Yes, I agree. Trapped is a powerful condition, but, as you've noticed, it is restricted (by and large) to Daily powers. The mitigating factor of Trapped is that you get a save EVERY time you take damage from its effect. Thus, a solo who attacks multiple times per round will get a save each time he hits. This encourages Explorers to be strategic on who gets that condition.
On the other hand, the controller aspect of it is to encourage monsters to use their weaker attack powers, since they're going to take half damage from them. In other words, if you have a Fighter on his last leg, Trapped is a great condition to drop on his tormentor.
As far as the Beast Mastery Rangers and the Disrupting Explorers, their interaction is, purposely, left vague. Because of the GSL, we can't discuss Martial Power in our products. I can, however, give you my opinion here.
I'd say you can interchange them seemlessly. Now, you're going to have a
little trouble usingthe ranger's beast powers if you're an explorer because of the range assumptions inherant in both of them. Generally, the ranger stays in melee, while the Explorer does better at range with a beast. I have, however, looked at the powers and they work fine in tandem. Now, the ranger is going to have a
much harder time at this because many explorer beast powers have a range of Beast 0. Yeah, that means a small beast in an enemy's square. On the other hand, if you use the powers that have Beast 1 (the explorer
has them, they're just more rare) I can easily see a ranger with controller abilities sprinkled in.
In short, mix and match as much as you like, just pay attention to range and choose the powers that will fit your build.
The same deal with the GSL applies to whips. (In a sidenote, I'd written the Bullwhip before I ever saw the 4E whip. You can imagine my surprise that they were nearly the same.) Because the whip appears in Dragon magazine, we can't reference it. In addition, we wanted more than a single weapon available to the Explorer who uses a whip, so we invented lashes. I've addressed further customization through the Weapon Mastery feats, which I'm actually quite proud of.
As far as the Whip Mastery feats from Dragon go (though I can't address them in the book), I would probably go with an Explorer can use these feats with lashes (not only whips). I would say that an Explorer gets Training in a class skill from "Whip Training [Multiclass Whip]" as well as the normal benefit. Then treat the remainder of the feats as written, except change the requirement to read "You must be wielding a lash." Try it out. See if you like it, and change it as necessary.
Finally, you've hit the nail on the head with "Twist the Ground." I really wanted players to decide what that means in their games. The sidebar in the PDF references this directly, offering several examples of how each Explorer might use the power, but I ultimately wanted each player to create that bit on his own.
Wow! Long post. I guess you must be talking about something I'm interested in.
Sincerely,
Lord Dreadman
