHB), "Planetouched" (genasi, aasimar, tiefling, etc) "Goblinoid" (should be self explanatory, though might include orc) and "Lesser known" (Goliath, Tabaxi, Tortle, Firbolg, etc).

Pick 1 at 1st, pick a second (along with the "greater" choices at 6th, if you pick a humanoid subset.

[rbstr]

I mostly think Favored Enemy should be reduced in power. But man, that kind of ability is a tough thing to balance since it's so situational. Either useless or the best. I think I'd limit it to the knowledge/tracking aspects with little actual combat power.
Then it really shouldn't take up much of the class feature budget. You need level 1 and level 6 to have some generally applicable combat things on them.

From the current revised ranger I think advantage on initiative and on attacks against those that haven't acted are cool, good features for them. It plays into the class's sneakiness.
If you split those up and add a little bit you've got 1st and 6th level features:
Put initiative advantage at level 1 along with difficult terrain immunity.
Then at level 6 give them the advantage against things that haven't acted along with giving your party initiative advantage? Maybe some other kind of party buff?

[mephnick]

The problem is they gave the Revised Ranger a bunch of great combat buffs when 4 out of 5 Ranger subclasses are already great in combat. No one complained that the Hunter doesn't do enough in combat. The 3 subclasses that just came out are even better!

I don't know why they didn't just change Beast Master pet a bit and grant a small damage increase to favoured enemy (which I'm against anyway, but whatever). As it is now it grants a lot of combat strength to a class that didn't need it.

[Kuulvheysoon]

The problem is they gave the Revised Ranger a bunch of great combat buffs when 4 out of 5 Ranger subclasses are already great in combat. No one complained that the Hunter doesn't do enough in combat. The 3 subclasses that just came out are even better!

I don't know why they didn't just change Beast Master pet a bit and grant a small damage increase to favoured enemy (which I'm against anyway, but whatever). As it is now it grants a lot of combat strength to a class that didn't need it.

Agreed. I made a villain as an NPC (From the RHOD, as it happens) and as a 7th level character was doing 1d6+10 at a +10 to hit without magic items or sharpshooter. Because his favored enemy was Humanoid. 1d6+20 @ a +5 would have just been straight LETHAL.

[Lodestar]

I'm not sure if I agree with scaling Favored Enemy for humanoids back to 2-3, but I can see the point. I just don't find myself fighting an abundance of humanoids to justify calling it OP, so that's probably just me.

I'd probably split advantage on initiative and advantage on those who haven't acted between levels 1 and 6 too. If Gloom Stalker hadn't gotten +Wis to initiative as a 3rd level feature, that would've been my replacement for advantage.

[Mandragola]

Humanoids as a favored enemy is much too strong. The level three ability (Primeval Awareness) in which a Ranger can spend a single minute (concentrating) and know the location of every humanoid within a mile is just too much power that can be freely abused. Having no limit on the number of times one can perform this action (other then the 1 minute spent performing the action) is just too much.

One of the other things to think about is Rangers have advantage on knowledge checks regarding Humanoids (if that's their chosen favored enemy). This means all Humanoids are now something the Ranger can roll with advantage regarding knowledge of said creatures. Humanoids includes, but isn't limited to: Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, PHB races, Goblins, Bugbears, Tabaxi, Githyanki, etc. You have advantage on your knowledge roll regarding ALL of these different types of Humanoids. While this is fluff, it's powerful fluff that shouldn't be available to a class at level 1.

Humanoids as a favored enemy should be broken down further, more similar to how the PHB Ranger is, in allowing you to choose 2 races of Humanoids (or even 3), to balance out how powerful it is.

The favored terrain feature for Revised Ranger is also incredibly powerful, and shouldn't be available to the class as early as it is.
Oh god I'd forgotten about primeval awareness. That's an incredibly annoying ability, especially when the party is being tracked!

Our group took a break after the first half of the adventure. We're starting again on Saturday. I think I'll talk to the player about some changes. I don't actually mind the damage output because I can put more monsters in to handle that, but the ability to tell where the enemy are all the time, despite them being miles away with vast amounts of rock between them and the party, is just stupid.

[Moredhel24]

IMO the base revised ranger is over powered but interested to see that it may be released in the future since a number of people like it. The patch seems necessary for beast master and primeval awareness. Currently my group uses phb ranger w/ the revised beastmaster, primeval awareness, and moving extra attack to subclass feature. Would the spell less ranger ever get revisted/officially released? could see some complications w/ xanathar's conclaves since they're more magical in nature.

[Finlam]

Here's what they've said about the release of the Revised Ranger:

- They plan to release it without requiring a purchase
- It will be AL legal
- The Revised Ranger is not replacing the PHB Ranger, both will be options for players
- They plan to release another draft for feedback before the final release

Jeremy Crawford, the lead designer, has confirmed via twitter that it will not be released as a class but as a collection of "alternate class features".

For the skeptics, here's a link to thread about it (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?538835-Alternate-Class-Features-JC-confirms-Revised-Ranger-not-a-class&highlight=Revised+Ranger+Class) The first post contains links to the sources.

[Arkhios]

Jeremy Crawford, the lead designer, has confirmed via twitter that it will not be released as a class but as a collection of "alternate class features".

For the skeptics, here's a link to thread about it (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?538835-Alternate-Class-Features-JC-confirms-Revised-Ranger-not-a-class&highlight=Revised+Ranger+Class) The first post contains links to the sources.

Thanks. While I knew that Crawford's statement existed I couldn't find it myself.