I would really appreciate the opinions of the many knowledgable forum-goers on the following Ranger Archetypes (and combos) and their quality for character builds:
1. Infiltrator (Adaptations instead of Favored Terrains)
2. Shapeshifter (Shapeshifting instead of Favored Terrains)
3. Spirit Ranger/Woodland Skirmisher (Divination and one Spell Spontaneously each day instead of Hunter's Bond, More Spells in exchange for only one Favored Enemy and Terrain) ("Focused Specialist w/More Spells")
4. Trophy Hunter/Urban Ranger (Firearms instead of Hunter's Bond, Disable Device and Favored Community instead of Favored Terrain) ("Wild West Sheriff")
5. Urban Ranger/Wild Stalker (Disable Device and Favored Community instead of Favored Terrain, Barbarian features instead of Favored Enemies, a combat Feats, and Hunter's Bond) ("Thug")
None are for a specific campaign right now, more just thoughts about potential future characters to lay or use as NPCs.
Thanks for your thoughts!
1. Strong archetype depending on race. Playing a human and getting access to Darkvision etc. is really good. Had a player do this once and he was very pleased.
2. Depends on the build, can be really strong depending on race selection. Dwarves turning into bear so they don't lose speed kinda thing. Best choices are Cat, Bear, and Dragon.
3. I love this archetype for those random utility spells on the ranger list that you forget you have that always end up being more useful than that extra gravity bow that you prepared.
4. Urban is one of my favorite archetypes. I also love using traps. Firearms are firearms, so that all depends on your view on them. Even with 4 free feats it will still be feat heavy.
5. Again, urban, favorite, yeah. Wild Stalker could make for some interesting combat, but I'm pretty sure you would probably want to try and mix it with an archetype that doesn't use spells.