Howdy everyone. I was eyeballing the Urban Ranger archetype (APG) for a character of mine, but I realized it's pretty underpowered.
Here's why it seems underpowered to me. An urban ranger can select a favored community at 3rd level, which bestows +2 to Initiative and four skills when the ranger is in that particular community. But a core ranger can select favored terrain (urban) at 3rd level, which bestows +2 to Initiative and four skills for EVERY urban community in the world.
?!?
And at 8th level and every 5 levels thereafter, the urban ranger gains just one additional favored community while the core ranger gains a vast new terrain (and can opt to add that additional +2 to all urban communities in the world, while the urban ranger only puts it in one specific community), so the respective power gap becomes even wider with leveling.
You do gain Greater Invisibility (Sp) in lieu of Hide in Plain Sight (Ex) at 17th level (a very long ways to go to get that, and you can only use it a few times per day), and gaining Trapfinding in place of Endurance at 3rd, perhaps helps to recover some of that lost power. But this seems like a far cry shy of making up for the loss of favored terrain; every other class feature swap seems equally balanced.
No? Am I missing something?
I think if your playing a game where you know you will be spending time in specific cities. Its pretty good the ability to Decide exactly what skills you get a bonus to Is pretty nifty.
but its usefulness will all depend on your campaign, IF your not in a small area of known cities then the core ranger is better.
A lot of archetypes aren't as good as the base class.
This is one such. You aren't losing that much, and while might not find it worth it the changes give a shift in flavour. The changed skill list and addition of trapfinding does make the character a nice rogue-substitute for a rogue-less party.
Paying a mechanical cost for flavour isn't uncommon with archetypes.
Many archetypes aren't so much as weaker, they are dependent on your game. If you were playing an AP where you stayed in a city, then I would think it more powerful than a standard ranger. If your campaign is just a standard type, all over the place, then you will likely not use the archetype's strength's.
The draw of the Urban Ranger is that he gets Trapfinding at 3rd lvl, thereby devaluating the rogue even further. And the Urban Ranger is easily turned in to a very good archer (like all rangers are), and good archers are never underpowered.
We've got a PFS group going where most of us just hit lvl 11 - including our Urban Ranger - and she is LETHAL! We are all hyper optimized (my top AC is 45, my saves high, my HP 133 and I got about 8 attacks per round), and the Urban Ranger still pulls her weight, in and out of combat, and often deals the most damage.
Good points everyone. Thanks.
Gaining trapfinding in a ranger build is certainly the particular draw here. Still, it seems like an oversight to me that a core ranger would (trapfinding aside) be considerably superior in urban settings if favored terrain (urban) was taken and improved every 5 levels (e.g. at 18th level having +8 to Init and four skills in ALL urban settings in the world (and +2 in three other terrains) vs having +8, +2, +2, and +2 (or +4, +4, +4, +2) in only four towns or cities).
Anyway, I was going more for character flavor, and secondarily for trap assistance, as the party has a rogue already. Also, we're playing Council of Thieves, so while we're starting in one community in part 1, we're heading elsewhere. I am also ultimately looking to add just three ranger levels to a mostly cleric character, whom I see as a charismatic, cunning, sword-wielding, traveling warrior priest of Pharasma with hatred for undead (his favored enemy) and a penchant for making urban contacts. The Trapper ranger archetype looks more appealing to me in this case, gaining trapfinding at 1st level plus Disable Device as a class skill (and I get Knowledge (local) from a campaign trait). This way, I could kinda call him an urban ranger, if in name only. Actually, the Trapper seems overpowered in the first few levels since there's no negative until level 4, lol.
Oddly enough, urban ranger and wild stalker can both be taken, as they don't replace the same ranger abilities.