Hand Crossbow Hunter - Ranger VS Fighter VS x

My new character will be a Hand Crossbow wielding Dex based Hunter of beasts with a deep hatred for either a specific beast like werewolves or just all in all for monsters. Take the diablo 3 demonhunter, Valla from HotS or Vayne from LoL as reference. He will be Human and start with crossbow expert feat.

I really wanted to pick the revised Ranger class cause of favoured enemy being almost perfect for that idea but all in all a fighter seems to be just better.

I am not interested in the animal companion and despite having a thing for hunting, the character is not supposed to live in a forest for months but rahter still spending a lot of time in towns, which makes some of the rangers features not that attractive.

My last hope is the Rangers spell list so I mainly ask: are there any super cool Ranger spells for that theme? Either for pure fighting or to track enemies better? Keep in mind I will need bonus action for both attacks as often as possible so if a spell needs bonus action it shoud be worth it.

Of course if there is another class fitting even better that would be fine aswell.

Of the top of my head, hunter's mark is great with bonus action attacks as once you got it out, you can just continue to push out more damage with it and at higher levels swift quiver pushes the shooting even further.

Ensnaring strike and zephyr strike helps you avoid getting stuck in melee.(even if it is not to bad with crossbow expert)

Cordon of arrows, guardian of nature, conjure volley, lightning arrow, and conjure barrage has their offensive uses.

Flame arrows are usually just worse than hunter's mark.

Then you have some utility and healing spells. Locate creature for example is magical automatic tracking more or less.

The xanathar's subclasses might be worth looking at, they give more spell and fancy abilities. Gloomstalker and monster slayer might fit thematically.

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Originally Posted by Shadoo

My new character will be a Hand Crossbow wielding Dex based Hunter of beasts with a deep hatred for either a specific beast like werewolves or just all in all for monsters. Take the diablo 3 demonhunter, Valla from HotS or Vayne from LoL as reference. He will be Human and start with crossbow expert feat.

I really wanted to pick the revised Ranger class cause of favoured enemy being almost perfect for that idea but all in all a fighter seems to be just better.

I am not interested in the animal companion and despite having a thing for hunting, the character is not supposed to live in a forest for months but rahter still spending a lot of time in towns, which makes some of the rangers features not that attractive.

My last hope is the Rangers spell list so I mainly ask: are there any super cool Ranger spells for that theme? Either for pure fighting or to track enemies better? Keep in mind I will need bonus action for both attacks as often as possible so if a spell needs bonus action it shoud be worth it.

Of course if there is another class fitting even better that would be fine aswell.

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You could go Gloomstalker and just theme it as you hunt at night, this not only takes care of your lack of darkvision but gives you an extra attack (with potential bonus damage) every single combat and frees your bonus on the first round for casting. Hunter's Mark provides both bonus damage and lets you track your marked enemy easier.

My personal opinion on hxb builds is that going 5 Gloom and then switching over to Fighter (Battlemaster) yields the best results, here is a fully fleshed out version of this using V Human. :)

You could go variant human battlemaster fighter and add a couple of levels of warlock at some point for devils sight, hex, and a couple of spell slots. The devils sight lets you see in the dark while hex can add some useful damage especially once you hit level 11. Battlemaster maneuvers like precision strike can be used for those important uses of sharpshooter. If you go hexblade you will pick up hexblade's curse for the BBEG encounters and all of your resources will still be short rest.

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Originally Posted by Fnissalot

Flame arrows are usually just worse than hunter's mark.

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Only in a white room, really.

You can reasonably expect to precast Flame Arrows before combat begins and not lose a bonus action on round one, but Hunter's Mark requires you to line of sight a target within 90 feet, so pretty good odds that starts combat. And in a fight versus lots of weak guys as opposed to a few strong guys its going to save you a ton of bonus actions because odds are good even if you don't kill your current target yourself, one of your allies probably will. If you have a good use for your bonus actions (as a handcrossbow user certainly will) often Flame Arrows is going to be the better choice.

To the OP: the right answer is probably "both". You'll really want at least three levels in Ranger for Gloomstalker and Hunter's Mark. If you don't like the wilderness flavor of the Ranger you can ask your DM if "Urban" is a viable favored terrain. And you'll want at least three levels in fighter for Action Surge and Battle Master. Where you go from level 7 onward is up to you. I think I'd probably wind up at fighter 11 ranger 9 if it were me.

UA Monster Hunter Fighter was literally made for this.

It's every spell you want, every skill you want, and double automax maneuver dice on... monsters.

Pop pop drop. Dip of you want more fleshing out.