Horizon Walker, while not as feat-optimizable as some the other Ranger subclasses, used to be a pretty special subclass. Besides being able to turn Ethereal at 7th level, they had what was arguably some of the best spells of the Ranger subclasses. Before the Fey Touched existed as a feat, getting Misty Step was a fairly difficult level investment for other Rangers. And while doing Force damage is nice and the 11th level teleportation feature remains effective, what incentive is there for most people to play a Horizon Walker from levels 3 to 10?
I'm suggesting that, with some minor tweaks, Horizon Walker can be made to feel unique AND useful again from levels 3 to 10 while also being a good candidate for multiclassing with certain builds.
Change the current bonus action Planar Warrior feature from:
"As a bonus action, choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The next time you hit that creature on this turn with a weapon attack, all damage dealt by the attack becomes force damage, and the creature takes an extra 1d8 force damage from the attack."
to:
"Once per turn, you may mark one creature you can detect within 30 feet of you. The next time you hit that creature on this turn with a weapon attack, all damage dealt by the attack becomes force damage, and the creatures takes an extra 1d8 force damage from the attack. A creature marked by Planar warrior this way cannot be marked by other spell features of this character."
Reason: Planar Warrior took up too much of the action economy. Bonus actions are valuable for potentially wonderful melee-centric feats that go well with the in-your-face style that Planar Warrior was built to take advantage of. Limiting it to once per turn prevents it from being just a stronger version of Hunter's Mark while also making a Horizon Walker/Rogue multi-class more effective. Also, now Hunter's Mark can be used alongside Planar Warrior, but NOT on the same creature, reducing potential for OP DPS builds at an arguably too early level.
2. Change Detect Portal from an active, highly limited ability to one that lasts 10 minutes AND also make it so that it detect the casting of spells that summon, conjure, gate or otherwise facilitate travel between planes. This changes it from a ribbon feature in 95 % of campaigns to a useful spell for finding full casters since they are the most likely to use spells that conjure, summon or gate other creatures. Note this feature might also be useful for finding a missing member of your own party.
3. Change Ethereal Step so that it can last until the end of your following turn or until dismissed by the Horizon Walker with a bonus action. Getting potentially two rounds to traverse the Ethereal plane is more useful than one round, especially if you are being attacked by threats that inhabit the Ethereal plane. However, this remains primarily an exploration feature, and one that is useful for a 12 seconds instead of 6 seconds is a solid boost without making the Horizon Walker OP in any way (unless you're fighting Phase Spiders. Cause **** Phase Spiders).
To be completely honest, Horizon Walker is one of the weakest sub-classes in my opinion. Specially after Fey Wanderer and Swarmkeeper.
First and foremost, Planar Warrior has a terrible 30 ft range limitation that goes against archery builds. The bonus action requirement also goes against TWF and CBE. Hunters Mark is not even the problem here. I like your adjustments and I would NOT put any restriction on combining it with spells, since you already have the 30 ft range limitation, it should be more or less equalized with Colossus Slayer. Although people values the ability to transform all damage to Force, this is not that amazing once magic weapons starts appearing. It’s good at low levels, but it’s mostly a ribbon later on.
Ethereal Step is nice, but it is the bonus action convolution once again. I would re-work on something that would increase their defense or evasiveness, or maybe a battlefield control ability. For sure something that don’t disturb the action economy, since most top classes have passive or reaction abilities. I don’t know, maybe the teleport followed by resistance like Shadar-Kai racial ability prof times per long rest?
Hmmm, I feel like giving the HW Ranger an incentive to not be too far away from enemies has been appropriate to the subclass. Otherwise, Force damage from a distance feels a bit, IDK, like a Ranger version of Wizard casting Magic Missile, but with arrows.
Personally, I think 5e made a mistake by getting rid of Damage Reduction to powerful monsters. Now there is not that much difference betw a +1 Longsword and a +3 Longsword unless it's a critical. It used to be that some monsters took less or zero damage from weaker magic weapons. The Force damage is more notable in a campaign world where DR got brought back such that stronger Elementals and Fiends would only take 1/2 damage from Piercing, Bludgeoning, or Slashing weapons with less than a +2 or +3.
What if we were to add something to Planar Warrior like this:
"When you do damage to a creature from different plane than the one you are presently on with the Force damage of this feature, you may require a Charisma saving throw from that creature. On a failed save, the creature takes an addition 1d8 points of Force damage and receives disadvantage on attack rolls until the beginning of your next turn. You may use this additional feature of Planar Warrior a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. You regain all uses of this additional feature after receiving a long rest."
Note: this would primarily affect Fey, Fiends, Elementals, Celestials, and summoned creatures. The idea is that your Force damage is weakening the ties they have to the plane they have been summoned/gated/trespassed in/onto. I could add some kind of forced movement rider, but then that would be too much like imitating Swarmkeeper.
Ethereal Step is nice, but it is the bonus action convolution once again. I would re-work on something that would increase their defense or evasiveness, or maybe a battlefield control ability. For sure something that don’t disturb the action economy, since most top classes have passive or reaction abilities. I don’t know, maybe the teleport followed by resistance like Shadar-Kai racial ability prof times per long rest?
I kept the bonus action part because it felt appropriate for two reasons: 1) HW Ranger isn't native to the Ethereal Plane, so it makes sense that it would need to take some kind of action to shift; 2) Phase Spiders also use a bonus action to turn ethereal and to stop being ethereal.
I think what might be a good but subtle change would be to allow the HW Ranger to end their etherealness up to 20 feet away from their original position prior to becoming ethereal. The original ability mandated that you return to your pre-ethereal position on the map once the etherealness ends. Giving the player some flexibility here could be useful in situations where something happens to the party while the Ranger is away or if the Ranger turned ethereal during combat. It adds an additional bit of tactical consideration to the HW.
It's been a long time since I really looked at the Horizon Walker and I'm about to leave for work so I can't look it up right now, but I remember thinking that it's the subclass I'd like to use the most for a heavy armour wearing two-handed weapon wielding Ranger somehow. Again, I don't really remember why anymore. I'll probably look it up later and come back to this thread but for now someone else might perhaps get some use out of that idea. ^^
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
For detect portal I didn't think it was that bad (although I figured it should just be tied to Primeval awareness).
here's why. it was designed with Favored enemy and Terrain in mind. so you would probably pick choices that reflect planar types. then when you are in an adventure, you make skill checks first and that allows an informed decision when you make your detection attempt. IF all else fails Use it at the end of the day just as you are about to setup camp. a negative result is still valuable in that situation.
It's been a long time since I really looked at the Horizon Walker and I'm about to leave for work so I can't look it up right now, but I remember thinking that it's the subclass I'd like to use the most for a heavy armour wearing two-handed weapon wielding Ranger somehow. Again, I don't really remember why anymore. I'll probably look it up later and come back to this thread but for now someone else might perhaps get some use out of that idea. ^^
Having taken another look at the subclass I think the only reason why I thought about such a character is because having to use your BA makes two-weapon fighting a rather uninteresting choice (at that time I was theory crafting a bunch of TWF Ranger builds) and thought a teleporting character in heavy armor and big weapon could be fun lol (also because I think the Baldur's Gate 3 Ranger has a way to get heavy armor proficiency iirc).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
Meh. The subclass is fine. I don't think it *needs* an adjustment. Would it welcome a few tweaks? Sure. Are they a necessity for the class? Not at all. It's not a weak subclass at all.
I've used Horizon Walkers since Xanathar's came out (and again after the CFV UA and again after Tasha's and again as recently as last April and will be using another one in the Fall.) I've played them variously from levels 5-20 and I've never felt lacking.
Planar Warrior is fine. Not amazing; but fine. It's better than Hunter's Mark before level 5 and only two points behind in damage after that. In return, it doesn't take up your concentration and turns all damage to force, which is useful before you get a magic weapon. Afterwards, it's still alright in a pinch. It's maybe not as useful as Crossbow Expert in T1 & T2, but few things are. When it scales in T3, it actually does an average of .5 more damage than CBE with a max Dex. But let's be honest, CBE was never really the point of CBE builds. CBE is really just a delivery method for Sharpshooter. And that's a fine combo (that staggers your ASI progression until level 12 unless you hamstring your build to Vuman or Custom Lineage.) But the higher in levels you get, the less optimal it is to take the attack roll penalty. Especially if you haven't been boosting your Dexterity. Does it suck that you have to reapply Planar Warrior every turn with your BA? Sure. But it has enough going for it that it isn't a clear-cut decision when compared to Hunter's Mark or CBE.
With Planar Warrior, you can keep your damage up while holding concentration on things like Entangle, Fog Cloud, Silence, Spike Growth, Conjure Animals, Haste, or Guardian of Nature. All of which I would argue more than make up for the ~2 points of damage you lose by using Hunter's Mark instead. And with Planar Warrior, you don't have to delay your ASI progression or lock yourself into one of two races to get your build ready to go like with CBE. The damage is less, but the opportunity cost shores it up. Like I said, it's not an amazing feature, but it's good enough.
Detect Portal deceptively gets better as the game progresses. Once you hit the higher tiers of play, you're less likely to be fighting random guards and more likely to be encountering aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, and fiends. All of which are colloquially known as Outsiders for a reason. If you use Detect Portal and get a ping, you know to prepare yourself for something. And as was posted above, if you don't get a ping, that's still valuable information. Not to mention how many campaigns center around cultists trying to summon [x] from another plane. Detect Portal is a ribbon feature, but one that isn't anywhere near as niche as it might appear.
Ethereal Step gives you access to a 7th-level spell, something Rangers normally don't get at all. Is it limited? Yes. Are there better options in combat? Absolutely. But I'd argue using Ethereal Step in combat misses the point of the feature. If you can't see the utility in a round of walking through walls or flight on a character that has naturally high stealth, Pass Without Trace, Roving, and Haste, I don't know what to tell you.
The rest of the subclass is solid. Distant Strikes is amazing for melee or range for repositioning, Spectral Defense is a good defensive tool, and the subclass comes with phenomenal spells at every level. Protection from Evil & Good is a great defensive buff that gets better at higher levels for the same reason as Detect Portal. Misty Step is Misty Step. Haste is a boost to your offense, defense, mobility, and utility that synergizes beautifully with Distant Strikes. Banishment is a good shutdown spell unless you've been neglecting your Wisdom (which is a user-issue and not a class issue,) and Teleportation Circle is fantastic in any setting that has them.
And unlike the PHB and Fizban Rangers, Horizon Walkers get new features every other level thanks to their expanded spell list, meaning you're getting new goodies consistently at levels 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17 in addition to the base Ranger kit. It shares this with the Xanathar and Tasha Rangers, but it's still worth noting. The H. Walker's expanded spells are really solid in their own right.
So overall, the class is fine. It can get a buff, sure. But it's not necessary.
I never said that Horizon Walker isn't an interesting pick or that's it's weak choice. If you read through ALL my posts on this thread, you'll see that I'm suggesting modest power increases to what the Horizon Walker already does, rather than trying to shoehorn some other subclass's abilities onto the default HW. The issue I'm seeing is that its more thematic low level abilities have been effectively poached by Fey Wanderer or by Warlock/Bard gish hybrids. IOW, if you don't KNOW whether level 11 is in the cards for your PC, there's not much incentive to go HW versus FW Ranger or Bladelock+Lore Bard.
Meh. The subclass is fine. I don't think it *needs* an adjustment. Would it welcome a few tweaks? Sure. Are they a necessity for the class? Not at all. It's not a weak subclass at all.
I've used Horizon Walkers since Xanathar's came out (and again after the CFV UA and again after Tasha's and again as recently as last April and will be using another one in the Fall.) I've played them variously from levels 5-20 and I've never felt lacking.
Planar Warrior is fine. Not amazing; but fine. It's better than Hunter's Mark before level 5 and only two points behind in damage after that. In return, it doesn't take up your concentration and turns all damage to force, which is useful before you get a magic weapon. Afterwards, it's still alright in a pinch. It's maybe not as useful as Crossbow Expert in T1 & T2, but few things are. When it scales in T3, it actually does an average of .5 more damage than CBE with a max Dex. But let's be honest, CBE was never really the point of CBE builds. CBE is really just a delivery method for Sharpshooter. And that's a fine combo (that staggers your ASI progression until level 12 unless you hamstring your build to Vuman or Custom Lineage.) But the higher in levels you get, the less optimal it is to take the attack roll penalty. Especially if you haven't been boosting your Dexterity. Does it suck that you have to reapply Planar Warrior every turn with your BA? Sure. But it has enough going for it that it isn't a clear-cut decision when compared to Hunter's Mark or CBE.
With Planar Warrior, you can keep your damage up while holding concentration on things like Entangle, Fog Cloud, Silence, Spike Growth, Conjure Animals, Haste, or Guardian of Nature. All of which I would argue more than make up for the ~2 points of damage you lose by using Hunter's Mark instead. And with Planar Warrior, you don't have to delay your ASI progression or lock yourself into one of two races to get your build ready to go like with CBE. The damage is less, but the opportunity cost shores it up. Like I said, it's not an amazing feature, but it's good enough.
Detect Portal deceptively gets better as the game progresses. Once you hit the higher tiers of play, you're less likely to be fighting random guards and more likely to be encountering aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, and fiends. All of which are colloquially known as Outsiders for a reason. If you use Detect Portal and get a ping, you know to prepare yourself for something. And as was posted above, if you don't get a ping, that's still valuable information. Not to mention how many campaigns center around cultists trying to summon [x] from another plane. Detect Portal is a ribbon feature, but one that isn't anywhere near as niche as it might appear.
Ethereal Step gives you access to a 7th-level spell, something Rangers normally don't get at all. Is it limited? Yes. Are there better options in combat? Absolutely. But I'd argue using Ethereal Step in combat misses the point of the feature. If you can't see the utility in a round of walking through walls or flight on a character that has naturally high stealth, Pass Without Trace, Roving, and Haste, I don't know what to tell you.
The rest of the subclass is solid. Distant Strikes is amazing for melee or range for repositioning, Spectral Defense is a good defensive tool, and the subclass comes with phenomenal spells at every level. Protection from Evil & Good is a great defensive buff that gets better at higher levels for the same reason as Detect Portal. Misty Step is Misty Step. Haste is a boost to your offense, defense, mobility, and utility that synergizes beautifully with Distant Strikes. Banishment is a good shutdown spell unless you've been neglecting your Wisdom (which is a user-issue and not a class issue,) and Teleportation Circle is fantastic in any setting that has them.
And unlike the PHB and Fizban Rangers, Horizon Walkers get new features every other level thanks to their expanded spell list, meaning you're getting new goodies consistently at levels 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17 in addition to the base Ranger kit. It shares this with the Xanathar and Tasha Rangers, but it's still worth noting. The H. Walker's expanded spells are really solid in their own right.
So overall, the class is fine. It can get a buff, sure. But it's not necessary.
Thank you for this incredibly insightful review. This analysis is helping me with a Ranger subclass homebrew I’ve been stuck on for a little while. I wrote the outline for it and then went to check for comps before digging in when I “found” the Horizon Walker. It turns out my ideas weren’t too hits as original as I had first thought, my biggest struggle has been making it distinct from the H Walker while retaining its “Etheric” theme. This review has put things into perspective for me, so again, thank you.
Horizon Walker, while not as feat-optimizable as some the other Ranger subclasses, used to be a pretty special subclass. Besides being able to turn Ethereal at 7th level, they had what was arguably some of the best spells of the Ranger subclasses. Before the Fey Touched existed as a feat, getting Misty Step was a fairly difficult level investment for other Rangers. And while doing Force damage is nice and the 11th level teleportation feature remains effective, what incentive is there for most people to play a Horizon Walker from levels 3 to 10?
I'm suggesting that, with some minor tweaks, Horizon Walker can be made to feel unique AND useful again from levels 3 to 10 while also being a good candidate for multiclassing with certain builds.
"As a bonus action, choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The next time you hit
that creature on this turn with a weapon attack, all damage dealt by the attack becomes force
damage, and the creature takes an extra 1d8 force damage from the attack."
to:
"Once per turn, you may mark one creature you can detect within 30 feet of you. The next time you hit that creature on this turn with a weapon attack, all damage dealt by the attack becomes force damage, and the creatures takes an extra 1d8 force damage from the attack. A creature marked by Planar warrior this way cannot be marked by other spell features of this character."
Reason: Planar Warrior took up too much of the action economy. Bonus actions are valuable for potentially wonderful melee-centric feats that go well with the in-your-face style that Planar Warrior was built to take advantage of. Limiting it to once per turn prevents it from being just a stronger version of Hunter's Mark while also making a Horizon Walker/Rogue multi-class more effective. Also, now Hunter's Mark can be used alongside Planar Warrior, but NOT on the same creature, reducing potential for OP DPS builds at an arguably too early level.
2. Change Detect Portal from an active, highly limited ability to one that lasts 10 minutes AND also make it so that it detect the casting of spells that summon, conjure, gate or otherwise facilitate travel between planes. This changes it from a ribbon feature in 95 % of campaigns to a useful spell for finding full casters since they are the most likely to use spells that conjure, summon or gate other creatures. Note this feature might also be useful for finding a missing member of your own party.
3. Change Ethereal Step so that it can last until the end of your following turn or until dismissed by the Horizon Walker with a bonus action. Getting potentially two rounds to traverse the Ethereal plane is more useful than one round, especially if you are being attacked by threats that inhabit the Ethereal plane. However, this remains primarily an exploration feature, and one that is useful for a 12 seconds instead of 6 seconds is a solid boost without making the Horizon Walker OP in any way (unless you're fighting Phase Spiders. Cause **** Phase Spiders).
To be completely honest, Horizon Walker is one of the weakest sub-classes in my opinion. Specially after Fey Wanderer and Swarmkeeper.
First and foremost, Planar Warrior has a terrible 30 ft range limitation that goes against archery builds. The bonus action requirement also goes against TWF and CBE. Hunters Mark is not even the problem here. I like your adjustments and I would NOT put any restriction on combining it with spells, since you already have the 30 ft range limitation, it should be more or less equalized with Colossus Slayer. Although people values the ability to transform all damage to Force, this is not that amazing once magic weapons starts appearing. It’s good at low levels, but it’s mostly a ribbon later on.
Ethereal Step is nice, but it is the bonus action convolution once again. I would re-work on something that would increase their defense or evasiveness, or maybe a battlefield control ability. For sure something that don’t disturb the action economy, since most top classes have passive or reaction abilities. I don’t know, maybe the teleport followed by resistance like Shadar-Kai racial ability prof times per long rest?
Hmmm, I feel like giving the HW Ranger an incentive to not be too far away from enemies has been appropriate to the subclass. Otherwise, Force damage from a distance feels a bit, IDK, like a Ranger version of Wizard casting Magic Missile, but with arrows.
Personally, I think 5e made a mistake by getting rid of Damage Reduction to powerful monsters. Now there is not that much difference betw a +1 Longsword and a +3 Longsword unless it's a critical. It used to be that some monsters took less or zero damage from weaker magic weapons. The Force damage is more notable in a campaign world where DR got brought back such that stronger Elementals and Fiends would only take 1/2 damage from Piercing, Bludgeoning, or Slashing weapons with less than a +2 or +3.
What if we were to add something to Planar Warrior like this:
"When you do damage to a creature from different plane than the one you are presently on with the Force damage of this feature, you may require a Charisma saving throw from that creature. On a failed save, the creature takes an addition 1d8 points of Force damage and receives disadvantage on attack rolls until the beginning of your next turn. You may use this additional feature of Planar Warrior a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. You regain all uses of this additional feature after receiving a long rest."
Note: this would primarily affect Fey, Fiends, Elementals, Celestials, and summoned creatures. The idea is that your Force damage is weakening the ties they have to the plane they have been summoned/gated/trespassed in/onto. I could add some kind of forced movement rider, but then that would be too much like imitating Swarmkeeper.
I kept the bonus action part because it felt appropriate for two reasons: 1) HW Ranger isn't native to the Ethereal Plane, so it makes sense that it would need to take some kind of action to shift; 2) Phase Spiders also use a bonus action to turn ethereal and to stop being ethereal.
I think what might be a good but subtle change would be to allow the HW Ranger to end their etherealness up to 20 feet away from their original position prior to becoming ethereal. The original ability mandated that you return to your pre-ethereal position on the map once the etherealness ends. Giving the player some flexibility here could be useful in situations where something happens to the party while the Ranger is away or if the Ranger turned ethereal during combat. It adds an additional bit of tactical consideration to the HW.
It's been a long time since I really looked at the Horizon Walker and I'm about to leave for work so I can't look it up right now, but I remember thinking that it's the subclass I'd like to use the most for a heavy armour wearing two-handed weapon wielding Ranger somehow. Again, I don't really remember why anymore. I'll probably look it up later and come back to this thread but for now someone else might perhaps get some use out of that idea. ^^
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
For detect portal I didn't think it was that bad (although I figured it should just be tied to Primeval awareness).
here's why. it was designed with Favored enemy and Terrain in mind. so you would probably pick choices that reflect planar types. then when you are in an adventure, you make skill checks first and that allows an informed decision when you make your detection attempt. IF all else fails Use it at the end of the day just as you are about to setup camp. a negative result is still valuable in that situation.
Having taken another look at the subclass I think the only reason why I thought about such a character is because having to use your BA makes two-weapon fighting a rather uninteresting choice (at that time I was theory crafting a bunch of TWF Ranger builds) and thought a teleporting character in heavy armor and big weapon could be fun lol (also because I think the Baldur's Gate 3 Ranger has a way to get heavy armor proficiency iirc).
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
Meh. The subclass is fine. I don't think it *needs* an adjustment. Would it welcome a few tweaks? Sure. Are they a necessity for the class? Not at all. It's not a weak subclass at all.
I've used Horizon Walkers since Xanathar's came out (and again after the CFV UA and again after Tasha's and again as recently as last April and will be using another one in the Fall.) I've played them variously from levels 5-20 and I've never felt lacking.
Planar Warrior is fine. Not amazing; but fine. It's better than Hunter's Mark before level 5 and only two points behind in damage after that. In return, it doesn't take up your concentration and turns all damage to force, which is useful before you get a magic weapon. Afterwards, it's still alright in a pinch. It's maybe not as useful as Crossbow Expert in T1 & T2, but few things are. When it scales in T3, it actually does an average of .5 more damage than CBE with a max Dex. But let's be honest, CBE was never really the point of CBE builds. CBE is really just a delivery method for Sharpshooter. And that's a fine combo (that staggers your ASI progression until level 12 unless you hamstring your build to Vuman or Custom Lineage.) But the higher in levels you get, the less optimal it is to take the attack roll penalty. Especially if you haven't been boosting your Dexterity. Does it suck that you have to reapply Planar Warrior every turn with your BA? Sure. But it has enough going for it that it isn't a clear-cut decision when compared to Hunter's Mark or CBE.
With Planar Warrior, you can keep your damage up while holding concentration on things like Entangle, Fog Cloud, Silence, Spike Growth, Conjure Animals, Haste, or Guardian of Nature. All of which I would argue more than make up for the ~2 points of damage you lose by using Hunter's Mark instead. And with Planar Warrior, you don't have to delay your ASI progression or lock yourself into one of two races to get your build ready to go like with CBE. The damage is less, but the opportunity cost shores it up. Like I said, it's not an amazing feature, but it's good enough.
Detect Portal deceptively gets better as the game progresses. Once you hit the higher tiers of play, you're less likely to be fighting random guards and more likely to be encountering aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, and fiends. All of which are colloquially known as Outsiders for a reason. If you use Detect Portal and get a ping, you know to prepare yourself for something. And as was posted above, if you don't get a ping, that's still valuable information. Not to mention how many campaigns center around cultists trying to summon [x] from another plane. Detect Portal is a ribbon feature, but one that isn't anywhere near as niche as it might appear.
Ethereal Step gives you access to a 7th-level spell, something Rangers normally don't get at all. Is it limited? Yes. Are there better options in combat? Absolutely. But I'd argue using Ethereal Step in combat misses the point of the feature. If you can't see the utility in a round of walking through walls or flight on a character that has naturally high stealth, Pass Without Trace, Roving, and Haste, I don't know what to tell you.
The rest of the subclass is solid. Distant Strikes is amazing for melee or range for repositioning, Spectral Defense is a good defensive tool, and the subclass comes with phenomenal spells at every level. Protection from Evil & Good is a great defensive buff that gets better at higher levels for the same reason as Detect Portal. Misty Step is Misty Step. Haste is a boost to your offense, defense, mobility, and utility that synergizes beautifully with Distant Strikes. Banishment is a good shutdown spell unless you've been neglecting your Wisdom (which is a user-issue and not a class issue,) and Teleportation Circle is fantastic in any setting that has them.
And unlike the PHB and Fizban Rangers, Horizon Walkers get new features every other level thanks to their expanded spell list, meaning you're getting new goodies consistently at levels 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17 in addition to the base Ranger kit. It shares this with the Xanathar and Tasha Rangers, but it's still worth noting. The H. Walker's expanded spells are really solid in their own right.
So overall, the class is fine. It can get a buff, sure. But it's not necessary.
I never said that Horizon Walker isn't an interesting pick or that's it's weak choice. If you read through ALL my posts on this thread, you'll see that I'm suggesting modest power increases to what the Horizon Walker already does, rather than trying to shoehorn some other subclass's abilities onto the default HW. The issue I'm seeing is that its more thematic low level abilities have been effectively poached by Fey Wanderer or by Warlock/Bard gish hybrids. IOW, if you don't KNOW whether level 11 is in the cards for your PC, there's not much incentive to go HW versus FW Ranger or Bladelock+Lore Bard.
Thank you for this incredibly insightful review. This analysis is helping me with a Ranger subclass homebrew I’ve been stuck on for a little while. I wrote the outline for it and then went to check for comps before digging in when I “found” the Horizon Walker. It turns out my ideas weren’t too hits as original as I had first thought, my biggest struggle has been making it distinct from the H Walker while retaining its “Etheric” theme. This review has put things into perspective for me, so again, thank you.
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