My take on powering up the Ranger (3.5)

[Natael]

I've done a few simple modifications to the Ranger for my campaign to make it a bit more usful without ACF. Hoping for any criticism or suggestions.

First off, for my games TWF is iterative by itself, meaning Improved and Greater TWF don't exist/are irrelevant.

TWD is also iterative, granting the extra bonuses as you meet the prerequisites for the next level.


The changes:

Full animal companion progression - Allows strong flanking companion, or a distraction while the ranger works at a range, or for a rather strong mount.
I force the PHB2 alt class feature on druids, so Rangers are the only ones to get an animal companion.

+1 attack and AC bonus against favored enemies, which increases by 1 each time the skill/damage bonuses does.

May take own race as favored enemy, regardless of alignment.

Improved Combat Style (melee) - Gains two-weapon pounce

Combat Style Mastery (melee) - Gains any weapon style feat with two-weapon fighting as a prerequisite.

[Raimun]

Powering up the Ranger?

Give them humongous dinosaur-mechas to pilot!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Marriclay]

Powering up the Ranger?

Give them humongous dinosaur-mechas to pilot!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Damnit! I was too late to make the joke!

On Topic: that actually looks like a pretty good idea. of course, it's not near enough to make it a truly worthwhile class (Maybe give it some trapmonkey abilities/skills?). Make it do something other classes can't replicate and you've got something that will get played on the level of the other classes too

[Gnaeus]

Swift hunter by itself is almost a ranger fix.

Another avenue is to replace the ranger casting chart with either the bard or the duskblade progression. Just add in some level 5 or 6 spells from the druid and wizard lists.

It partially depends on what level you want to fix the ranger into.

[Coidzor]

Swift hunter by itself is almost a ranger fix.

Another avenue is to replace the ranger casting chart with either the bard or the duskblade progression. Just add in some level 5 or 6 spells from the druid and wizard lists.

It partially depends on what level you want to fix the ranger into.

You can find the Mystic Ranger spell list for 0th and 5th level spells as a starting point for options to consider.

Also depends on what you want the ranger to be. Want it to be a gish-caster to the Druid as the bard/duskblade/hexblade are to arcane? A skill/trap/trackingmonkey that relies on actual martial power to fight rather than dirty tricks? A warrior empowered by the forces of nature as the Paladin is to good(well, the paladin fixes and such that make it actually a champion)?

Right now it appears to be a champion of dual-wielding with a nice big ol' pet.

[Moriato]

May take own race as favored enemy, regardless of alignment.

Just wanted to note that this is actually the standard now. In 3.0 a ranger had to be evil to choose his own race as a favored enemy, but that's not the case anymore in 3.5

I like the rest of your changes, especially the 2WF iteratives. Considering that 2WF is already inferior in a lot of ways to just using a 2 handed weapon, it's ridiculous that you need so many feats just to not lag too far behind.

I've always thought it would be interesting if a ranger's animal companion got the same favored enemies that the ranger took, if for nothing else than the roleplaying opportunities

Animal Companion: "Grrrrrr"
Ranger: "He doesn't like Elves"
Elf: "Sorry"
Ranger: "I don't like Elves either!"

[Dusk Eclipse]

<snip>
Animal Companion: "Grrrrrr"
Ranger: "He doesn't like Elves"
Elf: "Sorry"
Ranger: "I don't like Elves either!"

Awesome, just awesome

[Pluto]

Why do Rangers have to TWF? I never got that. My first impulse is always to just drop it.

Anyway, I don't like the Weapon Style bonus feat, unless you make slot-less Weapon Focuses widely available via something like the Frog God's Fane. As is, you're putting a feat tax on the Ranger (or denying it its level 11 ability), which is one of the last classes that needs a feat tax. I'd at least add Two Weapon Rend as an option (possibly allowing it to scale like Girallon Flesh Rip to deal more damage with more successful hits).

And I'd tack on Bard spell progression. Both because it's kind of awkward when the party's archer suddenly and inexplicably starts conjuring dolphins out of thin air and because the SpC and CoR already go a long way toward fixing Rangers (but limited times per day make them Wand-reliant for any more than 1-2 encounters/day).

[Greenish]

Why do Rangers have to TWF? I never got that. My first impulse is always to just drop it.

You know why.

Spoiler

Show

My favourite fixes for ranger are wildshape, mystic and SotAO, preferably all together. That said, I agree that TWF ought to be one scaling feat, and ranger's AC is too gimped as written.

I'd also allow them to pick their Archery feats from a list, instead of getting what's given.

[Pluto]

You know why.

I've never read anything like that. Do those books actually talk about characters in terms of their in-game classes?

My favourite fixes for ranger are wildshape, mystic and SotAO, preferably all together.

I'd add to that RadicalTaoist's SW ranger. It's not an official fix or variant, but it's pretty well known and it can boost the Ranger up into a higher-tier game.