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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 6922063" data-attributes="member: 97077">I don't see that as the problem, nor essentially &quot;nerfing&quot; the ability by sometimes adding an ability score gate as the solution. I see the DM not knowing why the player wants the information as the problem and that's corrected by the player making that clear when describing what he or she wants to do. &quot;I use Primeval Awareness. My favored enemy is Humanoids. Give me their number and direction please...&quot; is a statement of goal and approach, but insufficient in my view. Why the player wants that information informs the DM how to respond and generally removes the headache you mention: If the player has no good reason for using the ability, then I as DM am tipped to the possibility that the content I am presenting is not of interest to the player which I can address. If the player has a good reason for using the ability, then I know how to narrate the result of the adventurer's action quite easily.As to the issue of using the ability in a heavily populated area like a city, I think the response from the DM need not be very specific because chances are good the information is not at all useful, barring specific (and likely rare) circumstances. Which kind of makes sense if you imagine a ranger is better in the wild than in civilization. Again, in this situation, it's good to ascertain why the player wants to know so the DM can work to make the information useful.This is not to say you're playing D&amp;D wrong. It's just that I see this complaint come up often and it's usually from DMs who aren't taking that extra step to find out why the player seeks the information the class feature provides.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="iserith, post: 6922063, member: 97077"] I don't see that as the problem, nor essentially "nerfing" the ability by sometimes adding an ability score gate as the solution. I see the DM not knowing [I]why [/I]the player wants the information as the problem and that's corrected by the player making that clear when describing what he or she wants to do. "I use Primeval Awareness. My favored enemy is Humanoids. Give me their number and direction please..." is a statement of goal and approach, but insufficient in my view. Why the player wants that information informs the DM how to respond and generally removes the headache you mention: If the player has no good reason for using the ability, then I as DM am tipped to the possibility that the content I am presenting is not of interest to the player which I can address. If the player has a good reason for using the ability, then I know how to narrate the result of the adventurer's action quite easily. As to the issue of using the ability in a heavily populated area like a city, I think the response from the DM need not be very specific because chances are good the information is not at all useful, barring specific (and likely rare) circumstances. Which kind of makes sense if you imagine a ranger is better in the wild than in civilization. Again, in this situation, it's good to ascertain why the player wants to know so the DM can work to make the information useful. This is not to say you're playing D&D wrong. It's just that I see this complaint come up often and it's usually from DMs who aren't taking that extra step to find out why the player seeks the information the class feature provides. [/QUOTE]

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