Ranger Subclass: The Trapper

Ranger Subclass: The Trapper

Through careful preparation, trappers can create both physical and magical traps to ensnare, explode, or enrapture those unlucky enough to find themselves in their vicinity. Trappers are found in all terrains where there are creatures to be hunted. With tact and guile as their companions, a trapper can lay low even the mightiest of prized beasts.

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spellcasting:

class features:
The Set Trap feature lets you use a variety of physical and magical traps. Each trap requires you to be a certain ranger level before you can create it. The traps are presented here by level.
Physical traps require trap-making materials (which can be purchased from most general goods stores), while magical traps require the expenditure of spell slots. When a trap calls for a saving throw, the DC equals your ranger spell save DC.
Bear Trap
3rd-level ranger; physical; 4 gp of trap-making materials
You trap a 5-foot square with a mechanical, toothy-jawed trap. When a Large or smaller creature enters into the trapped area, the trap activates and the creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 2d8 piercing damage and its speed becomes 0 unless it’s immune to being grappled. A creature can use its action to make a Strength (Athletics) check against your ranger save DC, freeing the trapped creature on a success.
Tanglevine
3rd-level ranger; magical; 1st-level spell slot
When activated, twisted, knotting roots burst through the ground creating an effect identical to the entangle spell within a 20-foot-radius circle centered on the trap for the next minute.
Snare Trap
3rd-level ranger; physical; 2 gp of trap-making materials
The bear trap’s non-lethal cousin, the snare trap, tangles a creature’s feet, causing it to fall. You trap a 5-foot square with ropes and vines. When a Large or smaller creature moves into the trapped area, the trap activates and the creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone and its speed becomes 0 unless it’s immune to being grappled . A creature can use its action to make a Strength (Athletics) check against your ranger save DC, freeing the trapped creature on a success.
Solestriker
3rd-level ranger; magical; 1st-level spell slot
When activated, hard spikes and thorns sprout in a 20-foot-radius circle centered on the trap, creating an effect identical to the spike growth spell for the next minute.
Immolation
5th-level ranger; magical; 2nd-level spell slot
When activated, a 20-foot-radius sphere of flame erupts, centered on the trap. Each creature in the area when the trap detonates must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 6d6 fire damage on a failure, or half as much damage on a success.
Miasma
5th-level ranger; magical; 2nd-level spell slot
When activated, a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on the trap fills with gas for the next minute or until strong wind disperses it. The gas spreads around corners, lightly obscures the area, and penetrates through creatures’ skin, affecting them even if they hold their breath or don’t need to breathe. When a creature enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 3d6 poison damage and becomes poisoned until the end of its next turn. On a success, a creature takes half as much damage and isn’t poisoned. While poisoned in this way, a creature has disadvantage on saving throws it makes to maintain its concentration.
Soulbind
5th-level ranger; magical; 2nd-level spell slot
When activated, there is a flare of brilliant octarine light, and each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on the trap must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or become soulbound as per the preserve spell (see Appendix B). In addition, while a creature is soulbound in this way, it can’t benefit from being invisible. Creatures possessing fair or more powerful essence (typically, those of CR 7 or higher) automatically succeed on this saving throw. You can expend a spell slot of 3rd level or higher to create this trap. When you do, the rarity of essence that automatically succeeds on the saving throw increases by one tier for each slot level above 2nd: creatures with potent or more powerful essence (typically CR 12) at 3rd level, mythic (typically CR 18) at 4th level, and deific (typically CR 25) at 5th level.
Pit Trap
5th-level ranger; physical; 2 gp of trap-making materials
Because of their nature, pit traps are deployed in the space in which they are created as soon as their construction is finished, and can’t be moved. However, after the trap activates, it can still be used again. You dig a 7-foot-deep hole in dirt, or another diggable surface, in a 5-foot square. You can choose to fill the pit with sharpened stakes, spikes, or any other sharp materials. When a Medium or smaller creature moves into the trapped area, it must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, it falls into the pit, where it lands prone, taking 4d8 piercing damage if the trap is filled with spike. On a success, it avoids the trap, falling prone in the nearest unoccupied space to the trap. A creature that succeeds on the save by 5 or more doesn’t fall prone.
Bewilderment
9th-level ranger; magical; 3rd-level spell slot
When activated, horrifying illusions abound and psychic energy twists the minds of creatures. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on the trap area must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 3d10 psychic damage and becomes affected as per the confusion spell for the next minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Catapult Trap
9th-level ranger; physical; 25 gp of trap-making materials; 6 lbs
Because of their nature, catapult traps are deployed in the space in which they are created as soon as their construction is finished, and can’t be moved. With bent trees, springs, or elastic rope, you create a 15-foot square of tension. When a creature enters the trapped area, the trap activates and each creature in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a success, a creature can use its reaction to move up to its speed so that it is no longer in the area. If it's still in the area, it is affected as if it failed its save. A creature that fails the saving throw is flung 60 feet in a direction you decide when you deploy the trap, landing prone and taking 6d6 bludgeoning damage. If there is a Huge or larger creature in the trapped area when it triggers, the trap breaks and has no effect.
Thunder Charge
9th-level ranger; magical; 3rd-level spell slot
When activated, a 30-foot-radius sphere centered on the trap erupts with deafening thunder. Each creature in the area must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 8d6 thunder damage and be deafened for the next minute. The noise can be heard 2,000 feet away, or even further in echoey locations or underwater.
Infection
13th-level ranger; magical; 4th-level spell slot
When you create this trap, choose one of the diseases from the contagion spell. When activated, pustulant boils grow and erupt on surfaces in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on the trap. Each creature in the area must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 4d10 necrotic damage and is affected as if hit by the attack in the contagion spell (using the disease you chose).
Net Trap
13th-level ranger; physical; 10 gp of trap-making materials
(including a large net With a large, concealed net of rope or vines, and an apparatus hidden in branches or a cave’s ceiling, you create a 20-foot square trapped area. Choose a 5-foot square within the trapped area to act as the trigger. When a Large or smaller creature enters this square, the trap activates and each creature in the area must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or be restrained and hoisted 20 feet up into the air (or as high as the canopy/ceiling allows). A creature can use its action to make a Strength check against your ranger save DC, freeing itself or another creature within its reach on a success. Dealing 5 slashing damage to the net (AC 10) ends the effect and destroys the net.
Snapfrost
13th-level ranger; magical; 4th-level spell slot
When activated, the area within a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on the trap suddenly drops to a debilitatingly low temperature for the next minute. When a creature enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 6d6 cold damage, and its speed is halved and it can’t take reactions until the end of its next turn. On a success, a creature takes half as much damage and isn’t otherwise affected.
Banisher
17th-level ranger; magical; 5th-level spell slot
When activated, a 10-foot-radius sphere centered on the trap flares into life, attempting to suck all creatures in it into a harmless demiplane. Each creature in the area when the trap activates must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or be transported to the demiplane for the next minute. At the end of this minute, the creature reappears in the space it left, or in the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied.
Fissure
17th-level ranger; magical; 5th-level spell slot
When activated, an intense tremor thrums through the ground in a 20-foot-radius circle centered on the trap. Each creature in the area when the trap activates must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone. Furthermore, each creature in the area that is concentrating must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature's concentration is broken. The ground becomes cracked and warped as fissures open up beneath it. Each creature that enters the trapped area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there after the trap activates must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or fall into a narrow fissure, 1d6 × 10 feet deep, as the ground unexpectedly gives way.

subclass options:
Trapper’s Tools
3rd-level Trapper feature
Having learnt how to create traps, you've gained an understanding of how to thwart the traps of others. You gain proficiency with thieves’ tools and you add double your proficiency bonus to any ability check you make using those tools to disarm or manipulate a trap.
Trapped Weapons
3rd-level Trapper feature
When you finish a short or long rest, you can augment one weapon or up to twenty pieces of ammunition that you are holding with a concealed, magical augmentation. You decide whether the augmentation deals acid, cold, fire, or lightning damage. The augmentation lasts until you finish a short or long rest. Once per turn, when you hit a target with a weapon attack using the augmented weapon or ammunition, you can activate the concealed augment (no action required). The target of your attack takes 1d8 extra damage of the associated type. At 11th level, you can augment one additional item or up to 20 additional pieces of ammunition when you finish a short or long rest, and the damage increases to 2d8.
Set Trap
3rd-level Trapper feature
You’ve learnt to create and set physical and magical traps.
Physical Traps. Creating a physical trap takes 1 hour (which can be done during a short or long rest) and uses a value of trap-making materials (in gp) specified in the trap’s description. After a physical trap activates, its materials are consumed and the trap can’t be used again. However, over the course of 10 minutes, you can salvage half the trap-making materials used in the physical trap’s construction if it hasn’t activated yet.
Magical Traps. Immediately after you finish a long rest, you can create a number of magical traps equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1), choosing from the options in the Ranger Traps section on page xx. Some of these traps require you to expend spell slots in their creation. When you finish a long rest, all undeployed magical traps lose their effects. While a physical trap’s description specifies how it is activated, you have flexibility in activating your magical traps. When you deploy a magical trap, you can choose a size of creature and a distance of up to 30 feet. When a creature of that size or larger comes within the specified distance, the trap activates. As another option, you can intentionally activate a magical trap within 150 feet of you using a bonus action or a reaction (with no specific trigger).

Level-----------------------------------Trap Options

3rd---bear trap (p), tanglevine (m), snare trap (p), solestriker (m)
5th---------immolation (m), miasma (m), soulbind (m), pit trap (p)
9th-------bewilderment (m), catapult trap (p), thunder charge (m)
13th---------------------infection (m), net trap (p), snapfrost (m)
17th-------------------------------------banisher (m), fissure (m)

Deploying a Trap. As an action, you can throw a trap you have created to an unoccupied space you can see on the ground within 30 feet of you, where it immediately arms itself. A trap deployed in this way is plainly visible to all creatures. Over the course of 1 minute, you can conceal a trap. A concealed trap can only be noticed by a creature that uses its action to make a Wisdom (Perception) check against your ranger save DC and succeeds.
Disarming a Trap. Attempting to move an armed trap causes it to activate, unleashing its effects. A creature within reach of a trap can use its action to make a Dexterity (thieves’ tools) check (for physical traps) or a spellcasting ability (Arcana) check (for magical traps) against your ranger save DC. On a success, the trap is disarmed. On a failure, the trap activates and the creature has disadvantage on any saving throw it makes to resist the trap’s effects. As an action, you can remotely disarm one of your traps that is within 150 feet of you.
Trap Effects. Spell effects created by a trap don’t require concentration. When a trap calls for a saving throw, the DC equals your ranger spell save DC. You can have multiple traps deployed, but any attempt to deploy a magical trap whose center is within 40 feet of the center of another magical trap fails. Creatures with truesight or under the influence of the detect magic spell can notice a magical trap’s presence, even if it has been concealed.
Tracker
7th-level Trapper feature
You are an expert at detecting and obscuring tracks. When you make an ability check to find or follow tracks, you can add your proficiency bonus to the result of the check, even if you aren’t proficient in the relevant skill. If you are already proficient in the relevant skill, your proficiency bonus is doubled for that check.
Trapper’s Avoidance
7th-level Trapper feature
The merest hiss of escaping air, depression of a tile, or scent of ozone is all the warning you need to avoid traps’ effects. When you are subjected to a trap’s activation effect that allows you to make a saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail. In addition, if a trap makes an attack roll against you, that attack roll has disadvantage. This feature doesn’t function against a trap’s ongoing effects. For example, you can mitigate the effect of a poisonous cloud as it is being released by holding your breath or covering your skin, but on subsequent rounds, the cloud’s saving throw would affect you as normal on a success or failure.
Leave No Trace
11th-level Trapper feature
You’ve learnt to use magic to hide traps, allowing them to be concealed in the heat of battle. When you deploy a trap, you can expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher to disguise the trap with illusion magic, causing it to become invisible the moment it leaves your hands. Creatures don’t see where the trap lands and, if it’s a physical trap, have disadvantage on saving throws made to avoid the trap’s effects. In addition, you learn the invisibility spell, which counts as a ranger spell for you but doesn’t count as your number of ranger spells you know. You can cast it once without using a spell slot, and you regain the ability to cast it in this way when you finish a short or long rest.
Booby Trap
15th-level Trapper feature
You trap your own body against unexpected demise. When you finish a long rest, you can choose one of the following magical effects with which to augment your body until you finish a long rest. After triggering an effect that activates when you are reduced to 0 hit points, that effect can’t trigger again until you finish a long rest.
Defibrillate. Once per turn, when a creature hits you with a melee attack, you can trigger an electrical discharge (no action required). The creature is unable to take reactions until the start of its next turn unless it is immune to lightning damage, and you can immediately move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks. After you move using this feature, you can’t do so again until the start of your next turn. When you are reduced to 0 hit points and not killed outright, you can instead drop to 1 hit point and immediately take an extra turn, interrupting the current turn. If you don’t regain any hit points before the end of your next turn, you drop to 0 hit points, fall unconscious, and begin making death saving throws as normal.
Entomb. Once per turn, when a creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a melee attack, you can trigger a burst of cold that ripples along the attacker’s limb (no action required). The creature takes 1d4 cold damage and its speed is reduced by 15 feet until the end of its next turn unless it is immune to cold damage. When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you become entombed in a block of clear ice that has AC 15, 100 hit points, immunity to cold damage, and vulnerability to fire damage. This icy block lasts for 1 minute or until it is destroyed. While the ice persists, you have total cover against all effects. If you regain 1 or more hit points, the icy block melts at the start of your next turn.
Erode. Once per turn, when a creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a melee attack, you can trigger a spurt of acid to coat its weapon or limb (no action required). If the melee attack was a spell attack or made with a natural weapon, the creature takes 1d6 acid damage. If the attack was made with a nonmagical, non-natural weapon, the weapon takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to its attack and damage rolls. If this penalty reaches -5, the weapon breaks. When you are reduced to 0 hit points, all your concealed acid charges gush outward. Each creature within 10 feet of you must make a Dexterity saving throw against your ranger spell save DC. On a failed save, a creature takes 10d4 acid damage and an additional 5d4 acid damage at the start of each of its turns for the next minute until it uses an action to wipe itself clean. In addition, on a failure, if the creature is wearing armour or has natural armour, it takes a -2 penalty to its AC while wearing the armour until it is repaired, or until the creature finishes a long rest if it has natural armour. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much initial damage, no ongoing damage, and its AC isn’t affected.
Self-Destruct. Once per turn, when a creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a melee attack, you can cause a small, shaped charge to detonate (no action required). You take 1 fire damage and the creature takes 1d8 fire damage. When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you erupt in an immense ball of fire and immediately fail one death saving throw. Each creature within 20 feet of you must make a Dexterity saving throw against your ranger spell save DC. A creature takes 14d6 fire damage on a failed saving throw, or half as much damage on a successful one.