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<blockquote data-quote="Raduin711" data-source="post: 8145855" data-attributes="member: 15303">I feel like the Studied Adversary feature should be broadened out to be a general &quot;I am an expert on monsters&quot; ability. As it is, a ranger can switch it out after a long rest, which kind of defeats the purpose of it being a &quot;monster grudge&quot; type of ability. I think that concept has outlived it's usefulness. Perhaps an optional perk for those that want the concept.Ultimately, how I might want to see this ability play out is like this: The PC's encounter the evidence of a battle. After studying footprints and other evidence, the Ranger deduces: &quot;Aha! it must be rock giants!&quot; and proceeds to give the PC's the skinny on rock giants and tracks them down to their lair, perhaps offering insights along the way. When he finds the Rock Giants, his insight might offer some conditional combat bonuses.The ability as written would require him to just-so-happen to have picked Giants that particular day. As he probably didn't, he is kind of robbed of a spotlight opportunity. So now that we know it is some kind of Giant, he is obviously going to want to change out his Studied Adversary ASAP, but there is a pretty good chance that the encounter with the Rock Giants will be over before he gets a long rest. Even if he does get a long rest, his sudden insight is going to feel a little forced from a RP perspective. If making the Ranger an expert on every type of monster seems extreme, maybe come up with a list of monster types that every ranger should have expertise with. My instinct is to give him insight into monsters that have some kind of ecology and live on the prime material plane: Aberrations, Beasts, Dragons, Giants, Monstrosities, Oozes, Plants, and Humanoids. Celestials, Constructs, Fey, Fiends, and Undead and Humanoids that have these types would be excluded, unless the ranger purchased them with a perk.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Raduin711, post: 8145855, member: 15303"] I feel like the Studied Adversary feature should be broadened out to be a general "I am an expert on monsters" ability. As it is, a ranger can switch it out after a long rest, which kind of defeats the purpose of it being a "monster grudge" type of ability. I think that concept has outlived it's usefulness. Perhaps an optional perk for those that want the concept. Ultimately, how I might want to see this ability play out is like this: The PC's encounter the evidence of a battle. After studying footprints and other evidence, the Ranger deduces: "Aha! it must be rock giants!" and proceeds to give the PC's the skinny on rock giants and tracks them down to their lair, perhaps offering insights along the way. When he finds the Rock Giants, his insight might offer some conditional combat bonuses. The ability as written would require him to just-so-happen to have picked Giants that particular day. As he probably didn't, he is kind of robbed of a spotlight opportunity. So now that we know it is some kind of Giant, he is obviously going to want to change out his Studied Adversary ASAP, but there is a pretty good chance that the encounter with the Rock Giants will be over before he gets a long rest. Even if he does get a long rest, his sudden insight is going to feel a little forced from a RP perspective. If making the Ranger an expert on every type of monster seems extreme, maybe come up with a list of monster types that every ranger should have expertise with. My instinct is to give him insight into monsters that have some kind of ecology and live on the prime material plane: Aberrations, Beasts, Dragons, Giants, Monstrosities, Oozes, Plants, and Humanoids. Celestials, Constructs, Fey, Fiends, and Undead and Humanoids that have these types would be excluded, unless the ranger purchased them with a perk. [/QUOTE]

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