Whispering Willow could be a Ranger SKILL rather than a spell with duration. It can be mana to use. If 605 were replaced, I'd like to see 'Attune'!

'Attune' gives the Ranger a tremendous advantage through the use of mental concentration, hunting expertise and spiritual/rangerly magick to A) Heighten their awareness B) Focus their intent on a TARGET C) Align themselves with the most powerful force there is-- Nature. The Ranger will enter a state similar to meditation for a Path or Cleric wherein they are intensely focused on their environment as a pensive being expecting a battle. They will want to STOP 605 while in friendly company or they cannot ACCEPT coins or items, cannot cast friendly spells on others (including 611) and will appear to be lost in thought, slightly aggressive perhaps or uncomfortable otherwise to be around. This is because their animal instincts have been awakened. This does create a difference with the Animal Companion who receives a +5 bonus to AS/DS/TD and makes them a bit less hungry, as they are sensing your Attunement and feeding off the natural world with you. The result for the Ranger during battle is slightly unpredictable but always a gain. Some of the effects can be: a slight pump up of AS, say +1-4 with more for lore (one swing), an extra swing, a missed ambush attempt (fail to find an opening...) becomes a successful strike, the flare on their weapon activates when it wouldn't have otherwise or the weighting increases / their crit damage from an aim goes up, they gain +2 mana when they swing, their HIDE has all RT removed and a +10 bonus. When attacked they can parry where they wouldn't have otherwise, they get a boost to DS +1-4, they get one layer of crit protection if hit, they manage a counter-strike (like they give a minor when they get a minor by a reflexive move), they trip the opponent and knock them over with a brief stun. They may get an overall RT reduction on whatever battle action of -1. The idea is that a series of random little boosts can activate and quite frequently. It's an augment to all the spells we have already. Also I like the idea of raising one crit rank. I feel if the spell was simply to raise any strike by a crit rank (maybe another with 25 lore or something) that would be an awesome, rangerly spell which makes sense. That is because the attunement will be like a hunter with the critter in the sights of their bow, considering their life and bonding with it. etc. A slightly higher rank of crit for the bond itself can be possible there.

It's kind of asking a lot for a low level spell but there can be a giant mana cost increase for the higher up stuff to work, like not until you have NT (25 spell ranks) will the crit rank thing work. But that would be cool. And WHISPERING WILLOW would be a great skill for Rangers just to have. Monks have FU automatically in ways that are customized to them so why not the Ranger?