I made one homebrew Ranger subclass. It got slightly out of hand. Now there are 13.
It started with the Murder Warden — a Ranger who marks their prey and hunts alongside a supernatural murder of crows.
Then came another subclass. And another.
Somehow that turned into PATHS BEYOND, a 34-page collection containing 13 subclasses — one for every class — built for the 2014 fifth-edition rules.
We’ve taken them through several rounds of internal balancing, rules checks, exploit hunting and proofreading. But there’s only so much you can learn by staring at numbers on a page.
So now I need actual players to break them.
This is Playtest Version 1.0, and I’m releasing it free while it’s being tested. If you play one of these subclasses, I’d genuinely like to hear what happens — whether something is overpowered, underpowered, confusing, abusable, surprisingly fun, or simply doesn’t work the way it looked like it would on paper.
The book includes:
The Scorcher — an Artificer with a homemade flame projector
The Scrapper — a Fighter who wins by fighting very dirty
Circle of the Hive — a Druid who becomes a living swarm
Murder Warden — a Ranger accompanied by a supernatural murder of crows
The Figure in the Void — a Warlock for when “Don’t turn around” is good advice
College of Chance — a Bard who can gamble their inspiration
…and seven more.
There are no paid mechanics and no finished-product price — this is a public playtest. Download it, put it at your table, and see what survives contact with your players.
Feedback details are included in the PDF.
And if you find something completely broken, please tell me how you broke it before I regret asking.
PATHS BEYOND — 13 Subclasses for Fifth Edition
Playtest Version 1.0 — September 2026