D&D 5E It's official, WOTC hates Rangers (Tasha's version of Favored Foe is GARBAGE)

[Paul Farquhar]

And a dungeon is stone, unaccountably psychopathic monsters and more stone.

At least stone is clean, and monsters are meant to be psychopathic.

 

[Helldritch]

At least stone is clean, and monsters are meant to be psychopathic.

My reformed Balor respectfully disagree... stone is full of dust. And he is not a psychopath. At least not any longer. Thanks to his new helmet...

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Can someone explain the appeal of a sword and board Ranger? This is literally the first I've ever heard of the concept, considering that dual wielding had basically always been their shtick.

I can’t explain the appeal but I assume the two weapons stuff got big in 2e.

In 1e fighters at our table were as likely to have two weapons as a ranger given that strength attack and dmg applied to each attack.

 

[Minigiant]

@Helldritch
A lot of DMs wing the wilderness. And WOTC mostly ignores it until they make the climate adventure books and variant X books.

Then everyone looks at each other and wonder why an unplanned unprepped unsupported wilderness is boring and why the ranger is boring to play in it. Then people start wanting the ranger to be pure combat and are upset the fighter is a much better fighter.

That's okay, I'm the DM, so I just load the players into an airship to transport them between the interesting places.

And the airship is hit by a storm because noone rolled Survival to avoid bad weather.
And wouldn't you know it, the storm is a

rolls on magical storms table
Okay okay. Yikes. Everyone now roll Wisdom. Add Survival if you have it's proficient.
Yikes.

Suddenly a windstorm, saturated with sand, engulfs the airship. Since you rolled high enough Paul, you know its a a fiery haboob. A sharp heat flashes across your bodies for a brief moment before the airship spins violently. The captain mumbles something louldy before losing her lunch. You,you,and you hear her say "But that makes no sense.." before..
rolls

she slams into a wall and out of a window. She'll live.

Who wants to know why it makes no sense and who wants to brace for impact? Int check for the former, Str check for the later. Nature helps the Int check. Athletics for the Str check.

 

[Asisreo]

Say that to my players. Exploration can easily be bypassed. Either by flying, teleporting or even plane hopping. The higher you are, the easier it has always been, is and always will be.

You are litterally saying the opposite of almost everyone here. Experience may differ greatly but not that much.

And even if they take a risk it is not that big of a deal. With the appropriate scrying/divination and info gathering, even that risk will be lessened. Anyways, tables differ...

Bring me your players and I'll be glad to inform them. Flying, Plane Hopping, and Teleportation bypasses certain challenges, but exploration was never bypassed. Basically, all they bypassed was following the railroad, which I fear may be the issue.

It seems like DMs are so deadset on providing a railroaded experience to the players that significant deviations from their plans make it so they have to wing everything. Improv is inevitable in such circumstances but lack of prep will seriously screw you over at that point.

But, to be clear, getting from one place to another has ever really been a true challenge in any part of D&D. The hardest part about wilderness shouldn't be going somewhere, but deciding where they would like to go. At level 1, there was Rangers, Create Food and Water, Outlanders, Rations, and goodberry. Most conventional travel issues are covered.

Wilderness travel is about making decisions and interacting with the world, not about draining resources and putting the players through a predicted series of events one-by-one.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And the airship is hit by a storm

The airship was hit by a storm, but not because no one rolled survival, because, you know, survival skill does not let airships avoid massive storms.

And for very good reason (other than that is not what survival skill does). You cannot design obstacles that cannot be overcome without a certain skill, even less, you cannot design obstacles that cannot be overcome without a certain class. We had enough of that nonsense with thieves in early editions.

 

[Asisreo]

Players: "We'll take the airship or even better, the Teleport spell. I'll start the scrying and once done, I'll teleport a homonculous with a stone of recall. It will be in charge of retrieving an object from our destination so we'll have a 100% chance to get there."

Is this not cool and exciting? They've found their own way to their destination and now the living, breathing world must react.

To be honest, from the start of the beginning of your introduction, it feels like you're trying to run a level 1 adventure at a level 13 party.

 

[Minigiant]

The airship was hit by a storm, but not because no one rolled survival, because, you know, survival skill does not let airships avoid massive storms.

And for very good reason (other than that is not what survival skill does). You cannot design obstacles that cannot be overcome without a certain skill, even less, you cannot design obstacles that cannot be overcome without a certain class. We had enough of that nonsense with thieves in early editions.

Survival predicts the weather. It allows you to tell the captain to turn around there is a storm a-coming.

An if the airship's route planner messes up that day (because of cause he will), someone has to make that check.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Survival predicts the weather. It allows you to tell the captain to turn around there is a storm a-coming.

You don't need special skills to predict massive storms are coming when you are high up - you can see them. Not a lot you can do about it though other than baton down the hatches (Air Vehicle proficiency).

An if the airship's route planner messes up that day (because of cause he will), someone has to make that check.

That's Navigator's Tools proficiency. It has nothing to do with Survival skill.

 

[Minigiant]

Is this not cool and exciting? They've found their own way to their destination and now the living, breathing world must react.

To be honest, from the start of the beginning of your introduction, it feels like you're trying to run a level 1 adventure at a level 13 party.

Exactly
When you are high level in D&D, you tend to stop running into realistic problems as much for some reason and crazy fantastical stuff tends to happen around you for some reason.