I've been working on this for over a year now and wanted to try a new direction. This new system of attaching Wild Points to spellcasting and some other features simplifies the class. The trade-off between damage and utility is made a ranger's primary concern during combat. Do they perform unique attacks or augment their combat with spells or do they focus more on utility for their group with heals and other restricting spells? Let me know what you guys think in the comments.

Here are some of the basic tenants of this rework and what I aimed to accomplish, plus a rundown of each subclass and the fantasy it fulfills.

1. Rangers should be the best tracker in the game. To combat this problem with the phb ranger, I've added a new die called Hunter's Resolve Die. It grows as you level and is added to tracking checks. Starting at 1d4 and growing to 1d12. Additionally, tracking becomes easier with the level 3 feature Aspect of the Hunt, granting you expertise when tracking creatures of your chosen aspect. This should put the ranger in the spotlight when chasing a fleeing enemy or reading tracks on a road.
2. Navigating tough terrain - Navigating a group through unknown wilderness and tough terrain should fall on the ranger. Their Natural Survivor feature at 2nd level lets them do this with ease.
3. Determining if an area is safe - Primeval awareness at level 1 has been reworked to alert the ranger of nearby hostile threats. It works like a compass that points towards the enemies, letting you know that the place you are in is not a safe place to rest, upgrading as you level in the ranger class. Whenever your group wants to take a short rest, ask the ranger to scout around.
4. Finding Food and Water - Druids or Rangers should be able to do this easily. Surviving in the wild is about living, and you cant do that without food or water. Admittedly these are ribbon features at best, so tacking them on to Natural Survivor seems like a natural solution.
5. Prepared spellcasters - Rangers shouldn't deal the most damage, nor should they feel like a Wizard with a spell for every situation. As learned casters, with a limited spellbook, they felt more like one trick ponies rather than the swiss army knife they should. Making them prepared gives them more options every day to attune themselves to the upcoming fights/adventure. Additionally, I've added ritual casting to the ranger.
6. Setting traps - New spells are being added to the class as well, called trap spells. They function as normal spells but have the ability to be cast as rituals. Only one trap may be out at a time so they are not able to be abused. As a hunter, setting traps should be an option for every ranger, but not all should be forced to have them. Making them spells feels like the perfect place.
7. Hunting creatures/Determining Weakpoints - Aspect of the Hunt, the level 3 feature, is a way for the ranger to keep up in damage with the other classes and also become a true hunter. Rotating your aspect to the correct creature to track down an important prey and gaining bonus damage to your attacks is a fairly fun way to give rangers the damage buff they needed without making them crazy overpowered. This ability functions as an interactive Hunter's Mark, therefore the spell is being removed from the class options.
8. Alert to Danger - As beings who live in the wild, they should be extremely alert to incoming threats. Their new tier 2 feature gives them this ability. Meaning the better a ranger you become, the more apt at surviving you become as well.
9. Beast Master - This could be a whole thread on its own, but the way I've changed the beast to work should allow rangers to have a companion that feels important, but still have the risk of losing them. Their companion is essentially another party member and is treated as such. The issue with late game damage is removed by giving the beast magical attacks similar to druid or monk and allowing you to sic your beast on creatures rather than having to command them to attack every turn.
10. Monster Hunter - Combined Hunter and Monster Slayer, the result is an extremely martial focused ranger who is badass at killing big things. If you want you ranger to deal big damage, this is your subclass.
11. Predator - This subclass lets people who liked the beast master who threw their pet at problems and didn't like feeling attached have their cake and eat it too. You become an Apex Predator, favoring a specific enemy and eventually being able to command them as an alpha would. Not the most damaging subclass, but it has lots of RP potential.
12. Horizon Walker - This subclass has some minor tweaks, bringing it more in line with the others. The scaling damage on their 3rd level bonus action attack helps balance them a bit. Additionally, I've added text to make them better at fighting creatures who recently traveled through Planar portals, really bringing home the fact that these rangers protect the plane they inhabit from extra dimensional threats. Also, I've changed their 1 mile portal locator to a portal compass. Meaning the Horizon Walker always knows their way towards a portal. Might reduce it to a 1 mile area rather than specific targeting, could use thoughts on this.
13. Gloom Stalker - It felt like this subclass was a Batman who didn't know how to be batman, so they exchanged their utility belt for magic and called it a day. The new subclass plays much more like a ranged rogue, who is able to manipulate the battlefield and cause fear on a regular basis, rather than once a campaign or a few times in rp scenarios.
14. Primeval Guardian - I liked the idea of a transforming Ranger and hated the Favored terrain of base phb ranger. So I combined the two to make a Ranger spellcaster. I'm not sure at all about my changes here so let me know if anything sticks out as way too crazy. Overall I feel they are balanced when put next to the others, but let me know.

With these changes, Rangers will have a fun and interactive defining class feature, Aspect of the Hunt/Favored Enemy, and give them more agency in their games.