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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Glen" data-source="post: 8787883" data-attributes="member: 6800327">My issue with the ranger as an expert is it doesn't seem to be an expert at anything.  The biggest problem with exploration in 5e is the rules kinda blow chunks.  Either the party is going to starve to death or there's no threat at all.  I learned this the hard way trying to run Master of the Desert Nomads with the cleric spamming goodberry.  Hard to do a survival adventure when one of the core elements of survival is completely removed by a 1st level spell.  If they don't rewrite the survival rules and get rid of the get out of starvation free cards all the arguing over how to build a ranger to be an outdoorsman is moot.  The big problem was the favored terrain meaning automatic successes for keeping the party alive, which was a common complaint for modules like Into the Abyss.  If the party ranger had Underdark as a favored terrain then the whole survival aspect was neutered.  But rather than just complain about what the ranger lacks, here's some ideas of how to make it better without just resorted to 'more spells'.Favored Terrain: You get one terrain choice equal to your PB.  So starting with 2.  The ability gives you a static and a triggered ability.  Static ability is good no matter where you go.  Triggered abilities are the standard ignore difficult terrain, find more food, etc.  So static examples:Swamp: Immunity to non-magical diseasesMountain: Resistant to coldAquatic: Swim SpeedDesert: Ignore fatigue from heatForest: Climb SpeedFort Worth: Speak with cowsAlter Hunter's Mark so it's not just an automatic ability every single combat.  Go favored enemy, at the end of a long rest choice a creature type and subrace (orc, bear, dinosaur, thoul).  Then the hunter's mark applies to all those creatures until the next long rest.  This represents you studying up on the anatomy, applying certain toxins to weapons, or just adapting to your prey.Make the ranger self-sufficient on his own, and a bonus to the party by keeping them alive.  One good way to represent this is giving them tool proficiencies, but in their terrain they don't actually need the tools.  They can create items that they could with the tool kits, but it's more of a then and there.  The ranger uses his herbalism tool training to just gather the right plants to make the antidote kit.  The items created have to be used immediately, you can't stock up on healing potions this way.</blockquote>

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