That’s a solid point, and I’d be a bit surprised if it didn’t get patched in whatever final release the Revised Ranger sees. They’re otherwise pretty aggressive in making sure that characters can ignore type-based damage resistances and immunities, if they don’t use conventional weapons. (Conventional weapon-wielders have a harder road, and actually DO need magic weapons to stay involved.)

As with anything like this, you can put forth whatever rationale you want for it, but the DM an always say “You’re full of crap and you’re just trying to justify it” and say no.

Like my DM back in 3E had to do when our Paladin of Freedom CHA Psion had his thralls carry his magic items and kill his opponents so he could maintain his Vow of Poverty and his Vow of Peace.

Read that whole paragraph again, just in case you missed how insane it was.

Hunter’s Mark is a bonus action.

Do you really encounter enough beasts in a common game day that limiting it to 1-3 uses per short or per long rest (let’s assume most rangers weigh in between 12 and 16 Wis for most of their careers) is significantly DIFFERENT from always-on? I totally acknowledge that this might be a thing and our campaigns are dissimilar – that’s why I’m asking.

You can change Natural Explorer’s initiative advantage to work only in natural environments, but there’s no question that that ISN’T what’s in the rule-as-written. I will say, though, that advantage on initiative checks is a standard racial ability in my homebrewed setting, and it is just not that dominating. It’s good, and it matters more for rogues and the revised ranger than other classes, but it’s not a guarantee of anything and its value is basically zero after the first round of engagement.

I can see the DM being concerned about the power boost that was given to Primeval Awareness, and the overly broad FE category of all humanoids. It really does become the one true choice at 3rd. I like the option presented below of grouping them. One thing to remember about applying that advantage to saves to the lower tier of FE is that suddenly the ranger can have advantage to all saves by human/elf/etc wizards. That’s just crazy.

The things I’m thinking he would looked crossways at are the advantage on initiative, broad application of FE categories, and cheap and easy Primeval Awareness.

Primeval Awareness can easily be brought down a notch by limiting it to Wis Mod per long (or short) rest.

I’ll propose the below-listed favored enemy categories. As for the advantage on initiative, we are assuming this is only in natural settings, right?

For a 14th level character, I put together a Arcane Trickster 6, Deep Stalker 8 character, on variant human with crossbow expert and sharpshooter. This allows 4 attacks in first round, then 2-3 in subsequent rounds (depending on bonus action use). Expertise in Stealth, Perception, Investigation, and Deception. As this is based off the charlatan background, there is some RP use with impersonations and false identities. Going for a bounty hunter concept. humanoids as first FE, aberrations at second to fit the deep stalker theme (advantage for saves against flayers and beholders? Yes please.

Natural Explorer is a little crazy pants. The Half-sassin parts of the feature feel off, given the rest of the skill. There is room for it, sure, but that just feels like the wrong place, to me. I understand the desire to give some cohesion to the upper portion of the class features, like HiPS and Vanish by implementing some more rogue-ish features, but some more thought is needed here, in my opinion.

There is no doubt Primeval Awareness is better, but it needs to be reconsidered a bit. First, I love the first portion of it. (I would have liked to see this rolled in with the whole plants thing that used to exist with Land’s Stride had going on, but I don’t really care that much. I just like using plants and magical plants as terrain. I can live.) The limitation to favored enemies is fine, I guess. I am glad it no longer requires spell slot use, but having it be an unlimited thing is sorta nuts. It provides so much information now, for no cost other than one minute. Even though the range issues I wrote about still apply (5 isn’t much better than 6), the specific information is a lot better. The Drive Me Crazy potential is very high. It needs some consideration.

Likewise, I am sad not to see an expansion of fighting styles, but I didn’t expect it. Fleet of Foot is cool, and it’s good to see some emphasis on ranger movement, but I think this should have been disengage. Part of the ranger legacy is swapping between ranged and melee (part of my issue with Hunter Conclave in general). It also further competes as a bonus action with some of the best and most used ranger spells. Two Weapon Fighting takes a beating once you get to this stage, even more so than the very significant one it faces before. I keep getting told I am wrong, so take that as you will 🙂

I don’t like what they did with Favored Enemy and Greater Favored Enemy. Remember when more classes got dice to do stuff with as a resource? I sure do. I don’t like the flat bonuses here, especially without limitation. The advantages on spells and abilities for greater enemies is a neat idea, but honestly I’d like to see that reconsidered into something more active, like a reaction.

This is long, so I will end on Hunter Conclave. I am sad it was not overhauled. The entire thing is still based on weapon choice as your limiter. I mean it’s not explicitly, but it totally is.

I have a completely different set of assumptions about the antagonists PCs face at high levels, as the article makes clear.