I can't help but feel like arrows make bow-equipped rangers just useless, and I'll explain why.
EDIT: DISCLAIMER
What follows strays significantly from what the ranger class is in D&D, but I feel like for balance's sake, small changes could be made.
Any character with a bow/crossbow can use special projectiles. And the zones they cause when they hit the ground are a) too large (this fire arrow is more like a napalm arrow I swear...) and b) too powerful.
I've tried a ranger playthrough and the special abilities - namely ensnaring strike and hail of thorns - just can't compare. Any idiot with a bow and an ice arrow will be better at crowd control than a ranger with ensnaring strike, and any acid/fire arrow has both a larger AOE and higher damage output than Hail of thorns. So really, why even bother making a ranger?
I'm exaggerating a bit, but I wish the special abilities from the ranger class were better, or at least provide some sort of an edge over people who don't have that class. I have ideas:
A) Give rangers the innate ability to "improve arrows" (tinkering check) players find in the world. Either the damage of the arrow is increased (from a D4 to a d6) or its effect changes (from single target to AOE, from direct damage to DOT...)
B) characters that aren't rangers can still use the base effect of the arrow. Maybe sometimes, rarely, they find an already modified arrow they get to use.
C) any character attempting to modify an arrow makes a tinkering check with a higher DC than the ranger (and has to find the recipe for a specific arrow effect beforehand as opposed to innate knowledge for rangers)
D) make the arrows scale better with rangers than other classes: cumulating AOE/DOT for example (so basically what fire arrow already does as is in current version of the game)
E) A failed tinkering check can break the arrow and make it useless. On a nat-1, can explode in player's face.
Last edited by Corren; 22/10/20 10:20 AM.
