This article will be up on Tuesday. Here's the place to discuss it.
To Walk on Unseen Paths: Rangers and the Feywild
Rangers who walk the Unseen Path are a peculiar sort. Something of the fey is about them, and they have a bond with the natural world that other rangers do not share. They frequently appear to see or hear what others do not, and they gaze at the world through faintly alien eyes. The Unseen Path seeks harmony between the Feywild and the natural world. Walkers of the Unseen Path often possess additional, instinctive goals that they do not entirely understand.
Oh well. I guess this means I won't be staying up until midnight to get the right formatting tonight, since it's the only article.
It's a pretty cool article, by the way. Plus support for all three current builds (pre-MP2).
Work out the URL, Janx. The link may not be up yet, but the article is there.
On another note, martial power 2 better have more powers in the vein of swooping raptor, i'd hate to have something phrased so confusingly as the only ranged beast power.
Beast rider is the best feat ever, rife with the possibility of awesome characters. You could play a Goblin Swine Rider, call your lizard companion a velociraptor (or scytheclaw drake, if you prefer) and then ride it into battle, or play as the frickin Bear Cavalry! I really hope there's not broken interaction beneath this cover of pure awesome.
On another note, martial power 2 better have more powers in the vein of swooping raptor, i'd hate to have something phrased so confusingly as the only ranged beast power.
The feat opens up a whole new realm of fluff related stuff. Want to be a halfling dinosaur rider? Take this feat and, like you said, call your lizard a velociraptor. Want to play a goblin warg rider, call that wolf a warg! The list goes on. So many options from just one feat.
No offense to the author, but screw the rest of the article, this one feat is what it is all about! I want a pony beast companion now!
Swooping Raptor is also the exact sort of thing we need to see more of, even if it seems that the formating is poor on it and the ability modifier applied to the primary attack is wrong. Definately the sort of power we need more of to give Beast Rangers more meaningful options.
Murderous Aim, Questing Blades and Vengeful Fangs Stance are all solid powers as well.
But does it actually do anything good, mechanically?
Beast companions have no mount bonus for having Mounted Combat (though you better have that feat or they'll get attack penalties).
I suppose you could argue that it's good to use the creature's move instead of yours, but unless it's an aquatic companion with a swim speed, chances are you aren't gaining anything other than (possibly) one square of speed. (The vadalis gryphon grants you flying, but it's large and thus qualifies as a mount even without this feat.) In any case, the companion can normally move when you move, so it's not like this is a major boost to mobility.
Due to sharing a space, you could use an immediate action to make the beast companion make an OA at the same time you make your own OA, but you're probably better off being in two different squares if you want more opportunity attacks.
Sorry, but I can't see taking this, just because it's costing me a feat for the chance to do... very little.
anyone with the mark of handling will get a good speed boost out of riding their mount.
Spider gets you a climb speed.
Beast growth ritual allows you to ride your raptor gaining a fly speed (if you have vistani pathfinding this is free)
Whats the bigges thing I see? Medium sized mount . . . .1 square. It's a mounted build that is immune to the criticism of limited space. Because it takes no more space then usual.
Critical on 18-20 whit your beast companion is a good way to waste crits, exactly as for racial PPs and racial powers. Those criticals in fact do not benefit from any extra damage dice (from enhancement of implement/weapon) and often there are very few feats that qualify for usage in such event.
So, one often looked-for feature is in fact the worst ability this stance offer. I'm glad that the stance also add lot of other small things, otherwise it will be useless. As such, it can be think to be used.
Anyway, I would appreciate a rule crunch for racial powers, racial PP and beast to-hit/critical damage issue, otherwise those features will always start behind the other classes/races.
with bestial mobility feat and beast rider your always going to be adjacent, so you would pretty much negate most forced movement + increase any beneficial movement (such as when bard slides yah).
I guess I can see this, but the former is a benefit of Bestial Mobility rather than Beast Rider. That is to say, I could choose to stand next to my companion at all times and gain that same benefit without riding at all, and still get all the benefits of being two separate entities.
The latter, that's an interesting point -- you can allow forced movement to affect your mount as well as you, so this would work; I'm just not sure how big a benefit that is. I suspect you're still going to be better off fighting separately. I guess that's really my point -- if you're going to make this an option, it has to be fairly attractive. I'm giving up positioning flexibility and the ability to flank with my companion, among other things, and what I gain in return needs to be at least that good.
anyone with the mark of handling will get a good speed boost out of riding their mount.
True. I'm not sure it's worth two feats to get +2 speed, but that's just me.
Spider gets you a climb speed.
And serpent gets you swim speed. I did miss those, probably because I was flipping through the list too quickly. How you ride a serpent, I'm not sure. Perhaps it wraps you up in its coils and drags you along.
Beast growth ritual allows you to ride your raptor gaining a fly speed (if you have vistani pathfinding this is free)
True, though that seems more like an oversight (or accident) than an intentional benefit.
How you ride a serpent, I'm not sure.
Like a skateboard.
How you ride a serpent, I'm not sure.
Like a skateboard.
Ok, it's 2:20 am here in Brazil and I've already heard the awesomest thing of the day.
Also the Viscous Fangs stance lets you crit out your Quarry damage as well with your beast - that is a benefit to boosting its crit chance.