Going off track to the DM's narrative to garner experience and potential loot isn't abusive to the GM? It would require the DM to do quite a few things. 1). The DM could Force his narrative thus potentially aggravating his player characters. 2). Force the DM to design things on the fly...
Isereth, this was merely meant as a single illustration of how this ability can be abused. There are many other ways besides going off track. While the Ranger should be the ultimate tracker, the ability to pinpoint such large groups of enemies with such precision is potentially game breaking...
I spoke to my brother who GM's and has allowed this ability and it seems entirely problematic to us both. There are no limitations on usage for this ability which allows a ranger to consistently abuse this information gathering technique. Walls don't block it, even if the enemy is in the...