Revised Arcane Archer Preview (v0.8)
Added 2020-08-22 05:09:09 +0000 UTCA patreon requested that I go through the Arcane Archer and revise it to Superiority Dice like I did the Cavalier, and I thought that was a great idea, and something I was more or less planning to do eventually anyway.
While I don't think superiority dice are necessary for every Fighter (at this point anyway, I think that would have been a great initial design), I think they make an excellent resource system (and we'll probably see my Psychic Warrior veer more toward them with it's next update as well).
As long as the list of things they can do with those resources are largely unique, I don't think there's anything to worry about stepping on each others toes, and if different whole classes share resource systems (all spell casters using spell slots for example) it seems perfectly reasonable to me that different subclasses of Fighters can do that same.
Arcane Archer suffers from the exact problem of just being... unfavorably compared to the Battlemaster. It starts with 2 shots and... does get more. While it's not terrible as the Ranged Fighter chasis itself is powerful, this conversion/revision aims to bring it to being something that has reasonable pros and cons compared to the Battle Master. It brings down the power of some of its shots, but gives more them. It's shots do reliably damage, but unlike the Battlemaster are not hit confirmed (though Trick Shots mitigates that somewhat).
The decision to make them not hit confirmed was mostly thematic - I really don't think it feels right to decide if you empower a shot with magic after you shoot it, but that gives them a little flexibility to do a little more than they might otherwise do (and its worth noting that many of the Battlemaster attacks are also not hit or even roll confirmed, like Feinting attack, so there's plenty of precedent for that).
Anyway, this is a preview version, and I think I'll post it as a bundle with Psychic Warrior, Cavalier, and it at some point (or maybe post it on its own, not sure).
Comments
i know this is old but as a heads up the spell list says "cavalier features" lol
Cameron Jones
2021-08-04 05:52:23 +0000 UTCI gave it some thought here, and I think thematically it makes a fair bit of sense as a Ranger subclass, but it's a bit challenging to make it fit the Ranger model. I'd sort of feel like the way to do that is more to make more Ranger spells than any Ranger could use. I suppose as a Fighter it feels like it's potentially a unique subclass, but as a Ranger, it just sort of feels like what a Ranger should generically be. A Ranger subclass doesn't really have room for something like Superiority Dice or resource based abilities - they get some static damage at 3, and a bigger thing later on, but trying to stuff the resource system in there would be difficult, so you'd probably have to fuel it via spell slots... but once you are feeling it via spell slots, it feels like it should just be spells. The Ranger totally needs magical shots equivalent to the Paladins line of smite spells at the very least though.
KibblesTasty
2020-08-23 03:20:16 +0000 UTCWhat do you think about potentially re-casting the Arcane Archer as a Ranger class like it was in 3.x?
D Woods
2020-08-22 21:04:58 +0000 UTC
