What i dislike about the ranger is that he is so much in need of real life augury. He selects favored enemies and favored terrain, but if he makes the wrong choices its mostly wasted abilities.
Even more difficult its for GM, when designing NPCs. E.g. my player party is made of 3 humans and 1 halfling and be ambushed in a forest by my pack of level 5 rangers. Lets design them. Well, favored enemy +4 human, + 2 halfling, favored terrain +2 forst sounds good. But from their storyline they should have +4 vs abberations, +2 vs elfs and +2 in grassland, though then they are far too easy.
At higher level it gets worse, if you level 20 ranger anticipated at level 5 what the big boss will be, he coulld have +10 to hit and dam vs him or +0 if he made the wrong choices. Same vs party.
Some archetypes do away with favored enemies or favored terrain, but first there are only 3 and some might not fit to what the player wants.
Any solutions?
The one i brewed up today is the following:
Adaptive Range archetype
An adaptive ranger is not set towards certain foes and terrains like normal rangers. Instead his great experience of travelling and fighting many different creatures and terrains allows him to focus on the imminent challenges by quietly concentrating and recalling the important knowledge from his varied experience.
(The adaptive ranger archetype is meant to be combinable with any other archetpye.)
Adaptive favored enemy:
Beginning at level 1 a ranger can spend 1 hour per day in quiet meditation to change his selection of favored enemies.
All his bonuses regarding favored enemies are halfed, rounded up.
This also includes bonuses other ranger abilities can bestow on the ranger or others, if the use of these abilities is tied to favored enemies.(e.g. hunter bond bonuses for companions) But this effects only bonuses. (e.g. master hunter ability is unaffected)
If the ranger can also prepare spells or has any other ability that requires a daily preparation similar to spells, this daily preparation counts as the 1 hour of meditation to change the selection of favored enemies.
The selection remains set until the ranger spends again 1 hour in quiet meditation.
At 5th level and every five levels thereafter (10th, 15th, and 20th level), the ranger may select an additional favored enemy, when changing his selection of favored enemies. In addition, at each such interval, the ranger can allocate every time he chooses a new selection up to +1 / 5 levels of additional bonus (e.g. at 5th level the ranger can increase the bonus against one enemy to +2, having after selection one favored enemy with +2 and one with +1. Ee.g. at 10th level he can choose +3/+1/+1 or +2/+2/+1 as bonuses vs his selected favored enemies).
This choice also remains set until the rangers spends again 1 our in quiet meditation.
The ranger can change his choice of favored enemies at most once per day. The new selection may also be in parts or completely identical to the previous one. (Clarification rules, this already in principle follows from the previous.)
(For an archetpye that replaces favored enemies, this ability also allows changing any permanent choices of the replacement ability and the bonuses dependent on the choice are halfed, rounded up. If no bonuses, number of uses, duration or exactly one other relevant characteristic by GMs choice is halfed, rounded up.
Any effects of the replacement ability that force no permanent choice on the ranger are unaffected.
If the replacement ability does not force any permenent choice, the replacement ability the replacement ability replaces adaptive favored enemy.
If an archetpye replaces some favored enemy choices, adaptive favored enemy has also as normal favored enemy these improvements of the ability - namely more favored enemies and additional allocatable bonuses - replaced.)
Adaptivce favored terrain
Beginning at level 3 the ranger can can spend 1 hour per day in quiet meditation to change his selection of favored terrains.
All his bonuses regarding favored terrain are halfed, rounded up. This also includes bonuses other ranger abilities can bestow on the ranger or others, if the use of these abilities is tied to favored terrain (e.g. terrain bond bonuses are halfed). But this effects only bonuses.
If the ranger can also prepare spells or has any other ability that requires a daily preparation similar to spells, this daily preparation counts as the hour of quiet meditation to change the selection of favored terrains.
If the ranger also has adaptive favored enemy, he has to make any new selection simultaneously.
The choice remains set until the ranger again changes his selection of favored terrains and/or enemies.
At 8th level and every five levels thereafter (13th, 18th), the ranger may select an additional favored terrain, when changing his selection of favored terrains and/or enemies. In addition, at each such interval, the ranger can allocate every time he chooses a new selection up to +1 / 5 levels after 3rd of additional bonus (e.g. at 8th level the ranger can increase the bonus in one terrain to +2, having after selection one favored terrain with +2 and one with +1. Ee.g. at 13th level he can choose +3/+1/+1 or +2/+2/+1 as bonuses in his selected favored terrains).
This choice also remains set until the rangers spends again changes his selection of favored terrains and/or enemies.
(For an archetpye that replaces favored terrains, this ability also allows changing any permanent choices of the replacement ability and the bonuses dependent on the choice are halfed, rounded up. If no bonuses, number of uses, duration - e.g. infiltrators replacement ability - or exactly one other relevant characteristic by GMs choice is halfed, rounded up.
Any effects of the replacement ability that force no permanent choice on the ranger are unaffected.
If the replacement ability does not force any permenent choice, the replacement ability replaces adaptive favored terrain.
If an archetpye replaces some favored terrain choices, adaptive favored enemy has also as normal favored terrain these improvements of the ability - namely more favored terrains and additional allocatable bonuses - replaced.)
{
Or in dumb short words:
adaptive ranger can reallocate his favored enemy and/or terrain bonuses whenever he prepares spell or spends 1 hour of meditation, at most once per day, and his bonuses are halfed, rounded up }
That removes all those hassle i have with these abilites, is combinable with most archetypes and its now realistic that ambushing rangers will have their highest bonus vs the important members of the ambushed parties.
Opinions?
