Author's Note

This feat models the implementation of the Venatic Ranger homebrew⁽¹⁾ set of optional class features for 2024 Rangers of levels⁽²⁾ 2 to 9.

It lists the optional features gained at levels 2 and 6, with all their benefits combined.

How to Use It. If you are playing a Ranger of level 6–9, add this feat to your character sheet. When you reach level 6, replace this feat with Venatic Ranger 10+.

(1). See the corresponding thread in the Homebrew & House Rules Forum here on D&D Beyond.
(2): Prerequisites are not enforced, as D&D Beyond has currently (2024-sep-06) a bug with the 2024 class prerequisites.

List of implemented optional class features.

• Venatic Instinct (Level 2). By communing with the nature around you, you can hone your skills in tracking and hunting a certain type of enemy.
• Venatic Lore (Level 6). Your knowledge of the predator-prey relationship becomes both deeper and broader. You have developed an instinctive preternatural understanding of the language used by your prey.

You gain the following benefits.

Expanded Chosen Prey. Select two creature types (such as Aberration, Celestial, Humanoids, etc.). Creatures of the selected type belong to your Chosen Prey. You can change your Chosen Prey when you complete a Long or Short Rest.

Focused Mark. While the quarry of your Hunter's Mark spell belongs to your Chosen Prey, the spell doesn't require concentration. This affects both the moment at which you cast the spell on your initial target and when you change your mark while the spell is active.

Efficient Mark. While you are not Incapacitated, the first time during your turn you cast Hunter's Mark on a Chosen Prey or change your marked quarry to a Chosen Prey, you can do it without expending any action.

Tracking Mark. You can cast Hunter's Mark targeting a set of tracks that you can see within range. If a creature belonging to your Chosen Prey left those tracks less than 7 days ago, that creature becomes marked as your quarry; otherwise, the spell fails but you don't expend the spell slot or the usage of the feature that granted it.

Primal Comprehension. While you are within 60 feet of one or more communicating creatures that belong to your Chosen Prey and that you can see or hear, you can identify the meaning behind speech, gestures, grunts, screeches, gibbering, telepathy, spores, light signals, or other forms of communication among them. In any case, you only get the general meaning of a message or conversation, not a word-by-word translation.