Aw hell yes!
I came back and I'm playing a wierd support ranger build. Have to say, I love the changes:
- Point Blank Shot: Handy, and lets you afford to play a Rapid Shot Archer. Especially as you can now Weapon Focus in a set that includes melee and thrown.
- Uncanny Dodge: Great change, makes them more able to tank, but it's not available just with a dip into the class.
- Enhance Ability rather than just Grace: Ohoho, STR based rangers like this, or maybe you want more HP.
- Enough skill points to play it as more of a support/scout class: YEAH.
- Animal Companion now annoying to lose but not so precious a jar of XP you can't risk it: Brilliant
- And ofc the fact Studded Leathers are now a practical choice as their Armour AC + DEX AC is the same as chainshirt.
It's great to see a bigger variety of effective ways to play, and I just wanted to give a huge fistbump to the DMs who coded this up and sold the rest of the team on the idea. Ranger has always been a personal fave, and this gives me a bunch of new ideas. Thank you!