Mutilator of Magic: Antimagic Ranger

[sandmote]

This page on the homebrewery (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/aRuCfOnR5apS)

I like the idea of martial characters that are especially good against casters. The main problem being, of course, that features which specifically counter spellcasting can range from extremely powerful to useless depending on how often the enemy casts spells.

My last take (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?603794-Silencing-Blade-Anti-Mage-Rogue) on the concept creates a low damage AoE effect that also prevents casting. I wanted to try the general concept for a ranger, so for this one I tried to focus on utilizing the ranger's own spellcasting to put in more flexible responses to other casters (something most other martials don't have the tools for). I don't think I managed to bring that together very well, and ended up adding in some effects that increase the ranger's raw damage output to compensate.

Suggestions for how to improve welcome.


Mutilator of Magic Magic
Starting at 3rd level, you learn an additional spell when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown in the Mutilator of Magic Spells table. The spell counts as a ranger spell for you, but it doesn't count against the number of ranger spells you know.

Mutilator of Magic Spells
Ranger Level Feature
3rd Hex
5th Silence
9th Dispel Magic
13th Freedom of Movement Private Sanctum
17th Steel Wind Strike Circle of Power

Arcana Inspector
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in Arcana and add . If you are already proficient in Arcana you gain proficiency in your choice of Insight, Investigation, Nature, or Survival. Additionally, you can to cast the detect magic spell at will.

Charmslayer
By 3rd level, you learn to turn spells against those affected by them. The first time on your turn when you hit a creature affected by a spell with a weapon attack, the creature takes an additional 1d6 damage of the weapon's type. Starting at 11th level this damage increases to 2d6. Spells that create a spell effect that targets an area or creature do count for the purposes of this feature and inflict lasting effects on the target, such as a slow or suggestion count as spell effects for the purposes of this feature, but spells that merely take up a space, such as a fireball or silent image do not count as effects for the purposes of this feature.

Please note that this is intended to apply to spell cast by any creature, including party members and the Mutilator of Magic themselves.


Arcane Smite
Starting at 7th level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one spell slot to deal force damage to the target, in addition to the weapon's damage. The extra damage is 2d6 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d6 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d6.


Disruptive Strike
By 7th level, you can interfere with the spellcasting of those in your vicinity. When a creature casts a spell or makes a ranged weapon attack while within 5 feet of you, you can use a reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the creature. On a hit, the creature takes damage as normal and must make a constitution saving throw as if attempting to maintain its concentration. On a failed save, the spell or attack fails, although any spell slots or ammunition used in the attack is expended it normal.

Really want to replace this, but I'm not sure what would fit. I like the suggestion from GalacticAxekick for an interrupt, but I have it specifically also apply to ranged attacks. Since the Mutilator of Magic is likely to be attacking the enemy's back lines anyway, I think its still fitting.


Ender of Enchantment
At 11th level, you learn to protect those around you from magic. You can cast the counterspell spell a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier (minimum of +1), and regain all uses at the end of a long rest.

Additionally, you learn to sense when a creature casts a spell or expends a spell slot, even when it doesn't provide any spell components. You can then perform a counterspell against such an effect as normal.

Weave Warper
Starting at 11th level, your ability to tear at the weave allows you to extend destruction even on those who do not practice the arcane arts. As an action on your turn, you can tear at the weave around a creature within 60 feet that you can see, which must make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save the creature takes 4d6 force damage and has disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes against a spell until the end of your next turn.

Weave warper is a little awkward given it takes an action rather than an attack. It isn't a spell though, so it doesn't stack with itself. Hopefully this makes it weaker than attacking on most turns, but can be helpful if another party member else really doesn't want to fail with their own powerful spell.


Ward against Witchcraft
By 15th level, you have learned to resist all forms of harmful magical effects. When you make a saving throw against a spell, you gain a bonus to your save equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum +1). When a creature targets you with a spell that requires an attack roll, you gain the same bonus to your AC. When you a creature targets you with a spell that doesn't allow a saving throw, you can choose to roll a d20. On a result of 16 or higher, the spell fails to affect you.

For a martial class (especially a ranger) and at such a high level, I think this effect is in fact fine.

[GalacticAxekick]

I love the idea of a martial character who is especially good against casters! But I agree that your homebrew mostly increases raw damage, which is mechanically uninteresting (the player just keeps hitting the enemy like they always would) and I agree that dedicated antimagic effects have the double problem of being too powerful against spellcasters and useless against non-casters.

My solution? Scrap every effect which offers bonus damage, and replace it with an effect which offers alternatives to attacking. Scrap every effect which offers dedicated anti-magic, and replace them with effects that disrupt actions (including the act of spellcasting). For example:

Disruptive Blow. Starting at 3rd level, when you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can choose to deal no damage and to Stun it instead. It's stunned until the start of its next turn or until it takes any damage. (In other words, break concentration on hit)
Disruptive Grip. Starting at 3rd level, when you successfully grapple a creature, you can Blind it, Deafen it, Restrain it, or render it unable to speak until the grapple ends. (In other words, prevent line of sight spells, somatic spells, or verbal spells)
Interrupt. Starting at 7th level, when a creature within your reach begins to cast a spell, use an object, or make a ranged weapon attack, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack or a grapple attempt against it. Your attack or grapple occurs before the action is taken. (In other words, prevent spellcasters from casting spells at all when they are within your reach)
Two-Way Connection. Starting at 11th level, when a creature is concentrating on an effect which affects you, you can use your bonus action to resist (mentally or physically!) with so much ferocity that it strains the creature's mind. The creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take XdX psychic damage. A creature can avoid the damage by breaking its own concentration.
Intercept. Starting at 15th level you can move up to your speed at any moment, whether it is your turn or not. You can use this movement to escape an area effect or to enter within reach of the target of your Interrupt, but you cannot use this movement to escape an effect that specifically targets you. You cannot move on your next turn after using this feature, except by taking the Dash action.

None of these feature are plain damage boosts. Besides Two-Way Connection, all of these features are useful against casters and non-casters alike. And none are overwhelming against casters in particular. I think they solve all your mechanical concerns!

The issue I see with these features is that they're thematically unrelated. I probably wouldn't pitch this bundle of features a subclass. But I think they illustrate my point that you might be taking the wrong approach: that you're asking "what bonuses can I get against casters?" instead of "how can I undermine casters?"

[Kane0]

Bonus spells: some good picks, but steel wind strike is already a ranger spell from a pretty small selection.

Arcana Inspector: all good, though id also appreciate the option of expertise in arcana as well if you already have it proficient

Charmslayer: works nicely with hunters mark/hex it seems, but also with party members tagging an enemy which frees up your concentration without losing that damage.

Arcane smite: agreed this would be best swapped out for something else. Perhaps a variant of charnslayer that can grant a dispel attempt instead of the bonus damage X times per Y rest? Or something that would help against creatures that use magic but not specifically spells (eg beholders)

Ender of enchantment: thats a lot of castings, did you mean per long rest? Countering subtle metamagic and the like is a nice touch, perhaps tie that into the at-will detect magic so you can only do that part when you have the spell active?

Weave warper: thats not a lot of damage for your whole action, and the effect is replicated elsewhere and a bit reliant on caster party members. Still, theres no limit on it and you have two features at this level so i suppose this isnt meant to be all that strong. You should put in a designated range for it though, even if it is just 'you can see'

Ward against witchcraft: strong stuff, either wis to saves, wis to ac or straight up 25% chance to ignore like old school magic resistance. It does strike me as odd that the mage-slaying subclass only gets a real defense against magic feature right at the end though, i would have assumed it would follow an offense-defense-offense-defense pattern like the hunter with the extra spells and utility thrown in at level 3 to round it out. I guess the counterspelling does that partially, but as mentioned that doesnt work on creatures that use magic but arent casting spells (which is a growing trend in monster design)

[sandmote]

The issue I see with these features is that they're thematically unrelated. I probably wouldn't pitch this bundle of features a subclass. But I think they illustrate my point that you might be taking the wrong approach: that you're asking "what bonuses can I get against casters?" instead of "how can I undermine casters?" I think the issue is that I'm also trying to make this subclass different from another subclass I have already made, which made it difficult to determine how to go about doing this. I'll take the interrupt.


Ender of enchantment: thats a lot of castings, did you mean per long rest? Countering subtle metamagic and the like is a nice touch, perhaps tie that into the at-will detect magic so you can only do that part when you have the spell active? I don't like the requirement to be using a spell, but I did mean per long rest. Thanks for the catch. Same for the lack of listed range on Weave Warper.

Any suggestions for how to reword effects to apply to non-spell magical abilities?

[JNAProductions]

Ender Of Enchantment should specify what level Counterspell is cast at.

[GalacticAxekick]

I think the issue is that I'm also trying to make this subclass different from another subclass I have already made, which made it difficult to determine how to go about doing this. I'll take the interrupt.You mean the Silencing Blade Rogue?

I think there's lots of room to make anti-mage subclasses that are different from the Silencing Blade, thematically and mechanically. The Silencing Blade (thematically) relies on sound-muffling and light-obscuring magic and (mechanically) relies on spells and features which are powerful and long ranged, but limited per rest.

The design space open to you is EVERY concept that does not use such magic, which operates in close range, and which does not rely on resources which recover after rests. For example:

Kidnapper Rogue. Focus on grappling to restrain, blind, silence, and strangle.
Bodyguard Fighter. Focus on deflecting both weapon and spell attacks, creating cover against area effects, and using reactions to interrupt actions such as spellcasting and item use.
Pressure-Point Monk. Monk who uses precise strikes to break the flow of ki through his enemy's body, inflicting a wide variety of status conditions and potentially blocking spellcasting.

[Kane0]

Any suggestions for how to reword effects to apply to non-spell magical abilities?

A good example might be Gnome Cunning: You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saves against magic.

Compare that to say the abjurer wizard or ancients paladin that specify against spells.

[oogaboogagoblin]

this is really cool and i love the idea, i think counterspell should come earlier though, and weave warper is really weak for a 11th lvl ability. maybe instead of that have a lasting effect that you can put on spellcasters so if they cast a spell they need to make a con save or take psychic damage

[rel]

How about a disruption aura?
Spells cast in the aura and anything that would hit the character require a higher level spell slot to cast. Spell likes consume additional uses.
You can tweak the size of the aura and size of the penalty to get the balance point you want, have it scale by levels, etc.

Make sure the character has the option to exclude friends from the effect, with a simple ritual.

[Loek]

Mutilator of Magic Spells
Hex is an awesome spell for a melee caster... and it sort of can fit the use of the "hunting mages" theme... but it's also magic that will most often be used to hunt non-spell casters. So this one seems more power over theme to me. That said, I don't really know a good alternative at level 1... maybe protection from good/evil to protect against the "evil minions" that mages can summon? (Or detect magic instead, as I'll be poking at the at will status of that one later)
Silence is an odd one... it's already a Ranger spell... but getting it without spending a "spell known" is okay-ish... I'd rather see something other that's on theme and allow/make the player pick silence on their own.
The rest seems on theme.

Arcana Inspector
First of, this sentence is incomplete: "When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in Arcana and add ." <== add what?
At will detect magic is very on theme, but also probably too much with the combination of the other things you get at level 3 (don't forget that there is a warlock invocation that grants the same, so normally this would be a feat worth of boost for a ranger)

Charmslayer
The flavour of this ability feels like "you think you are stronger with your boosts, well I'll use it against you". But the outcome, I suspect (and your described options in the feature as well) focus on them already being affected bv negative spells. I'd be tempted to make this so it only work on buffs. Because as currently written (also, combined with your fancy Hex bonus spell), this is more about your side using magic to slaughter things, then fighting against magic.

Overall - Level 3 abilities:
All together it feels like too much, in my opinion. I'd suggest the following:

Bonus spells: replace Hex and Silence with Detect Magic and See Invisibility.
Arcana Inspector: Keep the proficiencies and maybe give the ranger a once per short rest detect magic (and do the same for see invisibility at a higher level maybe?)
Charmslayer: Limit it to beneficial spell effects only.



Disruptive Strike
While the idea of it disrupting ranged attacks as well is fitting, but also rather powerful.
The skill as written against spellcasters is already close to as powerful as the "Mage Slayer" feat, if not significantly more powerful. (no advantage to saving throws, nor disadvantage to concentration, BUT the fact that it can block non-concentration spells is MASSIVE).
I'd strip the ranged attacks from this feature and then test drive it to see if it's not still too powerful (and/or feels like too much of an overlap with mage hunter, which kind of feels like a normal feat to take for a character like this... but now is severely weakened for them)


Ender of Enchantment
Firstly a name issue: Counterspell doesn't end enchantments... it prevents all magic. So something like Preventer of... or Disrupter of.... would be more fitting.
Secondly, again the idea is very much on theme for this class. But the amount feels off. I'd again say how about once per short rest? That way you can do it often enough and not worry too much about your resources, but you won't be able to fully shut down that archmage batte.
Potentially, you could have it, so that this counterspell scales in level with your highest spell slot (warlock style) to boost it a little further.

Weave Warper
For the ability as written: Am I reading this correctly that one a save it does NOTHING? Outside of cantrips this doesn't exactly seem common, I'd be tempted to still let it do half damage.
That said... This ability is again weird thematically as it's dealing damage with magic/magic-like abilities instead of stopping/protecting against/punishing the use of magic.

Overall - Level 11 abilities:
A weakend counterspell (like I suggested, once per short rest maybe? With possibly scaling levels?) should already be a fancy enough ability. The Weave Warper ability seems tacked on, thematically misplaced and not needed. I'd drop it.
Also, don't forget that the ability to sense someone using magic (good against silent spells and other sneaky stuff) will also be a massive boost for RP encounters where someone tries to sneak a charm/illusion/etc past you. Which adds to the flavour, but also the power of the first feature.


Ward against Witchcraft
This one seems powerful, it's a good ability even without that last bit. I personally would remove the 1d20 roll and instead add something else... like an ability to dispell/remove curse on themselves at the end of a turn or something (automated of sorts, so even when charmed/brainwashed it would trigger, but the player could decide not to as well... would be a pain to write up.)



Overal:
A good direction/theme, some fancy ideas. But also some not needed/out of context things that are just more ability/power stacked on. So I'd say: Keep working on it, but first prune a little and then see how balanced it is.