My games use the UA revised ranger (from Unearthed Arcana: The Ranger, Revised) instead of the PHB version of the class. The question did not previously come to mind, because until now my players either chose the Hunter or Beast Master subclasses, both of which have a variant included in the same UA. However, now the question has come up:
Are the ranger archetypes from Xanathar's Guide to Everything compatible with the UA revised ranger base class?
I want to combine the base class from the UA (the part common to all rangers, without subclass features) with a subclass from XGtE, rather than a subclass from the UA. By "compatible", I mean:
- Is it correct that I would need to add Extra Attack to assure that the class is balanced with other classes?
- Are there other differences with a similarly high impact that I would need to consider?
The reason I suspect they might not be compatible (at least not as written) is the fact that Extra Attack got relegated to the subclasses (except for the Beast Master, which now lacks it). I further assume that the XGtE subclasses were created with the original PHB ranger in mind, which means they would suddenly be seriously downgraded because they lost the Extra Attack feature.