Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Adrez Nesnsid 02-02-05, 02:44 PM	I had some thoughts for modifications that could be made to the "Urban Ranger" ranger variant from "Unearthed Arcana" in order to give it a somewhat more urban feel. I would like to know if you think that they're balanced. Here they are: Class Skills: Add Appraise, Diplomacy, Disable Device, and Open Lock to Class Skills; Retain Knowledge(Dungeoneering) as a class skill. Animal Companion: Replace with a familiar. Wild Empathy: In addition to only adding one half of their urban ranger level to wild empathy checks, an urban ranger takes a -2 penalty to their wild empathy checks (Which does not, however, stack with the penalty to wild empathy checks to affect Magical Beasts), and the ability only functions on animals and magical beasts which are commonly found in urban environments (such as domestic animals and household pests). Trapfinding(Ex): At level 13 an urban ranger gains the trapfinding ability as per the rogue class, except that they are not as proficient as a rogue at the ability, and take a -5 penalty to checks to find traps with a search DC above 20 and a -10 penalty on checks to disarm magical traps. So what do you think, are my modifications balanced??
MikeTheAmazingMuskrat 02-04-05, 08:19 PM	Why the familiar? -mike the amazing muskrat
Xeviat-DM 02-04-05, 10:52 PM	I don't think that rogues should be the only ones who can search for and disable magical traps. It just doesn't seem fair to me. Simply make that a quality of having search and disable device ranks; no one but rogues typically has it and why give other classes less ability with them. Other than that, I really like this. The familiar seems to fit better than the animal companion, for a simple size issue. But familiar's are much different, and a ranger's familiar will be potent indeed (half hp and full BAB).
Adrez Nesnsid 02-24-05, 12:36 PM	I don't think that rogues should be the only ones who can search for and disable magical traps. It just doesn't seem fair to me. Simply make that a quality of having search and disable device ranks; no one but rogues typically has it and why give other classes less ability with them. I don't like that aspect of the rules either, but I was trying to keep the variant otherwise within the game's standard rules. By the way, since you brought the topic up, another option for changing the traps rule to let non-rogues search for well hidden traps, without depriving the rogue class of some of its unique abilities, would be to let anyone be able to find the traps, but require non rogues to make a dexterity check or reflex save to avoid accidentally setting off the traps that they manage to find before they can disarm it (and thus taking damage), or to have non-rogues require double the usual amount of time to find and/or disarm traps. Also, I think that spellcasters who belong to one of the spellcasting classes with a full nine levels of spells, should be able to disarm magical traps just as easily as rogues can.
Xeviat-DM 02-24-05, 02:18 PM	By the way, since you brought the topic up, another option for changing the traps rule to let non-rogues search for well hidden traps, without depriving the rogue class of some of its unique abilities, would be to let anyone be able to find the traps, but require non rogues to make a dexterity check or reflex save to avoid accidentally setting off the traps that they manage to find before they can disarm it (and thus taking damage), or to have non-rogues require double the usual amount of time to find and/or disarm traps. I still don't buy that. Having ranks in search lets you search for complex traps in my game. Otherwise search is considered trained skill, you can only find traps of DC 20 or lower without ranks.
HailSpork 02-24-05, 06:20 PM	You don't mention the advancement rate of the familiar. Rangers get only 1/2 level advancement for animal companion... Personally, I think the link between a familiar and master compared to the connection between a ranger and animal companion make the familiar particularly more powerful, not to mention the other powers a familiar grants. As for the rest of the modifications, you've swapped one companion for another, added four class skills, and added a new ability at level 13. The only downside is a -2 to *some* wild empathy checks. Are you planning on removing any class skills or abilities other than the animal companion? If not, I don't think this is very balanced unless you're buffing other classes as well, or simply trying to encourage the Urban Ranger (in which case it's not balanced, just "fair".)