Pathfinder a Bite at a Time: Ranger and Rogue
Monday, September 14, 2009 at 07:24PM Bonjour et bienvenue to this examination of Paizo's Pathfinder. Allow me to be your guide to this latest edition of Dungeons and Dragons, a bite at a time.
Today we're talking about the Ranger and the Rogue.
The Ranger
Still the masters of the hunt, Pathfinder rangers boast favored enemies (making them positively deadly versus these critters), a choice of combat styles (archery or two-weapon combat), endurance, track, wild empathy, hide in plain sight, camouflage, D10 hit dice, 4+int skill points, and martial weapon proficiencies coupled with light and medium armor, and shields.
Pathfinder rangers are strengthened even further with new and broad favored terrains, chosen every five levels starting with third. When adventuring in his favored terrain he gains climbing bonuses to initiative and a selection of hunt related skills. While I think many and most Pathfinder rangers will choose forest or underground tarrins (depending on campaign), this new ability is welcome as it offers additional power and customization options—your favored enemy and terrain combined are more than enough to build hundreds of cool character concepts. I like it.
Harsk, as harsh as his name, I think.
Here's where things get a bit less rosy in my eyes. Let me know what you think.
The Hunter's Bond ability (earned at 4th level alongside your first ranger spells) takes the place of the previous animal companion. You still have that option, thankfully (have I mentioned before that I love mounts, familiars, companions, and followers? Well, I do), but you can also choose to form a close bond with your hunting companions (the rest of the party).
This allows you to grant, with a move action, half of your favored enemy bonuses to nearby allies for a number of rounds. Blech. Undoubetdly useful and powerful, this ability not only feels very much "just because" to me (like a 4E power), it actually makes the ranger less interesting as a character choice. It's boring and, maybe I'm crazy, but it drags me right out of the mutual storytelling environment I prefer in my games by busting down that fourth wall as it's poorly described. it just is, and that's not enough for me.
The ranger's quarry ability is even worse. Starting at 11th level the ranger can make one target within line of sight his quarry. To him, the quarry is very easy to track and kill. At 19th level the ability improves in every way mechanically. Again, it's a powerful, useful ability that does nothing to keep me interested in the class. Is it magical? Why is it limited to one quarry at a time? Why does the ranger have to wait an hour to choose a new quarry once his is dead? The answer is balance, of course, but that's an unsatisfying reason for anything, and I'm certain I can come up with something just as powerful but more unique and interesting for this class at those levels. Stay tuned and I'll share what I come up with.
But that's enough Ranger, let's get to the rogue.
The Rogue
Pathfinder rogues are as versatile and interesting as ever before. Sneak attacks, tons of skills points, trapfinding, evasion, trap senses, and an array of light armors and weapons great for ending lives in a hurry or with a flourish.
So many blades. I love it.Better, rogues now gain those seldom-seen rogue talents starting as early as second level and continuing every second level thereafter. Joy! The talents themselves have been expanded to include some interesting choices (22 in all), and before I go on I'd like to highlight three of my favorites.
- Bleeding Attack: On a successful sneak attack your victim bleeds for a point of damage per sneak attack die every round thereafter until he's healed or dead (and let's face it, in most fights it's going to be the latter)
- Minor and Major Magic: The first is a gateway talent that allows you to choose a cantrip to cast three times daily. The second allows you to cast a 1st-level spell twice daily. An interesting pair of talents that leads to even greater power over magic (and those who practice it) that truly paints the rogue in the role of an adventurer who lives by her wits.
- Fast Stealth: Use stealth at your full movement rate. Awesome, undeniably useful, and exactly what a rogue with enough training should be able to do.
Unfortunately, my biggest beef with the rogue also lies within her talents. The combat trick and feat talents respectively allow you to choose a feat from the fighter's bonus list or any feat you qualify, cheapening the fighter's primary class feature while adding nothing to the rogue. Again, I'm certain a bit of work would yield 2-4 excellent rogue talents to round out this list without resorting to this rather uninspired choice.
A small complaint for an otherwise excellent class (and naturally there's nothing stopping me from choosing the talents that I prefer). The Pathfinder rogue benefits from greater customization options at lower levels alongside an improved hit die (d8). My mind is awash with the possibilities of rogue characters, and I'm rather pleased with the rogue overall.
800 Words so Far? Far Too Long!
My apologies, but apparently I have more to say when complaining then when praising. Leave a comment if you want to discuss something, don't forget to check out my other bites into Pathfinder, and thanks much for stopping by.
Sorceror (!) and Wizard tomorrow. Good gaming.
Pathfinder, Ranger, Review, Rogue in Pathfinder 
Reader Comments (5)
Excellent post!
Here in Brazil, my party plans to buy the Pathfinder, and see what the the players likes or not, It's very important.
Cya!
P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
No apologies necessary, Valchrist! I understand you just fine, and I'm always pleased to welcome an international visitor to U20. So, welcome to U20! I trust you'll really enjoy Pathfinder, and good gaming.
Hey! Here to give my 2 cents, as requested:) You know, a way you can spice up Hunters Bond if the Ranger chooses the option to enhance the party is for them to role play it out. Instead of just saying "Players get this much to attack bonus," make the player say things that flesh out the combat.. Even making it up. "Go for the chest! Its chest is a weak spot!"
Absolutely, Wrath. My issue with Hunter's Bond and similar powers, particularly powers from 4E, is that they seem to discourage this kind of thing. Not actively, of course, but the results are often the same—you get a lot of players saying "I use thorn whip/hunter's bond/rain of blades/tide of iron," then minis are moved and some numbers are spoken. It's never as engrossing as it could be.
Minor complaints, really, and easily addressed with comments like yours. Thanks!
Good to see the Rouge up here, and a d8 now, excellent!! Not sure i mind the "chose and ability from the fighters list" as much as you Ike, but i can see how it would cheapen the fighter experience a bit. But then again, wouldn't some of the magic related talents cheapen the abilities of a low level sorer/wizard??
22 possible special skills sounds nice, and again, i like that they have made them excessable at a lower level (I never did get to try the defensive roll move), so that's great.
With all it's awsomness, i'm amazed they even left the bard in the mix. I mean, i don't see the point of the bard, when you could be a rouge and do sneak attack damage instead??
But maybe that's just me.