D&D (2024) Ranger 2024 is a bigger joke than Ranger 2014:

[UngeheuerLich]

Supposedly they are including expending the CR for creatures.

No mention of beasts specifically, but low level vampires and high level oozes where mentioned.

Though I do at some extra mid level beast for the moon druid.

When magical beasts disappeared, many became monstrosities.

Maybe the best idea would be that monstrosities also disappear and everything is classified as beast.

Or at least all monstrosities without supernatural abilities need to shift to beast. An owlbear seems to be a normal animal.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Swooping in real fast, no time to catch up on the thread right this moment. I was watching another set of videos about 2024, from The_Twig and they highlighted this from the new DM screen.

Now, we don't have the full rules on any of this, but there are some notable things.

1) Traveling at a normal pace now gives disadvantage to stealth check, while traveling at a Fast pace gives disadvantage to stealth, perception and survival checks. This to me also confirms you roll survival while traveling to forage. Moving at a slow pace however gives advantage. This might give some homebrew angles if you want to take some old ranger or barbarian features that let them move faster, and instead applied that to their skill checks.

2) Terrains have a maximum pace you can travel, which is interesting, and the encounter distance MIGHT work with the visible distance., which you can see in the bottom corner, but we can't see the numbers for. They have also included the foraging, navigation, and search DCs directly with the terrain types, which makes it easier to parse the numbers.

3) WE don't have all of it, but we have a part of the audible distance rules. Something trying to be quiet is possible to hear from an average of 35 ft away. Normal noises can be heard from an average of 70 ft away, and very loud noises can be heard from an average of 350 ft away. I don't know why the rolling or how this will be calculated, but this at least gives us a good starting point to start working with. It also gives us minimums of 10, 20 and 100 ft.

Be back later to catch up on the thread.

 

[ECMO3]

Favored Foe is a slightly reworked Hunter's Mark you got a few times a day for free.

Favored Foe triggers on a hit and that makes it substantially different in play than Hunter's Mark.

In play and in terms of how players use it, Favored Foe is closer to a nerfed Paladin Divine Smite than it is to a reworked Hunter's Mark.

Favored Foe is usually used either on a critical hit or for going Nova and trying to deal the maximum possible damage in 1 turn. Hunter's Mark is typically played as a more regular consistent damage bonus you hope (but usually fail) to apply to multiple enemies over multiple fights.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Favored Foe is a slightly reworked Hunter's Mark you got a few times a day for free.

Oh.. Duh.. we should just do the same as the other classes. Have a general option and a specific one.

Hunter's Mark:
you can cast Hunter's Mark twice per long rest + 1 per short rest for free.

Dragon Slayer
You can expend one use of Hunter's Mark to cast Ensnaring Strike.

Elemental Slayer
When you use Hunter's Mark you can choose for it to deal cold, fire, thunder or acid damage.

Huh... or maybe work in some if, then.

Like, instead of expending hunter's mark to cast Ensnaring strike, have an ability that lets you hit the target of your Hunter's Mark with Ensnaring strike, concentrating on both spell, and the creature cannot have advantage on the save? Now you are comboing spells, and your Ensnaring strike might actually work on a dragon (who normally has advantage due to size) but requires the Hunter's Mark to hit them first.

IT would get complicated in the phrasing of a single ability though, giving multiple options, trying to tie each one to spell and giving it a boost, but it could be a pretty fun idea to essentially have Hunter's Mark combo into making your other spells stronger in specific scenarios.

 

[Horwath]

Funny,
just realized this;




only video in the New "class" presentation from WotC that has 55% dislike, all other classes are 5-10%(you will always get some dislike no matter how good a job you do) and paladin is at 20% dislike(I would say it's 100% fault of Bonus action Smite).

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Only 55% dislike?

It deserves to be higher.

 

[Horwath]

Only 55% dislike?

It deserves to be higher.

one can only dream...

 

[OB1]

My campaign switched over to 24 rules last week and our Ranger player couldn't be happier with the changes (currently 3rd level). She feels like it plays much closer to the BG3 Ranger that she based her TT character on.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

The Ranger is still strong. Even Treantmonk likes it. He has a recent video calling out all the great non-concentration spells that a Ranger may choose to prepare.

Looking at all the individual pieces may not be exciting, but the math adds up to the Ranger being competitive in damage and usefulness. It plays like a ranger. Removing concentration from Hunter's Mark actually would make it broken. On top of all that damage, they can add Conjure Animals or Spike Growth too?

 

[Minigiant]

The Ranger is still strong. Even Treantmonk likes it. He has a recent video calling out all the great non-concentration spells that a Ranger may choose to prepare.

Looking at all the individual pieces may not be exciting, but the math adds up to the Ranger being competitive in damage and usefulness. It plays like a ranger. Removing concentration from Hunter's Mark actually would make it broken. On top of all that damage, they can add Conjure Animals or Spike Growth too?

The rangers strength was never the problem.

And that's the problem.

The 2024 Ranger, like everything from the 2024 PHB, is shackled to the 2014 Ranger. And the 2014 Ranger wasn't weak either.

The 2014 Ranger was an average power class with a few very situational but powerful class features. It wasn't like the 2014 Monk or Sorcerer who have drastically undercooked numbers and have features that didn't work as designed.

Strengthwise the Ranger was near perfect. All the ranger needed was

1. More Spells Known
2. More lower level Spell slots
3. Fewer concentration buff spells

This is what Tasha's and 2024 did.

The issue was the ribbon features. The 2014 Favored Enemy and Natural Exploration were exploration features which could be ribbon or powerful depending on campaign. You can't turn an exploration feature into a combat feature and not have the class skyrocket in power. See the Gloom stalker with Tasha's substitution.

Once they decided to give a rangers Expertise, the prospects of any low ever combat feature was cooked. It was over.

The only hope for the Ranger at that point was for Wizards to add a whole bunch of new content. But that was not the point of the new player's handbook. The new player's handbook was a revision of the old players handbook.

No excuse for the capstone.