ASSUMPTIONS 
The PHB Ranger class has two main problems. The first is progression. The Ranger has too many bonuses stacked early in the class progression (especially at first level) and too little later on. It has been pointed out many times that this leads to taking a single level of ranger in exchange for two virtual feats, track feat, favored enemy and lots of skills, some not available elsewhere. The second problem is lack of flexibility. Many have complained that you are unable to create an archer, scout or mountain-man Ranger, only a two-weapon wielding Ranger. Others have complained about the restrictive favored enemy bonus. This variant Ranger attempts to address these problems. If you do not agree with these assumptions, then this variant Ranger is not for you.

RANGER, variant by Bertman4, version 2.1, 3/31/01

Alignment: remains the same as PHB

Hit Die: remains the same as PHB

Class Skills: same as PHB but add Bluff (Cha) and Sense Motive (Wis)

Skill Points: remains the same as PHB

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The Ranger is proficient in all simple and martial weapons, light armor, and shields.

BAB: remains the same as PHB

Saves: remains the same as PHB

Spells: remains the same as PHB

Lvl  Special Ability
01   Favored Enemy; Track
02   Fighter Bonus Feat; Fast Stride
03   Favored Enemy
04   Trailblazing
05   Favored Enemy 
06   Ranger Bonus Feat
07   Favored Enemy
08   Skill Mastery
09   Favored Enemy
10   Ranger Bonus Feat
11   Favored Enemy
12   Skill Mastery
13   Favored Enemy
14   Ranger Bonus Feat
15   Favored Enemy
16   Skill Mastery
17   Favored Enemy
18   Ranger Bonus Feat
19   Favored Enemy
20   Skill Mastery

Favored Enemy: Beginning at first level and every other level thereafter, Rangers get a point of Favored Enemy. Points of Favored Enemy may be spent on creature types listed in the PHB. For each point of Favored Enemy in a creature type, the Ranger gets +1 to Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Wilderness Lore checks against that creature type. The Ranger also gets this bonus to Attack (NOT Damage) when using melee weapons or ranged weapons against targets within 30'. This bonus to attack is effective even against creatures immune to critical hits.

Track: At first level, the Ranger receives the Track feat for free.

Fighter Bonus Feat: At second level, the Ranger may choose any single feat from the Fighter's list of bonus feats.
Fast Stride: At second level, the Ranger becomes adept at getting through unfavorable terrain. Terrain is always one step better for the Ranger. A Ranger is considered to be on the Road when in Trackless conditions. Likewise, the Ranger is considered to be on the Highway when in Road conditions.
Trailblazing:  At fourth level, the Ranger becomes particularly skilled at navigating and orienteering. The Ranger can guide others when traveling in poor conditions (see Table 9-4: Hampered Movement in the PHB) and/or difficult terrain (see Table 9-5: Terrain and Overland Movement in the PHB). The Ranger makes a Wilderness Lore check to improve the travel of the party. 
Check Result: Travel Improved By:
15+               25%
25+               50% 
35+               75%
If the party is hustling, increase the DC by 5. The Ranger may guide a group of up to 3 individuals at no penalty. Each additional person in the group being guided incurs a -2 penalty. Trailblazing applies to overland movement only. Trailblazing may not improve the travel beyond highway travel in the terrain in question under good conditions.

Example: Milo, the Halfling Ranger attempts to guide his party through the foggy deep swamp. Normally, the party can travel 2 miles per hour or 16 miles per day. Consulting the appropriate tables, we see that "fog" has a movement modifier of ½, and "trackless swamp" also has a modifier of ½. The party can only travel ½ mile in one hour or 4 miles in one day. Although Milo can use his Fast Stride ability, doing so would force him to leave the party. Instead, Milo attempts to use his Trailblazing ability. He gets a 26 on his Wilderness Lore skill check. Travel is improved by 50%. 50% of ½ mile is ¼ mile so the entire party can travel ¾ miles per hour or 6 miles per day. 

Ranger Bonus Feat: Beginning at sixth level and every four levels thereafter (10th, 14th, 18th level), the Ranger may choose a bonus feat. The Ranger's bonus feats are chosen from the following list: Alertness, Ambidexterity, Endurance, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Leadership, Lightning Reflexes, Quick Draw, Run, Skill Focus, and Toughness.

Skill Mastery:  Beginning at eighth level and every four levels thereafter (12th, 16th, 20th), the Ranger can "master" a single class skill with five or more ranks.  Skill mastery allows the Ranger to "take 10" on the skill check in question, even when stress and distractions would normally prevent a "take 10." 

RATIONALES
What I attempted to do is to create a balanced, customizable, improvable, variant Ranger. I think I did pretty well with everyone's help. This variant Ranger keeps the PHB Ranger's spell casting ability. This is a matter of personal preference. For those of you who would like to change the spell casting ability, I've made some suggestions further down. Rangers are kind of a carry over from the time of 1E. Since multi-classing was highly restricted in 1E, I viewed the Paladin as a Cleric/Fighter for humans. Rangers were a little harder to categorize, but again it was allowing a Fighter-like class access to minor spells (Magic-User and Druid spells in 1E). The Ranger has elements of the Fighter, Rogue and Druid all rolled into one class. They were quite unique and fun to play. I wanted to bring back that feeling of fun to play so that people would want to play a single class Ranger.
 
Class Skills: I think it makes sense to add these two skills as class skills since they are affected by the Favored Enemy bonus.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: As pointed out by numerous contributors, limiting the Ranger to light armor through "virtual feats" is very artificial. Although I think Rangers should be able to wear hide armor, a compromise was necessary. Therefore, I have removed the medium armor proficiency. The variant Ranger also no longer receives the virtual feats Ambidexterity and Two-Weapon Fighting.

Saves: Some people would like the Ranger to have good reflex saves on top of the good fortitude save. I disagree. All warrior types (Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, and Ranger) have one good save. Classes that get two good saves have slower BAB progression. I believe this is a balancer in d20 system. Therefore, the variant Ranger's saves remains the same as the PHB Ranger.

Spells: Some of you prefer a no-spell Ranger while others insist on improving the spell casting (such as spontaneous casting). I decided to keep the PHB progression and give you the option to customize this variant Ranger. I would have liked to make the spell casting be spontaneous, but I felt it might be unbalancing. Without extensive play testing, it is hard to say. Here are some suggestions.

If you decide to remove spell-casting ability, add some other benefits. Increasing the number of Ranger Bonus Feat and/or Skill Mastery is a possibility. Adding the Uncanny Dodge progression and/or Evasion/Improved Evasion would also be a good choice. For example, Evasion at level 5, Uncanny Dodge (retain Dex bonus when flat-footed) at level 10, Improved Evasion at level 15 and Uncanny Dodge (can not be flanked) at level 20. Another possibility is to give the Ranger spell-like abilities. Perhaps the Ranger can calm animals once per day at lower levels or become invisible to animals at higher levels.

If you decide to improve spell casting by granting spontaneous casting, then I would suggest that you remove some benefits. From this variant Ranger, I would decrease the number of times Skill Mastery is given and decrease the number of Ranger Bonus Feats. These are just suggestions.

Favored Enemy: I kept the Alt.Ranger progression because I like the flexibility it offers. I thought that bonuses to attack AND damage was too much, especially at high levels. I liked giving the attack bonus instead of the damage bonus because it allows for more flexibility. With the feats Expertise and/or Power Attack, you can trade in that additional attack bonus to improve your AC and/or damage. I also like it because it modifies a d20 roll. 

Track: no change from PHB

Fighter Bonus Feat: To compensate for the loss of medium armor and the loss of "virtual feats" (Ambidexterity and Two Weapon Fighting gained at first level for the PHB Ranger), the variant Ranger receives one combat-related feat at second level. 

Fast Stride: As pointed out by several people, the Ranger ends up being a sub-par tracker when compared to the Barbarian and Druid. The Barbarian receives Fast Movement at level 1 and can move faster through any terrain than the PHB Ranger of the same race and encumbrance. The Druid receives Woodland Stride at level 2 and can ignore all terrain effects. Even though these two classes will need to spend a feat slot, clearly they both outshine the PHB Ranger in tracking. Fast Stride will allow the variant Ranger to be a faster tracker than the Barbarian in Road or Trackless terrain. The variant Ranger is just as fast a tracker in Road terrain but not quite as fast in Trackless terrain as the "supernatural" Druid. 

Trailblazing: I borrowed this from the Star Wars RPG. Several people have suggested using this ability instead of the "favored terrain" ability presented in the Alt.Ranger class. Although I liked the favored terrain idea, it became too complex IMO. You had to keep track of a second set of skills. I did not agree that you should use the terrains from the overland table (Table 9-5; PHB) when monsters and the wilderness encounter table both use climate and terrains from the DMG (p. 154). Alt.Ranger does not specify the relationship between CLIMATE and terrain and how it interacts with the favored terrain bonus. Therefore, I decided not to use favored terrain but to give the variant Ranger the ability to improve the overland movement of others.

Ranger Bonus Feat: The variant Ranger no longer receives virtual feats. Instead, the variant Ranger receives real feats from a list of non-combat, utilitarian feats. This encourages role playing opportunities and diversifying the variant Ranger as a class.

Skill Mastery: This is one of the Rogue's high-level special abilities. It is also a special ability for the Scout class in the Star Wars RPG. Several people felt that the Ranger should be a skill monkey and should receive 6 skill points per level. However, no class gets 6 skill points. The PHB classes only get 2, 4, or 8 skill points per level. This might be an inherent balancer in the d20 system. In any case, only the Rogue gets 8 skill points per level. The Ranger gets 4 skill points per level compared to the 2 points that Fighters and Paladins receive. However, the Barbarian also receives 4 points. The Ranger's skill list is more extensive. Therefore, compared to the Ranger, the Barbarian can get higher ranks per skill if the points are divided evenly among the skills. The Ranger ends up being Jack-of-All-Trades, Master-of-None. In reality, the Ranger should put maximum skill points into Wilderness Lore, but that is IMHO. 

Skill Mastery allows the variant Ranger to become the "master" of some skills. It allows flexibility in improving the skill checks without infusing it with more and more skill points. The most useful aspect of Skill Mastery is that you can "take 10" even when conditions are unfavorable. 

The Rogue can choose to get Skill Mastery at level 11, 13, 16 and/or 19. They get a number of skills equal to 3 plus their Intelligence modifier. Although the Rogue has several other special abilities they can choose from, Skill Mastery is useful and would be chosen at least once. The variant Ranger only gets to "master" one skill starting at level 8 for a total of 4 "mastered" skills by level 20. It was not meant to, and certainly does not, overshadow the Rogue. I did not want to make this a feat and add it to the Ranger Bonus Feat list. Making Skill Mastery a feat would mean another rule change from the core rules. It also meant that any character could take it as a feat. That would really be stealing the Rogue's thunder. 

I made additional prerequisites for Skill Mastery. They can only "master" class skills. The variant Ranger must have 5 ranks in the skill before they can "master" the skill. 

Acknowledgements
Thanks to anyone on Eric Noah's message boards that participated in the discussions regarding the Ranger. Special thanks to FJEastman for helping to create and archiving the original Alt.Ranger. It can be found at  http://home.earthlink.net/~fjeastman/alt/altranger.html 

Albert Nakano
aka Bertman4