WIP: Ranger update

[Robertrigo]

Ranger is not done, but I just wanted you guys to take a look at the Hunter's Edge section. I'm not sure about the descriptions. Maybe to much text? Do you have any suggestion on how it could be formatted better? They all have these additional effects at higher leves. Maybe something nice could be done with them?

[praqma-thi]

Flavour-wise

In general, I'm a big fan of this. I always felt ranger magic worked against the archetype. (I don't remember Aragorn being a shitty druid.)

I'm assuming it's intentional, but there's quite a few edges specifically targeting ranged attackers, e.g. backup ammunition, twin shot, etc.
There's a few of them, e.g. Winter's Bite and Embershot (with a rename) that could be opened up to regular attacks.
Less restrictions to keep in mind, more flexibility, and likely not a big powerswing in melee since they're concentration.

As a bonus action, you invoke this Edge for up to 1 hour, requiring concentration as though concentrating on a spell. While this Edge is active, your ranged weapon attacks made with bows deal an additional 1d4 cold damage on a hit.

Gameplay wise

I happen to have a level 5 ranger lined up for their debut on Thursday, so I took a look at what they'd look like with edges.
I'm trading 8 spells (4L1, 2L2 slots) for 4 (+1/2 conclave?) edges, two long rest, one short rest, and one ritual edge.
The change in options is hard to quantify, but it feels like a smidgen less flexibility, but I do like that this opens up extra tools not gated by spell slots.

Apropos; Splitting their reuse between Long Rest/Short Rest/Ritual is nice. Helps with tracking them on your sheet. If they get a little too unique they become cumbersome to keep track of.

As for the value you get out of Edges over spells, we'd probably have to go into a case-by-case basis. I'm also not familiar enough with Varlyn custom spells to compare. But I took a look at Windrunner and saw a nice merge between Haste and Zephyr Strike, both of which were on my Freerunner's list, but I did oof a little at seeing Hunter's Mark being gated by a long rest.

I'm up for playtesting this but considering our group's horrendous scheduling habits, it'll be a humble amount of data.

[praqma-thi]

As for the formatting and amount of text;
I think it's fine as long as it's consistent. The combat ones are easier to keep short since they're mostly "do 1d8 instead", "lasts for 2 hours instead", etc. The flavour ones can get a bit long...

Taking a random one;

Keeper of the Fallen
Prerequisite: Nature skill

"The dead should rest, and the wise ranger knows that when they do not, something has gone terribly wrong".

As an action, you can perform a brief rite over a corpse or burial site. For the next 24 hours, you know if an undead creature comes within 30 feet of the warded remains. In addition, you have advantage on checks made to identify, track, or detect undead creatures and signs of their presence.

Once you use this Edge, you can't use it again until you complete a long rest.

At 5th level, you learn the Rite of Returning. You can instead touch a corpse and entrust it to the wild. Soft fungal growths spread across the body, roots emerge from the earth, and nature reclaims the remains in a matter of seconds. Once returned in this way, the corpse can no longer be animated or transformed into an undead creature by any means short of a wish spell or divine intervention. This rite has no effect on undead creatures or living creatures.

At 9th level, you can determine whether a corpse was killed by undead, a curse, or another supernatural influence by examining it for 1 minute. You also learn how long ago the creature died and whether it rose as undead after death.

At 13th level, undead have disadvantage on ability checks made to track you by scent, sound, or supernatural means.

At 17th level, when you perform the Rite of Returning, all corpses of your choice within 30 feet are affected. In addition, undead must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against save DC equal to 8 + your Wisdom modifier + your proficiency bonus to willingly approach within 10 feet of a corpse you have warded or returned.

That's two ritual spells and two passive traits. Difficult to trim down unless you start referring to the spells they come from.

[praqma-thi]

Attempt to write that last one a bit shorter, but kinda cheats on assuming a spell/edge save DC is declared elsewhere.
Cuts flavour too, though.

Keeper of the Fallen
Prerequisite: Nature skill

"The dead should rest, and the wise ranger knows that when they do not, something has gone terribly wrong".

You have advantage on checks to identify, track, or detect undead.

As an action, you can ward a corpse or burial site. For 24 hours, you know when undead enter within 30 ft of it.

At 5th level; Rite of Returning. You can instead touch a corpse and return it to nature, preventing it from being animated or transformed into undead except via the wish spell or divine intervention.

At 7th level; Examining a corpse for 1 minute reveals whether it was killed by undead, a curse, or supernatural influence, how long ago it died, and whether it rose as undead.

At 13th level; Undead have disadvantage on checks made to track you.

At 17th level; Rite of Returning affects any number of corpses within 30 ft. Undead must succeed on a Wisdom save to willingly approach within 10 ft of a corpse you have warded or returned.

[Robertrigo]

Flavour-wise

In general, I'm a big fan of this. I always felt ranger magic worked against the archetype. (I don't remember Aragorn being a shitty druid.)

I'm assuming it's intentional, but there's quite a few edges specifically targeting ranged attackers, e.g. backup ammunition, twin shot, etc. There's a few of them, e.g. Winter's Bite and Embershot (with a rename) that could be opened up to regular attacks. Less restrictions to keep in mind, more flexibility, and likely not a big powerswing in melee since they're concentration.

As a bonus action, you invoke this Edge for up to 1 hour, requiring concentration as though concentrating on a spell. While this Edge is active, your ranged weapon attacks made with bows deal an additional 1d4 cold damage on a hit.

I've always imagined rangers to be more ranged combatant, but you are right, there's no need to restrict them to that. I'll look at opening up some for all weapons.

Gameplay wise

I happen to have a level 5 ranger lined up for their debut on Thursday, so I took a look at what they'd look like with edges. I'm trading 8 spells (4L1, 2L2 slots) for 4 (+1/2 conclave?) edges, two long rest, one short rest, and one ritual edge. The change in options is hard to quantify, but it feels like a smidgen less flexibility, but I do like that this opens up extra tools not gated by spell slots.

Last tine I checked 4 + 2 was 6, so 4L1+ 2L2 slots are 6 spells, no? :) One thing to keep in mind is that the short rest is shorter than standard dnd, basically one after each battle, so the short rest edges can normally be used a lot more than a spell.

Apropos; Splitting their reuse between Long Rest/Short Rest/Ritual is nice. Helps with tracking them on your sheet. If they get a little too unique they become cumbersome to keep track of.

As for the value you get out of Edges over spells, we'd probably have to go into a case-by-case basis. I'm also not familiar enough with Varlyn custom spells to compare. But I took a look at Windrunner and saw a nice merge between Haste and Zephyr Strike, both of which were on my Freerunner's list, but I did oof a little at seeing Hunter's Mark being gated by a long rest.

I was never a fan of Hunter's mark. Whenever someone makes a ranger, this spell is always taken, and it's almost the only spell used. So this is an attempt to reduce it's use, or at least make it's focus the tracker part instead of the combat part. However, at 5th level you can have it for 8 hrs (provided you stay out of harm's way of course).

I'm up for playtesting this but considering our group's horrendous scheduling habits, it'll be a humble amount of data.

Go for it if your GM is ok with it.

[Robertrigo]

Attempt to write that last one a bit shorter, but kinda cheats on assuming a spell/edge save DC is declared elsewhere. Cuts flavour too, though.

Keeper of the Fallen
Prerequisite: Nature skill
"The dead should rest, and the wise ranger knows that when they do not, something has gone terribly wrong".
You have advantage on checks to identify, track, or detect undead.
As an action, you can ward a corpse or burial site. For 24 hours, you know when undead enter within 30 ft of it.
At 5th level; Rite of Returning. You can instead touch a corpse and return it to nature, preventing it from being animated or transformed into undead except via the wish spell or divine intervention.
At 7th level; Examining a corpse for 1 minute reveals whether it was killed by undead, a curse, or supernatural influence, how long ago it died, and whether it rose as undead.
At 13th level; Undead have disadvantage on checks made to track you.
At 17th level; Rite of Returning affects any number of corpses within 30 ft. Undead must succeed on a Wisdom save to willingly approach within 10 ft of a corpse you have warded or returned.

Yeah, it's shorter, but I do miss the flavour.

[Robertrigo]

Also I realized that it's probably not clear, but my intention is that the passive effects would be active when the edge is active. I see for the Keeper of the Fallen it's weird as there are two ways to use the edge, and the effect is not so powerful at all.

But for example Wildsight, maybe I need to add a "when this edge is active" for the higher level effects. The intention was that the edge improves continuously when you gain levels.

[praqma-thi]

Yeah, I don't think it's a big issue if the descriptions are long and flavourful in the source as long as they can be written down tersely. So I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Apropos Hunter's mark; Yeah, I get that. In it's original form it's (too) good as bread and butter extra damage. I think you could consider dropping the bonus damage element from it entirely and make it a more powerful tracking tool. Would be pretty cool to have interplanar tracking at high levels. 😄

[praqma-thi]

Last tine I checked 4 + 2 was 6, so 4L1+ 2L2 slots are 6 spells, no? :)

I'm looking forward to seeing the conclave edges, just assumed their number. :P
I meant you lose on spells, not particularly spell slots, but I really don't want to fuss about it.
I'm trying to rehabilitate myself to be a flavour enjoyer over a munchkin, but old habits die hard. 😂

One thing to keep in mind is that the short rest is shorter than standard dnd, basically one after each battle, so the short rest edges can normally be used a lot more than a spell.

Right, big fan of that actually. Hasn't sunk in just yet since we don't play nearly enough. 😭

[kvarak]

I think both the concept and the text is good. The flavour text makes it easy to imagine your Ranger doing the thing.

I quickly checked the prerequisites:

$ grep "Prerequisite: " ranger\ copy.md | sort
        *Prerequisite:  Woodworking - Bowyer*
        *Prerequisite: Acrobatics skill*
        *Prerequisite: Dexterity 13+, proficiency with bows*
        *Prerequisite: Handle Animal skill*
        *Prerequisite: Handle Animal skill*
        *Prerequisite: Handle Animal skill*
        *Prerequisite: Handle Animal skill*
        *Prerequisite: Herbalism skill*
        *Prerequisite: Herbalism skill*
        *Prerequisite: Nature - Primal Magic skill*
        *Prerequisite: Nature - Primal Magic skill*
        *Prerequisite: Nature - Primal Magic skill*
        *Prerequisite: Nature - Primal Magic skill*
        *Prerequisite: Nature skill*
        *Prerequisite: Nature skill*
        *Prerequisite: Perception skill*
        *Prerequisite: Perception skill*
        *Prerequisite: Perception skill*
        *Prerequisite: Physique - Tolerance*
        *Prerequisite: Physique skill*
        *Prerequisite: Physique skill*
        *Prerequisite: Stealth skill*
        *Prerequisite: Survival - Tracking skill*
        *Prerequisite: Survival - Tracking skill*
        *Prerequisite: Survival skill*
        *Prerequisite: Survival skill*
        *Prerequisite: Survival skill*
        *Prerequisite: Survival skill*
        *Prerequisite: Swimming skill*
        *Prerequisite: Wisdom 13+*

And it's a nice collection, spread out on the "important" skills. If you could find some Edges that are connected to any of the Perception - Senses skills, it would be a good complement to the list.

One thing:

    *Prerequisite: Dexterity 13+, proficiency with bows*

All Rangers are proficiency with bows, do you maybe mean level 3 or 4?