Tracking

[sunrisekid]

The survival skill is actually a very nice package. Combined with the tracking feat and rules it was a very useful combination of toolkits.

I agree with you, and would add that the mechanics together present a certain flavor as well as a highly specialized character build.

Though your complaint is perfectly valid, relative to your gaming preferences, I would draw attention to the notion that if part of the intent behind the mechanical overhaul was to reduce the breadth of specialized roles available in 3E, then by relegating success or failure at tracking to DM judgment the game is streamlined just a bit more.

In my experience, success or failure of player actions depend almost entirely on which outcome is more likely to encourage the story (or least likely to derail the story). Therefore having a character who is great at foraging, survival, and tracking is perfectly valid as character backstory and doesn't necessarily require corresponding game mechanics. To bastardize a corporate marketing slogan, "just play it".