On (another) variant Ranger for 5E

[lights a candle] Oh, you’re still here? I’m glad for that! I haven’t keep this tower properly maintained. Sorry, I was busy facing the most horrendous and Challenge Rating scored beast ever - Real Life! Man, that’s a lost fight, but we have to fight it. To complicate matters, I must confess that I named this tower most adequately, as I see myself (again) without victims (i.e. players). So, here I'm back again to fill you with cantankerous monotone diatribes. Hope you enjoy them, dear delver!

So… Rangers for everyone's favorite second take on D&D!

OK, if the Ranger is following its tradition there are probably A LOT of homemade 5E Rangers out there already. I actually like the official Ranger quite enough, however I also believe that class features like Favored Enemy and Natural Terrain are a pain in the ass, because they limit the character to certain parts of the campaign setting (I’m tired of seeing the disappointment on a player’s face when the party leave his Natural Terrain). So, here is so far my “homemade” Ranger.

Except where noted, everything in the Player’s Handbook is kept.

Favored Enemy:

1) If you want something simple and direct:

Remove Favored Enemy and replace it with Hunter’s Mark. Now, that is a 1st level class feature. For simplicity’s sake keep all the mechanics in place. It still requires a bonus action to activate and concentration but it isn’t a spell (actually,  in my opinion, stuff like Hunter’s Mark for the Ranger and Compelled Duel for the Paladin aren’t true spells but “hidden” class features, which I deeply hate because I prefer a more “open” approach to game design, like 13th Age).

2) If you still like something more crunchy for Favored Enemy:

Beginning at 1st level, you have significant experience studying, tracking, hunting and even talking to a certain type of enemy.

As a free action, choose a type of favored enemy and declare that you’ve been studying their lore and tactics: aberrations, beasts, celestiais, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, giants, monstrosities, oozes, plants, or undead. Alternatively, you can select two races of humanoid, such as gnolls or orcs (and no, you don’t have to choose both races at the same time).

You have advantage on Ability checks related to or against your favored enemy.

You have advantage on Damage Rolls against your favored enemy. If you use the Help action to instruct an ally to attack a favored enemy, you can grant advantage to your ally next Damage Roll against the favored enemy.

If you don’t speak their language (and if they have one), you can understand the basic meaning of what they’re saying and also keep a simple conversation (the DM might allow you an Ability check, perhaps with disadvantage, to decipher runes, written messages or more complex conversation). If you know their language, the DM might grant you advantage for tasks like reading lips.

You keep your current favored enemy until you use Downtime to study a new favored enemy and switch your tactics. To choose a new favored enemy you must have access to information about them or have survived at least one combat against them (as always, DM’s call).

Natural Terrain: use the Unearthed Arcana’s Revised Ranger class feature.