What if Hunter's Mark was eliminated as a spell, and was made into a feature exclusive to the Ranger class? Now, I know this sort of thing has been floated many times by many people. But what I'm proposing is that Hunter's Mark stays exactly the same, except for two things: First, it is no longer a spell- it is a feature with the same number of uses as listed in Favored Enemy. Because it is no longer a spell, the option to upcast it to increase its duration would be gone. Instead, you would use another one of your "uses" of it to do that. Two uses increases it to 8 hrs. Three uses increases it to 24 hours. And Second, Hunter's Mark would now function as a Resource for subclasses, in the same way thst things like Bardic Inspiration, Channel Divinity, Wildshape, or even Second Wind work for their respective classes and subclasses.
How exactly it could be used in the subclasses is something I haven't fully worked out. But what I do know is that Hunter's Mark loses its luster in mid- and high-level play. I was thinking it might be nice if players had options for using it at those tiers of play, other than for the d6 of damage and tracking (the subclasses would uses the "uses" of Hunter's Mark, without necessarily adhering to the spells requirements. I.e., concentration might not be required to expend a use of your Hunter's Mark to, say.... increase your Primal companion's size by one category for one minute, giving it strength check advantage, speed increase, and increased damage [as an idea thst just occurred to me].)
Let me know what you think of this idea. Does anyone have some ideas on how the subclasses could be amended to include such a mechanic? And what kind of subclass features would you add?
I think looking at the new Winter Warden Ranger is a good idea of what could be done with Hunter's Mark. It gives you benefits at 3rd and 15th level that turn the spell from a simple 1d6 into something more. By doing so it transforms it into a feature worth concentrating on at higher level.
A number of the new playtest subclasses have used Hunter's Mark as a feature, and the main complaint most people make is that it then forces them to constantly use Hunter's Mark instead of other spells in order to use their subclass features. Look at the Hollow Warden from the Horror Subclasses UA, which is built almost entirely around using Hunter's Mark to augment your character. The augmentations are cool as hell, but if I want to cast Zephyr Strike or Summon Beast, I give up about 80% of my class features.
I think the problem is the class is already built too much around Hunter's Mark in the first place. If the class spell list was less laden with desirable concentration-based spells, that might mitigate the issue as it is, but I can think of a dozen Ranger spells that I consider far more essential in most circumstances.
Ultimately, the issue is, whoever is creating all these classes is too hung up on keeping true to old BS. Early Rangers were built around having Favored Enemies, which was extremely limiting and everybody hated it. So they were like, "Okay, the Ranger fans liked dealing extra damage, but they didn't like it being tied to a specific creature type. So we should spend three editions revamping the feature." They probably should have just accepted it was a bad feature and replaced it with something more functional and class-specific. But they didn't. So here we are, with this Frankenstein's monster of a class feature that hampers more than helps, trying to find a way to make IT work, rather than trying to replace it with something that does.
Will someone dumb hunters mark down. My ranger has it. I want to know the mechanics.
The basic idea is that you cast it on a target, and then every time you hit that target with an attack while the spell is active, you deal extra damage. If the target dies before the spell runs out, you can move it to another target without having to cast the spell again.
It also provides advantage on ability checks you make to try to find or track the target, but in my experience this rarely comes up in practice, and it's mostly about the extra damage.
The big error is consolidating everything into Hunter's mark. Hunter's Mark should, in practice, be broken up into two spells, and one of those spells should be self targeted. Hear me out.
Hunter's Prowess. Target: Self, 1 Min Concentration: Designate 1 one creature you can see (or locate) at the start of your turn. Until the End of your turn, that creature takes 1d6 force damage whenever you hit with an Attack Roll. You also have Advantage on any Wisdom (Perception or Survival) check you make to find it. Upcasting: 3+ - increase damage to 2d6, 5+ increase damage to 3d6.
This is the straight forward version you get free castings of as a core Ranger feature, and is meant to get the benefits intended by Hunter's Mark, but foregoes the long term tracking option. The advantage is to help seek out targets prone to hiding or going invisible mid-combat. Upcasting makes you a beast in single target damage, since you can't change target until next turn. Since its good stand alone now, bolting extra on it via sub-classes can amplify it to levels that can logically compete with even spell casters.
Predator's Focus lv1: Target: 1 Creature, 60ft, 1 Min, Concentration: Target one Creature you can see. You glean insights into the creature, and can learn more as you observe it. Knowledge checks against the creature are made with Advantage, and can make an attempt when casting the spell. Until the spell ends, you can use a Magic Action to know the general direction of the creature as long as its within 1 mile of your location, and on the same plane. If the creature moves to a different plane, the effect does not end, but you can only track it to its last known location. If it reappears on your plane before the effect ends, you can begin locating it again. If the creature becomes invisible, you have a +3 bonus and advantage to locate it if it is within your line of sight.
UpcastL lv2: In addition - When cast learn the creature's type, learn one of its resistances, and the spell's duration is increased to 1 hour.
Upcast lv3: In addition- When cast you can attempt a DC16 Knowledge check to learn one of its Legendary Resistances or Legendary Actions. Duration increased to 4 hours. Range increases to 4 miles.
Upcast lv4: In addition- If the creature becomes invisible, it is not invisible to you. You Crit on a 19 or 20 on attack rolls against the target. Duration increased to 8 Hours. Range increases to 10 miles.
Upcast lv5: Allies within 30ft of you gain the following benefits. The targeted Creature can not be invisible to you, you crit on a 19 or 20 on attack rolls, flanking gives a +2 bonus to attack rolls (in addition to adv as normal).
The purpose of this spell is to cover all the tracking related stuff, predicated on you initially finding it. It also serves to amp up the monster knowledge aspect (which woefully under utilized in most games), which can work as a platform for other similar skills that sub-classes can play off of. Like allowing a broad bonus to creatures of the same type, giving them weakness to a damage type, etc. The spell slot scaling is two fold intended..... A. duration and range increase for campaigns that demand a big game hunt mentality, or against creatures which abuse stealth to escape. B. has enough justification to be cast during combat as way to tackle a single major threat.
Both of these share a common theme in how they're meant to be the Ranger "locking in" on its enemy. Hunter's Prowess is versatile and puts emphasis on being able to focus damage on one thing at a time, while most spell casters will usually go wide on damage. Predator's Focus is carefully predicated on not trivializing the initial process of finding a threat, but making it extremely difficult to lose track of it once you encounter it. The latter also differentiates in that as it scales up, it offers valuable information about a fight (or potential fight).
The power tuning wasn't carefully considered..... since I don't have time to do that much theory crafting.... But the it should get across the basic idea. If you're gonna build a class to be dependent on a single sustained effect/spell like that, you have to make them worth using. The only sort of sunk cost fallacy issue is that if you upcast Pred Focus with a high level spell slot, and the monster runs, you're hamstung on spell use unless you're willing to drop concentration. To that end, since its a core ranger feature, I would make one of the higher level class features the ability to stop and resume concentration of these two spells specifically. Giving you the ability to cast another concentration spell, and then resume the Prowess or Focus after you're done with it. This would address arguments of effect stacking if it were a just a class ability.
Its why I threw in the ability to drop and resume concentration on either as a class feature. That way you can pause it to use another spell, and then resume it within the time limit, so its not wasting the spell slot/charge.
Concentration spells developed a lot of accretion over the years. Its now attached to almost anything remotely persistent, with not enough consideration put into the power scale of the spells in question. This made the spell list curation, which is mostly vibes based on theme, a mess with the half casters; between the further overreliance on very limited spell slots, and too much competition on concertation. Half casters benefit more from Concentration to stretch the value of the spell slots.....but the choice of spells don't seem to be made with that in mind.
I'd argue there needs to be a general pass over the spell curation lists for all classes, and the creation of some new spells better designed to work with, and are exclusive to, the half casters as a group. May as well considering Circle casting basically broke the game.
Part of my original premise was to eliminate Hunter's Mark as a spell and make it a Ranger base class feature. And as a feature, it wouldn't need concentration. It would become a resource pool, much like Wildshape- which can be used for its original purpose OR as a resource to fuel other class or subclass features. There would be no conflict with other concentration spells. So. You could use HM for a minute to get your d6 damage added to attacks at the same time that you cast a concentration spell. BUT- HM would only be usable Wis mod times per day. (Maybe getting one back on a short rest.) In addition to all that, you could forego getting the d6 damage, and instead use the HM to fuel subclass features- again, not using a spell slot or concentration, because it would not be a spell, nor require concentration.
Given those hypothetical parameters, what kind of subclass features would you like to see changed or added to any of the subclasses that would use this resource?
Get rid of hunters mark, make a spell specific to rangers that essentially works like a ranged smite. Attack with a bow. If you hit, burn a slot and a bonus action for extra damage.
Then you can concentrate on whatever you want.
And making ranged smite something only rangers can do makes rangers cool, To prevent all the dipping, make ranged smiting kick in at ranger level 5.
Ensnaring Strike already is a ranged smite. Its just not well liked because it also requires concentration and people want it to do more damage.
I have become at peace with Hunter's Mark in 2024. The design could be better. I gave my 2 cents during the playtest. Its still excellent and Rangers are still excellent below 11th level. The bonus castings to some extent make up for it requiring concentration. .
I have created a homebrew rule that uses the number of Favored Enemy uses as a resource
Ranger
The Ranger gains several new features in this section.
Optional Class Features
You may gain the class features described in the Player’s Handbook when you reach the appropriate levels. This section offers additional features available to you as a Ranger. Unlike the features in the Player’s Handbook, you do not gain these automatically.
When you meet the level requirement for a feature described in this section and choose to take it, discuss it with your DM first. These features may be chosen individually, meaning you may use some, all, or none of them.
If you replace one feature with another, you no longer gain the benefits of the replaced feature, and you do not satisfy any prerequisites in the game that require the replaced feature.
Hunter’s Mark Expertise
Flavor: Though anyone can cast Hunter’s Mark, only Rangers are truly bound to this spell—living, breathing hunters’ marks. And so you have secluded yourself, focused entirely on mastering it (so to speak).
6th-level Ranger feature
Replaces: Roving
When you cast Hunter’s Mark without expending a spell slot, you may spend additional uses of your free Hunter’s Mark to gain one or more of the following benefits, either individually or together, as shown in Table 1–1.
Table 1–1
Benefit Extra Uses Total Cost
Relentless Hunter 1 2 (single choice)
Precise Hunter 1 2 (single choice)
Foe Slayer 1 2 (single choice)
Any combination Sum of extra uses chosen Sum of extra uses chosen + 1
- Example: For Relentless Hunter, you may spend 2 free uses of Hunter’s Mark to gain the benefit that taking damage does not break your concentration on Hunter’s Mark.
- If you replace one feature with another, you no longer gain the benefits of the replaced feature, do not satisfy any prerequisites that require it, and cannot select it from Table 1–1 (such as the 13th-level Ranger feature Relentless Hunter).
- Note c: If a feat, buff, feature, racial trait, or magic item grants you extra uses/charges to cast Hunter’s Mark without a spell slot, you may spend those as well.
Flexible Strike
Flavor: Bow, dual weapons, or the sword wielded by the great Strider—Rangers’ iconic weapons are always debated. But why must we specialize in only one? Rangers should feel capable at both range and melee, should they not?
9th-level Ranger feature
Replaces: Expertise
Once on each of your turns, you gain one additional opportunity to equip or unequip a weapon.
Greater Hunter’s Mark
10th-level Ranger feature
Replaces: Tireless
Your Table 1–1 gains the following additional options:
Table 1–1 (continued)
Benefit Extra Uses Total Cost
Cast/transfer without a bonus action 2 3 (single choice)
No concentration required 3 4 (single choice)
Any combination with Table 1–1 Sum of extra uses chosen Sum of extra uses chosen + 1
- Note c applies as above.
Wander the World
Flavor: Rangers are no longer bound to terrain—they truly wander the world, learning the techniques of their peers from every land. This embodies the Ranger’s flexibility and their famously debated, versatile identity. That said, 5e 2024 has set its tone: not just archery, not dual wielding, not beasts, not diverse natural spell lists… but something more.
13th-level Ranger feature
Replaces: Relentless Hunter
When you cast Hunter’s Mark without expending a spell slot:
- You may choose one 3rd-level Ranger subclass feature.
- If that feature is tied to Hunter’s Mark—whether it applies when you cast the spell, while the spell persists, or under any other description—you gain its benefit.
- This costs 3 additional free uses of Hunter’s Mark.
- If the feature includes multiple benefits, you choose only one that is mechanically linked to Hunter’s Mark.
- You may combine this with any options from Table 1–1 and Table 1–1 (continued); the total cost is calculated as above.
- If you replace one feature with another, you no longer gain the benefits of the replaced feature, do not satisfy any prerequisites that require it, and cannot select it from Table 1–1 (such as the 13th-level Ranger feature Relentless Hunter).
As mentioned in the flavor text, the 2024 revision of 5e has tied the ranger design firmly to Hunter’s Mark. This is evident in its four class features, as well as in official expansions and Unearthed Arcana subclasses. Predictably, official content following the Hollowwarden will likely follow the same pattern.
And so, it falls to us to embrace this direction—to turn something worn and outdated into something extraordinary.
The question becomes: how can we transform Hunter’s Mark from a simple concentration spell dealing d6 damage into a class resource that rewards player choice, strategy, and build crafting? This brings our focus back to class features.
Are features like Precise Hunter and Foe Slayer truly without meaningful benefits? Setting level aside, they are not. The problem is how awkwardly they are placed: you only gain advantage against your marked target at 17th level. By that point, advantage is already rampant—many fighters have Weapon Mastery, and even a short sword can impose advantage. The landscape is nothing like it was at 14th level.
Not to mention the tired meme of the +2 bonus only arriving at 20th level.
But what if you could gain these effects much earlier?
Beyond these two features, Relentless Hunter highlights another common disappointment among ranger players. As we know, rangers are constrained by both concentration and bonus actions. Relentless Hunter was supposed to fix the concentration issue.
There are endless debates about the ranger’s identity: archer, dual-wielder, beast companion, nature caster, rogue–fighter–druid hybrid, Aragorn cosplay, spell-less ranger, or wilderness survivalist. But one request appears consistently across ranger gameplay: Hunter’s Mark without concentration.
In the 2024 playtest, this effect was cruelly placed at 1st level, only to be removed for being “overpowered.” Honestly—could that be any more obvious a bait-and-switch?
Regardless, concentration-free Hunter’s Mark is a widely desired quality-of-life improvement. To prevent every build from dipping just 1 level in ranger for this feature alone—turning the class into a meaningless dip instead of a true identity—placing it at a higher level is necessary.
This leads us to the third issue: multiclassing.
Looking at all examples, from the classic “ gloom stalker fighter” ranger in 5e, to Drizzt—the most iconic ranger character in D&D，even to the endless jokes that rangers are just jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none hybrids, fighters with a cheap druid spell list, or Eldritch Knight cosplaying as rangers…
We cannot escape one truth: the ranger, separated from older editions, has never fully escaped the fighter’s shadow. Even Aragorn, the original inspiration, was a multifaceted character.
But what if we treat this not as a weakness, but as a strength—a defining trait? What if the ranger is a class designed for multiclassing, with Weapon Mastery, Extra Attack, off-turn subclass extra damage , partial expertise, and a fragment of the druid spell list? After all, Drizzt himself is a master of multiclassing.
Building on this, we can refine a design that:
- Grants high-level but underwhelming features like Relentless Hunter, Precise Hunter, and Foe Slayer much earlier;
- Avoids giving concentration-free Hunter’s Mark too soon, preventing the ranger from becoming a dip-only “plugin”;
- Uses Favored Enemy uses as a meaningful, choice-driven resource.
This brings us to uses—specifically, the free uses of Favored Enemy.
By spending these uses to gain features early, and balancing them against level and resource management, we prevent mindless dipping.
- 6th level: Replaces Roving. Combat-focused rangers can trade exploration for greater power, choosing how to balance damage, advantage, and durability with only 3 free uses. Concentration can be far from guaranteed with a ruthless DM.
- 7th level: Subclass feature. While many 7th-level subclass abilities are defensive or supportive, they still give the ranger player a sense of progression.
- 8th level: Feats.
- 9th level: Replaces Expertise. Expertise still shines for skill checks, but a combat-focused, weapon-switching ranger gains value here too—no longer locked out of equipping/unequipping freely. Free uses increase to 4, enough to sustain advantage, concentration-free, and d10 damage in one fight… though encounters without long rests require careful management. This is late Tier 2, early Tier 3, where the ranger begins to struggle.
- 10th level: Adds new options to Hunter’s Mark. Most importantly, this milestone grants no bonus action required and no concentration required. Anyone multiclassing this far is no longer just dipping—they are playing a ranger.
- 11th level: Subclass feature.
- 12th level: Ability Score Improvement.
- 13th level: With concentration-free Hunter’s Mark available at 10th, Relentless Hunter will often be skipped. However, spending 4 total uses to maintain it means giving up d10 damage and first-strike advantage for the fight—unless further mechanics intervene. Now that concentration-free is unlocked, we look for new ways to empower Hunter’s Mark.
As established, Hunter’s Mark–subclass synergy is already the official direction. Why shouldn’t rangers be able to empower themselves through Hunter’s Mark? No longer constrained by favored terrain, rangers should embody a wanderer’s versatility. Rangers from different lands have different strengths, and the ranger is a versatile, world-traveling class—both lone wolf and companion. Restricting this ability to one 3rd-level subclass feature, and only one benefit, keeps it balanced—especially with its high cost. In truth, few Hunter’s Mark subclass abilities outside the Hollowwarden are truly powerful.
- 15th level: Peak power for the chosen subclass.
Next, the issue of magic weapons and multiclassing.
In the 2024 revision, magic weapons have overshadowed the ranger’s core Favored Enemy feature. A party with even uncommon magic items gains the same damage boosts that once required rangers to specialize in favored enemies—erasing the ranger’s niche. Though rangers can also use magic weapons, their defining class feature is effectively invalidated. Meanwhile, Extra Attack, smite spells, Sneak Attack, and similar effects have only grown stronger.
At this point, Favored Enemy—like Hunter’s Mark—has little room to expand besides functionality. Weapon Mastery took larger damage dice; Sneak Attack took extra dice. Favored Enemy must become a resource, not just a damage bonus.
Returning to magic weapons: if a magic weapon that replicates Hunter’s Mark turns other characters into “mini-rangers,” why shouldn’t the ranger themselves benefit from such a magic Hunter’s Mark? By treating Favored Enemy uses as a resource, and counting magic weapon Hunter’s Mark charges as currency, the ranger can turn this disadvantage into an advantage.
Finally, multiclassing.
As established, multiclassing is inherent to the ranger(fighter–Rogue–Druid), Drizzt,Aragorn, the classic fighter＋gloom stalker, life cleric–ranger with Goodberry… multiclassing is not a flaw—it is the ranger’s identity: no two rangers are the same.
In this design, the appeal of concentration-free Hunter’s Mark and 13th-level subclass synergy encourages committing to at least 10 levels of ranger, if not 6—matching Drizzt’s own multiclass spread. From there, multiclassing into fighter (or rogue, for some builds) becomes natural.
Many 15th-level ranger subclass features are defensive, pairing well with a rogue’s Uncanny Dodge and Evasion.
Missing 12th or 16th-level ASIs can be compensated by fighter’s ASIs at 4th, 6th, and 8th. Action Surge and Legendary Feats require tradeoffs—but that is the inherent cost of multiclassing in 5e.
Whether early features, subclass benefits, Action Surge, extra ASIs, Sneak Attack, or dual defenses are enough to compensate remains to be seen. Ultimately, it depends on where you split your levels.
I'll forever be a proponent of leaning into Hunter's Mark's out-of-combat utility. Keep it as a spell, but have the class feature expand the spell's utility beyond what other classes can do with it. That way, Hunter's Mark can easily graduate from the Rangers' big damage option in the early game to a useful tool to always have on hand in the late game.
At level 2, your Hunter's Mark can be cast on tracks or an object interacted with by a creature. That creature becomes the target of your Hunter's Mark; Hunter's Mark no longer has a limited range, and Hunter's Mark's duration is equal to your Ranger level in hours.
I'd also change it so you can apply Hunter's Mark the next time you strike a foe with an attack after the previous target died, rather than using a Bonus Action to move it every time.
Subclasses could then expand on this utility in a way that is relevant to the subclass theme. Hunter already does this. Beastmaster kind of does as well, but I'd add that the Beast benefits from Hunter's Mark's tracking bonuses too.
For Gloomstalker, I'd let them cast Hunter's Mark without its Verbal component. The target of Hunter's Mark gains Disadvantage when trying to perform the Search action.
Fey Wanderer is a bit tricky. They might also lose the Verbal component. Then, the target of Hunter's Mark gains Disadvantage on Insight checks against the caster, turning Hunter's Mark into a Social tool for the Social Ranger subclass.
At 13th Level, the Ranger can sense if the target of their Hunter's Mark is on the same plane as them or not, and if not, the Ranger knows what plane they are on. I'd also probably just remove Concentration on Hunter's Mark at this level as well. It's around where Ranger damage falls off, so they need the boost anyway. I'm not much of a number cruncher, though, so I dunno if Hunter's Mark + Swift Quiver would be enough or not.
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What if Hunter's Mark was eliminated as a spell, and was made into a feature exclusive to the Ranger class? Now, I know this sort of thing has been floated many times by many people. But what I'm proposing is that Hunter's Mark stays exactly the same, except for two things: First, it is no longer a spell- it is a feature with the same number of uses as listed in Favored Enemy. Because it is no longer a spell, the option to upcast it to increase its duration would be gone. Instead, you would use another one of your "uses" of it to do that. Two uses increases it to 8 hrs. Three uses increases it to 24 hours. And Second, Hunter's Mark would now function as a Resource for subclasses, in the same way thst things like Bardic Inspiration, Channel Divinity, Wildshape, or even Second Wind work for their respective classes and subclasses.
How exactly it could be used in the subclasses is something I haven't fully worked out. But what I do know is that Hunter's Mark loses its luster in mid- and high-level play. I was thinking it might be nice if players had options for using it at those tiers of play, other than for the d6 of damage and tracking (the subclasses would uses the "uses" of Hunter's Mark, without necessarily adhering to the spells requirements. I.e., concentration might not be required to expend a use of your Hunter's Mark to, say.... increase your Primal companion's size by one category for one minute, giving it strength check advantage, speed increase, and increased damage [as an idea thst just occurred to me].)
Let me know what you think of this idea. Does anyone have some ideas on how the subclasses could be amended to include such a mechanic? And what kind of subclass features would you add?
I think looking at the new Winter Warden Ranger is a good idea of what could be done with Hunter's Mark. It gives you benefits at 3rd and 15th level that turn the spell from a simple 1d6 into something more. By doing so it transforms it into a feature worth concentrating on at higher level.
A number of the new playtest subclasses have used Hunter's Mark as a feature, and the main complaint most people make is that it then forces them to constantly use Hunter's Mark instead of other spells in order to use their subclass features. Look at the Hollow Warden from the Horror Subclasses UA, which is built almost entirely around using Hunter's Mark to augment your character. The augmentations are cool as hell, but if I want to cast Zephyr Strike or Summon Beast, I give up about 80% of my class features.
I think the problem is the class is already built too much around Hunter's Mark in the first place. If the class spell list was less laden with desirable concentration-based spells, that might mitigate the issue as it is, but I can think of a dozen Ranger spells that I consider far more essential in most circumstances.
Ultimately, the issue is, whoever is creating all these classes is too hung up on keeping true to old BS. Early Rangers were built around having Favored Enemies, which was extremely limiting and everybody hated it. So they were like, "Okay, the Ranger fans liked dealing extra damage, but they didn't like it being tied to a specific creature type. So we should spend three editions revamping the feature." They probably should have just accepted it was a bad feature and replaced it with something more functional and class-specific. But they didn't. So here we are, with this Frankenstein's monster of a class feature that hampers more than helps, trying to find a way to make IT work, rather than trying to replace it with something that does.
Will someone dumb hunters mark down. My ranger has it. I want to know the mechanics.
The basic idea is that you cast it on a target, and then every time you hit that target with an attack while the spell is active, you deal extra damage. If the target dies before the spell runs out, you can move it to another target without having to cast the spell again.
It also provides advantage on ability checks you make to try to find or track the target, but in my experience this rarely comes up in practice, and it's mostly about the extra damage.
pronouns: he/she/they
The big error is consolidating everything into Hunter's mark. Hunter's Mark should, in practice, be broken up into two spells, and one of those spells should be self targeted. Hear me out.
Hunter's Prowess. Target: Self, 1 Min Concentration: Designate 1 one creature you can see (or locate) at the start of your turn. Until the End of your turn, that creature takes 1d6 force damage whenever you hit with an Attack Roll. You also have Advantage on any Wisdom (Perception or Survival) check you make to find it. Upcasting: 3+ - increase damage to 2d6, 5+ increase damage to 3d6.
This is the straight forward version you get free castings of as a core Ranger feature, and is meant to get the benefits intended by Hunter's Mark, but foregoes the long term tracking option. The advantage is to help seek out targets prone to hiding or going invisible mid-combat. Upcasting makes you a beast in single target damage, since you can't change target until next turn. Since its good stand alone now, bolting extra on it via sub-classes can amplify it to levels that can logically compete with even spell casters.
Predator's Focus lv1: Target: 1 Creature, 60ft, 1 Min, Concentration: Target one Creature you can see. You glean insights into the creature, and can learn more as you observe it. Knowledge checks against the creature are made with Advantage, and can make an attempt when casting the spell. Until the spell ends, you can use a Magic Action to know the general direction of the creature as long as its within 1 mile of your location, and on the same plane. If the creature moves to a different plane, the effect does not end, but you can only track it to its last known location. If it reappears on your plane before the effect ends, you can begin locating it again. If the creature becomes invisible, you have a +3 bonus and advantage to locate it if it is within your line of sight.
UpcastL lv2: In addition - When cast learn the creature's type, learn one of its resistances, and the spell's duration is increased to 1 hour.
Upcast lv3: In addition- When cast you can attempt a DC16 Knowledge check to learn one of its Legendary Resistances or Legendary Actions. Duration increased to 4 hours. Range increases to 4 miles.
Upcast lv4: In addition- If the creature becomes invisible, it is not invisible to you. You Crit on a 19 or 20 on attack rolls against the target. Duration increased to 8 Hours. Range increases to 10 miles.
Upcast lv5: Allies within 30ft of you gain the following benefits. The targeted Creature can not be invisible to you, you crit on a 19 or 20 on attack rolls, flanking gives a +2 bonus to attack rolls (in addition to adv as normal).
The purpose of this spell is to cover all the tracking related stuff, predicated on you initially finding it. It also serves to amp up the monster knowledge aspect (which woefully under utilized in most games), which can work as a platform for other similar skills that sub-classes can play off of. Like allowing a broad bonus to creatures of the same type, giving them weakness to a damage type, etc. The spell slot scaling is two fold intended..... A. duration and range increase for campaigns that demand a big game hunt mentality, or against creatures which abuse stealth to escape. B. has enough justification to be cast during combat as way to tackle a single major threat.
Both of these share a common theme in how they're meant to be the Ranger "locking in" on its enemy. Hunter's Prowess is versatile and puts emphasis on being able to focus damage on one thing at a time, while most spell casters will usually go wide on damage. Predator's Focus is carefully predicated on not trivializing the initial process of finding a threat, but making it extremely difficult to lose track of it once you encounter it. The latter also differentiates in that as it scales up, it offers valuable information about a fight (or potential fight).
The power tuning wasn't carefully considered..... since I don't have time to do that much theory crafting.... But the it should get across the basic idea. If you're gonna build a class to be dependent on a single sustained effect/spell like that, you have to make them worth using. The only sort of sunk cost fallacy issue is that if you upcast Pred Focus with a high level spell slot, and the monster runs, you're hamstung on spell use unless you're willing to drop concentration. To that end, since its a core ranger feature, I would make one of the higher level class features the ability to stop and resume concentration of these two spells specifically. Giving you the ability to cast another concentration spell, and then resume the Prowess or Focus after you're done with it. This would address arguments of effect stacking if it were a just a class ability.
That is a nice improvement, but as both have concentration they still are not usable with a lot of other things as well.
Its why I threw in the ability to drop and resume concentration on either as a class feature. That way you can pause it to use another spell, and then resume it within the time limit, so its not wasting the spell slot/charge.
Concentration spells developed a lot of accretion over the years. Its now attached to almost anything remotely persistent, with not enough consideration put into the power scale of the spells in question. This made the spell list curation, which is mostly vibes based on theme, a mess with the half casters; between the further overreliance on very limited spell slots, and too much competition on concertation. Half casters benefit more from Concentration to stretch the value of the spell slots.....but the choice of spells don't seem to be made with that in mind.
I'd argue there needs to be a general pass over the spell curation lists for all classes, and the creation of some new spells better designed to work with, and are exclusive to, the half casters as a group. May as well considering Circle casting basically broke the game.
Part of my original premise was to eliminate Hunter's Mark as a spell and make it a Ranger base class feature. And as a feature, it wouldn't need concentration. It would become a resource pool, much like Wildshape- which can be used for its original purpose OR as a resource to fuel other class or subclass features. There would be no conflict with other concentration spells. So. You could use HM for a minute to get your d6 damage added to attacks at the same time that you cast a concentration spell. BUT- HM would only be usable Wis mod times per day. (Maybe getting one back on a short rest.) In addition to all that, you could forego getting the d6 damage, and instead use the HM to fuel subclass features- again, not using a spell slot or concentration, because it would not be a spell, nor require concentration.
Given those hypothetical parameters, what kind of subclass features would you like to see changed or added to any of the subclasses that would use this resource?
Get rid of hunters mark, make a spell specific to rangers that essentially works like a ranged smite. Attack with a bow. If you hit, burn a slot and a bonus action for extra damage.
Then you can concentrate on whatever you want.
And making ranged smite something only rangers can do makes rangers cool, To prevent all the dipping, make ranged smiting kick in at ranger level 5.
Ensnaring Strike already is a ranged smite. Its just not well liked because it also requires concentration and people want it to do more damage.
I have become at peace with Hunter's Mark in 2024. The design could be better. I gave my 2 cents during the playtest. Its still excellent and Rangers are still excellent below 11th level. The bonus castings to some extent make up for it requiring concentration. .
I have created a homebrew rule that uses the number of Favored Enemy uses as a resource
Ranger
The Ranger gains several new features in this section.
Optional Class Features
You may gain the class features described in the Player’s Handbook when you reach the appropriate levels. This section offers additional features available to you as a Ranger. Unlike the features in the Player’s Handbook, you do not gain these automatically.
When you meet the level requirement for a feature described in this section and choose to take it, discuss it with your DM first. These features may be chosen individually, meaning you may use some, all, or none of them.
If you replace one feature with another, you no longer gain the benefits of the replaced feature, and you do not satisfy any prerequisites in the game that require the replaced feature.
Hunter’s Mark Expertise
Flavor: Though anyone can cast Hunter’s Mark, only Rangers are truly bound to this spell—living, breathing hunters’ marks. And so you have secluded yourself, focused entirely on mastering it (so to speak).
6th-level Ranger feature
Replaces: Roving
When you cast Hunter’s Mark without expending a spell slot, you may spend additional uses of your free Hunter’s Mark to gain one or more of the following benefits, either individually or together, as shown in Table 1–1.
Table 1–1
Benefit Extra Uses Total Cost
Relentless Hunter 1 2 (single choice)
Precise Hunter 1 2 (single choice)
Foe Slayer 1 2 (single choice)
Any combination Sum of extra uses chosen Sum of extra uses chosen + 1
- Example: For Relentless Hunter, you may spend 2 free uses of Hunter’s Mark to gain the benefit that taking damage does not break your concentration on Hunter’s Mark.
- If you replace one feature with another, you no longer gain the benefits of the replaced feature, do not satisfy any prerequisites that require it, and cannot select it from Table 1–1 (such as the 13th-level Ranger feature Relentless Hunter).
- Note c: If a feat, buff, feature, racial trait, or magic item grants you extra uses/charges to cast Hunter’s Mark without a spell slot, you may spend those as well.
Flexible Strike
Flavor: Bow, dual weapons, or the sword wielded by the great Strider—Rangers’ iconic weapons are always debated. But why must we specialize in only one? Rangers should feel capable at both range and melee, should they not?
9th-level Ranger feature
Replaces: Expertise
Once on each of your turns, you gain one additional opportunity to equip or unequip a weapon.
Greater Hunter’s Mark
10th-level Ranger feature
Replaces: Tireless
Your Table 1–1 gains the following additional options:
Table 1–1 (continued)
Benefit Extra Uses Total Cost
Cast/transfer without a bonus action 2 3 (single choice)
No concentration required 3 4 (single choice)
Any combination with Table 1–1 Sum of extra uses chosen Sum of extra uses chosen + 1
- Note c applies as above.
Wander the World
Flavor: Rangers are no longer bound to terrain—they truly wander the world, learning the techniques of their peers from every land. This embodies the Ranger’s flexibility and their famously debated, versatile identity. That said, 5e 2024 has set its tone: not just archery, not dual wielding, not beasts, not diverse natural spell lists… but something more.
13th-level Ranger feature
Replaces: Relentless Hunter
When you cast Hunter’s Mark without expending a spell slot:
- You may choose one 3rd-level Ranger subclass feature.
- If that feature is tied to Hunter’s Mark—whether it applies when you cast the spell, while the spell persists, or under any other description—you gain its benefit.
- This costs 3 additional free uses of Hunter’s Mark.
- If the feature includes multiple benefits, you choose only one that is mechanically linked to Hunter’s Mark.
- You may combine this with any options from Table 1–1 and Table 1–1 (continued); the total cost is calculated as above.
- If you replace one feature with another, you no longer gain the benefits of the replaced feature, do not satisfy any prerequisites that require it, and cannot select it from Table 1–1 (such as the 13th-level Ranger feature Relentless Hunter).
- Note c applies as above
Is there some internal hatred for Rangers at WotC?
As mentioned in the flavor text, the 2024 revision of 5e has tied the ranger design firmly to Hunter’s Mark. This is evident in its four class features, as well as in official expansions and Unearthed Arcana subclasses. Predictably, official content following the Hollowwarden will likely follow the same pattern.
And so, it falls to us to embrace this direction—to turn something worn and outdated into something extraordinary.
The question becomes: how can we transform Hunter’s Mark from a simple concentration spell dealing d6 damage into a class resource that rewards player choice, strategy, and build crafting? This brings our focus back to class features.
Are features like Precise Hunter and Foe Slayer truly without meaningful benefits? Setting level aside, they are not. The problem is how awkwardly they are placed: you only gain advantage against your marked target at 17th level. By that point, advantage is already rampant—many fighters have Weapon Mastery, and even a short sword can impose advantage. The landscape is nothing like it was at 14th level.
Not to mention the tired meme of the +2 bonus only arriving at 20th level.
But what if you could gain these effects much earlier?
Beyond these two features, Relentless Hunter highlights another common disappointment among ranger players. As we know, rangers are constrained by both concentration and bonus actions. Relentless Hunter was supposed to fix the concentration issue.
There are endless debates about the ranger’s identity: archer, dual-wielder, beast companion, nature caster, rogue–fighter–druid hybrid, Aragorn cosplay, spell-less ranger, or wilderness survivalist. But one request appears consistently across ranger gameplay: Hunter’s Mark without concentration.
In the 2024 playtest, this effect was cruelly placed at 1st level, only to be removed for being “overpowered.” Honestly—could that be any more obvious a bait-and-switch?
Regardless, concentration-free Hunter’s Mark is a widely desired quality-of-life improvement. To prevent every build from dipping just 1 level in ranger for this feature alone—turning the class into a meaningless dip instead of a true identity—placing it at a higher level is necessary.
This leads us to the third issue: multiclassing.
Looking at all examples, from the classic “ gloom stalker fighter” ranger in 5e, to Drizzt—the most iconic ranger character in D&D，even to the endless jokes that rangers are just jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none hybrids, fighters with a cheap druid spell list, or Eldritch Knight cosplaying as rangers…
We cannot escape one truth: the ranger, separated from older editions, has never fully escaped the fighter’s shadow. Even Aragorn, the original inspiration, was a multifaceted character.
But what if we treat this not as a weakness, but as a strength—a defining trait? What if the ranger is a class designed for multiclassing, with Weapon Mastery, Extra Attack, off-turn subclass extra damage , partial expertise, and a fragment of the druid spell list? After all, Drizzt himself is a master of multiclassing.
Building on this, we can refine a design that:
- Grants high-level but underwhelming features like Relentless Hunter, Precise Hunter, and Foe Slayer much earlier;
- Avoids giving concentration-free Hunter’s Mark too soon, preventing the ranger from becoming a dip-only “plugin”;
- Uses Favored Enemy uses as a meaningful, choice-driven resource.
This brings us to uses—specifically, the free uses of Favored Enemy.
By spending these uses to gain features early, and balancing them against level and resource management, we prevent mindless dipping.
- 6th level: Replaces Roving. Combat-focused rangers can trade exploration for greater power, choosing how to balance damage, advantage, and durability with only 3 free uses. Concentration can be far from guaranteed with a ruthless DM.
- 7th level: Subclass feature. While many 7th-level subclass abilities are defensive or supportive, they still give the ranger player a sense of progression.
- 8th level: Feats.
- 9th level: Replaces Expertise. Expertise still shines for skill checks, but a combat-focused, weapon-switching ranger gains value here too—no longer locked out of equipping/unequipping freely. Free uses increase to 4, enough to sustain advantage, concentration-free, and d10 damage in one fight… though encounters without long rests require careful management. This is late Tier 2, early Tier 3, where the ranger begins to struggle.
- 10th level: Adds new options to Hunter’s Mark. Most importantly, this milestone grants no bonus action required and no concentration required. Anyone multiclassing this far is no longer just dipping—they are playing a ranger.
- 11th level: Subclass feature.
- 12th level: Ability Score Improvement.
- 13th level: With concentration-free Hunter’s Mark available at 10th, Relentless Hunter will often be skipped. However, spending 4 total uses to maintain it means giving up d10 damage and first-strike advantage for the fight—unless further mechanics intervene. Now that concentration-free is unlocked, we look for new ways to empower Hunter’s Mark.
As established, Hunter’s Mark–subclass synergy is already the official direction. Why shouldn’t rangers be able to empower themselves through Hunter’s Mark? No longer constrained by favored terrain, rangers should embody a wanderer’s versatility. Rangers from different lands have different strengths, and the ranger is a versatile, world-traveling class—both lone wolf and companion. Restricting this ability to one 3rd-level subclass feature, and only one benefit, keeps it balanced—especially with its high cost. In truth, few Hunter’s Mark subclass abilities outside the Hollowwarden are truly powerful.
- 15th level: Peak power for the chosen subclass.
Next, the issue of magic weapons and multiclassing.
In the 2024 revision, magic weapons have overshadowed the ranger’s core Favored Enemy feature. A party with even uncommon magic items gains the same damage boosts that once required rangers to specialize in favored enemies—erasing the ranger’s niche. Though rangers can also use magic weapons, their defining class feature is effectively invalidated. Meanwhile, Extra Attack, smite spells, Sneak Attack, and similar effects have only grown stronger.
At this point, Favored Enemy—like Hunter’s Mark—has little room to expand besides functionality. Weapon Mastery took larger damage dice; Sneak Attack took extra dice. Favored Enemy must become a resource, not just a damage bonus.
Returning to magic weapons: if a magic weapon that replicates Hunter’s Mark turns other characters into “mini-rangers,” why shouldn’t the ranger themselves benefit from such a magic Hunter’s Mark? By treating Favored Enemy uses as a resource, and counting magic weapon Hunter’s Mark charges as currency, the ranger can turn this disadvantage into an advantage.
Finally, multiclassing.
As established, multiclassing is inherent to the ranger(fighter–Rogue–Druid), Drizzt,Aragorn, the classic fighter＋gloom stalker, life cleric–ranger with Goodberry… multiclassing is not a flaw—it is the ranger’s identity: no two rangers are the same.
In this design, the appeal of concentration-free Hunter’s Mark and 13th-level subclass synergy encourages committing to at least 10 levels of ranger, if not 6—matching Drizzt’s own multiclass spread. From there, multiclassing into fighter (or rogue, for some builds) becomes natural.
Many 15th-level ranger subclass features are defensive, pairing well with a rogue’s Uncanny Dodge and Evasion.
Missing 12th or 16th-level ASIs can be compensated by fighter’s ASIs at 4th, 6th, and 8th. Action Surge and Legendary Feats require tradeoffs—but that is the inherent cost of multiclassing in 5e.
Whether early features, subclass benefits, Action Surge, extra ASIs, Sneak Attack, or dual defenses are enough to compensate remains to be seen. Ultimately, it depends on where you split your levels.
Is there some internal hatred for Rangers at WotC?
so bad。i ues translation app，but it make a lot of mistakes
Is there some internal hatred for Rangers at WotC?
I'll forever be a proponent of leaning into Hunter's Mark's out-of-combat utility. Keep it as a spell, but have the class feature expand the spell's utility beyond what other classes can do with it. That way, Hunter's Mark can easily graduate from the Rangers' big damage option in the early game to a useful tool to always have on hand in the late game.
At level 2, your Hunter's Mark can be cast on tracks or an object interacted with by a creature. That creature becomes the target of your Hunter's Mark; Hunter's Mark no longer has a limited range, and Hunter's Mark's duration is equal to your Ranger level in hours.
I'd also change it so you can apply Hunter's Mark the next time you strike a foe with an attack after the previous target died, rather than using a Bonus Action to move it every time.
Subclasses could then expand on this utility in a way that is relevant to the subclass theme. Hunter already does this. Beastmaster kind of does as well, but I'd add that the Beast benefits from Hunter's Mark's tracking bonuses too.
For Gloomstalker, I'd let them cast Hunter's Mark without its Verbal component. The target of Hunter's Mark gains Disadvantage when trying to perform the Search action.
Fey Wanderer is a bit tricky. They might also lose the Verbal component. Then, the target of Hunter's Mark gains Disadvantage on Insight checks against the caster, turning Hunter's Mark into a Social tool for the Social Ranger subclass.
At 13th Level, the Ranger can sense if the target of their Hunter's Mark is on the same plane as them or not, and if not, the Ranger knows what plane they are on. I'd also probably just remove Concentration on Hunter's Mark at this level as well. It's around where Ranger damage falls off, so they need the boost anyway. I'm not much of a number cruncher, though, so I dunno if Hunter's Mark + Swift Quiver would be enough or not.