Weiley31
Legend
This allows some really cool new builds, like a Necromatic Bard, that doesn't have to use magical secrets to get necromancy spells.
Dirge Singer.Hmm, necromantic dancing bard with red leather armor?
(Non-Eberron version)
This allows some really cool new builds, like a Necromatic Bard, that doesn't have to use magical secrets to get necromancy spells.
Dirge Singer.Hmm, necromantic dancing bard with red leather armor?
Skills are not the be-all and end-all of the Exploration Pillar.You are a full caster with access to the same Primal spells. Who also happens to have expertise in 2-4 skills vs Ranger's 1 expertise pick.
It's not the Ranger who has exploration functionality here.
(If you feel like you're missing out on weapon mastery + fighting style, take 1 level in Fighter. Or just cast Conjure Animals.)
You get advantage to Int(Nature) checks, which is using your worst stat so whatever. Your secondary stat, Wis(Survival) get advantage ONLY to tracking.the Ranger also gets at level 1 advantage on nearly all relevant nature and survival checks
You think Hunter's Mark is worth wasting your concentration slot on..?2nd level Bonus Action Hunter's Mark
That is not what it means. It means you can climb 30ft per move, instead of 15ft. That is all it does.6th level +10 Walk Speed, plus gain equivalent Swim and Climb Speeds. No more need to make skill checks to swim or climb
Sorry, you're right about the half speed; for some reason I had it in my mind that swimming and climbing required constant skill checks if you didn't have an associated speed. That's not in the Ranger block though, it's in the glossary. And the Ranger gets 40ft walking, climbing, and swimming at 6th while the Valour Bard is still swimming and climbing at 15ft and walking at 30ft.They don't. You get advantage to Int(Nature) checks, which is using your worst stat so whatever. Your secondary stat, Wis(Survival) get advantage ONLY to tracking.
You think Hunter's Mark is worth wasting your concentration slot on..?
That is not what it means. It means you can climb 30ft per move, instead of 15ft. That is all it does.
Look, go read Ranger over again, and imagine what a full caster can do.
The advantage to tracking with Survival and knowledge (Nature) about the terrain you're in are 90% of what you need to survive there. And with Hunter's Mark, advantage to track a specific foe no matter where they are. Also, stop dumping Int. Everyone can use a bit of it. I wouldn't mind it be to all Survival and Nature checks in the terrain, though. I don't think that would hurt too much. I think the idea was to make it so that there was still a chance of failure for the Ranger while doing their fun exploration side of the game.
A spell list thematic to the class that borrows from the contents of the other spell lists represents exactly what I want. Choosing to be a bargain basement cleric, a store-brand druid, or yet another arcanist with the same set of arcanist spells as three other classes, would be the terrible way to represent what I want.A bard spell list is a TERRIBLE way to represent what you want, and the only way this could be a better version was if they could access all the lists sooner, which I think would be a bit too much.
A spell list thematic to the class that borrows from the contents of the other spell lists represents exactly what I want. Choosing to be a bargain basement cleric, a store-brand druid, or yet another arcanist with the same set of arcanist spells as three other classes, would be the terrible way to represent what I want.
As they prune away so many of the other things I hated about the prior playtest materials, the Arcane, Divine, Primal spell list scheme (that blunt solution to a non-existent problem) nevertheless persists. I guess I'll just have more ire to focus on it now.
I love Jack of Trades. I don’t like having to push back on Bard abilities I think are great.Tracking a specific enemy you have already been in combat with is not something I see almost ever in exploration. I can literally only think of a single time it has even come up in the last ten years, and no one was playing a ranger in that game (I used mind spike to get the same effect)
And honestly, if you have more diverse challenges for exploration (you should) then the Jack of All trades is a VERY powerful ability, that gives you boosts to athletics, acrobatics, stealth, sleight of hand, history, religion, nature, carpentry, masonry, land vehicles, water vehicles... it is perhaps more powerful than you give it credit for compared to tracking and Knowledge about the terrain.
Maybe the Magical Discoveries feature from College of Lore could be gimped by all Bards?While I can see why other people like the options this gives you, on a personal level I just don't like the ability to choose what magic school you pick your spells from at first level. I want my bard to have charm like abilities regardless of what spell list I can choose from and most charm spells are arcane. So if I want my bard to have even 1 healing spells before 10th level I have to take primal or divine and miss out on all of the other spells I want.
If you could at 3rd or even 5th level start picking 1 or two spells from another list then it would tolerable.