Ranger Varient

[kgauck]

Never one to give up the search for ranger satisfactory to all concerned, I
suggest taking a look at the ranger varient presented at
www.community3e.com/dn/class/RANGER-variant.DOC

By abandoning the spells, this ranger is able to keep the combat prowess I
think is essential, while adding no less than 10 special abilities of the
kind I think Gary is looking for.

As a teaser, I`ll identify some of the special abilities:

Some special abilities only work in favored terrains
Blaze Trail (add Wis bonus to the party`s daily move rate)
Favored Land (take 20 in home territory)
Fast Movement (+5 ft movement in favored terrain)
Focused Alertness (You can always take 10 on Spot and Listen)
Lay of the Land (You can take 10 with Climb, Ride & Hide)

Some special abilities only work with favored enemies:
Ambush Foe (like Sneak Attack, but does not work when only flanking)
Flank Foe (add the flank ability to Ambush)
Dispatch Foe (coup de grace is a standard action)
Opportunistic Attack (as the rogue ability, but only with favored enemy)

Download the doc and take a look.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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[geeman]

At 01:24 AM 8/6/2002 -0500, you wrote:

>By abandoning the spells, this ranger is able to keep the combat prowess I
>think is essential, while adding no less than 10 special abilities of the
>kind I think Gary is looking for.

It is the kind of thing I`m looking, though they did a couple of weird
things with that particular write up. I don`t know why rangers should have
the best Will save progression, for instance. Personally, the light (or
medium) armor restriction for rangers makes some sense, but I`ve never
liked the convention that rangers lose abilities/feats when they put on
heavy armor, since using heavy armor already has several penalties. It
makes more sense to me to just apply those penalties to the ranger`s
special abilities rather than have them turn off entirely.

I still don`t like that rangers have the equivalent of two combat feats at
first level. It makes taking a single level in the class too
attractive. I see a lot of people take a ranger level despite it having
nothing to do with their character concept or even the campaign setting,
just because they gain Ambidexterity and Two Weapon Fighting in a single
level. In this case they`ve expanded the options to include Point Blank
Shot and Precise Shot, which seems to me will have the same problem.

The shift in favored enemy from 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th level to 2nd,
6th, 10th, 14th and 18th is sensible, I think. The Favored Terrain ability
is a good inclusion too, though some of the specific rules are a little
odd. Forced March uses the charisma modifier as a bonus to enduring a
forced march? That`s a little weird.

Overall I like it, though. Aspects of it will probably make it into the
version of the ranger I use.

Gary

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[kgauck]

I think the armor restriction (light or no armor for a variety feats) is
meant to balance the fact that you get two bonus feats at first level. I
haven`t seen a problem with anyone but rogues (who already have a similar
restriction because of their skills) tempted to go for ranger just for the
two-weapon fighting and ambidexterity.

Part of my solution to this temptation has just been to meet it with a
single feat that allows the same thing. A Rjurik feat allows the
quarterstaff to be used as though the character has two-weapon fighting and
ambidexterity. A Brecht feat allows the rapier and dagger to be used as
though the character has two-weapon fighting and ambidexterity. An Anuirean
feat allows the shield bash to be conducted as though the character has
two-weapon fighting and ambidexterity. Generally, when I create a new feat
to deal with this issue, I limited it to one weapon.

The availability of the quarterstaff and the fencing feats combined with the
armor restrictions have totally neutralized the desire to grab a single
level of ranger, accept the restriction to light armor, suffer the
multi-classing penalty (even Gary`s alternative multi-classing penalty would
be a 5% hit), and expose themselves to the raised eyebrows of some players.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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[Birthright-L]

<< Some special abilities only work with favored enemies:
Ambush Foe (like Sneak Attack, but does not work when only flanking)
Flank Foe (add the flank ability to Ambush)
Dispatch Foe (coup de grace is a standard action)
Opportunistic Attack (as the rogue ability, but only with favored enemy)
>>

*Augh!* Favored enemies. Exactly *not* what I`m looking for in a ranger. :(

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