I’ve seen it talked about as a kind of nice to have feature, but I’ve never heard anyone actually praise it or even really use it. 1d8+wis temp hit points as an action at lvl10 is pretty underwhelming and is rightfully overshadowed by the exhaustion recovery on short rest whenever the feature is mentioned.

I had this idea to both boost the temp hp, as well as turning it into a little bit of a saving throw defense that Ranger is missing compared to other martials. I wanted to collect some thoughts on it.

Tireless:
When you short rest, you can choose to expend an additional amount of hit die up to your wis modifier. You gain that amount of temporary hitpoints. While you have temporary hitpoints, you have resistance to dmg received from saving throws.

Example: a Ranger with +3 wis mod can spend up to 3 hit die to gain temp hp (3d10+con). While you have this temp hp, you have resistance to any saving throw dmg. You can keep using this at short rests as long as you have hit die.

Edit: you still retain the short rest exhaustion portion, this post is just regarding the temp hp part.

Is something like this too expensive? Too powerful? Let me know any thoughts

This is my top-down version of the ranger meant to feel at home alongside the rest of the classes from the PHB.

Sorry for the poor formatting, I'm away from my laptop and worked on my phone. There's a commentary alongside the document, so I'm going to skip any further preamble!

Enjoy and thanks for the feedback!

Edit: changed the embedded file

Was thinking about one of the common complaints about the Ranger being “they fill no unique role in the party”. I brainstormed a bit and honed in on the idea of them being a prepper archetype. They want to know ahead of time what they are up against, where they are, how to get themselves or their mark wherever they need to. You want to know what’s around the corner and have the skills to do so.

So what if, there were features reworked and unique spells added to support that play style? Getting bonuses to finding out ahead of time what you are fighting, spells that pre-set the battlefield as traps, setting counters ahead of time.

Do you think such a role could work as a dedicated class in dnd? Can you think of any features or spells that could serve this end? Is this too dramatic of an idea?

Hi everyone. I've pushed my Ranger homebrew to the next stage based on feedback, and I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts on where it stands.

This homebrew keeps the basic structure of the 2024 Ranger rather than rebuilding the class from scratch. My main goals were to strengthen the Ranger's identity as a wilderness savant and scout, improve its progression in Tiers 3 and 4, and address some of the mechanical issues with Hunter's Mark without making the class overly complex.

Most of the added Ranger identity comes online at levels 1–6 without adding much combat power, while the higher-level changes focus more on feature evolution and combat scaling. I've also revised the four 2024 subclasses and adapted Drake Warden to the 2024 Ranger.

The first page gives a more detailed overview, and revision notes are included throughout. I'm particularly interested in feedback on overall balance, feature density, and whether the revisions feel cohesive.

Cheers! LongJumper

**[Homebrewery Link](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/wkCqAbcYSz6M)\*\*

The official 2024 Ranger gives the 'Level 2: Fighting Style' where you pick a Fighting Style feat or Druidic Warrior. The homebrew Focused Ranger by DracoDruid adds the following Skirmisher option:

**Skirmisher.** You can take the Dash or Disengage action as a Bonus Action. [Focused Ranger version]

I'm a big fan of features that impact play style as opposed to just giving attack bonuses, so I really like this idea. Keep in mind that this option really only shines if Hunter's Mark is also homebrewed to reduce the Ranger Bonus Action jam, which is almost always true.

However, I have two minor concerns. First, it feels a little like a Rogue feature. Second, I'm not sure it's powerful enough compared to the Fighting Style feats to get much attention. A potential solution is to add a second sentence:

**Skirmisher.** You can take the Dash or Disengage action as a Bonus Action. In addition, your movement ignores nonmagical Difficult Terrain. [version 2]

or

**Skirmisher.** You can take the Dash or Disengage action as a Bonus Action. In addition, your movement ignores Difficult Terrain. [version 3]

The additions in versions 2 and 3 give more Ranger flavor to Skirmisher and also give buffs that make it more attractive while not being overpowered in my opinion.

I'm curious what others think. Is the Skirmisher option interesting enough that it'll be used? If so, which version do you prefer? Are there any other *simple* changes you'd propose?

My answers are 'yes', 'version 3', and I haven't come up with any other changes yet.

Side note: I've noticed that Ranger homebrews often already include some variant of 'movement ignores Difficult Terrain'. I generally dislike that because I feel it steps on the +10 Speed already given to the official 2024 Ranger in Level 6 Roving. +10 Speed improves Ranger movement in Difficult Terrain and is much better overall than ignoring Difficult Terrain because it also applies in normal terrain. Rant over! :) That said, I'm fine with the Skirmisher ignoring Difficult Terrain because the Fighting Style is a core feature.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts you have!

LongJumper

A ground-up redesign of the concept of marking a target, based off of the Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour, the spell itself, and Favored Foe from Tasha's. I also drew heavy inspiration from other homebrew/ 3pp versions of Hunter's Mark features, specifically Tales of the Valiant, SW5e, DracoDruid's Focused Ranger and Laserllama's Alternate Ranger. Hunter's Mark as a class feature is by no means an original idea of mine, rather this is my attempt to amalgamate various "core Marks" from both official and non-official sources into a single cohesive idea.

*(*Note: For this theoretical redesign, I don't care about compatibility with WOTC material in any way. This class feature would replace any reference to the HM spell and all features related to it, as it is meant for a hypothetical ground-up rebuild of the Ranger that is built around an actual core feature instead of a poorly designed 1st-level spell disguised as one. Subclasses would be redesigned around simply adding rider effects to the scaling core mark instead of adding extra damage.)

Marked For Death

As a bonus action, you can designate a single creature you can see within 90 feet of you as your Quarry. Alternatively, you can mark a creature by hitting it with an attack roll or by studying its tracks or other traces of its presence for at least 1 minute. Regardless of how you designate your Quarry, the target remains marked until it dies, or until you become Incapacitated, finish a short or long rest, or use this feature again to mark another creature.

Until your mark ends, whenever you damage your quarry with a weapon attack or a Ranger spell that requires an attack roll, you increase that damage by 1d4. This die, known as your Quarry Die, scales when you reach certain Ranger levels: to 1d6 at 5th level, to 1d8 at 9th level, to 1d10 at 13th level, and to 1d12 at 17th level. (Could also go with the 5.5 Monk die scaling starting at 1d6, but I am being conservative initially.)

In addition, you can add your Quarry Die to any Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) checks to locate your Quarry, as well as to any Intelligence checks you make to learn or recall information about it.

You can use this feature to designate quarry a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier plus the amount shown for your level in the Ranger table. You regain one expended use when you finish a short rest and all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Starting at 5th level, when you fail a saving throw caused by one of your Quarry's spells or innate abilities, you can use your reaction to roll your Quarry Die and add the result to the roll, potentially turning that failure into a success.

Starting at 11th level, when your Quarry is reduced to 0 hit points, you can automatically transfer your mark to the next creature you hit with an attack during your turn. Once the second target is reduced to 0 hit points, your mark automatically ends.

Starting at 17th level, once during your turn if you miss a weapon attack against your Quarry, you can make one additional weapon attack against it.

This is the revised core damage mechanic for my ground-up rework of the Ranger class, (which pretty much abandons anything resembling Hunter's Mark or official Ranger design in general.) I wanted a less 'druidic guardian of nature' ranger in favor of a more martially aligned (but still magical) skirmisher (akin to Rogers' Rangers in Colonial America or the Rangers of Ithelien in Lord of the Rings), so I designed the core damage mechanic to incentivize actually fighting like a ranger instead of just saying "screw this one guy in particular."

________________________________________________________________________________________

Guerrilla Tactics

As a Ranger, you have learned to use mobility, surprise, and the wilderness itself to grant you an advantage in combat. When you hit a creature with a weapon attack or a Ranger spell that requires an attack roll, you can increase that damage by one roll of your Skirmish Die, which is a d6, if you meet at least one of the following conditions and you aren't wearing heavy armor:

• You moved at least 15 feet away from your starting position prior to making the attack.
• You are Hidden from the target or are receiving at least half-cover against it.
• You have only attacked your current target since the start of your last turn.

You can only deal your Skirmish Damage once per attack, even if you meet multiple conditions while attacking. The extra damage is of the same type as your weapon.

Your Skirmish Die increases in size when you reach certain levels in this class: to 1d8 at 5th level, to 1d10 at 11th level, and to 1d12 at 17th level.

Starting at 5th level, when you deal Skirmish Damage to a creature, you have advantage on saving throws against that creature's spells and innate abilities until the start of your next turn. Moreover, your Skirmish Damage counts as magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Starting at 11th level, when you deal your Skirmish Damage to a creature, you can roll one Skirmish Die for each of the conditions you meet for that attack, applying the highest result to the damage roll.

Starting at 17th level, when you miss with an attack, you can use your reaction to roll your Skirmish Die and add the result to the attack roll, potentially turning the miss into a hit.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes:

1. This feature is inspired by this sub's own "Eye for Weakness" feature for the Community Ranger. I modified the specific conditions and made it one die per attack (like HM) instead of multiple dice for one attack, but the core idea that "I deal more damage based on certain conditions" is the same.
2. Skirmish Damage scaling currently mirrors 2024 Monk, since it looks clean and I am building the class's damage around this mechanic instead of around Hunter's Mark + subclass riders. (At my table, HM doesn't exist as a spell, Vengeance Pallys get Hex instead.) Numbers will be tweaked as the concept is refined further.
3. The conditions for Skirmish Damage mirror historical and fictional ranger tactics (use of cover, high mobility, and single-target focused fire.) Condition 1 is derived from the 3.5 Scout's Skirmish mechanic, condition 2 from the fantasy of the sniper or marksman, and condition 3 is there for those who still want to RP having a Hunter's Mark.

The official Tree Stride spell is very flavorful and fun for the Ranger but as a level 5 spell it comes late and is expensive to cast.

The homebrew Tree Hop spell described below is meant to be a low-cost knockoff. It's analogous to Misty Step except it's situational (requires trees) with a little longer range, so I made it a Level 2 spell.

However, I'm a little leery of giving the Ranger such a cheap means for teleportation. Teleportation feels overly available in 2024 DND and I'm not sure it should be such a routine ability for Rangers. One way to address this issue is to delete Tree Hop and pretend it never happened. Another solution is to make it a Level 3 spell. That's a little unfair since Misty Step is only Level 2 but martials don't deserve cheap teleportation in my opinion.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

### Tree Hop (Homebrew)

*Level 2 Conjuration (Ranger)*

**Casting Time:** Bonus Action\

**Range:** Self\

**Components:** V, S\

**Duration:** Instantaneous

You step into a living tree of your size or larger that you can touch and emerge from another living tree of your size or larger that you can see within 60 feet. You appear in an unoccupied space of your choice within 5 feet of the second tree.

5.5e

Basically the tittle. I like the Ranger fantasy but I feel that after level 5 you get only ribbon features compared to a Druid multiclass.

I am playing an archer Hunter at level 9, but I feel I am doing the same from level 5. The defensive features of level 7 are both insuficient in my opinion. I tried both but they rarely were used. I thought that at level 9 I could have something more with Conjure Animals, but in that case it is better to go Druid after Ranger 5, wait one more level and have the spell with 4th level slots. Also, thanks to the additional slots, I could use Hail of Thorns more, which also enhance my archery.

I am also looking at the level 11 feature of the Hunter and It is... insulting.

So that is it. My DM offered me to change some levels to Druid and I think it is a no-brainer.

Am I missing something? Is there a good reason to justify staying Ranger?

The revision I published yesterday is too clunky. My goal was to allow dual concentration with HM, but you don't deal HM's damage if you're concentrating on something else, but you do get to roll a bonus dice for initiative when you are concentrating on this, and you can't lose concentration if you are concentrating like that: I like the end result (being able to use HM as a buffer for other spells' Duration and Concentration), but it is very, very clunky.

The obvious solution to achieve the same thing is to reluctantly move away from Hunter's Mark: something like

Level 1: Primal Trance
As a Bonus Action, you can enter a state of focus, akin to a predator ready to stalk its prey, that lasts for one hour. During this state, you get Advantage to any Wisdom (Perception or Survival) checks to find creatures or track a trail. In addition, as a Bonus Action, or as part of the Bonus Action you use to activate this feature, you can mark a creature and concentrate as if you were concentrating on a spell. Until this state ends, you deal 1d6 extra Force damage to the marked creature whenever you hit it with an attack.

This would allow to achieve pretty much everything I wanted HM to do at low levels. It's a little more powerful, as you can't definitively lose Concentration on it, but that could be balanced via the number of uses. It would also push the Player to start casting other spells from level 1.

The issue is that so many subclass features work with Hunter's Mark and they're probably going to increase over time. The way I see it the solution would be:

A) rewrite the features that interact with HM

B) add a clause like "enterting this state is considered to be casting the Hunter's Mark spell, and that is considered this, and this is considered that"

C) add a Designer Note that clarifies the intent and give a guideline of how to adapt things.

AoE is one of the few things that stays good throughout a Ranger's career when going in high tiers. This isn't particularly great when looking at casters, but it really is a solid option to have for a martial: afterall, no matter how potent a smite is, if you're facing a horde of goblin that will all die in one hit, you're potentially wasting much more damage.

A thing that bugs me is however that you go from having no direct AoE (I mean, you do have Hail of Thorns, but that's a whole different thing) to having the amazing Conjure Barrage.

There is a sort of precursor, also thematically, which is Cordon of Arrow. While it's a way to ambush enemies for a rest, if you designate 4 enemies to be your target, they're going to take damage in their turn. 2d4 save for naught is not decent damage, tho, I was thinking 2d8 + WIS, save for half, upcast by 1d8 instead of by arrow. Opinions?

Hello! I'm mostly curious asking this because its something I have trouble thinking about, specially when I see people saying "Ranger is just a Fighter in the woods".

I believe my main inspirations to what my ideal Ranger is are

1. Aragorn (of course), in the sense of a tactical leader guiding through the wilds, leading by example.

2. Ranger's Apprentice (what actually started my passion for the archetype), as an royal scout and hidden protector of the kingdom from outside threats. Also, horses are cool :)

3. Monster Hunter (what continued my passion), from the angle of a expert hunter of larger than life menaces and keeper of balance between nature and civilization. Also, cats are cool :)

4. Batman (even if he is more a Monk-Rogue-Artificer in reality), since he knows his "favorite terrain" (Gotham) like the back of his hand, always has a plan and if very knowledgeable of the weakpoints of his "favored foes" (dangerous supervillains)

5. Ghost Recon (yes, the near-future, Spec-Ops Shooter), because they encompass the whole deal of a Ranger to me: great stealth, expert combat prowess and tools for every job.

Homebrew content, I forgot to put it in the title

These are meant to be used in my revision that will allow to extend the spells to enable pre-casting them and have them active when you need them. The current way this is going to happen is by being able to swap Concentration between a different Concentration spell and Hunter's Mark, ideally it will be intuitive in the revision; for now, my vision for the Ranger is to make it the best at pre-casting a big spell as a way to get ready for combat, which I think to be very thematic for Rangers.

This would absolutely work for the spells that Ranger gets (Summon Beast and Fey and Conjure Animals and Woodland Beings in particular), but I also wanted to have exclusive spells that orbit around that level of damage, which I'm presenting here

Seeking Fang
Level 2 Transmutation (Ranger)
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (an arrow worth at least 1 CP)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes

You imbue the arrow used as a Material component with magic and the will to hunt down your enemy. The arrow starts orbiting around you. The first time you move on each of your turns, you can teleport the dagger to an unoccupied space you can see within 60 feet of you. If that space is occupied by a creature, it must make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature takes 3d8 Force damage, and its Speed is reduced by 10 feet until the start of your next turn. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage only.

At Higher Levels. The damage increases by 1d8 for each spell slot level above 2nd.

[Damage comparison, 16WIS: Summon Beast deals ~8.5 DPR (pack tactics advantage) AND creates an HP sponge (plus potential AoO); this deals 10.8 on average and has a Speed control; ideal to combo with Longbow]

---------

Shadow Self
Level 3 Illusion (Ranger)
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes

You manifest a quasi-real, spectral clone of yourself that moves behind you, mirroring your movements. While the spell lasts, you gain half cover.

The first time you hit a creature with a weapon attack on each of your turns, the clone lashes out with its spectral weapons. The target must make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC, taking 6d6 Force damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage of both effects increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 3rd.

[Damage comparison, 16 WIS: Conjure Animals deals 16.5 on average since it deals damage on your turn and almost certainly on the main target's turn, plus to secondary targets; this is 15.8, grants extra defenses and deals damage all at once]

------------

Thunderous Stride
Level 4 Transmutation (Ranger)

Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Self
Components: V
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes

You become so fast and nimble that suddenly halting your stride creates a deafening sonic boom. Until the spell ends, your Speed increases by 40 feet.

The first time on each of your turns that you move at least 20 feet in a straight line, immediately after that movement, one creature of your choice within 5 feet of you takes 4d12 + your spellcasting ability modifier (minimum of 1) Thunder damage.

A creature can take this damage only once on each of your turns.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the bonus to your Speed increases by 10 feet and the damage increases by 1d12 when cast with a 5th level slot or higher.

[Damage comparison, 20 WIS: Conjure Woodland Beings should often deal damage off-turn to the single target you're in melee with (this spell is also thought for melee), say that's 75% of the cases, DPR expected is 31.5; this is 31]

This is the fix I would do personally if i could do an errata of features. Just one paragraph.

Add to favored enemy

"Additionally, When you fail a saving throw to maintain concentration on a spell, you can expend 1 use of favored enemy and choose to succeed instead. Once you use this feature, damage cannot break your concentration until the end of the current turn"

Yes that's really it.

To those interested, For a revamp that doesn't errata the 5.5 PHB. I previously made a post on how I would fix ranger via spells, I liked that route because it requires no errata or changes to the core book. That can be viewed here. https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD5CommunityRanger/comments/1skkh90/more_marks/

By this I mean Extra Attack gives, well, an extra attack when you take the Attack action on your turn.

What if the Ranger lost the caveat in italic? When off turn, if you're taking the attack action (with the Ready action and I think that's it), you benefit from Extra Attack. A small perk of being a Ranger could be that you're better at being the one who gets ready at shooting the Dragon when it comes into range to breath fire >!and then die because you can't cast Absorb Elements, but that's a different story!<

(although it would be better worded as "on your turn and on a different turn if activated by the Ready action." so there's no doubt it's not meant to work with some other feature, it just so happens I don't think there are any for now)