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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Indaarys" data-source="post: 8967670" data-attributes="member: 7040941">Controversially, as this perception has been baked into the community for years, I actually hard disagree it actually does skip or trivialize travel and exploration segments. The exploration mechanics are still meant to be run even with a Ranger on their terrain. Not only is the Ranger not always on their terrain, but even on it, its benefits don't call for skipping anything. Going down the list:You get a party speed bonus by negating difficult terrain. No confusion there. You no longer take a getting lost penalty. This is the first one that gets people. What this actually represents is that whilst a Ranger is on their terrain, any failed navigation checks need to be re-rolled. This not a reason to not run the checks, as the party still needs to actively navigate to their objective. When you put this in the context of a Hex Crawl, this feature starts to make even more sense, because each hex you cross into could be a different terrain altogether. Not running navigation in this context invalidates the whole point of doing the crawl. Next, you get the ability to do two travel activities at once, with one always being keeping watch, and then a speed bonus while travelling alone. Straightforward, neither is a skip. Then, we have the doubled Foraging. This is another one that people tend to skip, and its yet again not really a skip. For one, by the foraging mechanics theres still a chance for failure, even as a Ranger. Getting double resources just means that even when you're in an inhospitable place, you can squeeze blood from a stone as long as you pass the check. Very useful, particularly when higher level play is meant to have the players travelling into such areas more and more often. And then you have the Tracking bonuses, which are just pure Aragorn stuff and hardly a skip. These issues came about because exploration is poorly explained (and often not at all) in 5e, but mechanically speaking they aren't what people assume they are. When you return Exploration Turns and utilize a Hex crawl, these issues practically disappear. Now, does all that mean its preferable to have terrains be situational? No, I don't think so, which is why my version doesn't work like that. But it does make sense internally to 5E once you correct for Exploration.</blockquote>

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