If this does not belong in this forum, direct me where it goes and I will do my best to move this thread. I just picked up the Advanced Class Guide this week and am extremely pleased at what I am reading but it did dredge up something I have been working on in my own mind. I am fairly sure I got the balance right but I want to know is what I am building an alternate class or an archetype for the ranger?
As of right now I have two names for what I am calling an archetype for the ranger class: Feral Ranger or Rescue Ranger. The ACG classes I am drawing on for this are the Brawler and Hunter classes although I kind of want to pull in the Spirit Ranger archetype from the APG into this as well. The main concept for this is a druidic warrior who eschews most weapons in favor of his or her own fists and feet, I am thinking of this being especially friendly to a lycanthrope hero or something along the lines of manimals out of GR's Advanced Bestiary or the Ferran race from Thunderscape might prefer over most other archetypes for rangers.
The class gets medium BAB, d8 hit die, proficiency in only simple weapons and light armor in exchange for use of the spell tables of the Hunter class and the Unarmed Damage Table of the Brawler as well as Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. Spells are chosen from the Druid and Ranger lists. Other than these tweaks I change nothing, although I am tempted to add in the feature exchanges of the Spirit Ranger archetype from the APG as well.
For the changes I am proposing, is this still an archetype or am I building an alternative class instead? Is it still balanced enough for play? I think it's balanced but I want an outside opinion.