D&D 5E Ranger: House rule to fix Hunter's Mark

[THEMNGMNT]

The conventional wisdom emerging among YouTubers and the like is that Rangers work just fine in Tier 1 and 2, but their damage output fails to keep pace above 10th level. The emphasis on Hunter's Mark also creates friction with Concentration spells and bonus actions. I have what I believe to is an elegant solution to this problem.

Favored Enemy grants Rangers two free castings of Hunters Mark, eventually increasing to six free castings. What if Rangers could use those free castings to modify the base spell? Specifically, a Ranger could expend these free castings to:

• Remove the need for Concentration
• Cast the spell or move it to a new target without using a bonus action
• Increase the damage by d6

The Ranger could expend multiple free castings to stack effects. For example, at 5th level, a Ranger has three free castings of Hunter's Mark. It could use a spell slot to cast Hunter's Mark, then use all three free castings to increase the damage to 2d6, cast it without using a bonus action (or regular action), and potentially cast a Concentration spell (in this round or the next). Of course, this 5th level Ranger would only get to do this once per long rest. If they wanted to be more frugal, for example, they could use it to increase the damage by 1d6 over three separate encounters. Or any combination you can imagine. Rangers could also just use these free castings to cast Hunter's Mark, as originally intended.

At home, I'd grant this at 1st level. If this were published, I'd probably grant it at 3rd level.

 

[Horwath]

While I agree that HM needs to lose Conc, the timing of the level and any modifications to the spell without having Conc needs to be addressed.


Now, having a mandatory feature that uses Cons is a bad design as it competes with 80% of ranger spells later on and on top of that you put it on a class that no Con proficiency is an insult to injury.


One solution,

Keep HM as is, and give option to remove Conc tag at some low level, but not with a cheap dip in the class,
5th level is good mark, but ranger get a big boost at 5th level already,
6th level Roving ability is nice but it's not even close to Extra attack and 2nd level spells, so ignoring Conc on HM at 6th level is a good point.
And 6th level is definitely not a dip level.
at 13th level, increase HM damage to d8
at 20th level, increase it to d12

2nd solution
Option to ignore Cons on HM but you reduce the damage part of the spell to 1 minute.
This will lock combat bonus to single encounter only, but keep the tracking part of the class feature intact.


3rd solution
replace HM with Divine favor.
simple damage boost, no Conc, lasts for 1 min
at 13th level increase it to d6, at 20th level increase it to d12


4th solution: hands of the healer
Replace uses of HM with Cure wounds and you can cast it as Bonus action and no spell components.
at 5th level Ranger increase the spell level to 2
at 9th level Ranger increase the spell level to 3
at 13th level Ranger increase the spell level to 4
at 17th level Ranger increase the spell level to 5
at 20th level Ranger increase the spell level to 6
increase if for bonus usages of Cure wounds, not for casting it with spell slots.

 

[Xeviat]

I've switched it to no concentration, for everyone, and the damage is only applied once per round. But I also have the damage increase to 2d6 at 3rd level and 3d6 at 5th level, a long with duration improvements.

The change I've been fiddling with is removing the ability to switch targets, but adding a Benny for when you defeat (kill or knockout or otherwise capture): I'm considering getting a Heroic Inspiration. Then level 1 for 1d6 balances with Divine Smite for 2d8 at 3 rounds, level 3 2d6 (7) balances against 4d8 (18) at 3 rounds, and so on.

But what I'm really considering is making Hunter's Mark a class ability and adding in "X Strike" spells as Ranger smites.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I've switched it to no concentration, for everyone, and the damage is only applied once per round. But I also have the damage increase to 2d6 at 3rd level and 3d6 at 5th level, a long with duration improvements.

The change I've been fiddling with is removing the ability to switch targets, but adding a Benny for when you defeat (kill or knockout or otherwise capture): I'm considering getting a Heroic Inspiration. Then level 1 for 1d6 balances with Divine Smite for 2d8 at 3 rounds, level 3 2d6 (7) balances against 4d8 (18) at 3 rounds, and so on.

But what I'm really considering is making Hunter's Mark a class ability and adding in "X Strike" spells as Ranger smites.

That damage scaling seems fast. I don't have direct experience with a 2024 Ranger but what I've seen on YouTube suggests that the Ranger is powerful in Tier 1 but fails to keep up at higher levels.

The target switching idea is really interesting. I wouldn't remove the ability to switch targets, but reward dropping a target to 0 hit points and moving to the next target. That seems more in the spirit of 5E.

"When you drop an enemy to zero hit points, you may switch the target of your Hunter's Mark as a free action, and increase the amount of damage from Hunter's Mark by 1d6. You may do this a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus."

Not sure if that works or not, but maybe it would fulfill that Legolas fantasy of picking off the minions on your way to the big bad evil guy...?

 

[Xeviat]

That damage scaling seems fast. I don't have direct experience with a 2024 Ranger but what I've seen on YouTube suggests that the Ranger is powerful in Tier 1 but fails to keep up at higher levels.

The target switching idea is really interesting. I wouldn't remove the ability to switch targets, but reward dropping a target to 0 hit points and moving to the next target. That seems more in the spirit of 5E.

"When you drop an enemy to zero hit points, you may switch the target of your Hunter's Mark as a free action, and increase the amount of damage from Hunter's Mark by 1d6. You may do this a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus."

Not sure if that works or not, but maybe it would fulfill that Legolas fantasy of picking off the minions on your way to the big bad evil guy...?

2d6 at spell level 3 is equivalent to having 2 attacks, which the ranger has at 5th level.

 

[Sorinth]

Haven't tried it or even really worked out the exact details but I've thought of making HM a delivery system for other Ranger spells. Something along the lines of when you hit a creature you've HMed as a BA you can cast a Ranger spell that normally requires an action centered on that target and any concentration would be linked. So for example you hit the HMed creature and as a BA cast Entangle centered on the target, you take damage make a concentration save and if you fail you lose both HM and Entangle.

This would help the Ranger lean into being a gish since you can more readily use the full spell list while attacking and still have that HM focus. Since a lot of spells are control rather the damage it provides a very contrasting play style compared to Paladin.

 

[J-H]

I don't know about 5.24, but in my games I've just allowed the Ranger to get +Wis modifier to damage against Favored Enemies. There are 13 creature types and 4 possible FE choices... but few campaigns or characters will pick Favored Enemy: Oozes or Celestials. I think in most campaigns players will have a reasonable idea of what will be a good choice.

Against those favored enemies, the flat damage is better than Hunter's Mark, is always on, and doesn't crowd out 40% of the ranger's features (spellcasting).