🧿Ranger Redesign Subclasses
Level 3 ranger redesign features: Subclasses and Trapper
Redesigning the ranger class from the ground up is going to be a core part of the next book. Follow the Kickstarter project, so you don't miss out.
So, do subclasses from 5E work with the redesign you're working on?
Yes.
The primary connection between the subclasses and the ranger is spellcasting, which is odd for a martial character.
There's nothing keeping any of these subclasses from being directly ported to paladin with no changes.
Existing 5E Subclass Options
🐺Beast Master - Adds a primal companion. The 1 impact for the rework would be the level 15th ability letting you have spells that target yourself also target your beast if they are within 30 feet. If you don't have spells, you don't get that benefit.
🐉Drakewarden - Adds a drake companion and has no interaction with the ranger kit.
🧚Fey Wanderer - Adds magical spells, doesn't touch anything else in the ranger kit.
🕶️Gloom Stalker - Adds magical spells, doesn't touch anything else in the ranger kit.
🌇Horizon Walker - Adds magical spells, doesn't touch anything else in the ranger kit.
🏹Hunter - No interaction with ranger kit.
🧌Monster Slayer - Adds magical spells, doesn't touch anything else in the ranger kit.
🍯Swarmkeeper - Adds magical spells, doesn't touch anything else in the ranger kit.
Our only obstacle for completely rebuilding the ranger from scratch would be if we impacted spellcasting...which we intentionally did.
Knight Vision Creative (Brendan)
This is solved with one additional feature:
Hexwarden
The Hexwarden was released in Paths of Power and provides an example of how a subclass can be built that fits directly into any ranger subclass.
Knight Vision Creative
This subclass was the top pick in Discord.
Based on the feedback from everyone, we ended up leaning more towards a Witcher inspired subclass:
💪Augmented Physiology - Multiple buffs augmenting your combat, exploration, and social capabilities.
💫Hexwarden Magic - Rather than providing additional spells that may never get used, the Hexwarden was given the ability to cast each spell a single time.
👹Monstrous Reflexes - Buff to speed, Dex saves, and opportunity attacks.
🛡️Arcane Feedback - Fun mechanic to damage casters who dare target you with their spells. Because there isn't a reaction requirement, this can trigger more than once a round.
🍾Mutagenic Surge - Enter a heightened state that gives you a ton of buffs and can even be used outside of combat to improve several of your ability checks. Subsequent uses causes exhaustion.
Beast Oriented Subclass (Final Name TBD)
Originally I was planning to deprecate the Beast Master from 5E, but player feedback during playtesting made me change my mind. There was still the interest in keeping it available for Predator and Warden as a means to pick up a pet, or double up pets with the Ranger Companion. However, we need a new name for this subclass now.
This option provides an example catering to each of the callings and still bringing the theme to life in a unique manner.
🐺Bond - Empower your ranger companion, even removing the bonus action requirement to command your companion.
🏹Predator - Call upon the beasts to aid you and take on aspects of the beasts yourself.
🌳Warden - Gain additional beast themed spells and free castings of them.
Traps
A highly requested feature is the ability to use traps.
Traps are difficult. They are complicated to design without being abusable. They are tough to balance where they feel worthwhile.
The route I decided was leveraging the ranger's 1st level Survivalist feature and giving them scaling difficult for subsequent uses.
One challenge with the original ranger's exploration features is player agency. If the player never has the opportunity to use their character's features because of the campaign direction, that sucks.
If we build features that let the player use the character's strengths, we can ensure there is an opportunity.
Trapper taps into this by using a Survival check. The other players can pile in and add Guidance, Bardic Inspiration, etc. to increase the odds even further.
The key limiters for the ranger (or a party of rangers...) is how the traps are constructed. Because the character is using Survival and gathering materials:
Summary
We are level 3 and have all the tools to build the ranger you want:
- You have a way to benefit if your preferred subclass adds spells but you want to choose Bond or Predator.
- You can choose the Adventure's Calling—Bond, Predator, Warden—that meets your vision of the class.
- You have foundational features that scale as you level with Survivalist and Prey Preparation.
- You have a way to make traps, but limits on how frequently/effectively the traps can be created.
Next week, we'll dive into the 4th level features!
I've been playtesting the ranger redesign for several months. Here are the sessions if you'd like to see how it has evolved over time:
Want to catch up with the previous post with the ranger level 2 features?
Knight Vision Creative (Brendan)
