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It's Homebrew Time! This time, I'll be sharing the Archer Class: A non-caster (depending on subclass) alternative to the ranger, with a bit less focus on nature (open images in new tab if too small)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1155710

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I like the general flavor and direction of the class, but with a first read, I'd be a bit concerned about balancing. The Spell Shot subclass provides near-full casting, while also getting Extra Attack at level 6. I recommend significantly reducing the spell progression of the casting subclass (consider other half-caster classes as a guide).

A few other things you might want to tweak:

you offer scale mail as possible starting equipment, but only offer light armor proficiency
you offer melee weapons as starting equipment, as well as melee fighting styles, but no melee weapon proficiency (maybe just give proficiency with all simple weapons as well as ranged martial weapons?)
you offer different fighting styles, but most of the class features focus on ranged weapons. I can't imagine anyone taking a fighting style other than archery. Maybe there are some more specific archery styles you could offer? E.g., close-combat shooting (damage bonus against targets within 20 feet), longshot (no disadvantage on long-range shooting), small-weapons specialist (damage die boost to blowgun, sling, and hand-crossbow), etc.

The other thing you could consider with this is how the ranger-ish features (land's stride, vanish, feral senses) connect with the class's identity (ranged weapon specialist). Maybe have the class identity encompass more (capture the essence of sneak archer), or swap the ranger-y features for more archer-oriented ones (features that let you get out of melee, dodging attacks, maybe an AOE feature). Alternatively, you could rebrand this entire class as a ranger re-work, and have the more typical "ranger" identity be your focus.

Overall it's a solid effort, but needs a bit of work before playing it. Awesome work overall!