Spellweaver Sniper

The Spellweaver Sniper is a homebrew Ranger subclass available at this table: a bow-and-magic archetype that binds primal magic to chosen ranged weapons. Its identity is nova ranged damage, control, and exploration. A Spellweaver Sniper can fight like any other Ranger when reliability matters, or compress a turn’s worth of weapon damage and layered spell riders into a single dangerous shot — powerful when it lands, costly when it misses. The publish-ready sheet (sources/spellweaver-sniper-ranger_publish-ready.md) is the source for this page; it revises the earlier draft, and the differences are noted under What changed.

Ranger Rider spells

Rider spells are a family of Ranger spells available to every Ranger regardless of subclass. What makes the Spellweaver Sniper exceptional is that it can weave two of them into one shot.

Unless a particular Rider says otherwise, a Ranger Rider spell:

• Has a casting time of one Bonus Action.
• Requires a ranged weapon as its Material component, and may also have Verbal and Somatic components.
• Cast using a bound ranged weapon, that weapon is both component and focus, so the Rider needs no Verbal, Somatic, or other Material component.
• Prepares or modifies a subsequent ranged weapon attack.
• Takes effect only if that qualifying attack hits.
• Ends without effect if no qualifying attack hits before its duration expires.

The slot is expended when the Rider is cast, hit or miss.

Damage baselines

The individual spell sets saving throws, damage type, area shape, and everything else. Condition Riders trade some or all of that damage for battlefield control — movement restriction, forced movement, impaired senses, loss of Reactions, and the like.

The Rider spell list itself is not recorded in this archive — ask the DM which Riders are in play.

Progression

Level 3

Elemental Affinity

A Spellweaver Sniper chooses one damage type: acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder. That is their Elemental Affinity, and once chosen it cannot normally be changed. Everything else the subclass does — its bonus damage, its resistances, and the damage of any Rider woven into a shot — keys off this one choice.

Elemental Strike

Once on each of their turns, when a Spellweaver Sniper hits a creature with a ranged weapon attack, they can have the attack deal additional damage equal to their Proficiency Bonus, dealt as their Elemental Affinity type. Elemental Strike persists at every Ranger level and applies to a Spellweaver Shot as well.

A level 3 Spellweaver Sniper with Dexterity 16, Proficiency Bonus +2, a longbow, and fire Affinity deals 1d8 + 3 piercing plus 2 fire on a hit.

Deadeye Focus

A Spellweaver Sniper can magically bind ranged weapons to themselves and channel Ranger magic through them.

• They can have up to three Focused Ranged Weapons at one time, chosen from ranged weapons in their possession when they gain the feature.
• Whenever they finish a Long Rest, they may swap one Focused Ranged Weapon for another ranged weapon they carry.
• A Focused Ranged Weapon can serve as their Spellcasting Focus for their Ranger Rider spells.
• A Focused Ranged Weapon counts as a bound ranged weapon for casting Ranger Rider spells — which is what lets those Riders skip their Verbal, Somatic, and other Material components.

Level 5: Spellweaver Shot

When a Spellweaver Sniper gains Extra Attack, they gain a choice: two ordinary attacks, or one concentrated shot. Whenever they take the Attack action and would make two attacks because of Extra Attack, they pick one:

• Normal Attack action — make two attacks as usual.
• Spellweaver Shot — make one ranged weapon attack with a Focused Ranged Weapon instead of the two attacks Extra Attack grants.

They choose fresh each time they take the Attack action, and can make only one Spellweaver Shot per turn.

Elemental weapon damage

When a Spellweaver Shot hits, roll the weapon’s normal damage die one additional time and add both the Ranger’s Dexterity modifier and their Proficiency Bonus to that additional damage. All of it is dealt as their Elemental Affinity type rather than the weapon’s normal type. Elemental Strike applies to the same attack, and the shot remains a single attack and a single hit for anything that keys off that.

The extra roll is the weapon’s normal die only. It excludes extra dice or bonus damage the weapon deals for being magical, and damage granted by ammunition, spells, feats, magic items, or other features.

Level 5, longbow, Dexterity 18 (+4), Proficiency Bonus +3, radiant Affinity: 1d8 + 4 piercing + 3 radiant (Elemental Strike) + 1d8 + 4 + 3 radiant (elemental weapon damage) = 2d8 + 14 before any Rider spells.

On a critical hit, the additional weapon damage die is part of the attack and doubles normally, and so do the damage dice of any Ranger Rider spell applied to the attack. Flat modifiers — Dexterity, Proficiency Bonus, Elemental Strike — do not, per the standard rule.

Spellweaving

When a Spellweaver Sniper intends to make a Spellweaver Shot and casts a level 1 or higher Ranger Rider spell by expending a slot, they can immediately cast a second eligible Rider — no action, no Bonus Action, and no second slot.

• The second Rider must be one they have prepared.
• It must be cast at the same level as the first Rider, or lower.
• They can Spellweave only once on each of their turns.
• The two Riders may be the same spell. If two identical Riders would impose the same ongoing effect or condition, that effect doesn’t stack with itself unless the spell says otherwise.

Rider level limit. A Ranger Rider spell can’t be cast above the highest spell level shown in the Ranger Features table for the caster’s Ranger level, no matter what higher slots they hold from another source.

Concentration. A Rider that requires Concentration cannot be either half of a Spellweaving. Concentration Ranger spells can still be cast normally, and Spellweaving never allows more than one to be held.

Elemental Spellweaving. Whenever a Rider cast through Spellweaving deals magical damage, the Spellweaver Sniper may have that damage become their Elemental Affinity type instead of its normal type.

The gamble. Riders are cast before the attack they empower, and their effects land only if the qualifying attack hits. If the Spellweaver Shot misses:

• The weapon deals no damage.
• Elemental Strike doesn’t occur.
• Elemental weapon damage doesn’t occur.
• Rider effects that depend on the attack hitting don’t occur.
• The slot spent on the first Rider stays spent.
• There is no second attack from Extra Attack to make up for it.

Level 7

Elemental Conditioning. A Spellweaver Sniper gains Resistance to their Elemental Affinity damage type.

Wild Fieldcraft. Two field skills come together:

• Wildspeaker — cast Speak with Animals without expending a spell slot; the spell otherwise follows its normal rules.
• Fighting Withdrawal — take the Disengage action as a Bonus Action.

Level 11: Unseen Hunter

A Spellweaver Sniper’s senses and their ability to vanish become supernatural.

• Hunter’s Invisibility — cast Invisibility on themselves without expending a spell slot, a number of times equal to their Proficiency Bonus, regaining all uses on a Long Rest. It otherwise follows its normal rules, Concentration included. While they have the Invisible condition, they have Advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
• Eyes of the Hunter — their Darkvision range increases by 60 feet, or they gain 60 feet of Darkvision if they had none. They can see through magical Darkness within that Darkvision range.

Level 15: Master Deadeye

• Second Elemental Affinity — choose a second damage type from the Affinity list, different from the first, and gain Resistance to it too. Whenever a Spellweaver Sniper feature would deal Elemental Affinity damage, the Ranger chooses which of the two types it deals, at the moment the damage is dealt. A single instance of damage is only ever one of the two; they can’t be combined.
• Lethal Opening — when a Spellweaver Shot is made with Advantage, it scores a Critical Hit on a 19 or 20. The feature does not itself grant Advantage.
• Shoot and Relocate — immediately after resolving a Spellweaver Shot, hit or miss, move up to half Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks.

Playing the subclass

From level 5 the sheet frames every combat turn as two options:

• Rapid fire — take the Attack action normally and make both attacks. The reliable line: it conserves slots and gives two chances to hit.
• Spellweaver Shot — give up the second attack for one empowered shot that adds elemental weapon damage, can carry two Riders, and risks the first Rider’s slot on a single attack roll.

The sheet’s own read on when each pairing earns its place: two damage Riders for maximum single-target nova; a damage Rider plus an area Rider to break a clustered formation; a damage Rider plus a condition Rider to cripple something dangerous while still hurting it; two condition Riders when control matters more than damage. As the Ranger grows, it says, the question stops being which option is stronger and becomes what the battlefield requires.

Quick reference

What changed

The publish-ready revision (2026-08-22) differs from the earlier draft sheet in ways worth knowing to anyone who read the first version:

• Master Deadeye no longer grants Elemental Immunity. It grants a second Elemental Affinity with Resistance instead, and the Ranger picks which of their two types each instance of damage deals.
• Unhindered Pursuit is gone from Unseen Hunter. The Darkvision clause is now explicitly seeing through magical Darkness.
• Rider damage baselines changed. Single-target Riders are 1d8 per level (was 1d6); area Riders are 1d6 per level with a 5-foot-per-level radius.
• A Rider level cap was added — Riders are capped by the Ranger level’s highest spell level regardless of outside slots.
• Spellweaving is reworded — it no longer grants an extra Bonus Action; the second Rider simply costs no action and no slot. The second Rider may now be cast at a lower level than the first, and it may be the same spell, with a non-stacking clause.
• Elemental Spellweaving is now optional rather than automatic.
• Elemental weapon damage excludes magical weapon bonuses, ammunition, spells, feats, and magic item damage from the extra die.
• Rider spell dice now double on a crit alongside the weapon die, stated explicitly.
• Rider spell rules are now written out in the sheet itself, so Focused Casting’s old carve-out — components with a monetary cost or that are consumed — no longer appears. Ask the DM if a costed Rider ever comes up.