Paizo has released some preview information about changes to the Ranger class coming in its “remastered” core game books.
Warden spells are now built into the class so that spellcasting proficiency will level up naturally with the character. The feats to acquire these spells has been streamlined too.
They’ve added some other new Ranger feats, such as the Warden’s Reload feat, which grants a reload as a free action when the Ranger casts a warden spell.
Snares will be removed from the Player Core book, instead made available in Player Core 2 with the Snarecrafter archetype. Paizo says this decision is because snares were the “least satisfying of the options available to the ranger and the least used options…”
A new crossbow has been added; the arbalest. The weapon is considered martial, not simple, so it removes the need to take the Crossbow Ace feet to get better damage. This keeps the Crossbow Ace from feeling like a “feat tax” for crossbow users, as well as removing the need to hit the prerequisites for getting the damage.
At the same time, the Crossbow Ace feat itself has been changed to make it more useful, providing interesting reloading abilities.
