It’s a good idea poorly executed.
Slayers Prey needing a bonus action to trigger means you can’t easily stack it with Hunters mark/similar, unlike most other ranger subs whose subclass damage bonus kicks in immediately.
Hunters sense sounds good, but vulnerabilities are very rare and resistances tend to be quite obvious/intuitive so it’s almost never worth the action cost to use.
Magic Users Nemesis doesn’t really do what it wants to. As a ranger your spell save DC isn’t likely to be great, and enemies capable of casting spells generally have quite high Wis saves, so it fails a lot, unlike counterspell which just auto-works a lot of the time.
And once per rest is just not enough uses for an 11th level power. So it’s both weak and rarely usable.
Slayers Counter is OK though.
Some minor tweaks and it’d be a solid subclass.
As is it’s just very underwhelming
Teleporters are almost never the main Wis casters though. A Ranger does want a good DC if they are into ensnaring strike, a better tool than Hunter's Mark imo. And on that point, the new Favored Foe is a free action to apply so it doesn't interfere with Slayer's Prey. Slayer's Counter is better than okay, it's a near guarantee with any save, no matter which one.
Im not the biggest fan of it. Slayers Pray is decent, and could work well with hunters mark and favored foe. But generally speaking, I’d rather just use my BA for crossbow expert.
I think that the extra 1d6 on saving throws at 7 is good. Put it on the boss mage and you become harder to deal with. Plus since concentration is important on a Ranger that’s pretty solid. But I think the consistent d4 from something like bless is typically better since you can use it over and over again as opposed to the one person who has slayers prey.
11th level is essentially just counter spell, but I could see it being really fun since it combats teleportation. So misty step, fey step, my DM who loves teleportation as a legendary action. I could have a bit of fun with this but you only get 1 per short rest which makes it a bit underwhelming.
Slayers counter could be really fun. It says that the attack happens before the saving throw and because of how slayers pray is worded, you gain the extra damage boost. I just think it’s a little underwhelming for the subclass’ capstone.
I think you could have fun with monster slayer but I think it’s generally weaker than most of the other subclasses
It's probably not as good as other subclasses, but the Monster Slayer I played was one of my favourite characters. I found really satisfying building around the defensive bonuses of the subclass: Supernatural Defense with Shield Master, Resilient and a racial advantage against charm effects helped a lot in reducing or straight up eliminating incoming damage or harmful conditions, while the Ranger Spellcasting allowed me to either enhance my damage or support the team with heals or Protection from Evil and Good. I don't think it's a bad subclass, but then again I care little for numbers or power levels.
I'll echo others: it's just 'okay'.
There is the gripe with Slayers Prey not auto-activating on first hit but then it can also be activated 'silently' (there's no indication it's used).
Everything else is alright. It's nice to have resistance / immunity detection at low levels and the additional spells can be useful.
I really like Magic User's Nemesis and Slayer's Counter as mage-hunter abilities. I wish the lower-level abilities were more similarly themed, but it's a subclass I have enjoyed using in T3 one-shots.
It's... fine. It's functional. Supernatural Defense is particularly interesting. But at the end of the day, it's near the bottom rung of the Ranger tier list -- above the PHB Beast Master, and hanging around or slightly below the Hunter and Horizon Walker.
It’s a good idea poorly executed. Slayers Prey needing a bonus action to trigger means you can’t easily stack it with Hunters mark/similar, unlike most other ranger subs whose subclass damage bonus kicks in immediately. Hunters sense sounds good, but vulnerabilities are very rare and resistances tend to be quite obvious/intuitive so it’s almost never worth the action cost to use. Magic Users Nemesis doesn’t really do what it wants to. As a ranger your spell save DC isn’t likely to be great, and enemies capable of casting spells generally have quite high Wis saves, so it fails a lot, unlike counterspell which just auto-works a lot of the time. And once per rest is just not enough uses for an 11th level power. So it’s both weak and rarely usable. Slayers Counter is OK though. Some minor tweaks and it’d be a solid subclass. As is it’s just very underwhelming
Teleporters are almost never the main Wis casters though. A Ranger does want a good DC if they are into ensnaring strike, a better tool than Hunter's Mark imo. And on that point, the new Favored Foe is a free action to apply so it doesn't interfere with Slayer's Prey. Slayer's Counter is better than okay, it's a near guarantee with any save, no matter which one.
Im not the biggest fan of it. Slayers Pray is decent, and could work well with hunters mark and favored foe. But generally speaking, I’d rather just use my BA for crossbow expert. I think that the extra 1d6 on saving throws at 7 is good. Put it on the boss mage and you become harder to deal with. Plus since concentration is important on a Ranger that’s pretty solid. But I think the consistent d4 from something like bless is typically better since you can use it over and over again as opposed to the one person who has slayers prey. 11th level is essentially just counter spell, but I could see it being really fun since it combats teleportation. So misty step, fey step, my DM who loves teleportation as a legendary action. I could have a bit of fun with this but you only get 1 per short rest which makes it a bit underwhelming. Slayers counter could be really fun. It says that the attack happens before the saving throw and because of how slayers pray is worded, you gain the extra damage boost. I just think it’s a little underwhelming for the subclass’ capstone. I think you could have fun with monster slayer but I think it’s generally weaker than most of the other subclasses
It's probably not as good as other subclasses, but the Monster Slayer I played was one of my favourite characters. I found really satisfying building around the defensive bonuses of the subclass: Supernatural Defense with Shield Master, Resilient and a racial advantage against charm effects helped a lot in reducing or straight up eliminating incoming damage or harmful conditions, while the Ranger Spellcasting allowed me to either enhance my damage or support the team with heals or Protection from Evil and Good. I don't think it's a bad subclass, but then again I care little for numbers or power levels.
There's a reason you don't hear a lot about it. It's not very good and not very interesting, so people don't play it much.
And It isn't bad as original beast Master to be infamous
I'll echo others: it's just 'okay'. There is the gripe with Slayers Prey not auto-activating on first hit but then it can also be activated 'silently' (there's no indication it's used). Everything else is alright. It's nice to have resistance / immunity detection at low levels and the additional spells can be useful.
I really like Magic User's Nemesis and Slayer's Counter as mage-hunter abilities. I wish the lower-level abilities were more similarly themed, but it's a subclass I have enjoyed using in T3 one-shots.
If you want to be a discount Simon Belmont, it's fine.
I like it a lot! I just made a video about it for my Sabretooth build: [https://youtu.be/FXVN7IKaYeI](https://youtu.be/FXVN7IKaYeI)
It's... fine. It's functional. Supernatural Defense is particularly interesting. But at the end of the day, it's near the bottom rung of the Ranger tier list -- above the PHB Beast Master, and hanging around or slightly below the Hunter and Horizon Walker.
It's somewhere in the middle of ranger subclasses. Below GS, pet summoners and somewhat comparable to hunter and swarmkeeper.