D&D 5E "Can't become lost..."

[clearstream]

Right. And to go back to what I suggested in my initial post: (1) The ranger can't forage and navigate at the same time. (2) The ranger must still undertake the task of navigating for the party to gain the benefit of not getting lost. There's just no check on account of automatic success.

Yes, I agree with you. It's implied by the proposed interpretation. A Ranger needn't roll dice because they can't fail, but they must still be in position to make the check.

So you saying Christopher Columbus was a ranger? After all he didn't become lost to do discover a new way to India, he just ran against some stupid islands that popped up on the way.

Heh! I guess so. A Ranger can choose to unerringly head in a direction that by chance leads somewhere useful.

 

[thethain]

I should clarify, I think a Ranger cannot fail a Wisdom (Survival) check to become lost. They can fail other Wisdom (Survival) checks, for example to forage.

Thats why he needs to be an outlander and automatically be able to forage for 6 people! The never failing wilderness man.

 

[Barolo]

I just fail to understand what not getting lost has anything to do with discovering the location of a place you have no idea where it was to begin with. It is not like you suddenly lose track of your own position, and the location of any major landmarks in the area, just because you cannot find that shop you have never visited, but somebody vaguely gave you directions downtown in a big city.

Now that I think of it, sometimes you do manage to find that shop, and then you realize you got to a place you don't recognize, and have no idea how to get back home (of course, were you a ranger, this second scenario would not have happened ).

 

[Eltab]

"You cannot get lost" means to me that if you don't get where you want to be, you can get back to where you started. It doesn't mean you can find something that you don't know where it is.
Maybe your character (behind the scenes) could process-of-elimination places where it can't be... (read: gets a special bonus to his Search roll)

 

[iserith]

As I see it, effectively, getting lost just means you lose time. So as long as time actually matters in the campaign (time-sensitive missions, random encounter checks every X units of time), then it's definitely a valid concern for the party. I therefore think an easy way to resolve it is to say going from Point A to Point B takes [this long] but when you get lost it takes [extra long] to get where you wanted to go and that comes with consequences. Then having a ranger or someone with a background wherein the party can't get lost becomes very useful. It's also a quick resolution method since you arrive at the destination either way - it's just a matter of the cost.