You gain proficiency with Thieves’ Tools and one of the following skills: Perception, Stealth or Survival (your choice). You can double your proficiency bonus for one of these skills.
You also gain advantage for searching for and disarming traps, as well as initiative rolls where one or more of the enemy is surprised.
3rd Level: Deploy Trap
You can spend 10 minutes concentrating on a set of Thieves' Tools to fabricate a trap using items from your environment. Each time you begin, choose one of the following features:
Ensnare. A creature affected by this trap is considered restrained. The creature can make a Strength Saving Throw as an action on their turn to end the effect.
Crush. A creature affected by this trap takes 3d8 + your wisdom modifier Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Slashing damage (your choice). This damage increases to 5d8 when you reach 7th level, and 7d8 when you reach 15th level.
Trammel. A creature affected by this trap takes 2d4 Piercing damage. Until the creature regains at least 1 hit point, its movement speed is halved and it can’t benefit from any bonuses to its speed. A creature can’t be affected by this feature again until it has regained at least 1 hit point.
Fling. A creature affected by this trap is tossed 15 feet in a direction of your choice. They stop moving early if they hit a surface, object, or another creature. The creature then falls prone where they land. This distance increases to 25 feet when you reach 7th level, and 40 feet when you reach 15th level.
You can have up to 2 traps created at once. The trap can take up either 5 or 10 square feet of space and can be deployed on an unoccupied floor or wall within 5 feet of you. It has an AC of 10 and a number of hit points equal to your wisdom modifier (minimum of 1). If a creature of huge or larger steps into the trap's space, it is destroyed.
You can deploy one of these traps as an action. On your following turn the trap activates and any creature of large or smaller that walks into its space must succeed a Dexterity Saving Throw equal to your Spell Save DC (8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier) or be subject to its effect. You and your allies can pass through the trap’s space without triggering it, but cannot willingly end their turn in its space. Once a trap is triggered, it is destroyed.
A creature is aware of your trap if they could see you when you deployed the trap, or have a Passive Perception higher than your Spell Save DC, and an Intelligence above 6.
7th Level: Improvisation
You can now create traps at astounding speeds. You can instantly craft and deploy a trap as an action twice per long rest. These improvised traps don’t count against the total number of created traps you can have. Each time a creature succeeds a saving throw in one of your traps, you can use this feature once within the next minute without expending one of its uses.
11th Level: Superior Devices
Each time you begin crafting a trap, you can choose one of the following additional features:
Overclock. A creature that fails the saving throw for this trap is also subject to one additional feature of your choice from the previous list.
Hand-Triggered. Your trap is no longer triggered by a creature entering its space. You can activate the trap as a bonus action on your turn, provided you have not walked more than 30 feet away from where you deployed it. Any creature standing in the trap’s space when you activate it automatically fails the trap’s saving throw.
Your traps also become more durable. For every ranger level you have, your trap’s hit points increase by 2. Your traps will no longer be destroyed by a creature of huge or larger entering its space.
15th Level: Unwieldy Design
Your traps can now affect any creature, regardless of size.
Cool concept, definitely an archetype that should exist but doesn't in 5e. A couple things:
The traps are oddly balanced against each other. Crush seems very strong while Trammel seems a bit on the weak side. It's weird that Crush scales on specific levels, Fling scales with proficiency bonus, and the other two don't scale at all. Trammel feels like it really falls behind at higher levels, and while Restrained should be a constant in terms of potency, higher level creatures often have teleports that could arguably foil Ensnare.
Improvisation has this feedback loop where the more successful your traps are, the more traps you get to use. This makes it really swingy. Usually features take the opposite approach, giving you a little boost if you've had a bad run of the dice to help ensure that the feature feels useful, but also limiting runaway successes to maintain balance.
Hand-Triggered causing an automatic fail on saves is probably too much. I can't think of anywhere else in the game where you can deal significant damage or throw a creature 20 feet without allowing it a chance to save. Even disadvantage on saves is handed out very sparingly in 5e.
Thinking about this in play, I think a major recurring issue would be that creatures see you deploying your traps and just avoid them. A way to stealthily deploy them would be cool at 11.
Not a direct criticism, but Ranger subclasses tend to have at least one feature that speaks more to the exploration part of the game, and the 15th level feature is usually a defensive thing. I know you really want to focus on traps, but maybe a feature could revolve around being better at detecting/avoiding/disarming traps (I get that proficiencies help with this, but anyone can get those - a Trapper should be a step beyond).
Thank you for your feedback. Your critiques have been recognized and applied, when I am finished refining my copy I will edit the original post to fit these circumstances. The following will be the new changes:
Instinctive Advantage gives advantage for searching for and disarming traps.
you can now only place a trap on an unoccupied floor or wall within 5 feet of you.
Trammel now reduces your speed by half instead of 10 feet.
Fling now scales by level milestones.
Improvisation now gives you bonus uses when your traps fail, rather than succeed. (I'm gonna keep on thinking on this one.)
Of course this is not everything you mentioned, but I do have "brief" explanations for why some of the rules are the way that they are. (a) I've always viewed Trammel as the most powerful in this list, because of its ability to negate bonuses to speed. This might be written wrong, and that might be the problem, but what I am intending is that the creature can no longer dash to get away, or cast a movement spell to get away. It's a lock ability, and not many enemy creatures/NPCs heal aside from the occasional regenerative monster, making this the most continuous feature. (b) Restrained is a gnarly effect, even if just for one round, and it can still eat up an enemy's action and/or spell slot. (c) Hand-Triggered is OP on purpose for two reasons: the creature has to be standing exactly where you need it to stand for it to work and you can only trigger it on your turn. That is why it is only a bonus action, it negates the player from just using a Ready action and triggering it whenever. This is intended to make combat for the whole party more dynamic, using control spells and 'push tactics' to funnel or move the enemy exactly where you need them, exactly when you need them. So you can possibly restrain them and turn the tides of battle, or fling them off a nearby cliff. That kind of long-term guaranteed gratification through teamwork and planning feels awesome for the players, and can be mitigated when needed by the DM. (d) I don't feel like creatures seeing you would be devastating to the trapper, the wording I chose says only you have to be out of the line of sight, not the trap, for the trap to go unseen. This could be as simple as gaining full cover, taking an action to hide, being in a heavily obscured or dark area, etc. And Rangers still get the ability to hide on a bonus action at 14th level, be that as it is a high level, it's not without notice. (e) And finally, the 15th level feature. I know most rangers get an exploration thing, but one of the main aspects of a trapper is finding a spot and sticking to it, so I'm letting that down. I would love to give this subclass a better 15th level feature, one that helps with defense, but I can't figure anything that would be a great fit. Being able to toss a Tarrasque 30 feet in a direction of your choice or instantly restrain it is already pretty good, so I'm not sure where to go.
I hope this clears a few things up and you're satisfied with the changes and reasonings. If you still find flaw in my design, I would love to hear your opinions. All criticism and concepts are welcome.
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Ranger: Trapper Conclave
3rd Level: Instinctive Advantage
You gain proficiency with Thieves’ Tools and one of the following skills: Perception, Stealth or Survival (your choice). You can double your proficiency bonus for one of these skills.
You also gain advantage for searching for and disarming traps, as well as initiative rolls where one or more of the enemy is surprised.
3rd Level: Deploy Trap
You can spend 10 minutes concentrating on a set of Thieves' Tools to fabricate a trap using items from your environment. Each time you begin, choose one of the following features:
You can have up to 2 traps created at once. The trap can take up either 5 or 10 square feet of space and can be deployed on an unoccupied floor or wall within 5 feet of you. It has an AC of 10 and a number of hit points equal to your wisdom modifier (minimum of 1). If a creature of huge or larger steps into the trap's space, it is destroyed.
You can deploy one of these traps as an action. On your following turn the trap activates and any creature of large or smaller that walks into its space must succeed a Dexterity Saving Throw equal to your Spell Save DC (8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier) or be subject to its effect. You and your allies can pass through the trap’s space without triggering it, but cannot willingly end their turn in its space. Once a trap is triggered, it is destroyed.
A creature is aware of your trap if they could see you when you deployed the trap, or have a Passive Perception higher than your Spell Save DC, and an Intelligence above 6.
7th Level: Improvisation
You can now create traps at astounding speeds. You can instantly craft and deploy a trap as an action twice per long rest. These improvised traps don’t count against the total number of created traps you can have. Each time a creature succeeds a saving throw in one of your traps, you can use this feature once within the next minute without expending one of its uses.
11th Level: Superior Devices
Each time you begin crafting a trap, you can choose one of the following additional features:
Your traps also become more durable. For every ranger level you have, your trap’s hit points increase by 2. Your traps will no longer be destroyed by a creature of huge or larger entering its space.
15th Level: Unwieldy Design
Your traps can now affect any creature, regardless of size.
Cool concept, definitely an archetype that should exist but doesn't in 5e. A couple things:
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Thank you for your feedback. Your critiques have been recognized and applied, when I am finished refining my copy I will edit the original post to fit these circumstances. The following will be the new changes:
Of course this is not everything you mentioned, but I do have "brief" explanations for why some of the rules are the way that they are. (a) I've always viewed Trammel as the most powerful in this list, because of its ability to negate bonuses to speed. This might be written wrong, and that might be the problem, but what I am intending is that the creature can no longer dash to get away, or cast a movement spell to get away. It's a lock ability, and not many enemy creatures/NPCs heal aside from the occasional regenerative monster, making this the most continuous feature. (b) Restrained is a gnarly effect, even if just for one round, and it can still eat up an enemy's action and/or spell slot. (c) Hand-Triggered is OP on purpose for two reasons: the creature has to be standing exactly where you need it to stand for it to work and you can only trigger it on your turn. That is why it is only a bonus action, it negates the player from just using a Ready action and triggering it whenever. This is intended to make combat for the whole party more dynamic, using control spells and 'push tactics' to funnel or move the enemy exactly where you need them, exactly when you need them. So you can possibly restrain them and turn the tides of battle, or fling them off a nearby cliff. That kind of long-term guaranteed gratification through teamwork and planning feels awesome for the players, and can be mitigated when needed by the DM. (d) I don't feel like creatures seeing you would be devastating to the trapper, the wording I chose says only you have to be out of the line of sight, not the trap, for the trap to go unseen. This could be as simple as gaining full cover, taking an action to hide, being in a heavily obscured or dark area, etc. And Rangers still get the ability to hide on a bonus action at 14th level, be that as it is a high level, it's not without notice. (e) And finally, the 15th level feature. I know most rangers get an exploration thing, but one of the main aspects of a trapper is finding a spot and sticking to it, so I'm letting that down. I would love to give this subclass a better 15th level feature, one that helps with defense, but I can't figure anything that would be a great fit. Being able to toss a Tarrasque 30 feet in a direction of your choice or instantly restrain it is already pretty good, so I'm not sure where to go.
I hope this clears a few things up and you're satisfied with the changes and reasonings. If you still find flaw in my design, I would love to hear your opinions. All criticism and concepts are welcome.