I house-ruled that characters can track with a Survival check without needing the Track feat to do so. It's been one of the better house rules I've seen in a long time. I wish more DM's would do it.
IME, tracking is generally something required by the plot, making it something the DM wants the party to have more than the players do. If characters are low level and don't have a ranger in the party, they probably won't have the feat. Conversely, once they're high-level, they'll have access to magics that will make the feat unnecessary.
And on top of that, although Survival has many other stated uses--avoiding getting lost, avoiding hazards, dealing with inclimate weather, hunting for food--they're largely ignored by a lot of DM's because many players view them as tedious, even discouraging ("look, do you want us to get to the damn dungeon or not???"). So, characters without the Track feat often find their ranks in Survival going to pot.
IME, tracking is generally something required by the plot, making it something the DM wants the party to have more than the players do. If characters are low level and don't have a ranger in the party, they probably won't have the feat. Conversely, once they're high-level, they'll have access to magics that will make the feat unnecessary.
And on top of that, although Survival has many other stated uses--avoiding getting lost, avoiding hazards, dealing with inclimate weather, hunting for food--they're largely ignored by a lot of DM's because many players view them as tedious, even discouraging ("look, do you want us to get to the damn dungeon or not???"). So, characters without the Track feat often find their ranks in Survival going to pot.
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