Barbarians have a concentration problem! :D It's thematic! :o It might even mean that barbarians and spell casting classes might not want to multiclass into one another! :'< But what, if anything, might be done?
I was wondering whether classes, like ranger, might drop their spellcasting abilities for access to one or more extra subclass options.
Ranger's get archetype features at 3rd, 7th, 11th and 15th class levels and get access to spells of increased spell level at 5th, 9th, 13th and 17th class levels. Perhaps, if a class variant drops spells and adopts, say, one extra subclass, features for the extra subclass could be granted when the class would have got access to higher level spells.
Swapping a class feature for an additional subclasse is not within the rules. It's something that would be up to player and DM to discuss. Depending on the combo, it could make interesting variant for sure.
PS This would be better in Homebrew & Houserules forum section.
The official answer is no - the closest you could get to that is multiclassing or play classes without spellcasting.
The flavor of this mixture also might not work the best with all combinations.
Otherwise, what you are talking about would require quite a bit of work to homebrew & balance it. It could be interesting now that I think about it - first of all you would have to skip the additional spells and if you want absolutely no magic rework some of the subclasses (mostly fey wanderer) to adjust for not being able to cast spell from the gained abilities.
The spellcasting has enormous utility potential outside combat (if you skip it then you should look at the ranger as a half-point between rogue and fighter, leaning towards rogue).
That would mean that most of the ranger’s abilities would be useful (only) in combat - so maybe balance it by giving the additional subclass at lvl 9 and it gets abilities as they follow on spell lvl upgrade (this would mean the capstone of the subclass would never be achieved) and giving it an extra ASI/feat at lvl 6 (or something along those lines). I would not recommend getting full abilities of another ranger subclass.
The problem I see is that you might end up with an extremely powerful character when it comes to combat.
Another thing you could do instead is make the “normal” ranger abilities (that every ranger gets) a bit more powerful and then add only some specific subclass abilities (so the player chooses a second subclass and then you pick one/two specific abilities from that subclass to gain at a certain lvl - probably 9th and 17th). For some ideas you can look at the ‘archive revised ranger’ (link to *******: http://dnd5e.*******.com/ranger-revised)
I would probably try the second option I listed.
Whatever you decide to do you should remember that WIS should be at least secondary stat for the new build (add wisdom modifier/long rest uses or something)
All of the above would probably work if you do not allow multiclassing from/into this version of ranger - otherwise it would be straightforward broken for example, as you mentioned, a barbarian.
All in all, it is an interesting idea, but its implementation requires quite a lot of extra work (do try to get you DM/player to help you balance it out)
Barbarians have a concentration problem! :D
It's thematic! :o
It might even mean that barbarians and spell casting classes might not want to multiclass into one another! :'<
But what, if anything, might be done?
I was wondering whether classes, like ranger, might drop their spellcasting abilities for access to one or more extra subclass options.
Ranger Archetypes are:
Beast Master
Fey Wanderer
Gloom Stalker
Horizon Walker
Monster Slayer
Swarmkeeper
Would/how could this balance?
Would it work?
Ranger's get archetype features at 3rd, 7th, 11th and 15th class levels and get access to spells of increased spell level at 5th, 9th, 13th and 17th class levels. Perhaps, if a class variant drops spells and adopts, say, one extra subclass, features for the extra subclass could be granted when the class would have got access to higher level spells.
Thoughts?
Swapping a class feature for an additional subclasse is not within the rules. It's something that would be up to player and DM to discuss. Depending on the combo, it could make interesting variant for sure.
PS This would be better in Homebrew & Houserules forum section.
The official answer is no - the closest you could get to that is multiclassing or play classes without spellcasting.
The flavor of this mixture also might not work the best with all combinations.
Otherwise, what you are talking about would require quite a bit of work to homebrew & balance it. It could be interesting now that I think about it - first of all you would have to skip the additional spells and if you want absolutely no magic rework some of the subclasses (mostly fey wanderer) to adjust for not being able to cast spell from the gained abilities.
The spellcasting has enormous utility potential outside combat (if you skip it then you should look at the ranger as a half-point between rogue and fighter, leaning towards rogue).
That would mean that most of the ranger’s abilities would be useful (only) in combat - so maybe balance it by giving the additional subclass at lvl 9 and it gets abilities as they follow on spell lvl upgrade (this would mean the capstone of the subclass would never be achieved) and giving it an extra ASI/feat at lvl 6 (or something along those lines). I would not recommend getting full abilities of another ranger subclass.
The problem I see is that you might end up with an extremely powerful character when it comes to combat.
Another thing you could do instead is make the “normal” ranger abilities (that every ranger gets) a bit more powerful and then add only some specific subclass abilities (so the player chooses a second subclass and then you pick one/two specific abilities from that subclass to gain at a certain lvl - probably 9th and 17th). For some ideas you can look at the ‘archive revised ranger’ (link to *******: http://dnd5e.*******.com/ranger-revised)
I would probably try the second option I listed.
Whatever you decide to do you should remember that WIS should be at least secondary stat for the new build (add wisdom modifier/long rest uses or something)
All of the above would probably work if you do not allow multiclassing from/into this version of ranger - otherwise it would be straightforward broken for example, as you mentioned, a barbarian.
All in all, it is an interesting idea, but its implementation requires quite a lot of extra work (do try to get you DM/player to help you balance it out)
May the force be with you!
WotC did actually publish optional rules for Rangers without Spellcasting:
https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/modifying-classes
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