Urban Ranger - Favored Community

[Gwiber]

For the purposes of this ability, a community is any settlement consisting of 100 or more individuals. The community may be larger than this minimum. Outlying farms, fields, and houses are not considered part of a community. This ability replaces favored terrain.

Barring the obvious answer "The DM says it's so".

My Ranger is in an unusual position of being the servant of a "new' city god, created for the campaign we are playing in.

My question is... my DM wants me to pick a sector of the city as my favored community, yet I wanna say since the city itself is a definable community (with WAY more than 100 people).

Is he correct RAW (or at least more correct than me)? Or am I interpreting this right, and I can take the city as my favored community?

[Ascalaphus]

I think you're right by RAW, but we're not the ones you need to convince.

If this campaign will be taking place mostly within the same city, the GM might feel the ability is unusually powerful because it would always apply. There's something to be said for that if the campaign will really be in that city almost all of the time.

Also, some cities do have very distinct districts, like a Chinatown that's a closed city in the city. In that case it might also be appropriate.

On the other hand, if the campaign will be very much in that city, an ordinary ranger could just select "Urban" as favored terrain. And there's clearly something wrong when the standard ranger is better off in a city campaign than the urban ranger.

[Gwiber]

S'funny now that you mention it. Wouldn't taking Urban, as a favored Terrain more or less over any city anyway?

Making the Favored Community ability more or less a redundant ability?

At least that single ability. Obviously the other abilities are different matters

[Claxon]

Gwiber wrote:

S'funny now that you mention it. Wouldn't taking Urban, as a favored Terrain more or less over any city anyway?

Making the Favored Community ability more or less a redundant ability?

At least that single ability. Obviously the other abilities are different matters

Yes. Favored Terrain Urban would cover every single city, making the Favored Community ability not very valuable.

This has actually been covered before, and it is noted that Urban Ranger is one of the weakest archetypes there is. It's okay for an NPC, but worthless for just about any PC. The other things the class gets really aren't any good or come on line too late.

[Ascalaphus]

I've thought about the Urban Ranger for PFS, with Absalom as favored community. The nice thing is that it gets Trapfinding without giving up spellcasting.

[Tomos]

Ascalaphus wrote:

The nice thing is that it gets Trapfinding without giving up spellcasting.

Yep.

I think Urban Ranger is just fine in the right role and context. It's not a front-line melee type, but it can be very strong especially when paired with the Guide archetype.
Some APs take place almost entirely within a particular city...

Also, I think it's one of those 'better at what the Rogue does than the Rogue itself' classes. With sufficient planning and attention to detail, they can outdo a rogue on offense, defense, and skill a lot of the time.

[Ascalaphus]

I think it's an entirely decent archetype assuming you're playing a city campaign. Not too much, not too little.

If you're not playing in a city though, it's a bit lackluster.

[Diminuendo]

I always wanted to play an Urban Ranger, and liked the idea of re-training my favored community by spending one week and 1000 gold at the Pub.

You just don't really get anything from Favored Community over a vanilla Ranger at the moment though.

[Tomos]

Diminuendo wrote:

...re-training my favored community by spending one week and 1000 gold at the Pub.

This is an outstanding idea.

[Diminuendo]

Maybe I could make him work in Council of Theives