Baseless Speculation on the Demon Hunter Ranger

 The Death Knight and Demon Hunter were World of Warcraft's first two "hero classes," which is a somewhat ironic name.

In fact, in WoW's entire 22-year history, the game has only added four full classes to the original 9-class roster: the Death Knight in 2008's Wrath of the Lich King, the Monk in 2012's Mists of Pandaria, the Demon Hunter in 2016's Legion, and the Evoker in 2022's Dragonflight. In fact, of these four, only the Monk was not a "Hero Class." Hero classes required you to have a character of a certain level (usually the previous expansion's level cap, though Death Knights only started at level 55 when Wrath raised the cap to 80). The logic here was that it would be weird to have a low-level Death Knight going around in low-level areas doing relatively low-stakes quests, and so they wanted to start them off with a fair degree of power.

The game has changed significantly since 2008, of course, including the introduction of level-scaling, so you can, in fact, now level up a low-level Death Knight in regions like Westfall (traditionally the second zone human characters go to when they move on from their starting zone in Elwynn Forest).

While Evokers were basically unprecedented in the lore prior to this, the Death Knight and Demon Hunter were both the classes of iconic characters from Warcraft III, specifically Arthas Menethil and Illidan Stormrage, respectively. WCIII had a sort of vague RPG system within its real-time-strategy campaigns, where you'd have kind of hero unit that would be leading your units in all the base-building and such, and would be a formidable force. These hero units were the major characters of the story.

While the Death Knight has plenty of precedence in lots of fantasy RPGs (and I'd argue also in fantasy media in general, with figures like the Ringwraiths from Lord of the Rings and Darth Vader both occupying that archetype,) the Demon Hunter is a bit weirder.

To be clear, there certainly are Demon Hunters, or monster hunters in general in fantasy media. Indeed, one of the classes in Diablo III is also called a Demon Hunter, but I think that it adheres much closer to the way that such a character class is usually portrayed: in Diablo III, the class is more like Diablo II's Rogue (and I guess also Diablo IV's,) with a flavor of having lots of cool gadgets and traps to fight demons, but basically being your black-clad, acrobatic, kind of Solomon Kane-like figure.

WoW's Demon Hunters have an entirely different aesthetic, strongly informed both by WoW's Night Elf culture and also the aesthetic of its demons.

In WoW, a Demon Hunter is not just someone who hunts demons. Indeed, there's actually a Hunter class, which is much closer to D&D's Ranger, typically fighting with ranged weapons and/or an animal companion, with a lot of "nature survival"-themed abilities along with their weapon attacks.

The premise of the Demon Hunter is that it's a highly specialized path that fundamentally changes you on a physiological level. Demon Hunters don't just use fel magic - they literally absorb a demonic soul into their own, becoming half-demons themselves. Demon Hunter characters typically have horns, and might have scaly skin or cracks where the bright-green Fel energy shines through.

 Part of the ritual to become a Demon Hunter involves gouging out one's own eyes. The fel energy inside replaces them, allowing Demon Hunters to see, and even see through disguises and invisibility. Thus, as a cosmetic option, Demon Hunter characters can select a number of blindfolds, or they can just let the bright glow of their fel-filled eye sockets shine unencumbered.

While the current expansion, Midnight, introduced a third specialization (WoW's version of a subclass) that both allows them to act as a ranged spellcaster and channel Void, instead of Fel magic (which is color-coded in blues and purples, as opposed to Fel's neon green and occasionally deep red,) for the most part, Demon Hunters fight in melee, dual-wielding weapons - most iconically, Warglaives, which are massive, double-bladed weapons. They are absolutely fantasy BS kinds of weapons, because A: they would weigh a ton each, and B, it would be hard not to slice your own thighs while swinging two of them around at your foes. But in a video game, they look really cool.

Anyway, the motive of Demon Hunters is to use the power of demons to fight demons - in WoW, basically all demons are part of a massive interstellar army called the Burning Legion that seeks to conquer and destroy the universe - the conflict that started the series was caused by the Burning Legion manipulating the orcs into acting as a proxy army to invade Azeroth, which they had failed to conquer 10,000 years earlier thanks in part to people like Illidan Stormrage, who basically invented Demon Hunters and was the first one.

I do think there's some logic to building Demon Hunters on the bones of the Ranger, conceptually: while very different in aesthetic from your typical Ranger (again, WoW's Hunter class is the clear equivalent,) the Demon Hunter does have a focus on taking down monsters (even if in WoW, they've obviously got to be fine at fighting any type of foe. We haven't really had demons as a major threat since Legion, which ran from 2016-2018). Ironically, this might have made them a better fit for the 5.0 Ranger, with its Favored Enemy mechanic (naturally picking "Fiend" as your first favored enemy type).

As we talked about with the Death Knight being represented by the Oath of the Ebon Blade subclass for Paladins, I suspect that Demon Hunter Rangers will also see some significant changes to the level 1 and 2 class features, as hinted at in that James Wyatt interview.

Oddly, I almost think you'd need more distinct features than the Death Knight - DKs in WoW do have some cosmetic differences, such as glowing blue eyes (at least starting with Wrath of the Lich King, the power of necromancy is often represented with a bright, icy blue, though this was more specifically the color associated with the Scourge and the Lich King, as there are several colors of death magic when we went to the realm of the dead in 2020's Shadowlands expansion) and a few partially-rotten skin textures you can pick, but it's not nearly as dramatic as the Demon Hunter customizations (which was maybe just because of 8 years of development).

There are various aesthetic things I'd really suggest should be part of the Demon Hunter subclass, and represented mechanically:

First, the missing eyes. It might be too powerful to give them a baseline 30-foot blindsight, but perhaps they can activate blindsight in a reasonable range a certain number of times per day. This could upgrade to Truesight at higher levels.

Next, their tattoos: the Demon Hunter aesthetic is classically one with a lot of skimpy clothing: Illidan would typically go shirtless. In WoW, your armor is a huge part of your character progression, but when designing Demon Hunter-specific sets, they've often made them more revealing. Demon Hunters have magical tattoos that help protect them, and thus, I think giving the subclass Unarmored Defense would make a lot of sense - Dex+Wis would work fine, just like it does for a Monk.

Then, we've got their wings. In WoW, Demon Hunters can double-jump and also pop out wings to glide down and prevent falling damage. Maybe this is a Slow Fall-like feature, or maybe we set this one aside.

Then, we have Warglaives. In WoW, this weapon type is available only to Demon Hunters (and thus is always statted-out to be ideal for them, with the addition of the spellcasting Devourer spec adding Intellect to all Warglaives in addition to the usual Agility). There's not really an obvious equivalent to them in D&D. I might be tempted to make them d8 Light weapons, though perhaps for balance they need to be d6s. The other issue is that, thanks to Weapon Mastery, we'll want to either have two types of Warglaives (one with Nick and one with something like Vex or Sap,) or Demon Hunters will, weirdly, find themselves probably not dual-wielding them, which feels wrong. (Fun fact, in the expansion that Demon Hunters were made playable in, every spec got a single weapon or set of weapons for the entire expansion that simply got upgraded over the course of it, so Demon Hunters naturally only used Warglaives the whole time. It was only later that they started to use the axes, swords, and fist weapons that they were also capable of using the whole time). (Also, ironically, when we fought Illidan in 2007's Burning Crusade expansion, he had a small chance to drop his legendary Warglaives of Azzinoth, but because that weapon type didn't exist yet and the class that could use them wouldn't be there for 9 more years, those actually just count as one-handed swords. Illidan kind of got handed the villain ball in BC, but Legion did a lot to rehabilitate him as the rash but ultimately well-intentioned anti-hero he was always supposed to be).

Now, how much of this is going to be stuff we get at level 3? No clue. I actually have far less of a sense of what Demon Hunter features will be subclass features and what will be spells we can pick up. Even more than the Oath spells for the Ebon Blade Paladin, I feel like Demon Hunters have to get more than the typical "one per spell level" subclass spells that Rangers typically get. We know Demon Spikes will be one of them (a defensive ability used by Vengeance Demon Hunters, the tank spec for the class).

Still, I think that mobility has to be a major theme - Demon Hunters have a ton of mobility features in WoW, and a big part of their overall vibe is being "speed demons," so to speak (one of the major rotational AoE abilities for Havoc, their melee damage spec, called Blade Dance, has them rushing faster than you can see in a kind of X pattern, slashing all foes in the surrounding area.)

I will say, I'm far less enamored of the Ranger class in D&D than the Paladin one, so I'm a little more concerned over whether the Demon Hunter will be appealing to play in an Azeroth-set game. But we shall see.

Speculating on the Demon Hunter in D&D

 The Demon Hunter was introduced ten years ago as a playable class in World of Warcraft with the Legion expansion. Established in the lore in Warcraft III way back in 2002, the original Demon Hunter was the Night Elf Illidan Stormrage, who was actually twin brothers with Malfurion Stormrage, the first Druid. Illidan had begun his career as a Mage (basically Warcraft's version of a Wizard). While not Highborne (the ruling caste of the Night Elf society, under Queen Azshara, the most powerful mage in the world,) he consorted with their ranks thanks to his aptitude for arcane magic.

When Azshara was contacted by the Dark Titan Sargeras, the fallen god-like being who created the demonic Burning Legion in an effort to burn the universe to prevent the eldritch power of the Void from claiming it, she decided she had finally found a worthy partner to rule alongside her, and opened the way for the Legion to invade Azeroth.

While Malfurion and his and Illidan's childhood friend/the woman they were both in love with, Tyrande Whisperwind, led a resistance against the invading Legion, Illidan feigned loyalty to Azshara in order to learn all he could about the demons, ultimately learning how to use their Fel magic. Granted communion with Sargeras himself, the Dark Titan showed him such awesome terrors that the fel power burned Illidan's eyes out, but granted him a second sight.

While Illidan fought the Legion behind the scenes, his methods were extreme, and after the Legion was defeated, he was imprisoned for his demonic consorting. And that imprisonment lasted for ten thousand years. (It's notable that elves naturally over a thousand years in Azeroth, but the Night Elves in particular were blessed with immortality for those ten thousand years, so none of them aged in all of that time).

When the Legion returned (in the events of Warcraft III) Tyrande grew desperate for those with the knowledge of how to combat them, and raided the vault where Illidan was kept, releasing him. Illidan took his fight to the Legion, and consumed the poweran artifact called the Skull of Gul'dan (Gul'dan being a powerful and very dead orc warlock who died in Warcraft II). Doing so gave him the power to defeat Tichondrius, one of the most powerful Dreadlord demons, but transformed Illidan into a half-demon.

Later, Illidan left in exile to Outland (the shattered fragments of the Orc homeworld of Draenor) and gathered up loyal Night Elves and Blood Elves to train them in his ways. Playable Demon Hunters in WoW are members of this group, the Illidari.

In gameplay, Demon Hunters wear Leather (the equivalent of Light armor, if you consider "no armor" to be the equivalent of those who wear Cloth) and all dual-wield weapons. Until the current expansion, they only had two specializations (basically subclasses,) Havoc and Vengeance. Havoc was the damage-focused one while Vengeance was the tanking one. The new expansion added Devourer, which uses void magic instead of fel magic, and is more of a (very mobile) ranged spellcaster, though unlike all other spellcasters, they also dual-wield weapons.

Ok, all that background aside:

How do we make this into a Ranger subclass?

First off, we need to strip this down to its iconic essentials. That means probably making it feel more like the Havoc spec than the other two, which I consider the most "quintessential" Demon Hunter spec.

I actually think the Ranger does make decent sense as the chassis upon which the Demon Hunter is built, even if the class itself can sometimes struggle. I also wonder if the subclass is going to be flexible enough to allow for a ranged version. (In WoW, Rogues are all dual-wielding melee damage dealers, so it was honestly kind of weird when I first saw D&D Rogues using shortbows).

Naturally, as a Ranger, the Demon Hunter is going to primarily be making weapon attacks. I imagine, like the Hollow Warden, we might see some mechanics that nudge you toward playing in melee. One such thing might be Immolation Aura.

This is an ability in WoW that causes the Demon Hunter to deal pulsing fire damage to every nearby creature for a few seconds (it also generates Fury, their resource, though we're sure not to carry that over in D&D). Now, this could, for sure, just be a spell that they get, but if it's on the subclass spell list, it'd probably push them a little toward melee.

The next thing to consider is their eyes.

Like Illidan, all Demon Hunters have to, as part of their initiation, gouge their eyes out. The Fel magic they take into themselves lets them sense the world around them. In gameplay, this is really just cosmetic, but you get an ability called Spectral Sight that allows you to see invisible creatures and sense creatures and treasures through walls for a few seconds.

I think it would be cool if the subclass gave you Blindsight out to a short range at level 3 - like 10 feet, but that maybe at higher levels (14, or whatever the Ranger subclass capstone is) you'd get to make that into Truesight with perhaps a larger range for a certain amount of time some reasonable number of times per long rest.

One thing all Demon Hunters get is Metamorphosis - while they have demonic features like horns and cracked skin all the time, they can sometimes turn into hulking demons (this is your major "cooldown" ability in WoW, though Devourer does it a bit differently). Now, this could be a spell (probably at a higher level) but I could also very much see this being the main capstone feature for the subclass. The transformation might allow you to make more attacks, or add damage to the attacks you do, and/or perhaps give you some defensive benefits.

Eye Beam is one of the most iconic Havoc-specific abilities, where you shoot a beam of fel energy out in front of you. It's almost exactly a line-shaped spell. I think this could be done as a spell, or it might be a subclass feature.

Fel Rush is another ability you get early on, which shoots you forward and deals some damage to any enemies you pass through. I think this could be done either as a low-level spell (maybe 1st or 2nd level) or, if it's a subclass feature, maybe you get this at level 3 and get to use it, like, Wis mod times per long rest (or short rest, if they're feeling generous).

The only reason I'd find it unlikely a lot of these are made into spells is that it would be weird to see a Beast Master using spells like them. Might they be classified as Warlock spells that are then on the subclass-specific spell list? Perhaps.

We haven't seen a UA for this (indeed, other than the revamped/returning subclasses, I don't think we've gotten a playtest version of any of the brand new ones, unless that Oathbreaker one was sneakily the Oath of the Ebon Blade,) so we'll probably have to wait until November (or at least until we get the next season of Dungeon Masters) to really get a sense of how it will work.

Hollow Warden Heavy Weapon Build (vs Wyvern)

 So, the Hollow Warden Ranger is the big subclass that is getting people to actually consider playing a Ranger again. The subclass' redesign after some criticisms of it in the UA brought to light a new bit of "tech" for Ranger subclasses, which is to use Favored Enemy as a resource akin to Wild Shape charges or Channel Divinity. It's more limited than that, as there's no way to trade spell slots for more uses and no refreshing it on a short rest.

Still, it does allow for a really cool new potential with Rangers, to perhaps wean them off of the Hunter's Mark spell - something that the 5.5 redesign emphasized in ways that the 5.0 version, for all of its flaws, didn't. I still think we might need another "alternate class features" update to fix it like we got in Tasha's for 5.0.

And let's also be clear: I think we're grading on a curve here.

Now, I'm going to do something a bit unconventional: Rangers differ from their d10 brethren by not getting training in Heavy Armor. I think the general assumption, even if you're going with a melee build, is that you'll be focusing on Dexterity as your primary stat. Hollow Wardens are nearly obligated to go melee. But while the Dual Wielder feat enables you decently when it comes to dexterity-focused melee builds (coupled with the Nick mastery, you start getting four attacks per turn by level 5) I still think, generally, that going Great Weapon Master with a Greatsword (or Glaive, if we also get Polearm Master as well) winds up being a bit better damage.

The one trick here is that we will still need at least a 14 in Dexterity, because otherwise we won't get the full benefit of Medium Armor.

Generally, on a thematic level, I'd probably go for a Dex build anyway, even if the damage is a bit lower, simply because there's so much benefit to having high dexterity.

But the fact that Hollow Wardens can get a reaction attack increases the value of hitting with the hardest possible weapon, and unless you have an Antimatter Rifle or other modern/futuristic firearms, that's the Maul and Greatsword. The Maul is probably more interesting with its Topple Mastery, but my math tends to show that Graze is pretty much always the best mastery for damage-dealing (except when fighting extremely low-AC targets).

Now, the only Ranger I ever played was actually a Strength-based dual-wielder (this was pre-Tasha's, and I wanted to play a Minotaur, who got bonuses to Strength and Constitution). He actually did ok in the landscape-traversal part of Tomb of Annihilation, though we didn't really get beyond level 5 (I intended to multiclass into Fighter for the remainder of the adventure, as he was meant to be a kind of 80s action hero-style commando). It does require spreading yourself pretty thin to get decent ability scores. If we start with a 17 in Strength, we're probably not getting more than a +2 to Dex, Con, and Wisdom, and basically have to dump Int and Charisma.

So, let's talk feats and such:

We're of course, taking Great Weapon Master at level 4 (if you're getting sick of this feat, perhaps I'll err on the side of ignoring it for future builds). At level 8, though, I'm tempted to just cap Strength because we probably want to be able to boost Wisdom or Con at levels 12 and 16.

For our weapon, again, we're going Greatsword.

For our fighting style, Great Weapon Fighting is kind of crap, so I'd probably go with something like Defensive (to make up for the fact we're stuck with Medium Armor) or Blindsight (kind of cool on a thematic level). Interception could be good, but we want our reaction free for Prowling Retribution.

As far as spells go, we're only going to have up to 3rd level spell slots. Elemental Weapon is kind of interesting - it adds a d4 of elemental damage and a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls, which actually out-damages Hunter's Mark (the bonus damage is 1d4+1, compared to 1d6, which are both equal to 3.5, but we're also hitting a little more often). It is an action to cast (downside) but lasts an hour, so it's plausible to have it running before we fight our foe. It is a 3rd level spell, so somewhat more precious (we might want to save those for something like Conjure Barrage, which is now a very good spell) but for single-target damage, it's decent. Summon Fey could be great here, but our Wisdom is kind of crap.

If we figure, across 3 attacks, we're getting 3d4+3, that's like 10.5 extra damage if they all hit (which is also more likely if we cast this) while our Fey will hit only once admittedly for like 13. But the Fey will probably have a +6 to hit, while our own attacks with Elemental Weapon would have a +10 to hit.

Well, if we want to be thorough, we can fully calculate both, but I think we're going to stick to Elemental Weapon here.

So:

We'll hope we've pre-cast Elemental Weapon. Thus, our attack bonus is +10 to hit and we deal 2d6+1d4+6 on a hit. That becomes 2d6+1d4+10 if it's part of our attack action. We hit on a 4 or higher, so that's an 85% hit chance.

The only real damage bonus we get from our subclass here, then, is Prowling Retribution from our Wrath of the Wild. Ideally, we'll get this once a turn if we crowd in on our Wyvern target.

So, turn one (again assuming we have Elemental Weapon up already) we activate Wrath of the Wild and then make two Greatsword attacks.

As usual, we'll separate out the guaranteed Strength modifier damage here, so we get two attacks that add 2d6+1d4+5, or 14.5 on a hit, and an additional 2d6+1d4, or 9.5 on a crit. 14.5x85% is 12.325, and 9.5x5% is .475, giving us 12.8 average damage on each of these attacks. Then, we add back in the 5 guaranteed Strength damage from Graze, bringing those to 17.8 each, so we're looking at 35.6 damage. That's promising, honestly, because we're not finished.

On turn 2 onward, if we crit on either attack, we can make a bonus action attack. There's a 9.75% chance of that (the same as rolling a nat 20 with advantage). The damage here is a little lower, as we don't get the proficiency bonus. So, we're talking 2d6+1d4+6, though we save the 5 from Strength to add in later, meaning that a hit "adds" 2d6+1d4+1 to our damage, which is 10.5 on average. 10.5x85% is 8.925, and then the crit bonus is just as much as before, or .475, so if we get our Hew, that's 9.4, but we then add the Strength back in, giving us 14.4. However, this only happens if we got that crit (or if we downed another foe, but we're imagining this as pure single-target situations) so it's 14.4x9.75%, or about 1.4 damage on average. This brings us up to 37 damage per round.

Now, the last piece of the puzzle is our Prowling Retribution, which allows us to make a weapon attack as a reaction if we or a nearby ally is dealt damage by our target. That's not guaranteed - the Wyvern might miss with both of its attacks. With Half Plate, the Defensive Fighting Style, and Wrath of Nature, we'll have an AC of 19 at this point. A Wyvern has a +7 to hit. So, they need to roll a 12 or higher, meaning a 45% chance to hit. But across its two attacks, they'll get at least one hit roughly 70% of the time. We can use that as the chance we get to use this reaction attack.

Then, it's actually just like our Hew attack - it should do an average of 14.4 damage. That can happen 70% of the time, so it adds roughly 10.1 damage per round.

Thus, we're now looking at 47.1 damage per round, which looks pretty good to me.

That being said, getting hit is going to make it very likely we'll lose concentration. Thanks to Hungering Might, we get to add Wisdom to our Con saves (meaning we might aim to get a +3 to Wisdom, though this might wind up dropping our Con modifier by 1, which would even these out). We probably only have a +4 to Con saves, which will often help against the Bite attack, but the Sting is going to make it a lot harder to concentrate.

Some adjustments to consider:

We calculated this against a Death Knight with a dual-wield build (which is honestly more likely what I'd actually play). We would probably consider going Hunter's Mark rather than Elemental Weapon. While we only really have to make a single Nick weapon attack (once we weave in a Scimitar or Dagger for our "light weapon property" attack, that will let us attack with our Shortsword for our bonus action attack, because we did actually make an attack as part of the action with a different weapon in a different hand). Though, now that I think of it, while we wouldn't be able to boost the damage on the Nice weapon, we'd get overall more damage from the spell because we're still making four attacks with the Shortsword per round compared with three with the Greatsword. But I think Hunter's Mark still might be the right call, because I don't think +1 to hit with 4/5 attacks will give us more than an extra d6 of damage we'd be getting by boosting the damage of our Scimitar.

I still don't think the dual-wield build will do as well, because we'd be losing 8 damage from the hits of our Attack damage, as well as the little bit of extra damage from our Hew attacks. But it probably does decently.

For the record, if we had a 3rd level Summon Fey, they would have a +6 to hit (or +7 if we got Wisdom to +3 ). They deal 2d6+6 Force damage on a hit. So, if we do have a +7 to hit, they're hitting on a 7 or higher, so 70% of the time. It's 14 damage on a hit and 7 more on a crit. 14x70% is 9.8 and 5%x7 is .35, so it's an average of 10.15 extra damage, or 10.2 rounded off.

But then we need to adjust our own damage.

We now only have a +9 to hit with our own attacks, so we hit 80% of the time. Our attacks deal 5 guaranteed damage and then add 2d6+4 on a hit and 2d6 on a crit, so 11 and 7. 11x80% is 8.8, and 7x5% is .35, so we're looking at 9.15, then adding that guaranteed 5 for 14.15 per attack, or 28.3 with both attacks.

Now, our Hew attack will be 5 guaranteed, and then 2d6 on a hit and an extra 2d6 on a crit, so we can combine our probabilities for 85% of 7, or 5.95, giving us 10.95 damage per hew attack. That's 9.75% of the time, so we've got basically 1 extra damage per round.

Then, 70% of the time, we get our reaction attack, also doing 10.95 on average, so about 7.7.

Thus, if we go Summon Fey, we get 10.2+28.3+1+7.7, or 47.2.

Wow. That's actually slightly better - literally by 0.1 - than the Elemental Weapon version. Actually, given that the Fey has some additional utility (and can soak damage for us) I might prefer it.

Hollow Warden Ranger

 Ok, so we touched on this in a recent "vs. Death Knight" post, so some of this will be familiar, but I'm going to really be focusing on analyzing the power and design of the subclass.

Rangers didn't really get the love that they ought to have gotten in the 2024 PHB, with a weird emphasis (actually not present in the 2014 Ranger) on Hunter's Mark, a spell that's great in early levels but doesn't scale in a fun and exciting way and also prevents you from using more interesting, higher-level spells (seriously, so many Ranger spells are concentration).

All that being said, the Ranger still has limited spellcasting capabilities, and that does give it a bit of an edge, even if that spellcasting feature feels hamstrung in a way that it isn't for Paladins or Artificers.

But lo and behold, I think the Hollow Warden is almost surely the new best Ranger subclass - though it will only really get that distinction if you're willing to mix it up in melee (hey, why else would they have a D10 hit die?)

Flavor-wise, the Hollow Warden is meant to be the extra dirty stalker of the wilderness, with something of a cryptid vibe to it. (We don't have any Domains of Dread that have that Pacific Northwest feel, sadly, but it feels like something you could do).

Hollow Warden Spells:

1st: Wrathful Smite

2nd: Alter Self

3rd: Phantom Steed

4th: Dominate Beast

5th: Steel Wind Strike

    Some solids options and some less exciting ones. Phantom Steed will help with traversal, but it's not terribly reliable in combat because the mount has effectively 1 HP (though you don't fall off it if it's destroyed). Wrathful Smite and Steel Wind Strike are good (though as a half-caster, Steel Wind Strike might not be as exciting at level 17). Alter Self is situational. Dominate Beast I think is probably going to be far better for out-of-combat situations, as you're almost certainly not fighting Beasts mid tier 3.

Level 3:

Wrath of the Wild:

As a bonus action, you can expend a use of Favored Enemy (which normally gives you free casts of Hunter's Mark, starting with 2 uses and eventually getting up to 6, basically scaling with your PB if you don't multiclass) to take on a monstrous form, like growing bloody antlers, twisted shadows, etc. The transformation lasts 1 minute or until you're incapacitated or die, or end it voluntarily. While transformed:

Ancient Armor: You gain a +1 bonus to your AC (and then +2 at level 11 or higher).

Prowling Retribution: When a creature within 5 feet of you deals damage to you or one of your allies, you can make an Opportunity Attack against them.

Unnerving Aura: When you transform and at the start of each of your turns, creatures of your choice within 10 feet must make a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened until the start of your next turn.

    These are all great, but I think Prowling Retribution is the really amazing thing here. Indeed, it might incentivize you to go with a heavier weapon, even going Strength for something like a Glaive or Greatsword, though I believe the math still probably favors dual-wielding (and thus you might as well go Dex with finesse weapons). This also actually winds up improving the value of Hunter's Mark, though you'll need to cast that on a subsequent turn. The only downside here is that you might have more fights in a day than you can use this feature (and a fight with lots of stunning enemies could waste that use as well). Let's also not forget the Fear effect, which is very good.

Level 7:

Hungering Might:

You gain a bonus to Con saves equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of +1)

Also, once per turn when you a creature with an attack while transformed, you can regain HP equal to 1d10+Wis if you are bloodied when you hit.

    Both solid - the first part lets you focus more on boosting your Wisdom. Naturally, due to the requirement that you be bloodied to get the healing here, you're going to try to ensure you can't use this very often.

Level 11:

Rot and Violence:

This gives you the following while you're transformed with Wrath of the Wild:

Menacing Aura makes it so that creatures that have failed their save against your Unnerving Aura can't regain HP or take reactions until the start of your next turn.

    Fewer monsters these days regain HP, but the no reactions thing is nice.

Strangling Roots lets you activate the Sap or Slow mastery in addition to the normal mastery of the weapon you're using.

    Sap is going to make this melee-focused Ranger a bit more resilient, which is great, and doesn't sacrifice the normal necessities like Nick.

Level 15:

Ancient Might gives you two features:

Ominous Strikes lets you add your Wisdom modifier to the damage of attacks you hit with against Frightened creatures.

    Notably, this is not limited to once per turn, and even if we didn't get them with Unnerving Aura, we can do a Wrathful Smite for another chance at getting this bonus damage. If we're dual-wielding with the dual-wielder feat, we could potentially be making as many as 5 attacks per round (including the frequent opportunity attacks). Sucks if our foes are immune to fear, but this could add up quite a bit. Also, note that unlike earlier features, this doesn't require that we be transformed, nor does the target need to be frightened of us (if an ally has imposed the condition on them, that also works).

Persistent Wrath does require Wrath of the Wild, but if you're reduced to 0 HP while it's active, you can instead change your HP to twice your Ranger level. Once you use this, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest or expend a 4th or higher level spell slot.

    So, at this level it's a 4th level spell slot for an emergency 30 HP heal. A 4th level Cure Wounds with +5 to Wisdom would be 41. I think that's well worth it - I mean, you'd for sure rather expend a 4th level spell slot than go down (and, notably, lose Wrath of the Wild).

Timeless gives you full immunity to the Exhaustion condition.

    No qualifiers here - no matter what happens to you, you cannot get Exhaustion. And that's becoming a more common thing with monsters in 5.5. Pretty good.

Overall Thoughts:

This is probably the best subclass for Rangers now. But despite that, I have one little tweak I wish they'd make: I wish we could expend a spell slot to get more uses of Wrath of the Wild. Until level 5, we only have two uses a day, and while you also often don't have more than two combat encounters a day in tier 1, you're also far more likely to get knocked out at those levels, which means losing it mid combat.

Turning Favored Enemy into a resource that can go to other things, much as Druids do with Wild Shape, is actually a great new design space to work in for the class. I only wish, then, that you got one use back on a short rest, the way that comparable features like Wild Shape, Channel Divinity, and even Rage work now.

But yeah, while I think this subclass does have to pull more than its fair share of weight because of the flaws with the Ranger, there are some really amazing elements to the subclass that could make for a very cool and capable character.

Hollow Warden Ranger vs. Death Knight

 So, I'm doing something a little unconventional: in a little less than a week, early access for Ravenloft: Horrors Within will open up, giving us access to the new book with its various subclasses, species, feats, etc. Among them is the Hollow Warden Ranger, which leans into a kind of spooky cryptid vibe.

I actually love the idea of a Domain of Dread with a Pacific Northwest vibe - while I'm a New Englander originally, and will always advocate for spooky stories set in the Northeast, I also do love the temperate rainforests and funky monsters of the region.

I'm going to be using the version of the subclass previewed in the recent "State of the Game" video, which should be the final version (barring some digital errata, which is rare).

Ok: Rangers are, unfortunately, generally considered one of if not the weakest class in 5E, and while we saw massive glow-ups for, for example, the Monk (even if the absolute damage output wasn't buffed enormously, their overall quality of life and survivability did get some significant boosts) most argue that the Ranger didn't quite get the love it needed.

I'll confess that it's not a class whose fantasy appeals to me tremendously - but I do think that the vibes on the Hollow Ranger could draw me to it (though I've got a ton of character concepts I'd want to play first).

Still, as I've been doing this series figuring out damage output against a Death Knight, which is a very Ravenloft-appropriate monster (Lord Soth is featured in Horrors Within, and while he's now got a bespoke, slightly-higher-CR stat block, we're on theme), largely going with classes that aren't always known for being the kings of damage output, I figured we should check in with the Ranger. But I'm more excited about this subclass than the others currently available (Gloomstalker is, to be fair, certainly a spooky option as well).

But how will the subclass affect our damage, if at all?

The core feature for the Hollow Warden is Wrath of the Wild, which allows you to transform into a kind of cryptid monster as a bonus action, expending a use of Favored Enemy to do so - notably, this no longer requires you to concentrate on Hunter's Mark (in fact, it uses up one of your free castings of it), though it only lasts for one minute (or if you get incapacitated, die, or end it voluntarily). The transformation increases your AC by 1 (and then 2 at level 11). It also allows you to make an Opportunity Attack when a creature within 5 feet of your deals damage to you or an ally.

Naturally, this latter feature will strongly encourage us to play a melee character, though the changes to Sharpshooter in 5.5 were doing that already anyway.

Still, this is going to be a source of significant extra damage, as we will probably be able to use it every turn as long as we stay glued to the Death Knight.

Finally, Wrath of the Wild lets us impose Frightened on any creatures of our choice within 10 feet who fails a Wisdom saving throw every turn - once when we activate it and again at the start of each turn. The fear effect lasts until the start of your next turn. This is not going to work on the Death Knight, but it's actually quite good generally (and again, encourages us to get into melee).

In terms of subclass spells, Wrathful Smite is the only real damage option we'll have at level 10 - given that I'm going to be building with dual-wielding in mind, we'll probably save this only for crits, as we'll normally just being making an attack with the Dual Wielder feat. (Ranger can go the Strength route and pick up heavy melee weapons, which might work well with this subclass, but I think there are other benefits to going with a Dex build and dual-wielding. Also, going one-handed and taking the Dueling fighting style is actually not a terrible idea here, though I think Dual-wielding will probably wind up doing better - even if we can probably reliably get three attacks per round thanks to those Opportunity Attacks, the benefit won't make up for missing the Dual Wielder feat attack - though a less damage-focused, more tanky Ranger actually makes some sense with this subclass).

At level 7, Hungering Might gives you a bonus to Con saves equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum +1) and also, when you hit a creature with an attack while transformed and you're Bloodied, you regain HP equal to 1d10+Wis. But this doesn't affect our damage output (other than keeping us alive a bit longer).

I actually wrote out the entire 11th-level feature before remembering this was a level 10 build, so we'll stop there.

Ok, so let's talk gameplan:

    Weapons:

We're definitely doing a melee build here. Classically, Rangers in melee tend to go with dual-wielding (particularly a shortsword and scimitar). But what about some other options?

You can make a Strength-based Ranger, and I actually think that there are some reasons to consider it in this case: because of the reaction attacks we'll be getting, the harder-hitting the weapon, the greater value that has. If we go with a Greatsword, for example, what would we need for our stat-spread?

Well, I'd want to get a 17 in Strength and then a 16 in Wisdom to start off. We can get these and the Tough feat (which will help us survive in melee a bit better) from the Farmer background, which also feels good for a folk-horror-themed character.

Using Point Buy, we're a little stretched out here given that we want to have a 14 in Dex and then as high a Con as we can get. Grabbing 15s in Strength and Wis leaves us with 9 points left. A 14 in Dex is then another 7, so we're spending our last points just to get a +0 to Con. Not... ideal.

But let's try something a bit more off-beat. If we take the Druidic Warrior fighting style, we can pick up Shillelagh as a cantrip. From there, we'll be able to focus entirely on Wisdom as our primary stat. Now, this won't let us go with Great Weapon Master, but it will let us go with Polearm Master if we fight with a Quarterstaff. The cost is that we have to cast the spell as a bonus action, which does get in the way of getting Wrath of the Wild up.

That said, we might need a good concentration spell at the start of our first turn anyway that takes an action to cast (we'll come to that later). The Quarterstaff has Topple, which could potentially knock our target prone or at least burn through some legendary resistances. The downside is that by picking this, we're not going to get the Dueling fighting style that would complement a single one-handed weapon. Eventually, the higher damage die would make up for this (by the time it's a d12, it's doing as well as a d8 weapon with a +2 bonus).

All that said, I don't think that this is the highest damage option, which means we're probably going to have to go the conventional route and dual-wield. So, yeah, the usual Shortsword and Scimitar combo.

This also means I have to deal with Vex, though I think the math should hopefully be at least similar to what I did with the Rogue.

    Feats:

If we're dual-wielding, we'll take Dual-Wielder, though this won't come online on the first turn because we need our bonus action to activate Wrath of the Wild. Indeed, with other bonus actions like Wrathful Smite, we might consider leaving it on the table - though in any fight where we're not burning through all our resources each turn we'd probably want to have this as a free option.

At level 8, I might be tempted to just take an ASI to cap our Dexterity, because if we do go into higher levels, getting higher Wisdom will wind up being pretty useful. So, we'll just assume 20 Dex.

For Fighting Style, we're going Two Weapon Fighting.

    Spells:

At this level, we have 3rd level spells. While something like Conjure Barrage will be great in AoE situations, for single-target, I'd suspect that we're going to be best off with Summon Fey. (Spike Growth would be great if we had a lot of pushing and pulling, but that doesn't play super well with our "stay stuck to the target" playstyle.)

    Gameplan:

So, here's how we do this:

We start off on turn one closing with the Death Knight, and then we activate Wrath of the Wild. With our action, we cast Summon Fey, probably picking Fuming as the Fey's mood (/mode.)

Hopefully, the Death Knight attacks either us or an ally (though hopefully not our poor Fey because they might die immediately) and triggers our reaction attack.

Then, from turn 2 onward, we make our two attacks and then have our Fey attack if they're alive.

    Calculating Damage:

Given that they get to attack first, we'll figure out what the Fey does first.

Our Wisdom is only +3 at this level, so the Fey only has a +7 to hit. Against an AC of 20, that's only a 40% chance to hit. However, because our Fey spirit is fuming, they can start off their turn with a Fey Step to get advantage on their attacks (alternatively, if we want to keep them alive, we might have them Fey Step after their attacks to safely get out of range of the Death Knight's melee, though we lose this advantage).

On a hit, the Fey spirit gets 2d6+3+the spell's level, which can only be 3 at this level. So, it's an average of 13. Then, you add 7 on a crit.

With advantage, they have a 64% chance to hit and a 9.75% chance to crit, so that's 8.32 plus .6825, or an average of approximately 9 damage on an attack with advantage.

Without advantage, for their second attack, they have a 40% chance to hit and 5% chance to crit, so 5.2 plus .35, or 5.55 on average for the second attack.

(Oh, duh: it's a 3rd level Fey Spirit, so it only gets one attack.)

Thus, the Fey is doing, from turn one, about 14.55 damage per turn. (Actually, no, it's just 9 damage)

We assume, then, that we'll get our Opportunity Attack. Here, we have a 50% chance to hit and a 5% chance to crit. We use our Shortsword, which deals 1d6+5 damage on a hit (8.5 average) and 3.5 extra on a crit, so we're looking at 4.25 plus .175 or 4.425 average damage there.

Then, we have our second turn:

We should be able to make full use of our Nick and Dual Wielder off-hand attacks, so this amounts to four 1d6 weapon attacks per turn.

We'll attack with the Shortsword for our two main attacks as part of the attack action. The Scimitar we will only use for our Nick attack, which then allows us to use the Shortsword again for our Bonus Action Dual Wielder attack and then our reaction attack that we can expect to get each round.

Of course, Vex vexes us by making the math far more complicated. But at least we have some precedence with the Rogue, who also had a +9 to hit. Using the math we figured out from that, if we got an opportunity attack between turns one and two, we've got a 62.5% chance to hit and a 7.375% chance to crit. 8.5x62.5% is 5.31 (we're rounding it to the second decimal, which is honestly more generous than we should be) and 3.5x7.375% is .26, giving us 5.57 average damage with this attack.

Then, we have a second Shortsword attack on our turn. Our hit chance overall is now 65.625%, and our crit chance is 7.975%, so that's 5.58 plus .28, or 5.86.

Now, compared to the Rogue, we have one more attack in the middle here, our Scimitar attack. This has a 65.625% chance to have advantage. Again, let's round off for sanity. 66% of the time we're talking a 75% chance to hit and 9.75% chance to crit, and the other 34% of the time, it's 50%/5%. So, 49.5% plus 17% is a 66.5% chance to hit and 6.4% plus 1.7% is 8.1% chance to crit. That's then 5.65 plus .28, or 5.93 with this attack.

Our bonus action attack actually winds up being very simple, as we don't have a source for advantage, so it's just the same as that initial reaction, or 4.425. Then, our next reaction would be like that initial attack on this turn, or 5.57.

Whoops, forgot that the bonus action attack doesn't add our Dex. So it's just 3.5 damage on a hit. Thus, it's actually 1.75 plus .175, or 1.925

Bringing it all together:

On turn one, we only do 9 with our Fey spirit and 4.4 with our reaction attack, for 13.4 damage.

Then, turn two, we'll get 5.57 on attack one, 5.86 on attack two, 5.93 on attack three, and 1.93 on attack four, for a total of 19.3ish. Our Fey spirit then does another 9 damage, so we get 28.3 on our turn.

Then, we get 5.57 with our reaction each round, bringing us to 33.9 damage per round.

    Let's talk pitfalls:

The Fey spirit only has 30 HP and an AC of 15, so we might prefer instead to have the Fey swoop in with their movement and then Fey Step away. This takes their advantage away, so they'll only do 5.6 damage per turn, meaning we reduce our total damage done by about 3.4.

Even with 30 feet of clearance, the Death Knight could still choose to go after it - broadly speaking, if a monster diverts away from attacking you or your fellow party members, it's worth it, but the Fey could also get caught in a Hellfire Orb or some such thing as well.

Indeed, with only a single attack, we might actually just go Hunter's Mark. This would have to wait for turn two, though it would let us attack on turn one. We'd still need to worry about maintaining concentration, though we do get a nice bonus to Con saves with the subclass.

I think we can actually figure out how much Hunter's Mark would add (starting on turn two) by simply adding all the hit and crit chances together and multiplying them by 3.5. If I did that right, it's actually adding 9.6 damage per turn, roughly, which outpaces Summon Fey.

Damn it, WotC! You got me to cast Hunter's Mark!

What Subclasses Should Get a Revision: Ranger

 Oh, the Ranger. A class that has always struggled a bit on both a conceptual and mechanical level. Generally, I've found that a lot of the power of the class comes from its subclasses, though this puts a lot of pressure on those subclasses to be good - a lackluster Wizard subclass isn't too much of a problem because you've still got the Wizard spell list, but a Ranger really needs some oomph.

Rangers as a whole also struggle a little bit because the class fantasy is kind of ambiguous: are they meant to be expert monster-hunters, always ready and knowledgeable about the prey they pursue? Or are they meant to be the class that never gets lost, always leading the way through the wilderness? I think the former fantasy is the one that feels more universal to any kind of D&D game, but the latter seems to be the one that WotC's design has tended to focus on.

From the release of Xanathar's to the 2024 PHB, the class was fairly dominated by the Gloom Stalker subclass, with its profound nova capabilities. But Gloom Stalkers were both reprinted in 2024 and also had that capability significantly nerfed. The Ranger itself also got a pretty significant mechanical overhaul, both with several optional features in Tasha's and also in the 2024 PHB, though many have argued (and I think I largely agree) that these didn't really go far enough to empower the class (with particular controversy surrounding the design to center things so much on a 1st level concentration spell).

All this being said, the Ranger actually has a lot of potential in its subclasses, where different environments, different prey, and different hunting techniques can all serve as inspiration for subclasses.

The ones we're going to look over here are the Horizon Walker, the Monster Slayer, the Swarmkeeper, and the Drake Warden. That's among the fewest subclasses to examine (both the Gloom Stalker and the Fey Wanderer were reprinted in the PHB).

Horizon Walker: No

    Here's one that I feel a bit conflicted about. I do like the idea of a plane-hopping Ranger. But it's also kind of niche. This is very much built for an exploration-heavy campaign, and specifically one that involves a lot of planar portals, which is a small fraction of campaigns. I could see this being part of a (better) Planescape supplement, but it's a little tough outside of that "setting."

Monster Slayer: Yes

    Readers of this blog will know that I have an adoration of the Gothic monster-hunter, the Van Helsing (more of the Hugh Jackman movie version than the actual character from Dracula) archetype. While in theory this could be used to hunt any monster (including all the classic monstrosities,) that's great because it makes the Monster Slayer work in any campaign, even one that doesn't have vampires and werewolves. It's also a subclass that always felt like it had some cool ideas that didn't totally come together to be powerful enough. Now, one big caveat: some of its features were folded into the Hunter subclass in the PHB, so there's a risk of some redundancy. We'd probably want a fairly extensive mechanical overhaul.

Swarmkeeper: No

    Don't get me wrong: I really like the Swarmkeeper. But I think it's a niche enough concept and mechanically it's fine (to the extent than any Ranger subclass is fine,) and so I think we're good to leave it as is.

Drakewarden: No

    Again, I think the reason here is more that it's probably fine as is. I for sure believe that giving Rangers multiple pet-commanding subclasses makes sense. Many people come to the Ranger from World of Warcraft's Hunter class, which famously allows you to tame pets from among the beast-type creatures across the world, and so to many, the Beast Master is already the "obvious" Ranger subclass (which is part of why 2014's version, which was so underpowered, soured people on the Ranger as a whole). There's a bit of weird scaling with the Drakewarden - it doesn't just use your spell attack modifier for its attacks like the new Beast Master does - but I think we don't really need to revisit this one.

So yeah, I think there's plenty of additional space to explore here, and I don't think that class should be weighed down by what came before.

Winter Walker Ranger

 Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden is one of those published adventures I'd be really curious to run - it's a big sandbox with a horror theme, a frozen wasteland in perpetual darkness (in the name of clarity, the maps for the adventure are all bright and easily legible, but I think it's an important thing to stress to the players that it's all profoundly dark all the time. True Detective: Night Country is a good reference to consider for the level of dark, frozen spookiness.

Anyway, this subclass feels built for such an adventure and environment: a decidedly cold-themed ranger subclass. Let's see if it's any good!

Winter Walker Spells:

1st: Ice Knife

2nd: Hold Person

3rd: Remove Curse

4th: Ice Storm

5th: Cone of Cold

    Remove Curse is good to have when you need it. I'm not sure any of these spells are going to be all that great for you as a Ranger. While Cone of Cold is good as a big-area AoE spell, by level 17, it's not going to feel as powerful as when the 9th level Sorcerer cast it half the campaign ago.

Level 3:

Frigid Explorer:

You gain a few benefits:

Biting Cold: Damage from your weapons, ranger spells, and ranger features ignore resistance to cold damage.

    Cold resistance is certainly more common than, say, Necrotic resistance. Indeed, this will help not only when fighting traditionally chilly foes, but also I believe most demons and some devils. Of course, your weapons aren't going to deal cold damage by default, but let's keep looking.

Frost Resistance: You gain resistance to Cold damage.

    A reasonably common damage type, but also very useful when exploring in cold regions, where you'll be able to skip cold weather gear and happily cross the tundra in a t-shirt.

Polar Strikes: Once per turn, when you hit a creature with a weapon, you can deal 1d4 extra Cold damage. At level 11, this goes up to 1d6.

    It's not a ton of damage, but it's always there for you. You'll get more out of this if you can make lots of opportunity attacks or a friend has ways to let you make attacks as a reaction.

Hunter's Rime:

When you cast Hunter's Mark, you gain temporary hit points equal to 1d10 plus your Ranger level. While a creature is marked with Hunter's Mark, it can't take the disengage action.

    So, this is going to be a class that strongly encourages you to use Hunter's Mark. That carries with it all the problems we've talked about when designing a class around a 1st level spell that requires concentration. But these effects are both pretty decent - we get a lot of uses of Hunter's Mark, so we'll be able to get a lot of temp HP. Also, by preventing disengages, we get more opportunity attacks!

Level 7:

Fortifying Soul:

As a magic action, you can choose a number of creatures you can see equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1). Each creature regains HP equal to 1d10 plus your Ranger level and has advantage on saving throws to avoid or end the frightened condition for 1 hour. You can do this once per long rest.

    This is a decent little group heal - notably with no range limit beyond being able to see them. When you get this it's going to be an average of 12.5 HP - not a huge heal, but it can give you some breathing room. The fear protection will be situational, but can be good.

Level 11:

Chilling Retribution:

When a creature hits you with an attack, you can take a reaction to force them to make a wisdom saving throw, and on a failure, they are stunned until the end of your next turn, with a speed of 0 (remember that stunned creatures can move now - though not in this case). You can do this Wis times per long rest.

    I think the biggest downside is that it's most likely going to go off on their turn, meaning that they've already gotten to do something, and it'll end before their next turn, meaning that while you might cut off additional attacks and perhaps a bonus action or movement (and reactions,) you aren't robbing them of a turn the way you would with a Stunning Strike or the like.

Level 15:

Frozen Haunt:

When you cast Hunter's Mark, you can adopt a ghostly form until the spell ends. You can do this once per long rest, or expend a 4th or higher level spell slot to get another use. You get the following benefits:

Frozen Soul: You have immunity to cold damage. When you first adopt the form and at the start of each of your turns thereafter, each creature of your choice in a 15 foot emanation takes 2d4 Cold damage.

    While an average of 5 damage per turn is pretty low at level 15, it is both AoE and guaranteed damage.

Partially Incorporeal: You are immune to being grappled, prone, or restrained. You can also move through creatures as if they were difficult terrain but take 1d10 force damage if you end your turn inside a creature or object. If the form ends while you're inside a creature or object, you are shunted to the nearest unoccupied space.

    While the incorporeal movement has some potential, I think the immunity to those conditions is a bigger deal - pass right through the Tarrasque's stomach. Using this purely for utility outside of combat might, however, require you to do something silly like putting Hunter's Mark on an ally (not great as that will prevent them from disengaging, though you can drop the spell if combat breaks out). As usual, I assume that if you aren't given a hovering fly speed with this, somehow the floor will still hold your weight despite being incorporeal.

Overall Thoughts:

I honestly like the flavor of this - while the art for the subclass doesn't really give off this vibe, I can see this being a really spooky ranger, and it'd be quite appropriate for Rime of the Frostmaiden (though note that a lot of creatures in that are probably fully immune, not just resistant to cold damage).

I also think that this subclass probably leans a little more toward a melee build, though I also think 2024 Rangers are probably better off going that direction anyway.

Screw It: Let's Build a Beast Master

 The Beast Master was perhaps the most-maligned subclass in the 2014 PHB. I don't think it was ever the least powerful one (Way of Four Elements might have had that dubious honor - which is why it's so fun that the new Elements Monk might be the best Monk subclass in the book) but the main problem was that it struggled to fulfill the Beast Master class fantasy... sort of. Actually, honestly, it did what it said it would, but given that your pet couldn't scale up, and there wasn't a really clear way to keep them from permanently dying, it just sort of landed as a disappointment. It was also put on display very publicly through the character of Vex'halia on Critical Role, and Laura Bailey's (Vex's player) frustrations (not to mention the mockery that Vex's pet Trinket got from fellow player Sam Riegel) really cemented this sense that the Beast Master was busted in 5th Edition.

We got a big revision of the subclass in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, along with several changes to the Ranger itself, and of course, in 2024, we got much of these revisions codified as the primary version of the class and subclass.

All that being said, while some struggling classes from 2014 got big glow-ups in 2024 (the Monk in particular,) many have expressed dismay that the Ranger was left behind, not getting the power and support it needed.

That being said, I also think that 2024 D&D is more balanced than 2014 was, and thus, I wonder how we might build a Beast Master to be a fairly effective combatant, and if it's even that hard to do.

Way before we even get started on making the many crucial choices in our build, though, we need to consider the following:

A Beast Master's companion uses the Ranger's spell attack bonus to determine its own attack bonus. This incentivizes the Ranger to consider pursuing Wisdom rather than Dexterity (or Strength, though I'd generally advise against making a Strength Ranger, as you get spread out across too many ability scores).

But how can we go hard on Wisdom when we're still reliant on our weapons for a significant portion of our damage?

As I see it, there are a couple possibilities, and both involve getting some Druid cantrips. The good news is that this an option we can pursue even without worrying about Feats. At level 2, when we pick a fighting style, we can get the Ranger-exclusive option of Druidic Warrior. Now, you could grab something like Starry Wisp, and just cast the spell from range. But damage cantrips don't really keep up with weapons, unless you're talking about an Agonizing Blast-enhanced Eldritch Blast (and even that falls slightly behind when you compare it with magic weapons).

Here, another option that presents itself is Shillelagh. This cantrip allows you to fight with a weapon (as long as it's a club or a quarterstaff) using your spellcasting ability. The new version actually has some scaling, by enhancing the weapon's weapon die at each tier, starting at a d8, then d10 at level 5, d12 at level 11, and 2d6 at level 17. Unlike a Druid who uses this, we effectively get a little more scaling because of Extra Attack at level 5.

The downside, however, of Shillelagh, is that it takes our bonus action. Rangers already like to use bonus actions on Hunter's Mark, but we're also going to need it to command our pet. Thus, unless we can pre-cast both spells before the fight gets going, we're either going to need to wait until turn 3 to attack with our pet, or we're going to have to ignore one of these bonuses.

My instinct is that, unless we're expecting a very long fight, we want to get our pet into the mix right away, and that means that we're probably going to be better off just using a Dexterity build and deal with the fact that our pet's attack chance is lower.

Even our softest-hitting pets, the Beast of the Sky (though their average damage is the same as a Beast of the Sea, except on crits) deals 1d4+6, our 8.5 damage on a hit, which is for sure significant at level 4, and is better even than our Hunter's Mark damage when we get Extra Attack.

Indeed, if we assume all hits (which to be fair does favor the pet,) it'll take three hits on a marked target to make up for the lost attack on turn 1.

I'm thus also inclined that the wasted bonus action on turn 1 with a Shillelagh build might also not be worth it, again except in the case of longer fights (though Shillelagh has the advantage of not being concentration and also not requiring reapplication if the target dies).

Thus, let's instead assume our build is going to be a bit more traditional - pushing Dex to the limit before working any further on Wisdom.

We then should figure out what kind of weapon we want to use.

Classically, the Ranger uses a... ranged weapon. And yet, there's also a grand tradition of dual-wielding (like with Drizz't Do'urden). If we're focused on Dexterity, it won't make sense to use a big two-handed melee weapon, so I'd say the route we're taking allows for two primary options: dual-wielding or fighting with a ranged weapon.

Now, I mentioned how we're going to need to be careful in our choice of feats. On almost any other character (including most Rangers,) I'd recommend picking up the Dual Wielder feat, because it effectively gives us a second off-hand attack as long as we're taking advantage of the Nick property. However, a Beast Master always (unless things have gone very wrong) has a bonus action to take by commanding their beast. And thus, this feat won't be very good for us.

But that doesn't rule out dual-wielding as a configuration: Nick actually enables us to do so. We can wield a Shortsword and Scimitar in combination. We can even pick up the two-weapon fighting style.

The alternative is fairly simple: we grab a ranged weapon and the archery fighting style, and we're golden. Here's the twist, though: we probably want to take the Shortbow instead of the Longbow. While the Shortbow has a shorter range and lower weapon die, it also has the Vex property, which actually means that over time, it winds up dealing more damage than the longbow because we hit and crit more often. The double-twist, though, is that technically, a Longbow can benefit from Great Weapon Master - while not a strength-based weapon, it does have the Heavy Property, and thus you can get that PB bonus to its damage with your attacks. The downside, though, is that you're taking a point of Strength on a character who is built for Dexterity, and while some Rangers might push both Strength and Dexterity in equal measures while ignoring Wisdom, we can't really do that because of our Beasts.

Again, I don't really have the math done out, but my instinct is that the melee build will do better damage - though it of course carries a risk, which is that being in melee means taking more attacks.

I will also say that dual-wielding further incentivizes actually getting Hunter's Mark up there. At level 5, we're effectively making three attacks with our attack action, and so we reach those three required to make up for the lack of a beast strike that much faster.

So, let's imagine a scenario:

My longest-played character is currently level 8, so that's the range I'm generally thinking about for combat examples. So, we'll assume we're level 8, and we're fighting a monster with an AC of, say, 17.

At this level, we've got two general feats. We'll say we took Mage Slayer at level 4 (knowing that Dual Wielder wouldn't help us that much) and then, perhaps, because we know we want to get working on our Wisdom, we've just taken an ASI to pop Dex to 20 here. We have two-weapon fighting as our fighting style feat, and we're using a Beast of the Land to maximize damage.

Now, let's be generous and say that we got off Hunter's Mark before the fight broke out. Our Beast of the Land will have their turn to charge toward the target and get a bonus d6 of damage on a hit.

Here's how I imagine our sequence goes:

We start by running to the target. We then use a bonus action to command the beast to do the same, as well as attack it and then use its bonus action to give us the Help action, so we get advantage on our first attack. The beast has an attack bonus of only +6 (compared with our +8). Thus, it has a 50% chance to hit our AC 17 target.

Pet hit damage: 1d8+1d6+5, or 13 average

Pet crit bonus: 8 average

So, 13x50%, or 6.5, plus 8x5%, or .4, gives us the pet's average damage of 6.9 (nice).

Now, once the pet's done their movement, action, and bonus action, it's our turn. Here, Vex makes the math a little hairy, but I'll do my best:

Our hit chance is 60%, but with advantage from the help action, it means that actually we've got an 84% chance to hit, and a 9.75% to crit.

Hit damage (remember that we said we pre-cast Hunter's Mark) is 2d6+5, or 12

Crit bonus is 7

So, on our first attack, we're looking at 12x84%, or 10.08, plus 7x9.75%, or .6825, meaning our average damage on this first attack is 10.7625.

This is where it gets nasty:

Because of Vex, if we did hit on the first attack, we have advantage on the second attack, but if we still missed with that 16% miss chance, we won't have advantage. So, we now need to know what our average damage would be if we didn't have advantage. This isn't too hard to get: 60% hit chance and 5% crit chance, so we're talking 13x60%, or 7.8, plus 7x5%, or .35, so the average there is 8.15.

Then, we go back to how likely our previous attack was to hit and apply these as coefficients before summing them: we had an 84% chance to get advantage on this attack, so 10.7625x84%, or 9.0405, and a 16% chance to have not had advantage, so 8.15x16%, or 1.304, which gives us an average damage on this attack of 10.3445.

Finally, we have our off-hand scimitar attack. Jesus, here we go: the first attack had guaranteed advantage from the Help action. The second attack's advantage was conditional on the first attack landing with advantage. Now, we're looking at a further-split timeline where we're more likely to get advantage if the previous attack hit, which itself was more likely to happen if the first attack hit.

So: let's break it down:

84% of the time, the first attack hits. In this scenario, the second attack has an 84% chance to hit.

16% of the time, the first attack misses. In this scenario, the second attack has a 60% chance to hit.

Thus, the second attack's chance to hit overall becomes 84%x84% plus 60%x16%. That's 70.56% plus 9.6%, for a total hit chance of 80.16%.

Now, the second attack hitting tells us how likely it is for our scimitar off-hand attack gets advantage.

Thanks to the two-weapon fighting style, the damage is actually the same on a hit or a crit, so we're just applying the same damage we got for advantage and disadvantage, just in a new ratio.

Once again, attacking with advantage gives us average damage of 10.7625, while lacking advantage gives us 8.15. With an 80.16% chance to have advantage, we're looking at 10.7625x80.16%, or 8.6722, and then an 19.84% chance to not have advantage, so we look at 8.15x19.84%, giving us 1.61696, totaling on average 10.28916 for this final attack.

So, let's sum it all up:

Beast Strike: 6.9

First Shortsword Attack: 10.7625

Second Shortsword Attack: 10.3445

Third Shortsword Attack: 10.28916

Total damage on round 1 with pre-cast Hunter's Mark: 38.29616.

That is, honestly, very respectable damage. But this is also a very best-case-scenario. If we can't pre-cast Hunter's Mark, for example, we need to choose between doing so or having our pet's turn, the latter of which is also how we get advantage on that first attack.

Still, I'd guess we're not dropping far below 30 average damage if we have to make that decision. As a point of comparison, let's figure out what a comparable Champion Fighter with a Greatsword would be doing. Our Champion has GWM and we'll say, like, Mage Slayer and Heavy Armor Master to fill out their Strength. With a +5 to Strength, we're looking at a +8 to hit. Thanks to Graze, every attack is going to do our 5 Strength damage, so we can just add that at the end. As a champion, we have a 10% crit chance. So, again, 60% hit chance.

Hit damage (ignoring Strength for now) is 2d6+3, or 10 average

Crit bonus: 2d6, or 7

So, 10x60% is 6, and then 7x10% is .7, so we're doing 6.7 average damage, but then add the 5 that comes even if we miss, and we get 11.7 damage per attack. Two attacks gives us 23.4.

Now, if either of these crit, we get a bonus action attack that lacks the +3 PB to damage. With two attacks and a 10% crit chance, the chance that either crits is 19%, so we figure out the average damage for our Hew attack and then multiply it by that.

Once again, Graze means a guaranteed 5, so we can add that to the average at the end.

Hit damage: 2d6

Crit bonus: 2d6

I think we can actually just combine the 60% chance to hit and the 10% chance to crit, so 7x70% is 4.9, then 4.9x19% is .931, meaning our total average damage here is actually just 24.331 - significantly lower than the Beast Master was doing.

Now, sure, a Fighter has a few more options like Action Surge, but this is honestly kind of eye-opening.

I'd be tempted to run the Beast Master through less ideal scenarios, but Vex is pretty tough to calculate as someone who was never that much of a math guy.

Hunter's Mark and Hex; Spells Are Class Features, But If We Have Options, Let Us Use Them

 Spellcasting is the most common feature across classes in D&D. In 5th Edition, Artificers, Bards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, Rangers, Sorcerers, and Wizards, along with two subclasses for the Fighter and Rogue, respectively, have this feature (even if it works a bit differently between classes). Warlocks have a similar but distinct system with Pact Magic. Yes, the Monk and the Barbarian are the only classes that will never, without multiclassing or some weird feat, have to worry about a spell slot.

Two classes, one a martial half-caster, and the other a bizarre full caster with an asterisk, have iconic spells that take a bonus action to cast and then allow you to deal an extra d6 of damage when you hit the target, and even allow you to move the spell onto a new target when the old one dies.

In early levels, this is actually quite decent - generally speaking, it's good as a spellcaster to have some spell to concentrate on that you cast on your first turn, and try to keep up over the course of a fight. A Ranger who dual-wields finesse weapons and gets the benefit of the Nick property will effectively turn their shortsword and scimitar into greatswords with this extra damage. And a Warlock get to hit harder with their attacks, such as the Eldritch Blast cantrip.

The spells are decent.

WotC's approach to these spells has been to try to make them central to the class and its subclasses. Rangers have a number of class features that encourage the use of Hunter's Mark, like free castings and other such things. Warlocks have some small mention of Hex (a secondary aspect of the Create Thrall feature for Great Old One Warlocks).

In the recent Horror Subclass Unearthed Arcana testing document, the Ranger and Warlock subclasses (one a brand-new one and the other a revamp of the Hexblade) focus extensively on these respective spells, with all or nearly all of their subclass features tied to the use of the respective spells.

And I think it's a terrible idea.

Again, it's not that these spells are terrible, and indeed, they serve a purpose.

The thing is, no other spellcasters are so tied to any particular spell. Now that Divine Smite is a spell rather than a class feature that is fueled by spell slots, Paladins are encourage to use it, but not in a way that excludes other spells. Indeed, the changes to the alternate smite spells has made it far easier for a Paladin to use the others.

The thing is, both Warlocks and Rangers have a lot of concentration spells. If I'm playing in tier 3 or higher, a likely standard procedure on a warlock would be to use Summon Fiend as a Mystic Arcanum to conjure forth a devil to attack my enemies. That concentration spell is going to, for an hour, bombard my foes with 2d6+9 (if memory serves) three times a round, or an average of 48 extra damage (on hits).

To get that much damage on a turn from Hex, I'd need to be able to make about 14 attacks per round.

Now, I think that WotC's aim has been to make improvements to these spells through class features in order to make them worth casting at higher level.

But why, though?

Gameplay for a class as you level up should feel familiar, but it should also evolve over time. As an example, my Wizard is always going to be looking through his spell list to see what best option for a situation is. But I realized, now at level 8, that even though I had blown through two 3rd level slots to dispel Dominate Monster (I think - it was an 8th level spell) on the Marquis of Port Damali (we have a succubus problem, evidently) I wasn't totally screwed if we got into combat later that day, because 3rd level spells, which were so precious and dear at level 5 and 6, are now a little more expendable.

The negative consequence of class design like this is that you wind up in a situation where gameplay stagnates and doesn't feel that different from low level to high level, but furthermore, you seem to be punished either for following the way the class is designed, or punished with the shutdown of cool features if you dare color outside the lines.

As an example, from this UA, the Hexblade now gets Animate Objects as a patron spell. Flavorful, and a cool spell to boot. But in order to cast this spell, which requires concentration, you can't be concentrating on Hex. And as a result, you more or less don't have a subclass, because the redesign (which, again, is in testing and not final) places nearly (if not truly) everything other than those patron spells onto the Hex spell.

I'm not entirely opposed to having subclass features tied to specific spells. But in most cases in the PHB, we've seen these features make those spells play better with others, not worse. Create Thrall, for the Great Old One subclass, for example, lets us cast Summon Aberration without concentration if we're ok with it only lasting a minute. But this is great, because it gets us to cast this very thematic spell specifically in a way that frees us up to cast other spells.

As I've said many times, I'm mostly quite positive on the changes made in the 2024 PHB. But I think whoever keeps building things around specific spells in this way needs to take a step back and ask themselves what they're trying to achieve.

I could imagine a world in which Hex or Hunter's Mark aren't even spells, but class features, and could thus easily play well with all of the player choices regarding the spells they want to cast.

But I think it'd also be really wise of WotC to create versions of the Ranger and Warlock classes where you truly can pick any spells you like. I think the PHB base classes here aren't so inextricably tied to these spells that you can't make something cool out of them, but the Hollow Warden and Hexblade revamp feel like they're going in the wrong direction.

UA: Hollow Warden Ranger

 Dammit, WotC, stop trying to get me to play a Ranger!

Yes, after the Forgotten Realms subclass UA gave us the Winter Walker Ranger, the Horror Subclass UA now gives us a brand-new subclass that essentially turns your Ranger into a dark and spooky monster from the deep woods.

The subclass appears to be a bit tankier than your typical Ranger, and likely would thrive as a dual-wielding character (which the new balance of weapons and feats also seems to push Rangers toward).

Subclass Spells:

1st: Wrathful Smite

2nd: Spike Growth

3rd: Phantom Steed

4th: Hallucinatory Terrain

5th: Awaken

    I'll confess that some of these are going to be profoundly situational, and Awaken in particular feels like something more of a "flavor" spell than one with really obvious utility, though it's one I think is really interesting. Phantom Steed is underrated for both travel and mobility. Still, I don't think any of these are game-changers (Spike Growth is great, but Rangers get that anyway, I think).

Level 3:

Wrath of the Wild enhances your Hunter's Mark in two ways (and yes, they're fully leaning into the "we mainly want you concentrating on Hunter's Mark" design).

Ancient Armor gives you a bonus to AC equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) while you're concentrating on the spell.

Unnerving Aura causes any enemies that start their turn within a 10 foot emanation of you while concentrating on the spell to have to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, they can take an action or bonus action, not both.

    Practically speaking, I think this is going to mean something like a +2 or +3 bonus to your AC, or perhaps more at higher levels (or if you have really good rolled stats). For a melee Ranger, that's going to be quite nice - with capped Dex, you'd normally have an AC of 17 with the best armor, but this could push it up to 20, and if you cap Wisdom as well, 22. The Unnerving Aura is really dependent on the enemy stat block - lots of them don't have bonus actions, making this useless against them. But plenty do.

Level 7:

Hungering Might gives you a bonus to your Con saves equal to your Wisdom modifier. Additionally, once per turn when you hit a creature with an attack roll while transformed by Wrath of the Wild (i.e., concentrating on Hunter's Mark), if you're bloodied, you regain HP equal to 1d10+Wis.

    Honestly, that's not bad - obviously you never want to be Bloodied if you can help it, but this is going to make it easier to get out of that state. Healing when you need it most.

Level 11:

Rot and Violence has two sub-features that affect your Wrath of the Wild.

Eerie Aura causes creatures that fail against your Unnerving Aura feature to take your choice of Necrotic, Poison, or Psychic damage equal to your Ranger level, and this ignores resistance.

    That's actually a hefty chunk of damage for something that's an add-on to other stuff. It is a save for none, of course, but creatures will fail the save. Now, how many creatures have resistance rather than immunity to those damage types? I'm not sure. But against most creatures, this can be real damage numbers.

Strangling Roots lets you add the Sap or Slow mastery when you hit a creature with an attack roll with a weapon, in addition to the weapon's normal mastery. Notably, both of these are masteries that really only have an effect on a creature once per turn, so dual-wielding isn't going to make this crazy, and these masteries aren't the most powerful ones, but it's nice that you don't have to give up, say, Nick or Vex for this.

Level 15:

Ancient Endurance, once again, is really two features.

Persistent Hunt allows you, when you drop to 0 HP while transformed by Wrath of the Wild but don't die outright, to expend a 4th or higher level spell slot (no action required) and instead your HP becomes 5 times the level of the spell (so 20 if a 4th or 25 if a 5th).

    Naturally, you don't generally want to drop to 0 HP, especially by the time you're at these higher levels, but this is some insurance.

Timeless gives you immunity to Exhaustion.

    While Exhaustion doesn't come up super-often, even in its less devastating form in 2024, it's still really nasty. Practically, while this will make you very good at fighting Salamander Inferno Masters, I think it also effectively means you can go without food, drink, sleep, and I believe even air (because I think suffocation involves getting exhausted). There is some negative synergy, as this makes the Decrease Exhaustion part of Tireless meaningless. But I guess it's also just indicative of further mastery.

I've got to say: I love the vibes here. But are these mechanics enough to get me to play a class I feel didn't quite get the glow-up it deserved in the 2024 PHB? I'm not sure.

Actually, for the Horror themed subclasses, I wouldn't have minded them taking another crack at the Monster Slayer subclass from Xanathar's.

I guess to me, the version of a Ranger that I'm most interested in playing is an expert on terrifying monsters in the vein of Solomon Kane, Geralt of Rivia (though ability-wise he's clearly an Eldritch Knight) or the many exaggerations of Abraham van Helsing (the actual character from the novel is less intrepid monster hunter than knowledgeable academic). This subclass is very much leaning into more of "I am the monster from the woods" than being the one to hunt it, though that's very cool in its own right.

I am still disappointed with the continued focus on Hunter's Mark - why do Rangers have so many concentration spells if the design of the class seems to be built around always using this one?

UA: New Subclasses in the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide

 In something of an echo of the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, among the first new books that will be coming out for "5.5" Edition is a two-book set that will be a big campaign setting book for the Forgotten Realms. While ten years of published adventures primarily in the Realms along with the aforementioned SCAG, not to mention the popular Baldur's Gate 3 computer game, and the D&D movie, probably means that anyone with any understanding of D&D beyond the surface level is well-aware of the Forgotten Realms or at least elements therein, these books will likely serve as the new definitive setting books. Will we get stuff beyond the Sword Coast, and maybe even beyond the continent of Faerun? No idea.

But, as someone who has actually never run anything in the Forgotten Realms, and who really likes setting-agnostic sourcebooks so that he can use them with his homebrew setting, the number one top appeal here is that, like SCAG, this comes with several subclasses.

And we just received the Unearthed Arcana to test said subclasses.

The subclasses are a mix of returning and brand-new. They are:

College of the Moon for Bards

Knowledge Domain for Clerics

Purple Dragon Knight for Fighters (don't worry - it looks like this is mechanically entirely different than the old one, which made the Champion seem complex and interesting)

Oath of Noble Genies for Paladins

Winter Walker for Rangers

Scion of the Three for Rogues

Spellfire Sorcery for Sorcerers

Bladesinger for Wizards

    You'll note that some of these have very specific FR themes - the "Three" likely refers to the Dead Three, the trio of allied evil gods often worshipped in Baldur's Gate, and even the college of the Moon is specifically linked to the Moonshae Isles. This, thus, might require a bit of lore-bending for other settings, but we'll look at it mechanically.

College of the Moon:

    Moon Bards weave tales of druidic magic into their Bard powers. At the core is your 3rd level feature, which lets you swap between three different "Folktales," each of which give you a different capability. You remain in this "mode" until you swap to another one.

Tale of Life allows you to expend a Bardic Inspiration die when you restore HP to a creature with a spell, adding the result rolled to the heal (no more than one BI per turn). One area of clarification that would be good to get is how this works on AOE heals, such as Mass Healing Word.

Tale of Gloam allows you to Disengage or Hide when you use your usual bonus action Bardic Inspiration feature.

Tale of Mirth allows you to, when an enemy succeeds on a saving throw within 60 feet of you, use a reaction and spend a BI die, forcing the enemy to subtract the roll of that die from their saving throw result, potentially turning it into a failure.

Given how reliant on saving throw spells Bards are, I think this last one is probably going to be your "default" option, and this is the one of these tales that I think could be a huge, clutch play - if some major enemy gets an 18 against your DC 16 spell, this could really turn the tables.

At 6th level, you get Blessing of the Moonwells, which automatically gives you the Moonbeam spell. You can cast the spell as a bonus action for free once per long rest, or by expending a 3rd level spell slot, and when cast this way, you get some extra benefits: while concentrating on it, you glow with dim light for 5 feet, and whenever a creature fails its save against the spell, another creature of your choice within 60 feet regains 2d4 HP.

Moonbeam is an ok spell, and this does a lot to buff it. I don't know that I'd rely on the healing, given that it requires the target to fail a saving throw, but making it a bonus action also means you can do plenty of other things with your turn.

Finally, at 14th level, you get Bolstered Folktales, which allows you to simply roll a d6 instead of expending a Bardic Inspiration die when you use Tale of Life and Tale of Mirth, and then, if you're using Tale of Gloam, you can teleport up to 30 feet as part of the bonus action.

This is a nice feature - basically allowing you to use the feature without ever running out. Again, getting to toss a d6 at a monster's saving throw, especially after you know what they rolled, can be very powerful.

I'll confess that I'm really bad at evaluating Bards. It's a class I can never totally wrap my head around. I feel like this is decent, but probably not blowing anyone's minds in terms of power - though that Tale of Mirth feature feels like it could be the gamechanger.

Knowledge Domain:

    The first PHB subclass to be reprinted outside the PHB following the 2024 culling of Cleric and Wizard subclasses, Knowledge is the Cleric of the mind.

From the start, the first thing one will notice is that they get more domain spells than other subclasses - 3 for each spell level of 1-5, rather than the typical 2. (Remember that Cleric subclasses come at level 3 now, so you'll be getting your 1st and 2nd level domain spells at the same time.)

Domain spells are:

1st: Command, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic

2nd: Detect Thoughts, Identify, Mind Spike

3rd: Dispel Magic, Nondetection, Tongues

4th: Arcane Eye, Banishment, Confusion

5th: Legend Lore, Scrying, Synaptic Static

    That's a mix of some really solid spells to always have prepared, some very niche ones, and a few combat bangers (I love Synaptic Static).

Beyond this, it appears there's pretty extensive changes, so let's get into them:

At level 3, you get Blessings of Knowledge, giving you proficiency in a type of Artisan's Tools as well as not just proficiency, but expertise in two of the following: Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion. Damn, build yourself a Knowledge Cleric with the Thaumaturge Divine Order and you'll have the highest Arcana/Religion modifier by a large margin.

Also at 3, you get Mind Magic. You can use Channel Divinity to cast any spell on your Domain Spells list without expending a spell slot or requiring material components. That is... actually that's damn good: Scrying for just a Channel Divinity? No need to get the ivory strips and such for Legend Lore? (Also, I think this might turn the casting time into an action as well - I don't know the casting times for all those spells off the top of my head, but still pretty good). The other massive takeaway is that this means a 7th level Knowledge Cleric could potentially cast Banishment several times per day. Not bad at all.

At 6th level, you get Unfettered Mind, gaining telepathy out to 60 feet, and allowing you to simultaneously contact a number of creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier. Also, if you make an Intelligence check and the total is lower than your Wisdom score, you can take the score instead as your total. Granted, with your expertise in two knowledge skills, this might not come up super-often, but it does mean that if you have a -1 to Intelligence, and you beef an Investigation check looking for a trap or something, you could just say "nah, that's a 16." It's not quite Reliable talent, but at the least, if you're trying to figure out some major lore reveal, you have a pretty decent floor on what you can get.

At 17th level, you get Divine Foreknowledge. As a bonus action, you can give yourself advantage on all d20 tests for an hour. You can do this once per long rest, or by expending a 6th or higher level spell slot.

So, this is almost Foresight - a 9th level spell - once per day for free, or as a 6th level spell and as a bonus action. You can only cast it on yourself, and it doesn't impose disadvantage on attackers, but still. That feels... pretty damn good. A 6th level slot is certainly not cheap, but it's a powerful effect that could be clutch.

I've got to say: I don't know if this Cleric is going to be superpowered or anything, and the 6th level feature, while cool, does not really enhance your combat power or anything. But I could imagine playing one of these and really enjoying it, smartypants know-it-all that I am.

Purple Dragon Knight:

    Ok, here we come to what, in the SCAG-version, I consider to be the least-inspired subclass in all of 5th Edition. A subclass that basically just took the three core Fighter features - Second Wind, Action Surge, and Indomitable - and let you spread them to your party, but adding absolutely nothing new to you.

Thankfully, though, this version just utterly trashes the SCAG PDK/"Banneret" in favor of a subclass with an actual identity. And that identity is: Fighter Pet Class!

At 3rd level, we get two features, but let's start with the headliner: Purple Dragon Companion.

The Purple Dragon (likely meant to represent an Amethyst Gem Dragon, as seen in Fizban's) has a scaling stat block, and like a Beast Master's pet or a Battle Smith's steel defender, uses the typical battle pet rules - they act only if you use your bonus action. You can always revive your dragon with the expenditure of a Second Wind use (and 1 minute - so not in-combat) or as part of an hour ritual that can be made as part of a short or long rest.

The Dragon scales with your level and your Intelligence modifier, so you'll really need to work on both your main attack stat and that. Its AC is 13+ your Int and its attack modifier is 3+ your Int (which means I suspect it'll fall behind a bit at high levels - I'll probably suggest in the response to this that it'd be nice to have the dragon scale better by using your Strength or Dexterity instead). The dragon does a Rend attack that deals Force damage, as well as a 2/day Gravity Breath, which doesn't deal damage, but can push or pull targets caught in it.

Also at level 3, harkening to the diplomatic role that PDKs are supposed to play, you get Knightly Envoy, giving you one additional Language and the ability to cast Comprehend Languages as a ritual.

At 7th level, you get Dragon Rider. Your dragon grows to Medium size, and you can ride it as a mount if you're Medium or smaller, but the dragon will fall to the ground at the end of a turn if it's airborne and being held aloft only by its Fly speed. It also only takes 5 feet of movement to mount or dismount. Additionally, the Gravity Breath now deals 2d6 Force damage to creatures that fail the save against it. Finally, when you use Second Wind to regain HP, your dragon regains HP equal to 1d6+ your Fighter level, and regains a use of Gravity Breath.

One thing I'd want to be really specific about is what kind of mount the dragon is. We'd probably want it as an uncontrolled mount so that it can use its own actions. And given that it acts on your turn and not immediately after, this should work fine, as the dragon can move you before you take your action.

At 10th level, you get Rallying Surge. When you use Action Surge, up to three allies in a 30-foot emanation (which could include your dragon, I guess) can use a Reaction to either Advance or Retreat. Advancing allows them to make an attack with a weapon or Unarmed Strike, or if the ally is your dragon, they can make a Rend attack. Retreating allows them to move up to half their speed without provoking Opportunity attacks.

This is... ok, so this is actually a bit like one of the subclass' old features, but what it does is turn your Action Surge into a real battlefield-management ability. I might prefer that this be its own resource, but this ensures that Action Surge will be a really climactic moment.

At 15th level, there's Amethyst Pinnacle. The Dragon grows to Large size and both its Speed and Fly Speed increase to 40 feet, and the dragon can now remain in flight even if you're still mounted on it. Additionally, you get Tandem Attack, which allows you to trade out one of your attacks to command your dragon to attack with a Rend, or spend two of your attacks to have them do their Gravity Breath.

This is fine, but there's an issue: I think the chance that your Dragon's Rend attack is more powerful than one of your own weapon attacks is deeply, deeply unlikely. Unless you are fighting something that resists Bludgeoning/Piercing/Slashing damage (which is more likely in the 2025 Monster Manual, as "magical" versions of those damage types don't exist anymore), even a Shortsword is probably going to deal more damage because it'll be using your preferred stats. I think the dragon could use better damage scaling - its attacks literally don't go up at all unless you can boost your Intelligence, meaning that there's a chance that it never does.

Finally, at level 18, you get Enduring Commander, which gives both you and your dragon resistance to both Force and Psychic Damage. That's pretty cool, actually - Force is a damage type we do see in some endgame campaign bosses, like the Monsters of the Multiverse-versions of the Demon Lords, for example. You'd actually be a more effective tank against such things than a Barbarian. This is not a flashy feature, but it's a solid one.

Overall, of course, this is a massive improvement over the original PDK. I do think it steps on the Drakewarden Ranger's toes, feet, and ankles. I'd prefer a version that's not so reliant on Intelligence, but then, to be fair, Beast Masters need to heavily invest in Wisdom. The main thing is that I think I could actually imagine taking this subclass, even if realistically I'm unlikely to ever play a Fighter that isn't an Eldritch Knight or Battle Master (or maybe Rune Knight).

Oath of Noble Genies

If you want an elemental-themed Paladin, this one is all about the glory and splendor of the most powerful Genies. A paladin oath that respects the power of the elements, here's what you get:

Your Oath spells are the following:

Cantrip: Elementalism

1st: Chromatic Orb, Thunderous Smite

2nd: Mirror Image, Phantasmal Force

3rd: Fly, Gaseous Form

4th: Conjure Minor Elementals, Summon Elemental

5th: Banishing Smite, Contact Other Plane

Whoo boy, you know what I'm seeing there: even if a Paladin won't get the infamous Conjure Minor Elementals until they're 13th level, that is a spell that works quite well for characters who have Extra Attack. Upcasting it to 5th level once in tier 4 will also be quite strong (though it is still better for someone like a Valor Bard, who can upcast it to higher levels). But even if we set aside that arguably busted spell, a Paladin with Fly or Mirror Image (especially the new version of Mirror Image, which gets better if you have high AC) is not bad.

At 3rd level, you get Elemental Smite: When you cast Divine Smite, you can also expend a Channel Divinity use to cause one of four additional effects: 

Dao's Crush grapples the target (DC is equal to your spell save DC.) 

Djinni's Escape allows you to teleport up to 30 feet and take on a mist-like form, which gives you immunity to being Grappled, Prone, or Restrained until the end of your next turn.

Efreeti's Fury adds 2d4 Fire damage on top of your Smite.

Marid's Surge causes the target and each creature of your choice within a 10 foot emanation coming from you to have to make a Strength save or get knocked back 15 feet and fall Prone.

This is a bit resource-heavy, but damn if that isn't some excellent utility. Efreeti's Fury of course you'll want to save for a Crit, but I can see Marid's Surge doing a great job of opening up a hole to retreat, and Djinni's Escape is going to be a great way to get away from some sticky monster.

Also at 3rd level, when you aren't wearing Medium or Heavy Armor, you can add your Charisma modifier to your AC. You also gain proficiency in your choice of Acrobatics, Intimidation, Performance, or Persuasion. So, that's really interesting: if ever you wanted to make a Dex Paladin, this subclass is 100% the one you want to choose. Now, the Paladin I've played had a -2 to Dex, so if I had this subclass, I'd still definitely take heavy armor. But, for example, in my Witchlight campaign, we have a Fairy Paladin, who can't wear heavy armor and fly. Indeed, now that dual-wielding Paladins are quite viable, I could very easily imagine a Dex-based one using Studded Leather and a Shortsword and Scimitar. You could easily start a Paladin character with a +3 to Dex and +2 to Charisma (or even +3, but we'll be conservative,) which would mean a 16 AC in Leather Armor. At high levels, if you maxed out Dex and got Charisma to, say, +4, even in just Studded Leather with no shield, you could have an AC 21. And you would actually stand a good chance at decent stealth checks! I will say that I prefer the aesthetic of heavy armor, but I could very much imagine this being a fun way to build.

At 7th level, you get Aura of Elemental Shielding. At the start of each of your turns, you can choose for creatures affected by your Aura of Protection to have resistance to your choice of Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage (I've rephrased this: the aura remains in effect at all times the Aura is, you can just swap the damage type each turn with no action required).

This is, just, you know, good. And fighting Fire Elementals? Now you and nearby friends are resistant. It's responsive and applies to the most common magical damage types.

At 15th level, you get Elemental Rebuke. When you are hit with an attack roll, you can take a Reaction to halve the damage (rounded down) and then you can force the attacker (there does not appear to be a restriction on being able to see them or any distance limit) to make a Dexterity saving throw (against your spell save DC). On a failure, the attacker takes 4d10+Cha of your choice of Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage. They take half damage on a success. You can do this a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier per long rest.

The retaliatory damage is fine and good, but the enormous thing here is that you have an amazing defensive feature to use against a massive hit - use this when you get crit, for example. And 4d10+Cha (likely 25 or so) is not a small amount of damage on a reaction.

Finally, your level 20 Ult is Noble Scion. As a bonus action, for ten minutes, you get a 60 foot flying speed (with hover) and when you or an ally in your Aura of Protection fails a d20 test, you can use a reaction to cause the test to succeed instead. Like other Ults, you can use this again by expending a 5th level spell slot.

That is damned good. At level 20, a failed saving throw can be massive, so being able to just, as a reaction, say "no, it succeeded," is hugely powerful. Sure, you might use this on an attack to make sure that you're damaging the final boss as much as possible, but I think the "no, I don't think I will get swallowed by the Tarrasque" reaction, for example, is really, really big.

I've got to say, of the four subclasses we've been through so far, this is the one that has me the most excited. This feels good. Possibly too good, but I'm ok with that.

Winter Walker

Gotta say, just from the name I'm already pretty excited about this one. While I've happily moved to Southern California where it's nice and warm basically all the time, in a fantasy tale, the frigid cold is a good setting for grim fantasy tales (naturally, the name evokes the White Walkers of A Song of Ice and Fire). So, let's look at what it is, mechanically:

At 3rd level, you get Frigid Explorer. This gives you the following: You have resistance to Cold damage (which, remember, also means that you don't get Exhaustion from being exposed to extreme cold) and also, when you hit a creature with a weapon, you can deal an extra 1d4 Cold damage. The target can take this damage only once per turn. The damage ignores resistance to Cold damage and goes up to 1d6 at level 11.

Couple nuances: first of all, this is just free damage. It's not a ton, but it's there, and should stack with things like Hunter's Mark or other boosts. Second, it's the creature that can only take this extra damage once per turn, meaning that if you are, say, a Dual Wielder, you could potentially hit four separate monsters and deal this damage to all of them (if you've got main hand 1, main hand 2, off hand Nick, and then off hand Bonus Action). Not enormous, but a pretty solid boost for a 3rd level feature. Ignoring Cold resistance also really helps it fit into the themes of the subclass without paradoxically hamstringing you when fighting in your preferred envrionment.

Also at 3, you get Hunter's Rime. When you cast Hunter's Mark, you gain Temp HP equal to 1d10+your Ranger level. Also, while a creature is marked by Hunter's Mark, it cannot take the Disengage action.

While I'm not always happy about features that only work when the Ranger is using Hunter's Mark, this is nice if you are using it. (I really wish the spell were just a class feature that didn't interact with the rest of your spellcasting abilities).

Finally, you have your subclass spells. These are:

Ice Knife, Pass without Trace, Remove Curse, Ice Storm, and Cone of Cold.

Nothing terrible there. Pass without Trace is a no-brainer for any Ranger, but I guess this frees up a spell option. All seems on-theme.

At 7, you get Fortifying Soul. When you finish a Short Rest, you can choose a number of creatures up to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) and they regain HP equal to 1d10 + your Ranger level and have Advantage against being Frightened for 1 hour. You can use this once per Long rest.

This feels... it feels very niche. The HP boost is cool, but the 1 hour of advantage against Fear effects feels like it's such a roll of the dice. If you know you're about to face something that will frighten party members, are you really able to take a rest before such a fight? And so soon before? And why can't we give this bonus at the end of a long rest?

At 11, we get Chilling Retribution. When a creature hits you with an attack roll, you can take a Reaction to make them make a Wisdom save. If they fail, the creature is Frightened until the end of your next turn and while Frightened, their speed is 0. You can use this a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier.

This is cool, but I'd prefer a slight change: let you use this in response to an attack, rather than a hit. That way the reaction can potentially prevent the hit coming for you.

At 15, you get Frozen Haunt. When you cast Hunter's Mark, you can adopt a ghostly, snowy form. The form lasts until the spell ends. While it's up, you have Immunity to Cold damage, and when you adopt the form and at the start of each subsequent turn, each creature of your choice within a 15 foot emanation takes 2d4 Cold damage. You also have immunity to being Grappled, Prone, and Restrained, and can pass through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain, taking 1d10 Force damage if you stop inside a creature or object, and getting shunted to the nearest unoccupied space if the feature ends while inside a creature or object.

You can do this once per long rest, or you can spend a 4th level spell slot to do it again. (As far as I can tell, this is in addition to your casting of Hunter's Mark).

2d4 isn't a ton of damage at 15th level, unfortunately, even if it's guaranteed damage (and AoE damage... maybe it is fair?)

I'm mixed on this subclass: flavor-wise, I adore it. It's dripping with vibes, and those vibes are extremely grim. It would be the perfect subclass for playing in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. Like so many Ranger things, including the class in general, I just worry that it's a little undertuned.

Scion of the Three:

Do you want to be the party's token evil teammate? Ok, sure, you don't have to be a bad guy, but this is the subclass related to the Dead Three. Already a pretty strong aesthetic is presenting itself, but let's look at its mechanics.

At 3rd level, you get Bloodthirst. If your Sneak Attack hits a Bloodied creature, the creature takes extra damage equal to half your Rogue level (rounded up). When an enemy you can see is reduced to 0 hit points, you can use a reaction to teleport to an unoccupied space within 30 feet of yourself, and then you can make one melee attack. You can do this a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1) per long rest.

Ok, yes. Not only does this boost your damage by a bit, but so many team compositions are about finding ways to get the Rogue multiple Sneak Attacks per round. This has it built in.

Also at 3, you get Dread Allegiance. You pick between Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul. Each god grants a damage resistance and a cantrip (Intelligence to cast). You can swap your allegiance after a long rest.

Bane grants Psychic resistance and Minor Illusion

Bhaal grants Poison resistance and Blade Ward

Myrkul grants Necrotic resistance and Chill Touch.

Of these, I think Minor Illusion will be the easiest to use in most scenarios, though you might find the Poison resistance more broadly helpful.

At 9th level, you get Strike Fear. You gain an additional Cunning Strike, which is "Terrify." This costs 1d6 of your Sneak Attack and forces the creature to make a Wisdom saving throw, becoming Frightened for 1 minute on a failure (they can repeat the save at the end of each of their turns).

This makes perfect sense for the vibes here. And Frightened is a potentially really powerful effect.

At 13th level, you gain Aura of Malevolence. At the start of each of your turns, each creature of your choice within a 10 foot Emanation takes damage equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimim 1), the damage being the same kind you have resistance to via your Dread Allegiance feature. The damage ignores resistance (though the aura is inactive if you're incapacitated).

This definitely encourages you to fight in melee, which can be a risky proposition for a Rogue, but it's free, guaranteed, AoE damage that is always on, so I can't complain much.

Finally, at 17, you get Dread Incarnate: You have Advantage on attack rolls against creatures with the Frightened condition, and when you roll Sneak Attack damage, you can treat a roll of 1 or 2 on the die as a 3.

Ok, the first part is going to be very nice if your party can toss fear effects around, but you also have your Terrify Cunning Strike, so you can set this up for yourself. Let's figure out how the damage boost treats you:

Normally, a d6's average damage is 3.5. But with this change, the average damage becomes 4. So, at level 17, our Sneak Attack does 9d6, meaning we're going from 31.5 to 36, or a boost of 5.5 damage. (And 6 at level 19). Much like the new Great Weapon Fighting style, this isn't enormous, but we're also rolling way more d6s than we would with a Greatsword, so the boost is multiplied. I don't think this is a massive game-changer, but it's nice.

Like the Winter Walker, I love the vibe of this subclass - truly wicked, you can imagine this Rogue is just utterly splattered with blood in the midst of combat. I think the best features are probably the first ones, especially Bloodthirst. It might need a tune-up, but I think it's probably in pretty good shape.

Spellfire Sorcery:

The Spellfire Sorcerer gets its power directly from the Weave (the FR explanation for how magic works is that there's essentially an underlying energy field to the universe call the Weave). Thematically, you have strange magic that can act in myriad ways - both harmful and helpful.

First off, you get a number of subclass spells. These are:

1st: Cure Wounds, Guiding Bolt

2nd: Lesser Restoration, Scorching Ray

3rd: Aura of Vitality, Dispel Magic

4th: Fire Shield, Wall of Fire

5th: Greater Restoration, Flame Strike

Naturally, the notable ones here are that you get various healing and restoration spells, usually not the purview of a Sorcerer. Otherwise, there's a "radiant/fire" theme, not unlike a Celestial Warlock.

At 3rd level, you get Spellfire Burst. When you expend at least 1 Sorcery Point as a Magic action or bonus action on your turn, you can unleash one of the following effects (max once per turn). Bolstering Flames grants you or a creature you see within 30 feet Temp HP equal to 1d4 + Cha. Radiant Fire forces a creature you can see within 30 feet to make a Dex save or take 1d6 Fire or Radiant damage (your choice).

So, this is nice mainly in that it doesn't expend any more resources than you're already doing: just using Sorcery Points, which Sorcerers do most of the time anyway, will get these little bonus effects. Neither are huge, but they can help.

At 6th level, you get Absorb Spells. In addition to your subclass spells, you also get Counterspell, and if a target fails its saving throw against Counterspell, you regain 1d4 Sorcery Points. A fun little efficiency boost, though it's very, very dependent on how many spellcasters you're fighting.

At 14th level, you get Honed Spellfire, which lets you add your Sorcerer level to the Temp HP from Bolstering Flame (a massive boost) and Radiant Fire is now 3d6, up from 1d6, more or less keeping it relevant at this higher level.

Finally, at 18, you get Crown of Spellfire. As a bonus action, you gain a buff for 1 minute. Once per turn while under this effect, if you are hit by an attack roll, you can spend a number of Hit Dice up to your Charisma modifier, and reduce the damage you take by an mount equal to the roll plus your Sorcerer level. (So, if you spend the max of, say, 5d6 + 18, that's 35.5 on average). Additionally, you gain a Fly speed of 60 feet and can hover. Finally, you gain Spell Avoidance - if you're subjected to a spell or magical effect (notably a Dragon's Breath does not count, as it's not magical) that allows you to save for half damage, you instead take no damage on a success and half on a failure, as long as you're not incapaciated.

You can do this once per long rest, or you can expend 7 Sorcery Points to do it again.

This is actually a pretty cool Ult move, like a Paladin's. The spend-hit-dice feature is probably not the most efficient use of hit dice, but if you're in a really tight spot, this could be a way to avoid or mitigate some truly deadly blast of damage.

I think overall that the Spellfire Sorcerer is probably all right, and definitely letting Sorcerers use their tricksy metamagic on healing spells has some potential for fun. Thematically it's a little dull, though.

Bladesinger:

It feels like this was only just reprinted, but then I guess Tasha's was actually a while ago at this point.

Now, we've seen a lot of versions of this, but I'm going to go through each feature individually to make sure we're catching it all:

At 3rd level, we get Bladesong. As a bonus action, we enter our Bladesong, as long as we aren't wearign armor or using a shield (interesting: no armor whatsoever - this used to allow light armor). The Bladesong lasts 1 minute and ends if you're incapacitated or don armor or a shield, or if you use two hands to make an attack with a weapon. Or you can dismiss it, no action required. You can invoke the Bladesong Int times per long rest.

While active, the Bladesong does the following:

You gain a bonus to your AC equal to your Int modifier and your speed increases by 10 feet.

When you attack with a weapon with which you have proficiency, you can add Intelligence rather than Strength or Dexterity to the attack and damage rolls.

You can add your Intelligence modifier to your Concentration saving throws.

Let's back up: the enormous change here is that you can now use Intelligence to make your weapon attacks. I believe the earlier version allowed you to add Int to your damage rolls, but this will allow you to fully focus on your spellcasting ability and keep full pace on your weapon ability. Essentially, you get the benefits that Bladelock or an Armorer/Battle Smith does.

Also at 3rd level, you get Training in War and Song. You gain proficiency with all Melee Martial Weapons that don't have the Two-Handed or Heavy properties. You can use a Melee weapon you have proficiency with as a spellcasting focus for Wizard spells. You also gain your choice of Acrobatics, Athletics, Performance, or Persuasion.

So! While you won't be able to use a Greatsword or a Halberd, you can easily use a Longsword or a War Pick. That said, you won't be able to get a d10 die, as you still can't go Versatile. Thus, a Rapier is probably one of your best picks still. Or is it? You could also dual-wield d6 weapons, as nothing says you have to keep one hand free (and given that your weapons can be spell foci, you can still cast just fine with them).

With a reasonable +2 to Dex, and then with Mage Armor, you shouldn't have too much trouble pushing your AC up to Heavy Armor levels (with +5 to Int, that's now at 20, and 25 with the Shield spell).

At 6th level, you get Extra Attack. Much as in Tasha's, as well as what the Eldritch Knight and Valor Bard have inherited, the Bladesinger can replace one attack with a Cantrip. I think 99% of Bladesingers should pick up the new True Strike, which will work perfectly for them given that they can use Intelligence for attacks anyway.

At 10th level, you get Song of Defense. As a reaction, when you take damage, you can expend a spell slot and reduce the damage by an amount equal to 5 times the spell slot's level. So, if Shield doesn't do it, you can pick the spell slot to mitigate the ideal amount of damage. I think this is the same as from Tasha's.

At 14th level, you gain Song of Victory. If you cast a spell that has a casting time of one action, you can make an attack with a weapon as a bonus action. Note that this interacts nicely with your Extra Attack - if you cast True Strike and then make a normal attack as your Attack Action, True Strike triggers this and gives you a third attack.

The Bladesinger is a popular and powerful subclass (when I rolled really good stats for my Scribes Wizard I actually considered going this way because I could). I think that this version cuts down on some of the doubling-down that can let their numbers go crazy, but in exchange, the whole thing gets more user friendly. I think my only possible change would be to let a Wizard expend some level of spell slot to get additional uses of Bladesong. Even outside of Bladesong, the subclass has a lot going on, though.

    And there we have it! A whole bunch of subclasses reviewed.

I think my favorite is probably the Oath of the Noble Genie. In terms of flavor, I like the Winter Walker and Scion of the Three best. Most improved has to go to the Purple Dragon Knight (though it's only one of three revisions).

I'll be curious to see what others think of these subclasses, but I think it's a decent crop.