Ranger Archetype: Moonstalker
In constrast to their cousins, the gloomstalkers, moonstalkers find their homes under open skies. Finding comfort in silvery moonlight and pale starlight, they are predators that boast inhuman patience, and more often than not wait to ambush their prey until the sun has set even if they find it hours before.
Moonstalker magic
Starting at 3rd level, you learn an additional spell when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown in the moonstalker spell table. The spell counts as a ranger spell for you but doesn't count against the number of ranger spells you know.
Moonstalker Spells
| Ranger Level | Spell |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Faerie Fire (silver light) |
| 5th | Moonbeam |
| 9th | Clairvoyance |
| 13th | Confusion |
| 17th | Wall of Light |
Lunar Sight
At 3rd level, you gain darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. If you already have darkvision from your race, its range increases by 30 feet.
The light of the moon also reveals more to you than others. Ordinary, faint moonlight (which is normally darkness) counts as dim light for your vision, and the light of the full moon (which is normally dim light) counts as bright light. A new moon casts no light, and still counts as darkness for you.
Finally, your power waxes and wanes alongside the moon. During a full moon, you gain the benefits of the bless spell, and creatures you hit with an attack take an additional 1d6 radiant damage. When you reach 11th level in this class, the extra damage increases to 2d6.
Marks of Selene
Also at 3rd level you can mark your prey with moonlight, making them easy targets for your strikes.
As a bonus action, you can mark a number of creatures you can see equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1), causing them to emit a faint, silvery glow that only you can see. Any attack roll you make against a marked creature has advantage if you can see it, and the marked creature can't benefit from being invisible to you. Finally, if you can see the moon a faint beam of moonlight shines down upon each marked creature, revealing its position to you.
Each mark lasts until the next new moon, or until you use this feature again. Once you use this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
Arrows of Artemis
At 7th level, you learn to draw the moon's power into your strikes. As an action you can use a ranged or thrown weapon you are holding to make a ranged spell attack against a target within the long range of the weapon used. A target can benefit from no amount of cover, even full cover, against this attack.
The projectile passes harmlessly through objects, ignoring cover, until it hits or misses its target. On a hit, the attack deals radiant damage equal to double the normal damage dice of the weapon used plus your ranger level. During a full moon, a target hit by this attack is critically hit.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.
Dance of Diana
At 11th level, you've learned to keep your enemies at distance, even in the middle of combat. You can move up to half your speed as a reaction when an enemy hits you with a melee attack. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks.
If the creature that hit you is marked by Marks of Selene, you can make one weapon attack against it as part of the same reaction.
Brilliance of Phoebe
At 15th level, you learn to conjure the power of moonlight, wherever and whenever you are. As an action, you can cast the spell daylight with a range of sight. When you do, all light shed by the sphere counts as moonlight, and creatures and objects bathed in this light behave as they would during a full moon. At the center of the sphere is a ghostly image of the moon, which counts as the real moon for your Marks of Selene.
Once you use use this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
Worlds with Many Moons. Some worlds might have more than one moon, each with its own color or periodicity. In such worlds, a moonstalker must pick a single moon and its cycle to bind themselves to.
Moonblessed Weapon
Weapon (any), uncommon
This weapon is inlaid with a large, polished moonstone, and bears beautiful, ornate silver filigree on the handle that depicts the phases of the moon. By day or in darkness it appears mundane, but when bathed in moonlight it takes on a translucent, crystalline appearance. You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
When you hit a shapechanger with this weapon, the attack deals an extra 1d6 radiant damage and the shapechanger must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, it instantly reverts to its original form and can't assume a different form for one hour.
One day per lunar month, during the full moon, this weapon's bonus to attack and damage rolls increases to +2 and its blade gleams, shedding dim light in a 10 foot radius. One day per lunar month, during the new moon, this weapon's magical properties are fully suppressed.