The RangerWell hello there, stranger, what's a big fancy city man like you doing in this here sleepy litt'l town?
That slow-mouthed but sharp-eyed cowpoke. The scruffy looking man with the hygiene problem who could track a beaver through a lake. That dervish of death and destruction clad only in a thin cloth. Ranger has always been the thinking man's path to the true ferocity of our natural selves, where druid is the mystic's path to the natural mysteries, and barbarian is the unthinking rage of the beast itself. Always a somewhat awkward middle child, the ranger has a mystique all his own, and feels no need to be beholden either to brute strength or veneration of the mysteries of nature - he seeks only to understand them, and bend them to victory.
THE RANGER
Skills: All except UMD, decipher script, gather info, bluff, open lock, forgery, kn: anything but nature and local, appraise
Skill points: 8+INT per level
BAB: Good
Fortitude: Good
Reflex: Good
Will: Bad
HD: D10
1:
Bred to the Saddle,
Master of Ranged Weaponry,
Travelling Step,
Hidden in Nature's Mysteries,
Track Anything2:
Empathic By Demand,
Trail the Unseen,
Fight by the Stars,
Shift into Obscurity3:
I Fight Bears For A Living, Is That Supposed To Impress Me,
The Forest Is My Home,
Master of Melee Weaponry,
Really Track Anything4:
Timed Shot,
Defensive Roll,
Every Arrow Has A Destiny,
Swift Hunter5:
I Know Your Weakpoint,
Iron Rain,
Defensive Sweep,
Nose to the Wind6:
Instincts of the Beast,
Combat Tricks,
Herb LoreSpecial: Even if not specifically stated, all ranger abilities only function in light or no armour (this includes Mithril Medium Armour, i.e. it doesn't count as light for the purposes of this ability), and if the ranger dons medium or heavy armour, his ranger abilities do not work until he takes it off.
Bred to the Saddle: The Ranger gets the affects of the Mounted Combat feat (but not the feat itself), never falls from his mount except by choice, gets +10 to Ride checks to perform riding tricks (see Complt. Scoundrel), and his mount is never affected by hostile morale or fear based effects.
Master of Ranged Weaponry: The Ranger gets the affects of the Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and Rapid Shot feats (but not the feats themselves). At third level he counts as having the feats themselves. In addition, he is automatically proficient with every ranged weapon, simple, martial, exotic or otherwise, that he may encounter.
Travelling Step: The Ranger, and any amount of people he is traveling with up to his ranger level, may travel an additional distance while moving overland up to the ranger's level x distance normally traveled.
Hidden in Nature's Mysteries: While standing on any naturally occurring terrain (not specifically handmade into something, i.e. on a plane of infinite worked grey stone, worked grey stone would count as naturally occurring terrain, a cavern transformed into living quarters using worked grey stone, however, would not count as natural terrain), the ranger may always make a hide check to hide as if he had concealment, instantly going prone or shimmying up a tree or some such. This counts as Hide In Plain Sight for any abilities, feats, or classes that require it.
Track Anything : Rangers automatically have the Track feat and gain a bonus on their Survival skill roll to track equal to double their ranger level + int mod. In addition, if something is normally untrackable, they may attempt to track it by adding 10 to the DC to track it. Furthermore, they halve bonuses from time, rain and snow to the track DC.
They also can gain information about enemies from the tracks. If they beat the DC by 5, they know the number of enemies and their respective size (small, Medium, Large etc). If they beat the DC by 10, they know the number, the size, if any of them are wearing armour, and if any of them are heavily burdened, and how fast they are traveling. If they beat the DC by 15, they know the number, size, armour, burden, races and relative military training (skilled soldiers, poor soldiers, not soldiers), and if there are any magic users in the group (presence only). If they beat the DC by 20, they receive knowledge of all the rest and the specific classes of the enemies involved. If they beat the DC by 30, they know the relative HD of the enemies (1-5 weak/average, 5-10 strong, 10-15 really strong, 15-20 archmages/legendary warriors, 21+ gods/godlike beings).
Tracking is ALWAYS a free mental action for rangers, even in combat, as long as they can see. This means that they can explicitly know what square an enemy is if it leaves tracks, even if it is invisible.
Rangers are not trackable by ordinary means, unless the tracker is a ranger, in which case the enemy ranger may only track the ranger if the enemy ranger has more levels than the ranger in the Ranger class.
A Ranger may obscure the tracks of the party by rolling a survival roll and adding normal bonuses he would add when tracking. The resulting number is then halved, and added to the DC of anyone else making survival rolls to attempt to track. As this is a bonus to the DC, the bonus stacking rules apply (only the highest result from any number of rangers obscuring tracks will actually apply).
A Ranger can track someone he can see even if that person hasn't moved in a while(such as a guardian statue or someone asleep) (for the purposes of garnering information about them). Although if they haven't moved in a long time the +1/day DC might add up to be impossible even with the halving the ranger gets.
Empathic By Demand: Rangers may talk to animals as if by a Speak With Animals spell, however animals still have their usual intelligence so may not be particularly useful to the ranger. He may make diplomacy, bluff, and gather information checks as normal, adjusted by the DM to account that animals have very low int. In addition, animals that are not enraged usually start as Neutral to the ranger, not hostile or unfriendly, and will preferentially target others instead of the ranger even if enraged or berserking.
Trail the Unseen: The ranger may now attack squares holding invisible enemies with only a 20% miss chance. In addition, he can track incorporeal or ethereal enemies through the material plane.
Fight by the Stars: The ranger gains both low light vision and 60' darkvision. This explicitly allows him to track in darkness.
Shift into Obscurity: A ranger may prepare an action to hide while hidden, and if they are spotted fade into obscurity, allowing a second Spot roll against their new Hide total. The person who initially saw them sees something, possibly a movement, but has no knowledge that anyone is there or that it was anything other than their imagination/a bird/whatever.
I Fight Bears For A Living, Is That Supposed To Impress Me: Rangers gain a bonus equal to double their ranger level on saving throws against fear or morale effects, and gain a bonus equal to double their ranger level on the DC to intimidate them.
The Forest Is My Home: The ranger may pick one kind of natural terrain, mountains/hills, forests, plains/prairie, swamps/bogs, oceans/lakes, [insert other campaign appropriate type, 'tundra' etc]. They gain a bonus equal to twice their ranger level + int mod on any skill check they roll in that terrain. They may add their ranger level to damage in that terrain.
Master of Melee Weaponry: The ranger is a master of melee weaponry. They gain the effects of the Two Weapon Fighting feat, the Power Attack feat, the Combat Expertise feat, and the Two Weapon Defense Feat. They also gain one maneuver from the Tiger Claw school of their choice. In addition, they are proficient with all simple, martial, and exotic one handed and light weapons they may encounter. At level 5, they get not just the effects but the actual feats themselves. If they already have these feats, they may replace those ones at that time for feats they could have chosen at the time they chose the original feat (i.e. PHBII retraining rules).
Really Track Anything: The Ranger can track anything, anything at all. For +10 DC the ranger can track the path of a creature through water. For +15 DC the ranger can track the path of a creature through the air. For +20 DC, the ranger can track the path of a Teleport spell. For +25 DC the ranger can track the path of a Planeshift spell (to the point of taking himself and 1 person per level to that plane). For +30 DC the ranger can track down a spirit of the dead and force it to answer questions as if the ranger had cast a Speak with Dead spell. For +35 DC, the ranger can track the path of a scrying spell. For +40 DC, a ranger can track the gaze of someone looking at the party/at something. For +50 DC, a ranger can track hostile intent, no matter the distance.
Timed Shot: As a full-round action you may make a Timed Shot. This is an ordinary Full Attack except it must be targeted entirely at enemies who are flying, jumping, or falling. The enemies count as flat-footed, and you do an additional amount of damage against these foes equal to Xd6 + int mod, where X is your ranger level/2, round up.
You may also make a Timed Shot against an enemy who is unaware of you (not the same as being hidden) and who is moving slowly(half speed or lower) in the same direction, or standing still.
Defensive Roll: When hit by an enemy who is using the Power Attack feat, or hit by a single attack that does half or more of the Ranger's hitpoint damage, the Ranger may choose to negate half the damage done and move 10' directly away from the source of the damage for each 5 damage negated this way. If the Ranger encounters a wall or other solid obstacle that obstructs his movement, he bounces over it if it is 5' high or less, or slams into it if it is 6' or more. For each 10' of movement the ranger cannot take, the ranger takes 1d6 damage. The object also takes this damage, and the damage ignores hardness.
Every Arrow Has A Destiny: The Ranger may fire a single arrow as full round action. This arrow ignores miss chances, range penalties, and DR completely. It is also an attack against Touch AC instead of regular AC. This ability may be combined with Timed Shot. At level 7, the ranger may instead fire his normal complement of arrows on a full attack as a part of this ability, but they only ignore miss chances.
Swift Hunter: The Ranger adds +10' to all of his base movement speeds, and completely ignores difficult terrain. He gains a saving throw against spells that restrict movement if they have none, and adds his ranger level to saving throws for spells that restrict movement that do allow saving throws. The Ranger always counts as having a run up for the purposes of jumping.
I Know Your Weakpoint: Against enemies who have DR, the Ranger always knows what bypasses the DR, even if it is spell-based. If an enemy has a weakness, such as a vampire's weakness to running water, the Ranger knows it. If a creature is vulnerable to fire or ice or electricity or acid, (Fire Vulnerability et al), the Ranger knows it. If a creature has regeneration/X, the Ranger knows X. Furthermore, if the item can be gathered from the environment nearby, the Ranger can pick it up as a free action(note: it must actually be within his reach, silver cutlery against werewolves etc, a burning log from the fire against wights on weathertop, etc).
Iron Rain: As a full-round action, the ranger fires an arrow at everyone he can see. The ranger fires one arrow at every enemy within ranger level + int mod x 10'. If enemies are in the air or unaware, Timed Shot bonuses apply.
Defensive Sweep: If a ranger is hit by an enemy attack, they may make a trip attack or disarm attack as an AoO. These attacks may not trigger Improved Trip or similar feats.
Nose to the Wind: The ranger gains Scent as an Ex ability. This includes smelling the presence of enemies.
Instincts of the Beast: The Ranger may always act in the surprise round, and he always goes first. After the surprise round he rolls initiative normally, but he adds his int mod as a untyped bonus.
Combat Tricks: If a foe power attacks the ranger, the ranger knows how to dodge to mitigate the power of the blow. Extra damage from the power attack feat is not applied to the Ranger. In addition, whenever a foe using the power attack feat misses the ranger, he may swirl his cloak (or other garment) and move 5' and make a hide check to hide.
Herb Lore: The ranger can automatically identify any herb, or identify ailments that can be solved herbally by using Kn: Nature in place of Heal. He may also make Kn: Nature checks in place of Heal checks to heal injuries or special wounds that would normally require a Heal check to heal.
That's how you make the ranger tier 3. Needs a bit more damage in special circumstances. Needs a better fix to melee other than free disarms and trips and negating PA.
Later on it will need stuff like
Bow of the Moon and Stars: The ranger's bow becomes an instrument of divine insight. Each arrow the ranger fires may also do one point of either intelligence or charisma damage.
Blend With The World: The Ranger gets all the effects of freedom of movement as an EX ability, and also may move up to his speed through any solid object.
of course it's all leading to
One With Totality: The ranger may negate up to his int mod per round the effects upon him of enemy spells, attacks, or effects that effect him in some way. The ranger never needs to eat, sleep, dream, drink need warmth or cool ever again. The ranger is immune to ability damage, drain, or penalty of any kind. The ranger may planeshift once per round as a free action. The ranger may greater teleport as an Ex effect that ignores effects that stop teleportation once per round as a free action. The ranger grows six pairs of ethereal wings, one of feathers, one of fire, and one of thought. He gains a fly speed of 300' perfect that ignores wind, and any other effects that might stop flight. His fire wings count as a Rod of Absorption with no limit with charges that can be spent to replicate any spell the Ranger has seen cast in the last 3 rounds or that someone whose tracks he can see cast within the last 3 rounds. His wings of thought replicate that ability with psionic power points. His feather wings store damage points dealt to him over the last 3 rounds that he may spend on his own attacks at any time as a free action. His type changes to outsider (native). He becomes immune to mind-affecting abilities as an Ex, except those cast by a god with the travel or nature domains.
