Rangers and tracking

[AbdulAlhazred]

I would think a skill challenge for most ad-hoc uses of tracking would be a bit cumbersome and kind of overkill. Maybe a ranger could be given the option of having a class feature that allows tracking to be done using the nature or dungeoneering skills instead of perception. Maybe tracking itself should be a specific feature, so not everyone that has good perception can inherently track.

I guess one way to solve it might be to say "OK, you can use perception to FIND some tracks, but you'll need nature/dungeoneering/streetwise to determine what the tracks ARE and learn anything about the thing you track." In most environments where people would track there would probably be a LOT of other tracks around besides just the monster or NPC you want to follow. A guy with perception might SEE tracks, but he would probably see LOTS of tracks and not know how old they are or what made them. Thus you could reason that the tracking roll is perception, but it isn't really all that useful without a subsequent skill roll in some other skill. And like someone said, that skill might sometimes even be something like Arcana or whatever (or at least that might be a skill that would "help" in the tracking in some cases). You could even go by the monster knowledge skill of whatever thing you are tracking. So tracking a devil might be a task that uses Religion for example.

 

[DdraigGoch]

IMC, tracking is done as a Skill Challenge, where Perception is always useful (you might not know exactly what you're looking for, but you'll know it when you see it)

Actually, that does make a lot of sense. A skill challenge lets you really account for all the different aspects properly. You can use a knowledge skill for Track & Sign (the part of tracking that tells you what a spoor is/means) and full on skill challenges from Trailing (actually following spoor till you find whatever made them).

Perception on its own would really just let you point out disturbances to someone who actually had nature, for them to identify. You couldn't actually trail on your own (unless the DC was reaaaaally low, like following the tarrasque through 3 day old snow on a clear day), because you wouldn't be able to distinguish between types of spoor or the age of spoor. You could start following the goblin assassin, accidentally hop on a game trail used by deer, confuse a bear rub for goblin trail markings, and jump into a cave yelling "AT LAST! We have you now fiend!" At a cave bear.
So yeah, you are right, skill challenges for the win.

This way, most classes who should be able to track can do so, it's just that Rangers tend to automatically be trained in at least one of the applicable skills.

I agree here too. Tracking is a (bloody complicated) but ultimately mundane skill set. Making one class way better off the bat doesn't really make any sense. It also messes with people making awesome characters like naturalist-sages of various kinds (wizards, druids, clerics, etc). I think the expert tracker feat is extremely sexy and covers all the king-of-the-bush stuff that rangers need.