Mike Mearls Discusses Possible Alternate Class Features for the Ranger on Happy Fun Hour 11/20

[Parmandur]

I guess my frustration with this is that I've run story-based, heavy RP games in the past. But when we all got out of college and got families and full-time jobs, the game isn't anyone's priority any more (except maybe me, as DM). At best we game every other weekend. Many times, real life gets in the way and people have to skip sessions. People don't remember details of what happens from session to session. They barely remember what level they are and what class they're playing. As a result, I pay no attention to backstories or motivations. I can't even remember the names of the characters in my sessions.
The only thing left, the only shred of enjoyment left is moving pieces on a board, trying to create fun tactical challenges that can fill up a couple hours while people are only engaged on their turn but are otherwise looking on their phones or telling out-of-character jokes.
And I guess I might be a little hard on Critical Role. Millions of people following a campaign they're not playing when I can't get my own 5 players to pay attention for a single session.

I'm sorry to hear that; it is hard to keep a group together.

 

[5ekyu]

Mostly when it came to combat, it was "I move forward and hack with my sword" as far as tactics went. I reckon we were technically houseruling by ignoring a bunch of that sort of thing, but it pretty much played the same as 5E but with more arguments about how exactly grappling was supposed to work.

Not sure which random hour of Critical Role you saw, but stealing from each other and conflict driven behavior are extremely rare in that group.

Actually, the early stories of campaign 2 worked thru the Nott and Caleb greed factors. Early on jester started letting nott steal rings and shineys and they did indeed have to work thru problems with trust and theft.

But they did work thru it without a lot of the more serious problems it causes non-streaming games from time to time.

And it absolutely is significantly personal story driven - thats a good thing.

i certainly would not try and paint these as "negatives".

 

[ScuroNotte]

I know Favored Enemy is part of the class's history, but it is frustrating that it is the only class that has bonuses against a certain creature type while the other classes have no such restrictions/limitations.

Natural Explorer is also a feature with restrictions. It offers expertise in many skills and other benefits, but when in 1 terrain, 3 total at 10th level. But if you are not in your terrain, it is a completely useless feature. The solution could be to keep the Name and level progression of Natural Explorer, but give it benefits that would be applicable in any environment.

Natural Explorer
1st level
* You don't suffer a penalty to your passive Wisdom (Perception) checks while moving at a fast pace.
* You can follow tracks at a fast pace without penalty.
* After traveling for one hour, difficult terrain does not slow your group’s travel.
* If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.
* Even when you are engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.

6th Level
* Moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs no extra movement.
* You can pass through nonmagical plants without being slowed by them.
* Swimming and climbing costs no extra movement.

10th level
* Moving through magical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement.
* You cannot become lost except by magical means.
* You cannot be tracked by nonmagical means, unless you choose to leave a trail.

And also offer a feature of expertise in ranger skills only to compensate for the loss of the expertise in the original Natural Explorer feature

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I think it is less that WotC are encouraging people to play like Critical Role, and more that most already do. The Critical Role cast has a slick production, and has high quality silly voices, but their play resembles my experience starting in 3E.

Ditto my experiences. We used grid for big fights, and sometimes for tense exploration, and we could go multiple sessions without a fight. Even moreso in 4e than before.

I think that particular goal is overstated and misremembered by forumites. And I don’t think it was every remotely states as a “promise”. It was more of an ideal. They wanted a “best of” edition of the game, and *tried* to do that.


This might very easily be a self fulfilling prophecy. The groups you GM for are more tactical because you run tactical campaigns, and thus those are the players who stick around. The storytellers aren’t going to join your table.

Plus, they did a pretty expansive survey of gamers during the playtest. If the majority or even largest minority really loved tactical play and hard rules, that would have ended up as more of a focus.
Keep in mind that half of tables don’t even use miniatures...


Critical Role was also a home game for years prior, and how they played largely didn’t change for the stream.
Even before I started watching, my game was often more like Critical Role than not. Because that’s how a LOT of people enjoy playing.

This. 5e gets credited as facilitating that sort of play, but IME most people play like that in most games. We played that way in 4e, Alternity, Star Wars Saga, The One Ring, etc.

its popular.

 

[CubicsRube]

I know Favored Enemy is part of the class's history, but it is frustrating that it is the only class that has bonuses against a certain creature type while the other classes have no such restrictions/limitations.

Natural Explorer is also a feature with restrictions. It offers expertise in many skills and other benefits, but when in 1 terrain, 3 total at 10th level. But if you are not in your terrain, it is a completely useless feature. The solution could be to keep the Name and level progression of Natural Explorer, but give it benefits that would be applicable in any environment.

Natural Explorer
1st level
* You don't suffer a penalty to your passive Wisdom (Perception) checks while moving at a fast pace.
* You can follow tracks at a fast pace without penalty.
* After traveling for one hour, difficult terrain does not slow your group’s travel.
* If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.
* Even when you are engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.

6th Level
* Moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs no extra movement.
* You can pass through nonmagical plants without being slowed by them.
* Swimming and climbing costs no extra movement.

10th level
* Moving through magical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement.
* You cannot become lost except by magical means.
* You cannot be tracked by nonmagical means, unless you choose to leave a trail.

And also offer a feature of expertise in ranger skills only to compensate for the loss of the expertise in the original Natural Explorer feature

My preference would be to see the ranger choose a favoyred terain and then get thematic benefits based on that choice.

For example, want to be more mobile? Choose a plains ranger - get +10 to your speed. Have a climb speed same as your walk speed and advantage on climbing checks? Mountain ranger. Want to count difficult terrain as normal terrain? Forest ranger. Etc etc.

These could be dxploration type bonuses potentially extending to combat bonuses in later levels. Even purely as exploration style benefits, i think it would give a lot more customization and theme to the ranger.