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NWNThayPW / ThayPublicSuggestions

Public suggestion repo for the NWN:EE server Thay and the Underdark
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A Few Ranger Suggestions #30

Open Aicasarto opened 1 year ago

Aicasarto commented 1 year ago

  1. In NWN, Rangers summon their animal companion at level 6. By 3.5 rules though, this should actually be at level 4. https://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/ranger.htm#tableTheRanger

  2. It seems a little strange that despite being a divine caster, Ranger levels do not count towards clergy ranks in a temple faction. In fact they are the only divine caster who suffers from this exception, even though their source of their spells is from nature, just like a druid's. Letting Ranger levels count towards clergy ranks in a Temple faction would open up roleplay options for people who want to make a Ranger who is more religious. A member of the temple of Shaundakul or Helm, for example, might find that guiding travelers through the wilderness would serve their god's interests the best, or an evil Ranger who is a clergy member of Malar's temple shows how brutal the cruelty of nature can be. Just some thoughts for now.

NecromancingtheStone commented 1 year ago

Totally agree. Some classes are "Situational Clergy." In other words, They CAN be if they are role played that way. A Ranger that joins the Tyraturos Legion for example is not a member of the clergy even though they have a deity declared. But, a Ranger that joins a temple, is certainly role playing a clergy Ranger and should be treated as such. Paladin is to Cleric as Ranger is to Druid.

WilliamDraco commented 1 year ago

I will pass on the level of animal companion.

Regarding rangers-as-clergy, this was raised some time ago and is unlikely to be changed. The acceptance of Paladin/Blackguard as clergy is already begrudging. Allowing for only specific temples was also raised but the system is currently not granular enough to achieve this.

flightlessavian commented 1 year ago

This is slightly tangential but I agree with you both... the thing that would solve this problem would be allowing more than one faction, either overall ,or in certain circumstances (such as these).

I'd rather like to see paladins/blackguards/rangers as lay members of temples, rather than ascending the temple hierarchy, the issue is that this is rather limiting to the player if such is the ONLY faction they can join.

So, Say, Doran, the Iron Throne bigwig who happens to be a devout Cyricist could also have a (lower perhaps) role in the actual church of Cyric - it's both setting appropriate and in fact something people do IRL. Maybe the way to do it is allowing to branch when you reach a certain rank, say, full member/legion captain/ordained priest

NecromancingtheStone commented 1 year ago

I like that idea. But I will say that this is from the OneNote:

"6. Rangers at level 6+ must select a patron deity and meet Clergy Alignment requirements for that god for since their divine abilities (spells, certain feats, etc) are provided by their chosen god."

It seems we are treating rangers as clergy only in restrictive ways, not in the role play conducive ways, which doesn't make sense to me.

Though, and you'll have to tell me: I have no idea if it's possible to not consider them clergy until class level 6 in a faction.

Ed1nSm commented 1 year ago

Regarding rangers-as-clergy, this was raised some time ago and is unlikely to be changed. The acceptance of Paladin/Blackguard as clergy is already begrudging. Allowing for only specific temples was also raised but the system is currently not granular enough to achieve this.

I remember back when we were designing this like a million years ago and I told Balanor (who was just named Thayan back then) to allow Paladins/Blackguards as clergy for certain temples because I thought it'd add to the variety and for a bunch of other reasons I won't get into.

I actually have a very different take on it today, but I imagine it'd be even less popular, because my current take is actually that the idea of "clergy" as a social role and the idea of someone channelling divine energy (eg. a Cleric or a Druid or a Ranger) should be entirely disassociated from each other. Fulfilling the social functions of a priest (eg. officiating ceremonies, preaching, lending morale support to believers, reproducing social norms) does not actually require your deity to grant you any sort of divine powers.

Basically, I'd honestly just remove the requirement of having caster levels. But, again, I see how this would probably be an unpopular idea if having Paladins and Blackguards as clergy is bedgrudging.