Evil Ranger Kit
KidCarnival
Member Posts: 3,747
I mostly play evil and found it very refreshing that the Blackguard kit opened the paladin class, which never appealed due to the alignment restriction, to my options. Now, I'm also interested in a evil-only ranger kit and if anyone thinks it's a good idea to have an evil ranger kit.
For a name, since the other ranger kit names aren't too flashy, I'd go with "Loner" - a woodsman who was not born with a deep connection to nature, but found to it later in life. Loners often suffered a loss or failure in their city life and withdrew from society to the solitude of the woods. They are bitter and generally dislike the company of people and learned the ways of nature to avoid them - so I guess stealth bonus - and more defend their chosen solitude than nature - ranged weapon bonus, maybe minor backstab multiplier since they try to kill intruders without making contact - the classic "shoot first, ask questions later" behavior.
For the "slightly weird, unsocial woodsman" flair, I'd give the kit a bonus for axes instead of dual wielding or - not sure if it's possible - the ability to backstab with an axe (a bit slasher movie-like). They aren't as much in touch with nature as regular rangers, they are just in the woods because no-one else is there. So they don't understand animals either - instead of Charm Animal, they'd get the ability "Enrage Animal" (which makes the target go berzerk and attack friend and foe alike).
For a name, since the other ranger kit names aren't too flashy, I'd go with "Loner" - a woodsman who was not born with a deep connection to nature, but found to it later in life. Loners often suffered a loss or failure in their city life and withdrew from society to the solitude of the woods. They are bitter and generally dislike the company of people and learned the ways of nature to avoid them - so I guess stealth bonus - and more defend their chosen solitude than nature - ranged weapon bonus, maybe minor backstab multiplier since they try to kill intruders without making contact - the classic "shoot first, ask questions later" behavior.
For the "slightly weird, unsocial woodsman" flair, I'd give the kit a bonus for axes instead of dual wielding or - not sure if it's possible - the ability to backstab with an axe (a bit slasher movie-like). They aren't as much in touch with nature as regular rangers, they are just in the woods because no-one else is there. So they don't understand animals either - instead of Charm Animal, they'd get the ability "Enrage Animal" (which makes the target go berzerk and attack friend and foe alike).
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Comments
I like the Stalker-like nature of having a backstab. This kit could be something like a mix of Ranger/Thief - some Thief perks like traps and smaller backstab, but no lock picking or pickpocket. Or something like a Ranger/Assasin - poison and traps. Come on, it's an Evil woodsman, isn't he?
Cons could include a - to Charisma (solitary evil woodsman), no Charm Animal, maybe lower armor options, only Thief weapon selection or no casting option. (Some of these, not all of them)
I'd play the crap out of this kit.
...I actually used to go Stalker in BGTutu and Shadowkeeper-change his alignment to Evil.
Bonus to hit animals and humaoids
Later levels can be infected with Lycanthropy but in a cursed way unlike the Shapeshifter where it is controlled. Immune to everything a greater werewolf is immune to while turned. Quarter of that while not.
That said, does anyone know of a PnP kit that did allow for evil rangers, or was that totally avoided in 2E? The Disciple of Malar sounds promising, if that was a thing.
Like I said, it's not necessarily fair or rational, and I don't want to discourage anyone from going their own path if they have a specific kit/class that has no PnP equivalent. And I'm not a PnP purist, either -- if a kit needs to be viciously modified in order to fit into the Infinity Engine (e.g. Beastmaster), that's fine, too. But having some sort of existing D&D content as a baseline is nice, if only so that it feels like it's something that could have been official, if Bioware/Overhaul had unlimited time and resources.
A cursory googling is showing me that most of the AD&D kits assumed the same alignment restrictions as standard ranger, though, so this might all be moot. Regardless, I like the OP's idea, and I think having an evil ranger -- either through a new kit or through easing the restrictions on Stalker, for instance -- could be fun.
And for name? Black Blood. After malars organization... maybe could go with Bloodmaster, the title of a chief. Alignment for People of the Black Blood is ne, ce and n. Could include cn methinks, but no lawfuls or goods.
Would be different from anything around now. Kinda been tossin this around awhile.
Edit, there is a Black Blood prestige class in 3.5, but malar is oldschool. And hates elves.
I believe the "rangers can only be good" idea comes from the inspirational source of the ranger class for D&D (you can easily find google sources). Actually, just looking it up, third edition removes alignment rules for rangers. Can anyone confirm this? It could be changed then, since a lot of BG has 3rd edition material...
Like a Specops warrior specialized into traps and poisons + some backstab perhaps. Like Head Hunter. (Can't say assassin, cause we already have one. Can't say Bounty Hunter, because we have that as well. Yes...those overlap a bit...)
Avenging Executioner
dndtools.eu/classes/avenging-executioner/
We are trying to flesh it out a bit, check it out and provide some feedback!
But the one thing I think should go is the Fallen Ranger state...
Fallen Paladins make sense, but I don't really see why Fallen Ranger would be a thing...
I don't mind if a kit within a class is alignment-restricted (i.e. necromancer), but the entire class, I do mind. Druids are the one exception, balance and neutrality is the whole point of them. But then, they are also in the very middle, not the 'extreme' of good or evil, hence less issues with mixed parties and rp options to lean into either direction.
There are only 2 kits now that are restricted to evil - blackguard and necromancer. Everything else can at least be neutral. On the other hand, the entire paladin class was restricted to good (and now it's still only one kit as exception) and ranger still is. Throw the evil players a bone and let them make use of all classes, even if it's just one kit.
Edit:
How embarrassing... I've completely forgotten about the new Dark Moon Monk kit, which is restricted to Lawful Evil only. My bad, there are indeed only 2 kits that are restricted to evil.