Yes, that's right, another take on fixing the PHB Ranger. But I ask you to give this one a look through. My philosophy has always been that "less is more" and "sometimes simple is better," and to that end aimed to make as few changes to the PHB Ranger as possible to improve it. I believe the greatest strength of this revision is that it remains similar enough to the original class that the Xanathar's subclasses (or any other homebrew subclasses you would like to use which build off the PHB Ranger) will work perfectly with it.
The Ranger class presented in this document is about 70% PHB Ranger; most of the mechanics of the base class and the Hunter archetype were not touched. The things that were changed help to make the Ranger a more interesting and effective class with a stronger theme around being the ultimate predator. The Beast Master is completely rebuilt so that it falls more in line with the way other classes use "pets" such as necromancer wizards, without overtuning the beast companion itself. Finally, both the Hunter and Beast Master were given an additional feature at lvl 3; both subclasses now gain additional subclass spells like the new subclasses found in Xanathar's. This helps bridge the gap between the new subclasses and the old, so that playing a PHB subclass no longer feels like you are missing out on features.
I hope that the Athenæum's take on the Ranger is different enough to cover any gaps or concerns you may have with the original class, while staying similar enough to be easy to use, and I hope you enjoy.
This work is part of the collections of the Arcane Athenæum. Check out our other works below.
The Artificer class
The Dragon Shaman class
The Sorcerer (Revised) class
The Swordmage class
The Barbarian: Path of the Wild Soul subclass
The Druid: New Druidic subclasses
The Monk: Way of the Mystic Force subclass
The Paladin: Oath of Freedom subclass
The Savage and the Striker: Dual Wielding subclasses
The Sorcerer: Frozen Heart and Phoenix Sorcery subclasses
The Warlock: Great Wyrm subclass
The Wizard: Blue Magic and Sangromancy subclasses
The Sharkfolk player race
The Treant player race
Crafting Magic Items: A Guide to Artifice
The Draconomicon for 5e
The Explorer's Guide to the Wilderness
Recent Changes:
Version 2.2 15Nov2021
Overall
- Roving feature was missing some text, as well as fixing some word choice to clear up the Extra Attack and Fade Away features, and an erroneous reference to the Swordmage that somehow snuck itself in there.
Version 2.1 05Nov2021
Overall
- Added support for the Drakewarden in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons in the form of archetype spells to match the other subclasses.
- Removed a few spells from the spell list that are not official Ranger spells. This was done both to give the drakewarden some unique spells that other rangers can't get, and also just because I think I went too hard trying to incorporate abilities that don't necessarily fit the theme of a ranger.
Version 2.0 19Apr2021
Overall
- The class has been re-designed following the release of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. It incorporates a few of the concepts and optional features released in Tasha's, while improving on certain base aspects of the class.
- Marked Enemy - Similar to the Favored Foe feature, this is meant to be the class's main form of extra damage. Essentially just removes the concentration, since that aspect of the feature completely misses part of the point that the ranger has too many concentration abilities and therefore can't play with any fun spells.
- Favored Prey - Name is meant to invoke the idea that the Ranger is, at it's core, a hunter and predator of specific creatures. Much like the PHB Favored Enemy, you pick certain kinds of creatures to be particularly good at fighting. These can be swapped out whenever you level, allowing you to make changes over the course of a campaign to focus on new types of threats as they become more prominent. Works with Marked Enemy by allowing you to apply the marked damage to every attack you hit your favored prey with, not just once per turn.
- Seasoned Explorer - Basically Tasha's Deft Explorer, but with a few bonus abilities (and the extra languages removed, since you are getting languages from Favored Prey).
- Primeval Tracking - Primeval Awareness, but with a range that changes as you use higher-level spell slots and gives you more reasonable information (like not just how far away or how many of your Favored Prey are around, but also a general idea of the size. Also lets you start tracking one of the "groups" of enemies that you sense (group here is meant to be a general term; the idea is that if you sense, say, 1 big dragon to the north and 4 small dragons together to the south, you could start trackinig the big dragon or the 4 small dragons).
- Fade Away - Basically the PHB Hide in Plain Sight combined with Tasha's Nature's Veil feature; you can Hide as a bonus action, turn invisible until the end of your next turn, and you can Hide as a free action on the same turn that you turn invisible.]
- Primal Resilience - Gives the ranger some much-needed defenive support against various abilities.
- Apex Predator - The PHB Capstone of Foe Slayer isn't very good (max of +5 extra damage a turn? Whooooo) and also pretty boring. Apex Predator isn't mechanically complicated, but the ability to crit more often can bring out a lot of damage in a way that makes sense for a legendary hunter, and you are even *more* likely to crit your Favored Prey since you, theoretically, know exactly where to hit them to make them hurt. With the extra dice from Marked Enemy and spells like Hunter's Mark or Flame Arrows, this feature can make the Ranger feel like the powerful killing that it should be at 20th level.
Subclasses
- After some consideration, I swapped out a few of the spells that the Hunter and Beast Master get, to be a bit more flavorful and tie better to the intended playstyle for both. Also it should be noted for the Beast Master, Catnap has even more of a use now since this newest revision gains a few abilities that recharge on a short rest.
Version 1.1 13Nov2019
Overall
- Only change has been adding a note about the latest class feature variants UA as valid alternatives to the features that appear in this document (save for the Beast Master companion, though I suppose you could make it work if you really wanted to but I think this PDF offers more). The Druidic Warrior fighting style is listed here while the other fighting styles in the UA aren't only because I absolutely love it and think it and its variants should be a core option for all half-casters.
Version 1.0 07Feb2019
Overall
