U58 Preview 2: Dark Hunter Ranger Archetype

[Steelstar]

Dark Hunter is a new Ranger Archetype with themes of Assassination, sneaking, hunting, trapmaking, scavenging, and throwing weapons.

Changes from last preview are listed in Blue! KNOWN ISSUE: Not all of the changes listed in blue are functional in this Preview, but are functional internally.

Feats and Features This Archetype Gets (that base Ranger does not):

• Trapfinding (1)
• Trap Making (3)
• Trap Sense +1 (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18) (same as rogue and barbarian)
• Sneak Attack 1d6 (1, 5, 10, 15, 20) (every 5 levels instead of every 2, means they get half of the sneak attack dice as Rogue does, 5d6 instead of 10d6)
• Medium Armor Proficiency (1)

Feats and Features This Archetype DOES NOT Get (that base Ranger does):

• All Favored Enemy feats that are not: Vermin, Elf, Aberration, Animal, Humanoid, Monstrous Humanoid
• Evasion

Spellbook:
While Base Ranger has Cure spells, Dark Hunter does not - Instead, they get Curative Admixture spells. Otherwise, their spellbook resembles the Ranger one.


Skills:
Dark Hunters get Open Lock and Disable Device as Class Skills, and otherwise have the same Class Skills as Base Rangers.

Past Life:
Dark Hunter: +1 Sneak Attack and +1 Sneak Attack Damage per stack of this Past Life.

Enhancement Trees:
This archetype gets the new Dark Hunter tree in place of Arcane Archer! It retains the Tempest and Deepwood Stalker Trees.

• (It's worth noting that if you have another source of the Arcane Archer, such as the Elven version, you may use that tree with the Dark Hunter Archetype).

Dark Hunter Enhancement Tree:

• Core 1: Underdark Stalker: You gain +5 HP and +1 reflex saving throw per core ability you take in this tree.
• Core 3: Smoke Trap: Throw a smoke grenade at a target, if they fail a fortitude save (DC20 + Dex Mod + Assassinate + Trap DCs) they lose their immunity to sneak attack and 25% of their fortification for 25 seconds. (Cooldown: 12 seconds)
• Core 6: Underdark Defenses: While wearing Medium Armor, gain Exceptional bonus to Armor Class +10% and you take 50% trap damage.
• Core 12: Escape Through the Dark: Whenever you become Invisible, your Sneak Attack Dice are briefly doubled. This lingers for 5 seconds after you become Invisible and may only trigger once every 60 seconds.
• Core 18: Death Stalker: +25% Sneak Speed. While you are sneaking, you gain a 5% enhancement damage bonus to your melee, ranged and unarmed attacks. This lingers for 10 seconds after you leave Stealth. (note: this does not stack with the Relentless Fury item affix)
• Core 20: Hunter in the Dark: +2 Dex, Int, and Wis. +10% Doublestrike and Doubleshot. +10 Melee and Ranged Power. Your Cull the Weak bonus now applies against enemies that are Blind.

Tier 1:

• Dark Wolf: You gain a Black Wolf as an Animal Companion. Each rank also gives you +5 HP.
• Wolf Hide: (req Dark Wolf) +2/4/6 PRR
• Sneak Attack Training: +1 Sneak Attack die and +1 to hit when performing sneak attacks
• Bleed the Weak: Imbue Toggle: 1d8 Bleed damage, scaling with Melee Power. Increases to 1d10 vs enemies below 50%, and increases again to 1d12 against enemies below 25%. While toggled on, your Dark Wolf also uses this Imbue using the same number of Imbue Dice you have.
• Awareness: +1/2/3 Listen, Search, Spot, and to-hit.

Tier 2:

• Furor of the Hunter: Your Black Wolf gains +3/6/10 to hit and damage, +2/4/6 Primal Bonus to AC, and its attacks bypass 10%/20%/50% of enemy Fortification.
• Assassin's Training: +1/2/3 Assassinate DCs.
• Sneak Attack Training: +1 Sneak Attack die and +1 to hit when performing sneak attacks
• Improved Traps: +1/2/3 to the save DC's of Alchemical Trap Attacks and Magical Traps. Elemental Traps that you place now have a DC equal to 65/80/100% of your Disable Device Skill instead of 50%. (copied from Mechanic)
• Action Boost: Skills or Sprint

Tier 3:

• Primal Energy: Your Black Wolf gains a +2/+4/+6 Primal Bonus to all Ability Scores. You gain +1/2/3 Imbue Dice.
• Snap Trap: Toss a snapping trap at the targeted enemy. If they don't make a Fortitude Save (DC 20 + Dex Mod + Assassinate + Bonus Trap DCs) they are rooted in place by the trap's jaws.
• Sneak Attack Training: +1 Sneak Attack die and +1 to hit when performing sneak attacks
• Use Magical Device: +1/2/3 Use Magic Device
• Ability Score: Multiselector: +1 Dex / Int / Wis

Tier 4:

• Lupine Instincts: Your Black Wolf inherits your Search and Spot scores, and will automatically find traps and secret doors for you assuming you meet the statistical threshold.
• Slayer in the Dark: Killing an enemy grants you a +5 Morale bonus to Melee and Ranged Power, stacking 2/3/4 times. Duration: 20s
• Sneak Attack Training: +1 Sneak Attack die and +1 to hit when performing sneak attacks
• Smoke Bomb: Smoke Bomb SLA
• Ability Score: Multiselector: +1 Dex / Int / Wis

Tier 5:

• Ferocity: You gain +10% Doublestrike and Doubleshot. Your Black Wolf gains 25% Attack Speed and 100% Fortification Bypass.
• Stone's Hue: Your Camouflage spell also grants the target +1 PRR per 2 caster levels, max caster level 20.
• Death Attack: Stealth Melee Assassinate Attack: On Sneak Attack: Attempt to Assassinate a foe before you. If it is an enemy type that a Dark Hunter could have as a Favored Enemy (Vermin, Elves, Aberrations, Animals, Humanoids, and Monstrous Humanoids) then you attempt to snuff out its life, killing it instantly unless it makes a Fortitude save vs Death (DC 10 + Ranger Level + highest of Dex, Int, or Wis Mod + Assassinate bonuses). If it is a different enemy type, or it makes its Fortitude save, you instead mortally wound it, lowering its Physical and Magical Resistance rating by 10 and dealing an extra 1d20 Bleed damage per character level.
• Blade Specialization: You gain a +1 Competence bonus to Critical Damage Multiplier with your weapons.
• Dark Sight: You have True Seeing and +25% Competence bonus to HP. You may also toggle this on to gain Underdark Sight while within the Underdark.

Known Issues:

• Several icons have not been finalized.
• All visual effects have not been finalized.
• Several changes (of those listed in blue) have not been propegated to Lamannia but are working internally.

[rabidfox]

While toggled on, your Dark Wolf also uses this Imbue.

Does it use the player's number of imbue dice for it? Or do their # of dice get handled differently?

[Rehmlah]

While toggled on, your Dark Wolf also uses this Imbue.

Awesome! I've been wanting a way for pets to get imbues. I like this.

Also, the change to take half damage from traps in medium armor is an interesting way to differentiate it from rogue. That kinda seems like what Artificer was trying to do in promoting heavy armor.

[Steelstar]

Does it use the player's number of imbue dice for it? Or do their # of dice get handled differently?

Yes, it uses the player's number of imbue dice. I'll go edit that into the main post.

[droid327]

The tree just offers +1 crit mult now? That puts it at a lower value than other trees that usually give +1/+1 or +2...and basically handcuffs you to either 21 DWS for the +1 Range core, or something like Swash that gives Range in a non-T5 enhancement

I think it might be cool to swap the Crit Mult T5 with the Core 6 Med Armor bonus. That lets you choose whether to pay the AP and go Med armor, or stay Light with, say, a Rogue splash (since that's an obvious synergy with the playstyle). That also aligns +1 Crit Mult at the same place its found in Kensei, which makes /6 DH an alternative to /6 Fighter for builds that leverage that bonus. Particularly since, like Kensei, the tree is largely passive bonuses, so it would make a good tree to pair with another tree that defines more of your active playstyle. And it would let multiclass DHs get their Crit Range from another tree's T5s, which will make DH more compatible with multiclassing.

The one remaining issue I see, though, is that DH comes paired with Tempest and DWS....but only DWS offers crit range...so if you want to be a Tempest/DH, you're still handcuffed to 21 DWS (or 21 VKF), which is really limiting - especially since it basically precludes a WIS based pure DH with Falconry.

[Zeklijan]

Edit: Ah well, no evasion is kind of a bummer.

[Scrag]

Edit: Ah well, no evasion is kind of a bummer.

12 rogue/6 ranger seems pretty common, and you wouldn't fee the pain of not picking up more levels due to the evasion loss.

[QuantumFX]

Edit: Ah well, no evasion is kind of a bummer.

Evasion is for people who don't know how to trap.

[Mamalian]

This sucks. This went from "interesting" to "F this, 18-20 on a box" and done.

Hot garbage.

[WiseFreelancer]

So played around a bit and have some thoughts:

-BIG RANT: it is not fair that Ranger has to spend 21 AP in a second tree just to get 1 crit range and 1 crit mult. It was never fair, but at least Tempest had other BIG bonuses to offset that. Even lackluster trees like Ninja Spy do better than this. The tree should offer Crit range up-front. Either Blade Specialisation should have it baked in as well (like LOTS of trees) OR put it at Core 5 or the capstone for those who at least stay pure.

-It wasn't clear what the Tier 5 crit was supposed to be doing in Round 1, but whatever there is straight-up nerf here. Tempest will off so much more in personal dps, especially in content where your dog is dead 99% of the time. Something needs a boost at the top of tree (or capstone) on that front.

-Losing evasion is thematically weird but a reasonable and genuine trade-off. The medium armor trap mitigation is kind of cool.

-The favoured enemies list seems too narrow to me (and at 6 choices, leaves little real choice for 20 levels). I'd add in the other core humanoids (Dwarf, Halfling, Warforged) and maybe goblinoids and/or repitilian. That still excludes lots of valuable options (outsiders, undead, dragons) while keeping a slightly gritty hunt humanoid enemies vibe.

-Core changes are an improvement. Still could use SA dice somewhere in the tree?

-Imbue change on wolf sounds promising, as does 3 imbue dice in the tree. As ranger has no other dice it encourages multiclassing a lot, but then most imbues do.

-BUG: I didn't appear to get any imbue damage when testing with either a bow or two (flameblade) scimitars. The wolf wasn't causing any imbue damage either.

-Smoke bomb doesn't retain displacement after invis is broken. I didn't realise that before, and makes the displacement part less exciting.

-Tier 5 options are both too expensive and too weak. Some at least could be 1 AP (surely the wolf one, given its heavy pre-reqs)? Without some improvement I fear this tree will rarely be picked, especially over Tempest.

-The new assassinate is kind of cool, thematically appropriate, and doesn't step on Rogues as much as people feared (complained). Totally reasonable. But I think it could be buffed a little either by expanding the list of dark hunter FEs a little (as above) OR to kill any of your actual FEs, so enhancements boost it. No one is going to take 41 Horizon Walker (all bows) and Tier 5 (mostly melee) here, so there's very limited room for abuse.

-25% HP bonus was missing and now added, glad to see and absolutely essential.

-Tree struggles a little with defensive options? There's a whopping 6 PRR in the bottom and then 10 tacked on to a Tier 5 spell. No MRR. Yes, going Medium helps, but still?

-Tree doesn't synergise well with other ranger trees. Medium armour conflicts with DWS and Tempest, no evasion makes Tempest Tier 5 obsolete, etc. Not quite sure how to help that.

[Assassination]

Well the losing evasion part is not great. Not sure I understand a "more" stealthy ranger wearing heavier armor, but whatever. Not sure how or why a tempest would spend any points in this tree... Tempest tree is not fabulous, dws tree is not great, this tree is just mostly useless. If tempests weren't forced to go 21 deep into the dws tree to get a +1 to crit range, then maybe. Maybe core 4 of tempest should have the +1 to range as well as multi... I don't know. Disappointed.

[Aelonwy]

Forgive me, I didn't have time to get on last Lammania, but is the "Your Cull the Weak bonus now applies against enemies that are Blind." in the capstone referencing "Bleed the Weak" from Tier1 or some other ability? What in the tree blinds enemies in order for the capstone to be used?

[WiseFreelancer]

Forgive me, I didn't have time to get on last Lammania, but is the "Your Cull the Weak bonus now applies against enemies that are Blind." in the capstone referencing "Bleed the Weak" from Tier1 or some other ability? What in the tree blinds enemies in order for the capstone to be used?

Oh this is the other good point. Still no blind anywhere in the tree. So that part of the capstone is going to be useless unless you very much build around it elsewhere (i.e. EDs and items???).

[Scrag]

Oh this is the other good point. Still no blind anywhere in the tree. So that part of the capstone is going to be useless unless you very much build around it elsewhere (i.e. EDs and items???).

This blind part is really what is driving my planned char (thanks build helpers!) to run DH with zero DH enhancements... Kinda weird that I will be going falconry/dws/hw and nothing at all from this enhancement tree, but there you have it!

[dkyle]

The 25% HP is important to have, but it shouldn't be available to a ranged build, without any sacrifice. I suggested last time that the tier 5 doublestrike and doubleshot be split into multiselectors, with the HP only with the former. I think that makes more sense.

Not sure why evasion has to go. Just let people choose between using it vs medium armor. There are positives and negatives to each.

[CeltEireson]

12 rogue/6 ranger seems pretty common, and you wouldn't fee the pain of not picking up more levels due to the evasion loss.

Plus you can get evasion via tabaxi, monk or Shadowdancer in epic levels though that's a lil late to be getting it.

[WiseFreelancer]

The 25% HP is important to have, but it shouldn't be available to a ranged build, without any sacrifice. I suggested last time that the tier 5 doublestrike and doubleshot be split into multiselectors, with the HP only with the former. I think that makes more sense.

Not sure why evasion has to go. Just let people choose between using it vs medium armor. There are positives and negatives to each.

What pure ranged build is going to take this tree now though? With the assassinate being melee, Tier 5 for 25% HP is quite a steep cost vs (say) Horizon Walker Tier 5 or AA Tier 5?

[Karters]

This sucks. This went from "interesting" to "F this, 18-20 on a box" and done.

Hot garbage.

Completely agree, me and another guildie were planning some builds on this and now both of us are why bother.
Losing evasion is a hit, can work it in with tabaxi but rather not use the AP. Losing the crit range is the deal breaking to me, I wanted to bring back a TWF rapier build. Ranged assassination sounded really fun and now its FE only so no point in even taking it or building DC into the build for me.

Only thing this lets you do is now play a pure ranger to get traps and never use the tree instead of a ranger/rog split

[Xgya]

Would it be possible to have the wolf gain whatever imbue you're using instead of that specific one?

Or just give the wolf the imbue with however many dice you have, whether you have it active or not?

That way you can fetch another imbue elsewhere, but the wolf always gets its bleeds and still somewhat scales alongside you.

[Assassination]

Guess what is most perplexing to me is that the devs like to create interesting, impactful, fun trees when it comes to casters but melee's get this sort of "mess". As this tree stands, no one will use it... PERIOD...Why can't melee's be given something useful??? Tempest rangers are about at the bottom of the dps scale. You have casters waltzing into and blowing up dungeons between dance steps. Oh well.