I've mentioned a few times that I'm not a big fan of the Favored Enemy ability, or of the class's obsession with the Hunter's Mark spell. I have been thinking of the value of the archetypical Rangers in stories and whatnot, and rather than being dudes who shot bows and stabbed with swords with any especially deadlier skill, what they all have in common is the ability to lead a party in either tracking, fleeing, or ambushing a target. So I was thinking, what if there was a Ranger that was more movement-support oriented? I literally just put this together in about ten minutes, so it's not the most deeply thought-out variant, but I curious if you all had any thoughts on the below. I'd be replacing the class features of the appropriate level (in the cases where there are multiple, I'm replacing the Hunter's Mark-specific features), and the points from the "leadership pool" would match the number of "favored enemy" uses that the Ranger gets. The feature names are also... y'know... lazy. Feel free to make suggestions for changes.
Level 1: Leadership Pool You have a pool of spell points that you can draw from to empower certain abilities. The number of points the pool contains increases when you reach certain Ranger levels. The pool replenishes after a Long Rest.
Level 1: Move as I Move You always have the Longstrider spell prepared. You can expend one point from your Leadership Pool to cast it without a spell slot. When you cast it in this manner, you may target a number of creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1).
Level 6: Master of Many Forms You always have the Alter Self spell prepared. You can expend two points from your Leadership Pool to cast it without a spell slot. When you cast it in this manner, the spell’s range becomes Touch, and you may target a number of creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1).
Level 9: Take to the Skies You always have the Fly spell prepared. You can expend three points from your Leadership Pool to cast it without a spell slot. When you cast it in this manner, you may target a number of creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1).
Level 13: Relentless Hunter You always have the Freedom of Movement spell prepared. You can expend four points from your Leadership Pool to cast it without a spell slot. When you cast it in this manner, you may target a number of creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1).
Level 17: One Mind, One Heart When you cast a spell using points from your Leadership Pool, you may spend one additional point from your Leadership Pool to change the spell in one of the following ways
You may extend the spell's duration to 8 hours.
You may extend the spell's range to 30ft, and you may cast the spells without Verbal, Somatic, or Material components. If the spell has costly Material components, those must still be supplied.
You may increase the speed of the targets of the spell by 10ft for the duration of the spell.
You may only apply one such augmentation to any spell.
Level 20: Peerless Focus Taking damage cannot break concentration on Ranger spells that you have cast.
I recognize that a lot of this supercharges certain spells, but it shouldn't affect them much more than it would if they were upcast by a full caster of equivalent level, and the spells themselves aren't particularly game-breaking. Instead they're just tools to expand the parameters of the team's movement. I also think the capstone ability is a big improvement, and as most of Rangers' concentration spells are movement-based, it fits with the theme.
Any thoughts? Any balancing I could do here? Any better class feature names?
Hi All,
I've mentioned a few times that I'm not a big fan of the Favored Enemy ability, or of the class's obsession with the Hunter's Mark spell. I have been thinking of the value of the archetypical Rangers in stories and whatnot, and rather than being dudes who shot bows and stabbed with swords with any especially deadlier skill, what they all have in common is the ability to lead a party in either tracking, fleeing, or ambushing a target. So I was thinking, what if there was a Ranger that was more movement-support oriented? I literally just put this together in about ten minutes, so it's not the most deeply thought-out variant, but I curious if you all had any thoughts on the below. I'd be replacing the class features of the appropriate level (in the cases where there are multiple, I'm replacing the Hunter's Mark-specific features), and the points from the "leadership pool" would match the number of "favored enemy" uses that the Ranger gets. The feature names are also... y'know... lazy. Feel free to make suggestions for changes.
Level 1: Leadership Pool
You have a pool of spell points that you can draw from to empower certain abilities. The number of points the pool contains increases when you reach certain Ranger levels. The pool replenishes after a Long Rest.
Level 1: Move as I Move
You always have the Longstrider spell prepared. You can expend one point from your Leadership Pool to cast it without a spell slot. When you cast it in this manner, you may target a number of creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1).
Level 6: Master of Many Forms
You always have the Alter Self spell prepared. You can expend two points from your Leadership Pool to cast it without a spell slot. When you cast it in this manner, the spell’s range becomes Touch, and you may target a number of creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1).
Level 9: Take to the Skies
You always have the Fly spell prepared. You can expend three points from your Leadership Pool to cast it without a spell slot. When you cast it in this manner, you may target a number of creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1).
Level 13: Relentless Hunter
You always have the Freedom of Movement spell prepared. You can expend four points from your Leadership Pool to cast it without a spell slot. When you cast it in this manner, you may target a number of creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1).
Level 17: One Mind, One Heart
When you cast a spell using points from your Leadership Pool, you may spend one additional point from your Leadership Pool to change the spell in one of the following ways
You may only apply one such augmentation to any spell.
Level 20: Peerless Focus
Taking damage cannot break concentration on Ranger spells that you have cast.
I recognize that a lot of this supercharges certain spells, but it shouldn't affect them much more than it would if they were upcast by a full caster of equivalent level, and the spells themselves aren't particularly game-breaking. Instead they're just tools to expand the parameters of the team's movement. I also think the capstone ability is a big improvement, and as most of Rangers' concentration spells are movement-based, it fits with the theme.
Any thoughts? Any balancing I could do here? Any better class feature names?