The Ranger: Further Revised (PEACH)

Ranger

Spoiler: Class Features - These are the same

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Class Features
As a ranger, you gain the following class features.
Hit Points

• Hit Dice: 1d10 per ranger level
• Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
• Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per ranger level after 1st

Proficiencies

• Armor: Light armor, medium armor, shields
• Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
• Tools: None
• Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity
• Skills: Choose three from Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Survival

Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) scale mail or (b) leather armor
• (a) two shortswords or (b) two simple melee weapons
• (a) a dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack
• A longbow and a quiver of 20 arrows

Class Abilities

Focused Enemy
At first level, as a bonus action, choose one creature you can see within 90 feet of you and mystically mark it as your quarry for 1 hour. Each time you hit it with an attack, you deal an extra 1d6 damage to the target. You have advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) check you make to find it. If that creature falls to 0 hit points, you can designate another creature within range with a bonus action. You can use this ability a number of times per short or long rest equal to your proficiency modifier. It ends early if you lose concentration. (Note: Hunter's mark is removed from the Ranger spell list)

Excursion
You are so attuned to nature you seem to always find things that you’re looking for. You gain a number of Reclamation points that replenish when you take a long rest. You gain a Reclamation points equal to your ranger level plus your Wisdom Modifier. You can spend points to produce the following effects:

• Outlander Cuisine – Your ability to find food is borderline supernatural. Over an hour, you can expend a number of reclamation points equal to your ranger level to collect and prepare food. A creature can use its action to consume food created this way to restore 1 hit point, and two meals of such food provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day. These rations expire after 24 hours (Note: Goodberry is removed from the Ranger spell list)
• Survival Cache – over 10 minutes, you can spend produce a number of pieces of ammunition, darts or blowgun needles equal to reclamation points spent, by recovering expended ammunition from a battlefield or crafting them yourself. If you spend 5 or more points on this feature, the created items deal an additional +1 damage.
• Farseek – Over the course of an hour, you can spend 3 reclamation points to learn which direction north is, and, if tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area. If you're tracking an enemy with a language with your Focused Enemy feature, you can attempt to communicate in that creature's language for the duration. It takes four times longer to convey such a message than it does to speak the same idea in a language you know.

Fighting Style
At 2nd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.

• Precise: You gain +2 to ranged attack rolls and +1 to melee attack rolls.
• Mariner: As long as you’re not wearing heavy armor, you gain a climbing and swimming speed equal to your walking speed, and gain +1 AC.
• Impactful: When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack roll, you can reroll the die. You must use the new roll.
• Rampage: When you reduce a hostile creature to 0 hit points with an attack, you can reroll your attack roll against a different target within range.
• Two-Weapon Fighting: When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus action attack. Starting at level 10, your first attack each turn has an additional damage die, based on the damage of the offhand weapon.

Nature’s Boon
By the time you reach 2nd level, you attune with nature in a manner that is unique. You gain one of the following features of your choice.

Umbra Mantle

You gain the ability to Wild Shape, as the druid feature, as a bonus action. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1), and retain that form for up to 1 hour each use. You regain expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Ranger Level	CR	Limitations
3rd	1	No flying or swim speed
6th	2	No flying speed
9th	3	-
13th	4	-
17th	5	-

At 10th level, your attacks in beast form count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Mantle of Dominance

Starting at 2nd level, you learn 3 special maneuvers from the Fighter’s Battlemaster Maneuver list. You can use only one maneuver per attack.
You learn an additional maneuvers of your choice at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels. Each time you gain a level in this class, you can also replace one maneuvers you know with a different one.

You start with four superiority dice, which are d8s, and you expend one whenever you use a maneuvers. You regain them all when you finish a long rest.

You gain another superiority die at 7th level, and one more at 15th level. When you reach 10th level, your superiority dice turn into d10. When you reach level 18, your dice turn into d12.
Some of your maneuvers require a target to make a saving throw. The Saving throw DC is calculated as 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier.

Mantle of Ancient Secrets

You have learned to use the magical essence of nature to cast spells. You gain the Spellcasting ability. See Spellcasting for the general rules of spellcasting and the Ranger Spells list. You follow the same progression as a Paladin.

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Spell Slots
The Ranger table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.
Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher
You know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the ranger spell list.
The Spells Known column of the Ranger table shows when you learn more ranger spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 5th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.
Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the ranger spells you know and replace it with another spell from the ranger spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
Spellcasting Ability
Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your ranger spells, since your magic draws on your attunement to nature. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a ranger spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.
Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

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Ranger Archetype
At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that you strive to emulate, such as the Hunter, Monster Slayer, or one of the other Ranger Subclasses. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 11th, and 15th level. If your archetype has Bonus spells, and you do not have a spellcasting ability, you can use that spell as an ability once per long rest.

Lair Delve
Beginning at 3rd level, you can use your action and expend reclamation points to focus your awareness on the region around you:

• For 1 minute per number of reclamation points you expend, you can communicate, via sounds and gestures, simple ideas to a beast, and can read that beast’s basic mood, intent, emotional states, short-term needs, and actions you can take, if any, to persuade it to not attack. You cannot use this ability against a creature that you have attacked within 10 minutes.
• You can expend points equal to your level to search for a weapon, or naturally occurring object you can act as a weapon, in the immediate area over 10 minutes. You can only find simple weapons in this way, and are proficient in the weapons you find. Whatever is found is not of a quality worth reselling.
• You expend a number of points equal to your wisdom modifier to give yourself a bonus to your initiative rolls for the next hour (This ability doesn't stack)
  

Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Wanderlust
Starting at 8th level, you can also pass through plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard. You ignore difficult terrain, have advantage on all checks to escape a grapple, manacles, or rope bindings, and advantage on saving throws against being paralyzed. In addition, You can’t be tracked by nonmagical means, unless you choose to leave a trail.

You can use an action to spend Reclamation points equal to your level to pass give this ability to a willing creature until the next long rest.

One with the Shadows
Starting at 10th level, you can use an action to expend 5 reclamation points to cast Darkvision, Pass Without Trace, or Silence, without providing material components.
In addition, you can use the Hide action as a bonus action on your turn.

Sinister Sidestep
Starting at 14th level, when your enemy approaches, you deliver a single deadly thrust and then twist aside, allowing your foe's momentum to try and send the creature tumbling. When an enemy ends its turn within 5 feet of you, you can make a single melee attack and move up to half your speed as a reaction. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks. If you roll an 18-20 on the attack roll, that creature is knocked prone.

Steady Hands
At 18th level, you become an unparalleled hunter of your enemies. Once on each of your turns, you can add your Wisdom modifier to the attack or damage roll of an attack you make. You can choose to use this feature before or after the roll, but before any effects of the roll are applied

Anticipate
At 20th level, your resolve is on a hair trigger. You gain advantage on initiative checks, and you choose one of the following features:

• If you take the Attack action on your first turn of a combat, you can make one additional weapon attack as part of that action
• When you roll initiative and have no superiority dice remaining, you regain 2 superiority die.
• At the start of your first turn each combat, if you have no uses of Wild Shape remaining, you may wild shape as a bonus action, which lasts for 1 minute.
• When you roll initiative and have no uses of spells remaining, you can either regain one use of your archetype spell, or choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to 3.
• You can reroll a saving throw that you fail. If you do so, you must use the new roll. You can use this feature twice.

You gain that feature until you complete a long rest. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can choose a different feature.

Spoiler: Notes:

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• The Reclamation feature is a less powerful but more diverse & Ranger-y version of the Paladin's Lay on Hands ability
• It also uses the Pact Boon Mechanic to combine the concepts of the Ranger, the Spell-less Ranger, and the Shapeshifting Ranger.
• Both the Wild shape and Maneuver mechanics only refresh on LONG rest, making them worse than their fighter or druid counter parts.
• Lair Delve increases the power of the Reclamation feature, and allows the player to be incredibly paranoid, at the cost of everything else.
• Wanderlust is a mix of Land's stride and the Path of the Seeker invocation
• For the Hide in Plain Sight mechanic, I lifted the ability from the Shadow Monk. Following the
• I buffed Tactical Cover to include a portion of the Skulker Feat. It still was garbage so I dug through 4e abilities to create Sinister Sidestep, based on Deadly Sidestep. It also feels like the Scout Rogue ability, which is nice.
• Steady Hands is just Foe Slayer moved into its proper place
• Anticipate is a sort of "Hunter's Foresight". I tried to word it so that any type can use any of the options, such as a Shapeshifting Ranger who picks up the Martial Adept feat.

Let me know what you think!

Focused Enemy is very, very good; I would rest-limit it. I take it you are removing Hunter's Mark as a spell for Rangers to make room for it?

Reclamation for Ranger stuff as a resource pool is good conceptually, though might need some cleaning up and refining. Depending on your wording you could feed small armies by the mid levels for example.

Fighting Style looks solid, precise is potentially too good though

Nature's Boon strikes me as odd. What's the reasoning behind taking Fighter and Druid class features?

Lair Delve is a neat but also probably needs some cleaning up. The weapon finding aspect for example, how would it work with improvised weapons?

Wanderlust is good, though arguably perhaps a little late

Hide in Plain Sight is still terrible unfortunately. It's an extremely niche stealth benefit coming along rather late on a class that gets no other stealth related features except for Pass Without Trace, which directly competes with this.

Tactical Cover is playing serious catch-up, these things are done far sooner through other means, forcing you to either wait until Tier 3 to actually be a stealthy type or get that stuff elsewhere and render this near useless

Steady Hands is good stuff

Anticipate seems pretty late to get advantage on initiative, although it is nice for what it is. I'm not sure i'd ever pick the save rerolls, and why is the additional attack ranged only though?

Overall, its some good stuff! I like what you're doing here, and I hope the feedback helps.

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Originally Posted by Kane0

Focused Enemy is very, very good; I would rest-limit it. I take it you are removing Hunter's Mark as a spell for Rangers to make room for it?

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Yes. Because the class really needs Hunter's Mark, I'm turning it into a class feature, since spellcasting is optional. I used the template the Monster Slayer's feature, but I'll tweak it a bit.

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Originally Posted by Kane0

Reclamation for Ranger stuff as a resource pool is good conceptually, though might need some cleaning up and refining. Depending on your wording you could feed small armies by the mid levels for example.

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Ah, that's a good point. I'll use the "expend equal to your ranger level" for the food as well, so it stays solid as a fifth of the reclamation points.

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Originally Posted by Kane0

Fighting Style looks solid, precise is potentially too good though

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Originally Posted by Kane0

Nature's Boon strikes me as odd. What's the reasoning behind taking Fighter and Druid class features?

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Mostly a throwback. People loved the idea of a Spell-less ranger, and in 3.P, there was shapeshifting ranger option. I was fulfilling that for myself and anyone who cares. Also, Maneuvers are neat.

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Originally Posted by Kane0

Lair Delve is a neat but also probably needs some cleaning up. The weapon finding aspect for example, how would it work with improvised weapons?

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Technically it wouldn't, because it improvises ACTUAL simple weapons.

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Originally Posted by Kane0

Wanderlust is good, though arguably perhaps a little late

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Originally Posted by Kane0

Hide in Plain Sight is still terrible unfortunately. It's an extremely niche stealth benefit coming along rather late on a class that gets no other stealth related features except for Pass Without Trace, which directly competes with this.

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Argh I want it to not to. It's a decent ribbon, but the connection to Pw/oT is a good one. I'll try to use that.

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Originally Posted by Kane0

Tactical Cover is playing serious catch-up, these things are done far sooner through other means, forcing you to either wait until Tier 3 to actually be a stealthy type or get that stuff elsewhere and render this near useless

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Yeah, that's an issue. I should probably replace this with something...

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Originally Posted by Kane0

Anticipate seems pretty late to get advantage on initiative, although it is nice for what it is. I'm not sure i'd ever pick the save rerolls, and why is the additional attack ranged only though?

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Ah, that's because the sharpshooter had it originally.

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Originally Posted by Kane0

Overall, its some good stuff! I like what you're doing here, and I hope the feedback helps.

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It certainly does. Thanks!

Made some updates based on playtesting.

Sylvan Explorer renamed to Excursion, and limited to 3x your Ranger level instead of 5x. You shouldn't be able to heal as much as a paladin, as the utility balances it out.

Noted that Goodberry is also removed from the Ranger Spell list, replaced by the Outlander cuisine feature.

Adjusted Umbra Mantle to include magic resistance bypass at level 10 (as opposed to Moon Druids, who receive it at level 6).

Adjusted Mantle of Dominance to better show that Superiority die refresh on Long rest only (as opposed to BM fighters, who refresh on short or long rest)

Reworded Lair Delve to make more sense.

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Originally Posted by Vogie

Excursion
You are so attuned to nature you seem to always find things that you’re looking for. You gain a number of Reclamation points that replenish when you take a long rest. You gain a Reclamation points equal to your ranger level × 3. You can spend points to produce the following effects:

• Outlander Cuisine – Your ability to find food is borderline supernatural. Over an hour, you can expend a number of reclamation points equal to your ranger level to collect and prepare some food. A creature can use its action to consume this food found this way to restore 1 hit point, and two meals of such food provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day. (Note: Goodberry is removed from the Ranger spell list)
• Survival Cache – over 10 minutes, you can spend produce a number of pieces of ammunition (or darts) equal to reclamation points spent, by recovering expended ammunition from a battlefield or crafting them yourself. The maximum number of points you can spend in this way per rest is based on twice your proficiency modifier.
• Farseek – Over the course of an hour, you can spend 3 reclamation points to learn which direction north is, and, if tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.

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With the exception of the Goodberry effect, all of this is stuff that I would allow any character to perform with an appropriate Survival Skill check. Farseek in particular is practically a textbook example of a common Survival check.

My advice is to reinstate Goodberry on the Ranger spell list and just give the Ranger proficiency in Survival (or Expertise if they already have proficiency) for this feature. If you want to, you can also give them advantage on Wisdom (Survival) rolls to forage for food or other supplies. It'll ultimately accomplish most of what you're trying to do here and be simpler as well.

If you're still stuck on making Goodberry a class feature, then run it like Lay on Hands, like so:

Goodberry

You have the ability to create a number of magical berries equal to 3 x your Ranger level, and the number of berries you can create replenishes when you take a long rest. A creature can use its action to eat one berry. Eating a berry restores 1 hit point and provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for a day.

The berries lose their magic if they haven't been eaten within 24 hours.

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Originally Posted by Crisis21

My advice is to reinstate Goodberry on the Ranger spell list

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Those things that you list as "just a survival check" are already written out in the RAW and Revised Ranger class feature list ("When you forage, you find twice as much food as you normally would" and so on) , so there's a potential that you're games' ability checks are running a bit overpowered in comparison to RAW.

The reason both Hunter's Mark and Goodberry were removed from the spell list and made class features is because this version of the ranger must actively choose to get the spellcasting feature by selecting the Mantle of Ancient Secrets, and I feel that all Rangers should have access to those two abilities, even if they don't choose the spellcasting feature.

I love your changes, and I just added at least three of your homebrews to my list of additional options for players.
I love how this focuses on the chassis and not all of the sublcasses

Cheers mate!

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Originally Posted by Vogie

Those things that you list as "just a survival check" are already written out in the RAW and Revised Ranger class feature list ("When you forage, you find twice as much food as you normally would" and so on) , so there's a potential that you're games' ability checks are running a bit overpowered in comparison to RAW.

The reason both Hunter's Mark and Goodberry were removed from the spell list and made class features is because this version of the ranger must actively choose to get the spellcasting feature by selecting the Mantle of Ancient Secrets, and I feel that all Rangers should have access to those two abilities, even if they don't choose the spellcasting feature.

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I was talking about the general action (forage or tracking) being something you would use a Survival check for.

It's just that using an expendable resource for something that the character should be able to accomplish with a Skill check strikes me as needlessly complicated. Plus I dislike the auto-success nature of the abilities. Things like foraging and tracking should always allow for the possibility of failure, no matter how good the character is at it.

Also, I included a different option for Goodberry as a class feature that more closely mimics the spell that you seem to have neglected to comment on.

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Originally Posted by Crisis21

I was talking about the general action (forage or tracking) being something you would use a Survival check for.

It's just that using an expendable resource for something that the character should be able to accomplish with a Skill check strikes me as needlessly complicated. Plus I dislike the auto-success nature of the abilities. Things like foraging and tracking should always allow for the possibility of failure, no matter how good the character is at it.

Also, I included a different option for Goodberry as a class feature that more closely mimics the spell that you seem to have neglected to comment on.

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Nah, it's fine as is. If you dislike the options presented, play the official ranger ;)

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Originally Posted by Crisis21

Also, I included a different option for Goodberry as a class feature that more closely mimics the spell that you seem to have neglected to comment on.

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"Why don't you make it the same" isn't particularly that comment-able of a suggestion, although I did add a expiration date to the found food, having it expire after 24 hours.

I'm keeping the requirement to consume 2 of the outlander cuisine to have a day's nourishment, so they start out only able to feed themselves for the day, and slowly expand that number as they level up. I dislike the current paradigm where a single ranger can feed a party of 5 for 2 days with a single spell slot.

As for foraging and tracking being something you'd normally use a survival check for, you're right - that's what's different about the Ranger. They're the lonely ones who can always find something to use, and can use things others can't. Instead of just nodding to that by yadda yadda-ing by saying "Expertise in Survival and proficiency in fletcher's tools" or whatever, I wanted to say that Rangers specifically would be able to definitely find arrows, definitely find food. I added that Lair Delve ability so they'd be able to grab faux-improvised weapons... other characters would find "just a stick" or improvised weapons, but a ranger would find things they can use as a spear, dart, or greatclub.

Love this class. Could use some cleaning here and there but what class homebrew or official doesn't? I liked the unearthed arcana ranger a lot but this is really cool. I'm not entirely sure about some of the new fighting styles but I more or less LOVE this class. Especially the option to not cast, it's something I've felt the ranger doesn't necessarily have to have for every player to like it, you've done an excellent job. Although I do have something to ask: can the rangers still take normal fighting styles from the original class?
Also, try to fill in the dead levels for the non spell casting version. Non casters don't have them, so giving the other rangers that don't cast dead levels is mildly nerfing.

I would rescale the reclamation points to just be equal to ranger level to keep it more streamlined. Also, I think lair delve needs another look at as some parts seems a bit ambiguous with what they intend. You say two different things for how much the bonus to initiative is for example.

Otherwise, looks super interesting even if I personally do not agree with giving them wild shape and battle master actions.

Lizardfolk also get an ability that may be helpful if you’re looking for official precedent.

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Originally Posted by Vogie

Class Abilities

Focused Enemy
At first level, as a bonus action, choose one creature you can see within 90 feet of you and mystically mark it as your quarry for 1 hour. Each time you hit it with an attack, you deal an extra 1d6 damage to the target. You have advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) check you make to find it. If that creature falls to 0 hit points, you can designate another creature within range with a bonus action. You can use this ability a number of times per short or long rest equal to your proficiency modifier. It ends early if you lose concentration. (Note: Hunter's mark is removed from the Ranger spell list)

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I'd tie this with favored enemy, and let you pick a target by tracking them.

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Excursion
You are so attuned to nature you seem to always find things that you’re looking for. You gain a number of Reclamation points that replenish when you take a long rest. You gain a Reclamation points equal to your ranger level × 3. You can spend points to produce the following effects:

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I agree with the above poster; make it Level x1 or even Level +Wisdom.

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• Outlander Cuisine – Your ability to find food is borderline supernatural. Over an hour, you can expend a number of reclamation points equal to your ranger level to collect and prepare food. A creature can use its action to consume food created this way to restore 1 hit point, and two meals of such food provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day. These rations expire after 24 hours (Note: Goodberry is removed from the Ranger spell list)
• Survival Cache – over 10 minutes, you can spend produce a number of pieces of ammunition (or darts) equal to reclamation points spent, by recovering expended ammunition from a battlefield or crafting them yourself. The maximum number of points you can spend in this way per rest is based on twice your proficiency modifier.
• Farseek – Over the course of an hour, you can spend 3 reclamation points to learn which direction north is, and, if tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.

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"Ranger level", 1 unit of Outlander Cuisine could feed someone for a day, restore a lost HD and heal them 1d6.

"Survival cache" - as noted, this is not awesome enough; someone with a survival check should be able to do this.

"Craft Ammunition" - creates 5 units of ammunition that deals +1 damage for 1 point.

"Far Seek" - Maybe burn a reclamation point to make a tracked foe your Focused Enemy.

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Fighting Style
At 2nd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.

• Precise: You gain +2 to ranged attack rolls and +1 to melee attack rolls.
• Mariner: As long as you’re not wearing heavy armor, you gain a climbing and swimming speed equal to your walking speed, and gain +1 AC.
• Impactful: When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack roll, you can reroll the die. You must use the new roll.
• Penetrating: When you reduce a hostile creature to 0 hit points with an attack, you can reroll your attack roll against a different target within range.
• Two-Weapon Fighting: When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus action attack. Starting at level 10, your first attack each turn has an additional damage die, based on the damage of the offhand weapon. At 15, your second attack also has an additional damage die based on the damage of the offhand weapon.

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Myself, I'd be tempted to make Focused Enemy easier to apply. Then the multi-tap from Two-Weapon Fighting becomes more powerful than on other classes *for free*.

Precise -- adding flat bonuses to attack rolls is powerful and boring. What if they can aim as a bonus action, getting advantage when attacking a foe and critical on a 19-20?

A ranged "bonus action extra attack" would be good, as would a power attack (-5 to hit, +10 to damage) somehow.

Impactful and Penetrating -- insufficient fluff in my opinion.

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Nature’s Boon
By the time you reach 2nd level, you attune with nature in a manner that is unique. You gain one of the following features of your choice.

Umbra Mantle

You gain the ability to Wild shape, as a Moon Druid does. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1), and retain that form for up to 1 hour each use. You regain expended uses when you finish a long rest.
At 10th level, your attacks in beast form count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Mantle of Dominance

Starting at 2nd level, you learn 3 special maneuvers from the Fighter’s Battlemaster Maneuver list. You can use only one maneuver per attack.
You learn an additional maneuvers of your choice at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels. Each time you gain a level in this class, you can also replace one maneuvers you know with a different one.

You start with four superiority dice, which are d8s, and you expend one whenever you use a maneuvers. You regain them all when you finish a long rest.

You gain another superiority die at 7th level, and one more at 15th level. When you reach 10th level, your superiority dice turn into d10. When you reach level 18, your dice turn into d12.
Some of your maneuvers require a target to make a saving throw. The Saving throw DC is calculated as 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier.

Mantle of Ancient Secrets

You have learned to use the magical essence of nature to cast spells. You gain the Spellcasting ability. See Spellcasting for the general rules of spellcasting and the Ranger Spells list. You follow the same progression as a Paladin.

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While I know the Archtype already has the companion, I cannot help but think that companion would fit better here.

Second, Fighters trade 1/3 spellcasting and lackluster Eldrich Knight abilities for Battlemaster. Here we trade 1/2 spellcaster for washed-down Battlemaster.

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Ranger Archetype
At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that you strive to emulate, such as the Hunter, Monster Slayer, or one of the other Ranger Subclasses. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 11th, and 15th level. If your archetype has Bonus spells, and you do not have a spellcasting ability, you can use that spell as an ability once per long rest.

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That makes spellcasting ranger weaker in comparison, no?

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Lair Delve
Beginning at 3rd level, you can use your action and expend reclamation points to focus your awareness on the region around you:[*]For 1 minute per number of reclamation points you expend, you can communicate, via sounds and gestures, simple ideas to a beast, and can read that beast’s basic mood, intent, emotional states, short-term needs, and actions you can take, if any, to persuade it to not attack. You cannot use this ability against a creature that you have attacked within 10 minutes.

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Ok, utility.

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[*]You can expend points equal to your level to search for a weapon, or naturally occurring object you can act as a weapon, in the immediate area over 10 minutes. You can only find simple weapons in this way, and are proficient in the weapons you find. Whatever is found is not of a quality worth reselling.

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More utility. Also, relatively meh.

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[*]You give yourself a bonus to your initiative rolls equal to your Wisdom modifier for the next hour. The bonus is equal to the number of points expended. You can’t give yourself a bonus higher than your level in this way.

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So, you get a bonus equal to your wisdom, number of points expended, but not higher than your level. I mean, that is a mess.

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Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

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Was it the UA ranger rewrite that split this off of the class to give room for the beastmaster?

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Wanderlust
Starting at 8th level, you can also pass through plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard. You ignore difficult terrain, have advantage on all checks to escape a grapple, manacles, or rope bindings, and advantage on saving throws against being paralyzed. In addition, you can’t be tracked by nonmagical means, unless you choose to leave a trail.

You can use an action to spend Reclamation points equal to your level to pass give this ability to a willing creature until the next long rest.

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I'm not sure if saving against paralyze, grapple escape, etc should be shared here.

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One with the Shadows
Starting at 10th level, you can use an action to expend 20 reclamation points to cast Darkvision, Pass Without Trace, or Silence, without providing material components.
In addition, you can use the Hide action as a bonus action on your turn.

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So this consumes most of your reclamation points.

Thus you get 1 of them at level 10 1/day and lost most of your other abilities. At level 20 you can burn all of your points to get all 3. Hurm.

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Sinister Sidestep
Starting at 14th level, when your enemy approaches, you deliver a single deadly thrust and then twist aside, allowing your foe's momentum to send the creature tumbling. When an enemy ends its turn within 5 feet of you, you can make a single melee attack and move up to half your speed as a reaction. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks.

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No tumble in the crunch, but tumble in the fluff, is bad.

However, I like the reaction idea. I'd push this further; have an increasing number of reaction triggers with riders. Make the ranger use a reaction offensive-defensively every round, for an extra tap and combat utility.

More fun than the combat style stuff.

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Steady Hands
At 18th level, you become an unparalleled hunter of your enemies. Once on each of your turns, you can add your Wisdom modifier to the attack or damage roll of an attack you make. You can choose to use this feature before or after the roll, but before any effects of the roll are applied

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Sure. Not sure why make it +Wis -- it isn't as if it is an ability you are going to splash. ;)

Basically, if you let Wis slide, this ability is useless.

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Anticipate
At 20th level, your resolve is on a hair trigger. You gain advantage on initiative checks, and you choose one of the following features:

• If you take the Attack action on your first turn of a combat, you can make one additional weapon attack as part of that action
• When you roll initiative and have no superiority dice remaining, you regain 2 superiority die.
• When you roll initiative and have no uses of Wild Shape remaining, you regain regain one.
• When you roll initiative and have no uses of spells remaining, you can either regain one use of your archetype spell, or choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to 5.
• You can reroll a saving throw that you fail. If you do so, you must use the new roll. You can use this feature twice.

You gain that feature until you complete a long rest. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can choose a different feature.

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This needs work.

Infinite spells and wild shape may be a bigger problem than infinite superiority dice, as superiority dice are only useful in combat.

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Originally Posted by moonfly7

Also, try to fill in the dead levels for the non spell casting version. Non casters don't have them, so giving the other rangers that don't cast dead levels is mildly nerfing.

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Ah, that's a good point. I should make sure the normal "dead levels" where there's just an increase in spell slots coincide with additional maneuvers & wild shape CR improvements. I kind of yadda yadda'd the Wild Shape, so that's a fair critique.

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Originally Posted by Fnissalot

I would rescale the reclamation points to just be equal to ranger level to keep it more streamlined. Also, I think lair delve needs another look at as some parts seems a bit ambiguous with what they intend. You say two different things for how much the bonus to initiative is for example.

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I don't think 1/level is enough - it's simply too few points early on.

That's a good catch on Lair Delve's 3rd ability. I'll rewrite

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Originally Posted by Yakk

I'd tie this with favored enemy, and let you pick a target by tracking them.

I agree with the above poster; make it Level x1 or even Level +Wisdom.

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Ah, Level + Wis would work. More points early on, with a decent curve.

Focused enemy is a replacement for both the underwhelming favored enemy and overwhelming Hunter's mark

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Originally Posted by Yakk

"Ranger level", 1 unit of Outlander Cuisine could feed someone for a day, restore a lost HD and heal them 1d6.

"Survival cache" - as noted, this is not awesome enough; someone with a survival check should be able to do this.

"Craft Ammunition" - creates 5 units of ammunition that deals +1 damage for 1 point.

"Far Seek" - Maybe burn a reclamation point to make a tracked foe your Focused Enemy.

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Updated Survival cache with your idea of increased damage for larger numbers. Outlander Cuisine is a fixed goodberry, not Uber Eats.

I'm not terribly worried about focused enemy running out- it does last an hour after all

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Originally Posted by Yakk

Myself, I'd be tempted to make Focused Enemy easier to apply. Then the multi-tap from Two-Weapon Fighting becomes more powerful than on other classes *for free*.

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Adjusted TWF down to make it not so overwhelming

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Originally Posted by Yakk

Precise -- adding flat bonuses to attack rolls is powerful and boring. What if they can aim as a bonus action, getting advantage when attacking a foe and critical on a 19-20?

A ranged "bonus action extra attack" would be good, as would a power attack (-5 to hit, +10 to damage) somehow.

Impactful and Penetrating -- insufficient fluff in my opinion.

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There's already a lot of use of the bonus action space, and I need to use things that are known, so they're not overly broken

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Originally Posted by Yakk

Second, Fighters trade 1/3 spellcasting and lackluster Eldrich Knight abilities for Battlemaster. Here we trade 1/2 spellcaster for washed-down Battlemaster.

That makes spellcasting ranger weaker in comparison, no?

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What Spellcasting lacks in damage it makes up in versatility. The vibe I'm going for is more towards a dabbler, an in-between of the Bard's "Jack of All Trades" and all of the other classes' pure dedication. The Ranger is incredibly flexible, and a decent melee combatant, before you add any spellcasting, wild shaping or maneuvering. They'll just be better than the next guy, but not a (battle)master in any of their chosen.

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Originally Posted by Yakk

Was it the UA ranger rewrite that split this off of the class to give room for the beastmaster?

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Yes, the Revised Ranger. I followed that model, as this is the further revised ranger.

Hopefully I get this how I like it and not have to later make an increasingly further revised ranger.

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Originally Posted by Yakk

I'm not sure if saving against paralyze, grapple escape, etc should be shared here.
So this consumes most of your reclamation points.
Thus you get 1 of them at level 10 1/day and lost most of your other abilities. At level 20 you can burn all of your points to get all 3. Hurm.

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The first is narrow enough to fit.
The latter is a holdover from when you had reclamation points of 5x level, so 20 wasn't much. I'll adjust the number of points needed.

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Originally Posted by Yakk

No tumble in the crunch, but tumble in the fluff, is bad.
However, I like the reaction idea. I'd push this further; have an increasing number of reaction triggers with riders. Make the ranger use a reaction offensive-defensively every round, for an extra tap and combat utility.

More fun than the combat style stuff.

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I like your style. Updated to send them tumbling. Not sure where I'll fit more reactions in.

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Originally Posted by Yakk

Sure. Not sure why make it +Wis -- it isn't as if it is an ability you are going to splash. ;)

Basically, if you let Wis slide, this ability is useless.

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Well... yeah. If you are a warlock with a -2 Charisma modifier, Agonizing Blast is useless. Wisdom was already your casting stat and your Battlemaster maneuver DC stat, and if you're a wildshaper you would likely put stats in there because... you're not worried about physical stats.

It allows you to either make it hurt or make it hit. This is just the existing Ranger capstone, but in a better place.

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Originally Posted by Yakk

This needs work.
Infinite spells and wild shape may be a bigger problem than infinite superiority dice, as superiority dice are only useful in combat.

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I'll review this

Changelog since last night:

• Renamed Penetrating to Rampage, following the monster ability
• Various updates to Excursion and Lair Delve.
• Updated the Wild Shape features to follow the "dead levels" of ranger spellcasting, which also caps them at CR 5 monsters rather than a Moon Druid's CR 6, which is nice.
• Reduced Recovery feature for Anticipate-Spell slots from 5 to 3 (so you can get a single 3rd level, a 2nd and a 1st, or three 1st level spells)
• Reduced Wild shape forms for Anticipate- Wild Shape from "regain a use" to "you can still do it, but only once, and the duration is 1 minute". I used the GloomStalker wording for (hopefully) better clarity.

Thanks for all your feedback!

I hate to ask the question; but given that the revised ranger is officially dead and the PHB ranger kind of sucks, do we even Need a discreet ranger class? Most of the ranger "spells" aren't all that magical; and a lot of DMs houserule Hunter's Mark into a class feature.

How about reworking the ranger class back into a fighter archetype? Then s/he can get a lot of the advantages of the fighter. Add Hunter's Mark and maybe some of the features of the rogue scout archetype, and/or something from the barbarian. I know there would be a concern about stepping on other classes' toes; but hey, with XgtE, there's all kinds of toe-stepping going on now.

Has anything like this already been done?

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Originally Posted by paladinn

I hate to ask the question; but given that the revised ranger is officially dead and the PHB ranger kind of sucks, do we even Need a discreet ranger class? Most of the ranger "spells" aren't all that magical; and a lot of DMs houserule Hunter's Mark into a class feature.

How about reworking the ranger class back into a fighter archetype? Then s/he can get a lot of the advantages of the fighter. Add Hunter's Mark and maybe some of the features of the rogue scout archetype, and/or something from the barbarian. I know there would be a concern about stepping on other classes' toes; but hey, with XgtE, there's all kinds of toe-stepping going on now.

Has anything like this already been done?

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Turning Rangers into a rogue or fighter subclass is a fairly common homebrew. Personally, I certainly think against it. For me, Ranger falls into that same sort of Batman role -

• he's stealthy, but not too stealthy.
• He's a fighter, but not the strongest or fastest.
• He's heavily equipped with tricks, but not to the point where he doesn't need to physically fight.
• He can and will lead, but doesn't seek that out if unneeded.

Like Batman, Rangers are self-reliant, less specialized and street smart. They won't have the borderline shamanic connections with nature like a druid would, or the divine powers of clerics, or the arcane abilities from oaths, patrons or studying lore.

I made this revision to the base class make my vision of the ranger a reality - a ranger who has the:

• mechanical self-reliance of a paladin, but without the divine magic, oaths or auras that define them.
• mechanical diversity of a warlock, but without the arcane magic, patrons, and eldritch otherness that define them.

Which I believe I've completed in this Ranger. If you want to be a spell-less ranger, you have that option. If you desire a martial character that can shapeshift, you can have that too. The "normal" half-casting ranger is available too, unlocking their spell list that is the most unique of all the classes, acting as a combination of smites, utility, and unique interactions with weapons, such as Cordon of Arrows and Hail of Thorns.

I have this brew firmly fixed in my character options google docs and is my recommended ranger in all cases.
Now I just have to find a beast-companion homebrew, and I never have to use a WotC ranger class again, hurray.

It just seems like you have a character who is not-quite-a-fighter and not-quite-a-rogue, who casts spells and is animal-friendly like not-quite-a-druid. Just wondering what is the class' unique role. Since WotC added the Scout rogue subclass, many feel that it's a better ranger than the ranger.

In Pathfinder, there is a hybrid class called the Slayer that is close to what I would consider a ranger replacement. The "main thing" of the class is the studied enemy feature, kind of like favored enemy and hunter's mark combined. But it is quite OP IMHO.

I would say that a main class needs to have a "main thing". Paladins used to be fighters with a little cleric mixed in until smites were invented. I guess barbarians have their rage thing. What is the ranger's "main thing"?

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Originally Posted by paladinn

It just seems like you have a character who is not-quite-a-fighter and not-quite-a-rogue, who casts spells and is animal-friendly like not-quite-a-druid. Just wondering what is the class' unique role. Since WotC added the Scout rogue subclass, many feel that it's a better ranger than the ranger.

In Pathfinder, there is a hybrid class called the Slayer that is close to what I would consider a ranger replacement. The "main thing" of the class is the studied enemy feature, kind of like favored enemy and hunter's mark combined. But it is quite OP IMHO.

I would say that a main class needs to have a "main thing". Paladins used to be fighters with a little cleric mixed in until smites were invented. I guess barbarians have their rage thing. What is the ranger's "main thing"?

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The PHB ranger's things are slightly better at survival and Hunter's mark. Both of which are boring in how they are designed. The truly unique thing in 5e was the animal companion.

Fighers have extra attack and action surge. Druid has wild shape, rogues sneak attacks, bards bardic inspiration, sorcerers meta magic, warlocks invocations and pact magic, wizards spellbooks, clerics channel Divinity, monks have ki and unarmed silly things. It might be that rangers are considered bad or replaceable by a subclasses due to the lack of unique flavor in the implementation.

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Originally Posted by Fnissalot

The PHB ranger's things are slightly better at survival and Hunter's mark. Both of which are boring in how they are designed. The truly unique thing in 5e was the animal companion.

Fighers have extra attack and action surge. Druid has wild shape, rogues sneak attacks, bards bardic inspiration, sorcerers meta magic, warlocks invocations and pact magic, wizards spellbooks, clerics channel Divinity, monks have ki and unarmed silly things. It might be that rangers are considered bad or replaceable by a subclasses due to the lack of unique flavor in the implementation.

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This.

If a ranger doesn't have (or want) an animal companion, what's the point?

The original ranger was defined by being extra-deadly against "giant class" humanoids, etc. But Favored Enemy, as it has developed, is way too situational to be the "main thing".

I actually quite like the reclamation points. They are a solid mechanic for all things Ranger. If I were a brand-spanking-new player, wanting to play a ranger, what do I think my concept would be? I'd think "survive on my own, be able to gain knowledge about what happened in an area by looking at the clues, fighting monsters by using my superior experience, and maybe have some special connection to animals".
In combat, rangers are supposed to be just fighters with a twist, not unlike Paladins or EKs. The uniqueness comes from their wilderness abilities.
I've seen cleaner brews out there, but this is just so all-encompassing and bakes so many different aspects of the ranger into one package, I don't see how anyone could turn it down.

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Originally Posted by Bjarkmundur

I actually quite like the reclamation points. They are a solid mechanic for all things Ranger. If I were a brand-spanking-new player, wanting to play a ranger, what do I think my concept would be? I'd think "survive on my own, be able to gain knowledge about what happened in an area by looking at the clues, fighting monsters by using my superior experience, and maybe have some special connection to animals".
In combat, rangers are supposed to be just fighters with a twist, not unlike Paladins or EKs. The uniqueness comes from their wilderness abilities.
I've seen cleaner brews out there, but this is just so all-encompassing and bakes so many different aspects of the ranger into one package, I don't see how anyone could turn it down.

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I'm tempted to agree that EK's suffer from the same thing as rangers: What's the point? But then, EK's aren't a main class, they're a subclass. Which is what rangers should be, without a "main thing". Fighters fight better and are more durable; rogues are more stealthy; druids do nature (and magic) better.

If rangers were built around something like Hunter's Mark, where it could be used similarly to the paladin's smite, I could see it. Paladins get extra damage based on spell slots burned. Maybe rangers could get the same, or maybe to-hit bonuses (or both)? Any other trappings (tracking, hiding, animal friendship) would be mostly flavor.

I made my own crack at making something a bit more flavorful and playable from the Revised ranger, this is what I came up with:

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Favored Enemy: Beginning at 1st level, all beasts, fey, humanoids, monstrosities, and undead are considered your favored enemies. Your Greater Favoured Enemy class feature still works as normal.

Ritual Casting: At 2nd level, choose one spell from the ranger spell list. You can now cast that spell as a ritual. You can choose an additional spell at levels 5, 9, 13 and 17.

Example: Goodberry is just your superior ability to forage, alarm is an actual trap you make, cure wounds is a combination of herbs applied to a bruise, etc.

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This is quite similar to your Reclamation Points and Hunter's Mark feature. Isn't it much cleaner to give the ranger one spell as a ritual, instead of making up a new resource that has the same effect?

@Paladinn: Yeah, ranger's do need their own 'Schtick'.
I personally think the Ranger Spell list is what makes a ranger cool, so I simply added more of that to my personal fix, just like Vogie did with his Reclamation Points.

In my eyes, the core feature of the ranger is adaptability and martial wisdom incarnate.

• While anyone can forage, the ranger is guaranteed to have food.
• Anyone can improvise a weapon, the ranger can find a quarterstaff, bow and arrows.
• Anyone can roll & hope they can handle animals, rangers just can.
• They are the anti-controller - Anyone can use resources & tactics to avoid difficult terrain and get out of snares, rangers just do it.
• Anyone can pick a target to focus down in combat, rangers can choose them before or after, and have bonuses throughout.
• They're magic users who can fight in a silence zone. Or an anti-magic zone.
• Most classes get to turn their stat bonuses to hit or to damage. Rangers get to pick, via Lair Delve & Steady Hands.

Rangers have a diversity of options and actually have a mechanical identity, before subclass involvement, as opposed to the one-note fighter's "Attack more" or the Rogue's hit-or-suck-reliance on Sneak attack.

I couldn't see ranger as an archetype - even the RAB PHB ranger, they're just too diverse. On the other hand, I could see the fighter broken up into a subclasses of Ranger, Paladin, Monk & Barbarian.

I'm sorry, I can't get behind these Fighting Styles.

Fighting Styles are shared between Fighter, Paladin and Ranger with the same name and same benefits. Paladins don't get, for example, "+1 AC and +1 more AC with heavy armor and shield". They get the same +1 AC in armor as everyone else. To me, this implies that anything given the specific game term "Fighting Style" should be balanced with the others, and these are not.

Precise: Archery, but better, because it also affects melee.
Mariner: Defense, but better in this context (see below), because climb and swim speeds are powerful additions and Rangers don't get heavy armor anyhow.
Impactful: Great Weapon fighting, but better, because it affects all weapons, and also Rangers don't get Great Weapon Fighting so it's even better than that.
Rampage: Doesn't duplicate a Fighting Style I know, but it's part of Great Weapon Master except without the restriction of a Bonus Action (or great weapon).
Two-Weapon Fighting: Like the existing Two-Weapon Fighting, only better. Worse, shares the name.

Now, I'm aware that Mariner is not your invention. And that's fine. In the context of Rangers, who never use heavy armor anyhow, it's still purely stronger than Defense. The only exception would be a Ranger with Defense who burns a feat to get Heavily Armored, which in all likelihood would tank their AC lower than that Fighting Style would improve (I suppose it's possible to have a Ranger with Dex of 11 or lower, but I've never seen it, and I'm guessing you haven't either).

Maybe I'm just being grumpy old "when I was playing back in the day uphill both ways in the snow" etc, but I don't personally like the idea of two classes having the same feature with the same name, but one being purely better than the other. And, you know full well someone's going to multiclass with Fighter and stack, for example, Archery and Precise, get +4 to ranged attacks and never miss again. Or, worse, take Impactful and Dueling, beg/borrow/steal a 2d4 one-handed weapon, and do an average of 8 plus Str/Dex per one-handed hit which not even a Fighter can keep up with (greatsword with Great Weapon Fighting is average 8.33333333+Str, and one-third more hp of damage in exchange for using both hands is not a valid trade-off).

I get that you think Rangers are underpowered. I'm not disagreeing with that. Please find a way other than "same Fighting Styles, but better" to fix that. I recommend giving them the same Fighting Styles, but bake the small bonus you want into the class itself. Such as Focused Enemy. Which they already have.

Also, +1 damage on scavenged ammunition doesn't make atmospheric sense. Could I convince you to instead create a new Ranger spell that enchants the ammunition? It would completely fit their already existing spell list. Or, at the very least, ensure that only the Ranger gets the +1 bonus, or else there's no reason the Ranger wouldn't just scavenge +1 ammo for the party, or worse, an army.

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Originally Posted by Breccia

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Those are his preferred styles, and he uses them in his game. For him, those Are the paladin and fighter fighting styles.
Would be even more silly to create a homebrew that isn't consistent with your Houserules, tbh. You can use whatever styles you like, of course.

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Originally Posted by Bjarkmundur

Those are his preferred styles, and he uses them in his game. For him, those Are the paladin and fighter fighting styles.

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Oh, then, we're all good.