D&D 5E Primeval Awareness and other hidden gems

[Giltonio_Santos]

So, upon first reading the ranger class, I looked at Primeval Awareness and thought "No, thanks. I guess I'll keep the slot for hunter's mark". Turns out my wife, who is playing a ranger in my Night Below campaign, first learned about the ability when her character achieved 3rd level, and she disagreed completely.

Well, a few sessions later, Primeval Awareness is proving to be great. In fact, it's a strong contender for the title of most useful class feature in the campaign up till now, and it's certainly one of the reasons why she loves to play her ranger. It's a lot of knowledge for the cost of a single spell slot.

I must say I'm glad I was wrong. To me, Primeval Awareness was a hidden gem, a class feature that I had to see in actual play to understand how useful it truly is. Do you have your own hidden gems? What is the spell/feature/anything that you failed to properly gauge before seeing it in actual play?

 

[TerraDave]

maybe you can remind us what it does.

 

[Jaelommiss]

maybe you can remind us what it does.

"Beginning at 3rd level, you can use your action and expend one spell slot to focus your awareness on the region around you. For 1 minute per level of the spell slot you expend, you can sense whether the following types of creatures are present within 1 mile of your (of within 6 miles if you are in your favoured terrain): aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. This feature doesn't reveal the creatures' location or number." -- PHB, 92

I can't believe I didn't notice this before. I've made a couple of rangers for other people and somehow I've always just skipped over this. For a first level spell slot at the end of the day you can detect a decent range of possible dangers within a mile. For example, if you detect undead within a mile after eight hours travel then it might be a good idea to move on before setting up camp. It could be used to help you find a dragon's den (assuming you miss the regional lair effects or they have not yet manifested). Want to know if the quaint village is housing members of the demonic cult that you are hunting down? Detecting a fiend would let you know immediately, and you might not even have to get into the town before checking. Mind flayers controlling the villagers? Detecting an aberration might alert you to the fact.

I certainly agree that it could be very powerful if used correctly.

 

[the Jester]

Huh. The ranger in my game hasn't used that at all yet (he's fourth level), but damn, I agree- it's a hidden gem.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Great thing to do right before you settle down for a long rest.

 

[Eric V]

So, upon first reading the ranger class, I looked at Primeval Awareness and thought "No, thanks. I guess I'll keep the slot for hunter's mark". Turns out my wife, who is playing a ranger in my Night Below campaign, first learned about the ability when her character achieved 3rd level, and she disagreed completely.

Well, a few sessions later, Primeval Awareness is proving to be great. In fact, it's a strong contender for the title of most useful class feature in the campaign up till now, and it's certainly one of the reasons why she loves to play her ranger. It's a lot of knowledge for the cost of a single spell slot.

I must say I'm glad I was wrong. To me, Primeval Awareness was a hidden gem, a class feature that I had to see in actual play to understand how useful it truly is. Do you have your own hidden gems? What is the spell/feature/anything that you failed to properly gauge before seeing it in actual play?

That's a great mod to use it with, as well.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd love to see your conversion notes.

 

[kerleth]

Vicious Mockery. I have lost count how many kobolds have died from our bard's yo mama jokes. It has become tradition to hurl an insult every time something dies from it. Adds a lot of fun to the gaming table.

 

[Cernor]

The Moonbeam spell is particularly nasty against hordes of low-level enemies like kobolds. Assuming average damage (11 at 2d10), it kills a normal kobold even if it saves, AND you can move it up to 60 feet on your turn-- and it only uses a 2nd-level slot. Combine that with its 10-foot diameter and you can use it as a very effective tool to make choke points as well. Bearing in mind it deals radiant damage, which almost nothing resists or is immune to, I can see it as a great spell to use at almost any level.

 

[Ravenheart87]

The monk's ability to walk through vertical surfaces and liquids. I forgot about it, but now re-reading the PHB I was lik "wow, that's pretty cool".

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

That's a great mod to use it with, as well.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd love to see your conversion notes.

I'm basically converting on the fly. I believe the necessary conversions are more about quantity than quality. Quantity of magical treasure, which I think is too much for our game, and also quantity of enemies. The original adventure will call for encounters with 12 orcs or 10 death dogs, and that's clearly too much in 5E numbers.

For classed NPCs, I've been using the ones in the Monster Manual, with the appropriate challenge rating. Until now, the sole exception was the encounter against Ranchefus in Broken Spire Keep. I wanted to make it very unique, a kind of "final boss" for the first part of the adventure, so I prepared it accordingly. I've made some posts on my blog about our run of Night Below, but I write in Portuguese there...