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

[Paul Farquhar]

Weather both natural and fantastic, natural obstacles, extreme conditions, plant and fungal information, animal behavior, tribe composition, fanatic phenomenons, fey organization and fairie logic, elemental or magical modifications, etc

That's dozens of pages.

Oh, that stuff. There are already dozens of pages of it in the DMG.

You know why there isn't more?

Because it's borrrrrrrrrring.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Oh, that stuff. There are already dozens of pages of it in the DMG.

You know why there isn't more?

Because it's borrrrrrrrrring.

Dozens? If you think there’s at least 24 pages in the DMG dealing with the exploration pillar, count again.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Dozens? If you think there’s at least 24 pages in the DMG dealing with the exploration pillar, count again.

It's about 20. Seemed like more.

Because it was so boring.

 

[Minigiant]

Oh, that stuff. There are already dozens of pages of it in the DMG.

You know why there isn't more?

Because it's borrrrrrrrrring.

Because they only included the boring parts.

And it was like 25 pages at most. With pictures hogging space.

 

[Undrave]

The fighter came first.
The fighter lacks skills because it was designed to wear heaviest armor they could find/afford and to role protect rogues.
As for tracking and wilderness lore, fighters has access just like the ranger. They just didn't get it for free and had no reason to take high mental stats.

The Fighting Man came before the Thief. And what does armour have to do with skills?

 

[Horwath]

The Fighting Man came before the Thief. And what does armour have to do with skills?

you spend time practicing your movement in armor, same time that you could spend learning other skills.

 

[NotAYakk]

The Fighting Man came before the Thief. And what does armour have to do with skills?

First there was the Fighting Man and the Magic User.

Fighting Man was anyone who wasn't a Magic User.

Elves could adventure as either Fighting Men or Magic Users, and had to pick which on each adventure.

Cleric is a newer class than a player who played a Vampire "Sir Fang" -- the Cleric was invented as the anti-Vampire.

Thief was pretty old. The first Thief I used a spell-like system of abilities. They learned an ability, and could use it all day long. So a Thief with "lockpicking" skill could just pick locks, automatically. As they gained levels they gained more skills.

The Gygaxian thief was next, possibly inspired by tales of the above thief, but used a pile of tables. Prior to it, when a Fighting Man or a Magic User tried to do thief-like things, you'd describe what you are doing and the DM would assign a chance of success/failure (including automatic). It was one of the early cases of "another class gets features, suddenly you get worse at those features" in D&D.

Demihumans evolved into their own fixed class; Elves where Fighter-Mages, Dwarves where variant Fighters, and Halflings where variant Thieves.

Paladins/Rangers where "super Fighting Men" with extra abilities tacked on. You had to get lucky with your stats roll to play them, and they where human-only (with race-as-class, that isn't surprising).

 

[Remathilis]

First there was the Fighting Man and the Magic User.

Fighting Man was anyone who wasn't a Magic User.

Elves could adventure as either Fighting Men or Magic Users, and had to pick which on each adventure.

Cleric is a newer class than a player who played a Vampire "Sir Fang" -- the Cleric was invented as the anti-Vampire.

Thief was pretty old. The first Thief I used a spell-like system of abilities. They learned an ability, and could use it all day long. So a Thief with "lockpicking" skill could just pick locks, automatically. As they gained levels they gained more skills.

The Gygaxian thief was next, possibly inspired by tales of the above thief, but used a pile of tables. Prior to it, when a Fighting Man or a Magic User tried to do thief-like things, you'd describe what you are doing and the DM would assign a chance of success/failure (including automatic). It was one of the early cases of "another class gets features, suddenly you get worse at those features" in D&D.

Demihumans evolved into their own fixed class; Elves where Fighter-Mages, Dwarves where variant Fighters, and Halflings where variant Thieves.

Paladins/Rangers where "super Fighting Men" with extra abilities tacked on. You had to get lucky with your stats roll to play them, and they where human-only (with race-as-class, that isn't surprising).

Slight correction: the halfling was never a variant thief. He was a closer to a fighter with some changes:

Hd was one die lower (d6)
Limits on weapons based on size
Bonus to using ranged weapons
Ability to hide in natural settings
Bonus to individual initiative, ac vs large creatures.

They lacked the traditional thief skills, and ironically act a little like a ranger than a rogue.

 

[Chaosmancer]

No good rules system involves a lot of writing.

By that definition DnD has already lost the race. Since to play the "core game" you need at least two different books of rules.

Oh, that stuff. There are already dozens of pages of it in the DMG.

You know why there isn't more?

Because it's borrrrrrrrrring.

Well, seems you have another answer as to why they haven't written exploration rules. Because people find them boring.

 

[Minigiant]

Slight correction: the halfling was never a variant thief. He was a closer to a fighter with some changes:

Hd was one die lower (d6)
Limits on weapons based on size
Bonus to using ranged weapons
Ability to hide in natural settings
Bonus to individual initiative, ac vs large creatures.

They lacked the traditional thief skills, and ironically act a little like a ranger than a rogue.

Sounds like the halfling class was the hills version of the ranger if you take out the stupid small size limitations.

Bonuses vs Large to fight giants
Bonus to stealth to hide behind hills
Bonus initiative to spring ambushes behind hills. Make them fight hoplite with spear and shield and you got the hills ranger.

Better than "Everything is a spell" method D&D defaults to.

Well, seems you have another answer as to why they haven't written exploration rules. Because people find them boring

Ironically D&D was eventually releases these rules in books they sell later in the edition's life for profits.

So it's less that it's boring and more than the part they put in the PHB and DMG is the boring parts.

They save the good stuff for the Snowy book, Pirate book, Desert Book, Spooky book, Jungley Book, Fey book, and DEMONZ'N'DEVILS book.

It's like if they only had Swords in the PHB and your Fighter has to wait for the Theros book for spears and the FR book for Axes.