Akuma's Horizon Walker Revision
The Horizon Walker ranger is one of my favourite subclasses in 5e based purely on flavour. The concept of a dimension hopping warrior is one which makes my mind go wild thinking of potential backstories.
Unfortunately, in practice the subclass is lacklustre. It takes too long to acquire the signature ability for the class, and in the interim the abilities that you do require are far weaker than other Ranger subclasses.
I therefore present to you my idea of what a Horizon Walker should look like. With a little shuffling of when certain abilities are acquired, and removal of unnecessary restrictions.
Ranger Archetype: Horizon Walker
Horizon Walkers guard the world against threats that originate from other planes or that seek to ravage the mortal realm with otherworldly magic. They seek out planar portals and keep watch over them, venturing to the Inner Planes and the Outer Planes as needed to pursue their foes.
These rangers are also friends to any forces in the multiverse—especially benevolent dragons, fey, and elementals—that work to preserve life and the order of the planes.
Horizon Walker Magic
Starting at 3rd level, you learn an additional spell when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown in the Horizon Walker Spells table. The spell counts as a ranger spell for you, but it doesn't count against the number of ranger spells you know.
| Ranger Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Protection From Evil and Good |
| 5th | Misty Step |
| 9th | Blink |
| 13th | Banishment |
| 17th | Dispel Evil and Good |
Hunt the Extraplanar
At 3rd level, you gain the ability to magically sense the presence of planar portals and extraplanar creatures.
As an action, you detect the distance and direction to the closest planar portal within 1 mile of you. In addition, you detect the distance and direction to the closest fey, celestial, fiend, elemental or aberration(your choice) within 1 mile of you that has been summoned using a spell of 3rd level or higher.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to 1+your Wisdom modifier(minimum of 1), regaining all expended uses on a long rest.
See the "Planar Travel" section in chapter 2 of the Dungeon Master's Guide for examples of planar portals.
Planar Warrior
At 3rd level, you learn to draw on the energy of the multiverse to augment your attacks.
Whenever you hit a creature using a weapon attack on your turn you can choose to turn all damage dealt by the attack into force damage, and the creature takes an extra 1d6 force damage from the attack. A creature can take this extra damage only once per turn.
When you reach 11th level in this class this damage increases to 1d8.
Across Space and Time
At 7th level, you gain the ability to pass between the planes in the blink of an eye.
When you target a creature with a weapon attack, you can use one of the following options of your choice:
- You can teleport up to 10 feet before each attack to an unoccupied space you can see.
- You can teleport after each attack to an unoccupied space within 10 feet of the creature.
The maximum distance you can teleport away from your original space using this feature is a number of feet equal to your Wisdom score×5(minimum of 50 feet).
Ethereal Step
At 11th level, you learn to step through the Ethereal Plane.
As a bonus action, you can cast the etherealness spell with this feature, without expending a spell slot, but the spell lasts until the start of your next turn.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all expended uses on a long rest.
Spectral Defence
At 15th level, your ability to move between planes enables you to slip through the planar boundaries to lessen the harm done to you during battle.
When you take damage from an attack, you can use your reaction to give yourself resistance to all of that attack's damage on this turn.
Credits
Written by: Akuma2164
Page 1 Art Credit: u/Ultimatept0812
Page 2 Art Credit: Randy Vargas
