Ranger - Northern Guardian (Patreon)

The northern guardian is a bastion of the arctic reaches. As a master of the frigid cold, these rangers command the magic of the north.

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I really liked making this subclass a lot. The ranger gets a lot of hate for its starting kit and relative lack of combat ability, but I've always loved the explorative and stealthy flavor of this class. Rangers also have a lot of untapped territory (pun intended?) in that there are so many locations to base a ranger subclass on. The arctic is one such location (and I have so many aspirations for space rangers).

Rangers, being half-caster martial classes, have pretty aligned subclass design. Their 3rd level is an offense feature (usually with a +1d6 on hit), their 7th level is a defense, their 11th level (coinciding with the power spike) is high offense, and their 15th level is a defensive one. Aside from fulfilling these niches, the Northern Guardian builds on an environment-control design where they benefit from being on ice, then gain features that let them create the ice to keep benefitting anywhere they go. They are basically immune to the effects of sleet storm, so once they get that spell, they become super devastating.

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