[P.F]The Improved Ranger [P.E.A.C.H]

[Lemmy]

Hello, playground.

I've been a fan of Ranger ever since I first played D&D.

Overall, I was very pleased by PF's changes to the class, but I still feel it's slightly underpowered, needing just a little push to be just as effective as Barbarians and Paladins, which are, IMHO, the two best martial classes in PF, and among the best balanced too.

I love Inquisitors, but they pretty much stole the Ranger's thunder. Well, the Ranger does have a few things going for him, but not enough to compete, IMO. A Inquisitor with the Feather domain is basically a Ranger+.

So I wanted to buff Rangers so they become great hunters, trackers, infiltrators and all that jazz. This might cause this homebrew to step on the toes of Rogues and maybe Fighters. I don't really care about that, as they are quite limited anyway, and I do intend to buff them too.

So... Here is the improved Ranger (I'll add a table here, but it mostly stays the same, only getting the following class features):

Wild Stalker: Starting at 2nd level, a Ranger adds half her levels in the Ranger class to all Perception, Stealth and Survival checks. Starting at 10th level, a Ranger is capable of tracking even creatures that are usually impossible to track (such as a druid with the Trackless Step ability), although the Ranger does suffers a -10 penalty to her tracking check.

Keen Senses: A Ranger's senses become more effective as she learns more about exploring and surviving in the wilds.
At 2nd level, the Ranger gains low-light vision (triple normal vision range in dim light if she already has low-light vision). At 6th level, she gains darkvision 60 feet (or adds 60 feet to the range of any darkvision already possessed), at 10th level, she gains Scent. At 14th level, she gains Blindsense 30ft. Finally, at 18th level, she gains Blindsight 30ft.

Hunter's Bond: Exactly the same, except the Ranger's effective Druid level is equal to her Ranger levels.

Trackless Steps: Starting at 5th level, a Ranger leaves no trail when in one of her favored terrains and cannot be tracked. She may choose to leave a trail if so desired.

Ghost Scent: At 10th level, a Ranger can completely conceal her scent for as long as she chooses to do so; it becomes impossible to track or detect her by scent.

I'm also considering giving them Fast Movement (at 7th level) and pretty much everything in the Trapper archetype (it's really not even close to being worth the loss of spell casting, and it's kinda weird that you need an archetype to make traps!), but I'm not sure as it feels a bit like overkill, and for now this is enough.

The next step, IMO, would be reducing their Favored Enemy list, so it's less specific. I'm not sure about how to do that, though.

How well do you think this guy fares compared to Pathfinder's Barbarians, Paladins and Inquisitors?