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Class: World Ranger Pay What You Want
Average Rating:3.4 / 5
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Class: World Ranger
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Class: World Ranger
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by John P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/19/2016 03:37:55

First of all, I have to address the presentation. Clearly, some effort went into making it look like the 5e books. I appreciate this, but it seems out of place here. The fancy graphics contrast with the unpolished, un-playtested content. The background makes it harder to read on a computer screen, and is not ideal for printing. Despite the professional-looking quality, the presentation does not add value, but actually detracts from the work (in my opinion, of course). Just because you can make it look like the books, doesn't mean you should.

For a project like this, I feel a simple, minimal presentation is most appropriate. A white background and black, sans-serif text would've been perfect (like, say, the template provided on this very site).

One last thing on presentation--I noticed a few minor copy-editing errors. Line breaks being in the wrong places, redundant text, things like that. OK, on to the content!

The basic premise is solid, and I think it's probably the best way to do the Ranger. With the three subclasses, you can choose A) spellcasting, B) animal companion, or C) none of the above. The base class itself provides combat and wilderness exploration features, mostly copied from the PHB.

While the overall structure is successful in theory, I would never use this in my game. The 5e Ranger has its flaws, but this version seems to create more problems than it solves. Chief among these problems is that the class is too powerful, but I'll go on:

The Foe Slayer reintroduces the damage bonus for Favored Enemy. While this is an iconic Ranger ability, it makes things awkward for the DM. I was glad to see it left out of 5e, and I'm not keen to bring it back.

The Mystic Hunter is the spellcaster, and I was puzzled to see a list of domain spells. Since this subclass is now the only one that can access the Ranger spell list, why give it an additional subclass-specific spell list? Actually, they're all from the Ranger spell list*, so it's just like having an extra two Spells Known, except you don't get to choose them. Why not let the players choose which spells they want?

(*except for Hold Monster, which is inexplicably on there)

It's also weird that this subclass, in addition to Hunter's Mark (as a domain spell), has a Quarry feature that does a similar thing. For one, it's redundant. For two, it's incredibly weak (spend a 1st-level slot to cast True Strike). For three, why is there this 4e strikery element in this subclass? Isn't that what the Foe Hunter is for?

The Wilderness Warden reimagines the animal companion as a spirit that you can summon into physical form. This is a cool idea, and helps explain the sillyness inherent in having a pet as a class feature. It's widely accepted that the Beastmaster in the PHB is underpowered, and this one does seem more powerful. My problem with this is that it doesn't actually improve the Animal Companion mechanic, but rather simply adds more features on the side to make up for the loss of spellcasting. To me, this is no better than the PHB version.

While I appreciate the effort that went into this product, I ultimately have to give it a below-average rating, since I'd still rather use the core Ranger in my game.



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[2 of 5 Stars!]
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