I've always thought this would work better as a Ranger subclass than a Fighter. In porting it over, I was thinking of doing the following:
Ranger Level 3 - Identical to current Arcane Archer level 3.
Ranger Level 7 - Identical to current Arcane Archer level 7.
The Arcane Archer level 10 ability (one additional shot choice) is dropped.
Ranger level 11 - The Ranger gets ever-ready shot (Arcane Archer level 15 ability) and 4 shot options (instead of the 5 an Arcane Archer would have)
Ranger level 15 - The Ranger gets improved shot (Arcane Archer level 18 ability) and 5 shot options (instead of the 6 an Arcane Archer would have)
Of course, the problem with this is that the Ranger version would get ever-ready shot and improved shot significantly earlier than the current Arcane Archer. Is this ridiculously unbalanced? Given the already few uses of the arcane shots, the early grab of ever-ready shot doesn't bother me too much. If the improved shot is unbalanced too early, do you think making the damage increase by just 1d6 (instead of 2d6) smooths that out?
I believe Arcane Archer was originally a Ranger subclass in the Unearthed Arcana version. I think that what youve said would work fine, but if youre looking for more information, that U.A. article might be a good place to start
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The more I think about this, the more I'm OK with it. The fact that the Ranger gets some more robust abilities earlier than the fighter is balanced by the fact that I think the Fighter base class is much more robust than the Ranger base class (in other words, the Fighter gets most of its good stuff from its base, while the Ranger gets most of its good stuff from the subclasses).
I've always thought this would work better as a Ranger subclass than a Fighter. In porting it over, I was thinking of doing the following:
Ranger Level 3 - Identical to current Arcane Archer level 3.
Ranger Level 7 - Identical to current Arcane Archer level 7.
The Arcane Archer level 10 ability (one additional shot choice) is dropped.
Ranger level 11 - The Ranger gets ever-ready shot (Arcane Archer level 15 ability) and 4 shot options (instead of the 5 an Arcane Archer would have)
Ranger level 15 - The Ranger gets improved shot (Arcane Archer level 18 ability) and 5 shot options (instead of the 6 an Arcane Archer would have)
Of course, the problem with this is that the Ranger version would get ever-ready shot and improved shot significantly earlier than the current Arcane Archer. Is this ridiculously unbalanced? Given the already few uses of the arcane shots, the early grab of ever-ready shot doesn't bother me too much. If the improved shot is unbalanced too early, do you think making the damage increase by just 1d6 (instead of 2d6) smooths that out?
I believe Arcane Archer was originally a Ranger subclass in the Unearthed Arcana version. I think that what youve said would work fine, but if youre looking for more information, that U.A. article might be a good place to start
Four-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
The UA version was for fighters too.
The more I think about this, the more I'm OK with it. The fact that the Ranger gets some more robust abilities earlier than the fighter is balanced by the fact that I think the Fighter base class is much more robust than the Ranger base class (in other words, the Fighter gets most of its good stuff from its base, while the Ranger gets most of its good stuff from the subclasses).
Alternatively, you could make the arcane shots cost spell slots (like paladin smites) and have each higher level slot do 1d6 more damage.
At level 11, get the extra shot option from level 10, and replace ever ready shot (since you would be using spell slots).
At level 15 get improved shot, copying paladin's improved divine smite, so your attacks always do 1d6 bonus damage even without spell slots.