D&D 5E UA Ranger Actual Play Report

[I'm A Banana]

Next session of mine happened this week.

Nothing too noteworthy to speak of, but she did get some mileage out of ignoring difficult terrain (not OP, at least by level 7), and got to use her Favored Enemy +4 bonus damage. On top of the Sharpshooter, she almost manages to catch up to our GWM barbarian in terms of single-attack damage. Both seem to be working A-OK.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Another session of mine tonight.

She got to employ the "advantage when an enemy hasn't gone." It's a powerful feature, though it didn't wind up causing a huge impact in this session.

The thing that did cause an impact was Primeval Awereness and it's "know all your favored enemies within 6 miles" function. As before, this was hard to adjudicate on the fly as written - yes, there are lots of undead around the town at night in Barovia? Yes, you sense three undead in the next room and...more...? Beyond that...?" I think the player is satisfied with my ruling, but it's absolutely something I hope is re-written in the future to be clearer what the intended benefit is, and to get at that without asking the DM to have accurate demographics on hand.

 

[iserith]

Another session of mine tonight.

She got to employ the "advantage when an enemy hasn't gone." It's a powerful feature, though it didn't wind up causing a huge impact in this session.

The thing that did cause an impact was Primeval Awereness and it's "know all your favored enemies within 6 miles" function. As before, this was hard to adjudicate on the fly as written - yes, there are lots of undead around the town at night in Barovia? Yes, you sense three undead in the next room and...more...? Beyond that...?" I think the player is satisfied with my ruling, but it's absolutely something I hope is re-written in the future to be clearer what the intended benefit is, and to get at that without asking the DM to have accurate demographics on hand.

Given that context, it does seem like the player really just wanted to know whether there were undead in the next room. You probably could have given any number "far away" and it wouldn't have mattered because it is not relevant. This is why I keep saying we need to know why the player is asking to know how to best respond.

 

[nswanson27]

Given that context, it does seem like the player really just wanted to know whether there were undead in the next room. You probably could have given any number "far away" and it wouldn't have mattered because it is not relevant. This is why I keep saying we need to know why the player is asking to know how to best respond.

Yeah that one seems way too open-ended. It would actually be nice of WotC would release a set of intended use cases for that ability to help hone in the intent for playtest.

 

[iserith]

Yeah that one seems way too open-ended. It would actually be nice of WotC would release a set of intended use cases for that ability to help hone in the intent for playtest.

I think it's fine as is. In the absence of specific in-game context, it seems like a burden on the DM. "Man, do I seriously need to come up with every beast in the forest?" In actual play, there's generally a reason why the player wants an accounting of favored enemies in the area, usually in my experience because the DM has already established the possibility of them being relevant in the scene (or a future scene). There's no need in those cases to generate a list of numbers, directions, and distances for the entire 6-mile radius - just what's relevant right now e.g.the undead in the next room, the dragon that everybody knows is coming but not when, etc. And thus there is no real burden on the DM in my view.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Given that context, it does seem like the player really just wanted to know whether there were undead in the next room. You probably could have given any number "far away" and it wouldn't have mattered because it is not relevant. This is why I keep saying we need to know why the player is asking to know how to best respond.

There were two separate instances - once essentially wanting to know if there'd be a random encounter on the way to Krezk, and the second wanting to know what had a lair in this haunted castle.

If the point of the feature is to answer those questions, the ability should be reworded to focus on those abilities. But, that first question often doesn't HAVE an answer - it's like asking if you'll roll an 18 on your next attack roll...and sometimes the second question doesn't have an answer, either - I use randomized dungeons for one of my groups, and this ability would not be very functional there.

Of all the new ranger abilities, this one is the one I hope gets work the most. It should give the ranger useful information about the occurrence of favored enemies in the nearby region, probably, without having to force the DM to answer precise numbers and locations of creatures that haven't been introduced yet and may never be introduced. In intent, I imagine it like the ranger looking at, say, the presence of certain kinds of grave soil and noting, "Ah. Ghouls are here. Be careful." Or seeing certain trail markings distinctive of goblinoids. Or otherwise knowing that a certain area has a certain kind of enemy - that kind of "yes" or "no" response is something I could give and would be useful.

 

[iserith]

There were two separate instances - once essentially wanting to know if there'd be a random encounter on the way to Krezk, and the second wanting to know what had a lair in this haunted castle.

Super easy to adjudicate these in my opinion:

1. Roll for the random encounter ahead of time and bank the result. If one comes up and it's undead (assuming that's the favored enemy), say "Yes, the undead are coming - do you want to engage them, avoid them, or do something else?" If one comes up and it's not undead or a random encounter doesn't come up, say "You sense no undead on the road to Krezk."

2. For the haunted castle, I would just cough up the information where undead are concerned. For a random dungeon, it would depend on how you generate the content and how comfortable you feel just adding favored enemies in at will. In any case, I doubt this class feature was created with random dungeons in mind.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Super easy to adjudicate these in my opinion:

1. Roll for the random encounter ahead of time and bank the result. If one comes up and it's undead (assuming that's the favored enemy), say "Yes, the undead are coming - do you want to engage them, avoid them, or do something else?" If one comes up and it's not undead or a random encounter doesn't come up, say "You sense no undead on the road to Krezk."

Of course, the ability's set up as written so that you also know if there are any undead NEAR the road that might then wander ONTO the road (which would be "yes" if the result was possible?), and then the ranger checks every road path, or look through a way between all the undead...and keeps the ability active while on the path, too...

If the point of the ability is to answer specific questions, then it should be re-written such that it works that way.

2. For the haunted castle, I would just cough up the information where undead are concerned. For a random dungeon, it would depend on how you generate the content and how comfortable you feel just adding favored enemies in at will. In any case, I doubt this class feature was created with random dungeons in mind.

"There are undead in the next room and.....give me five minutes wile I read every room description, here...."

If the intent of the ability is to know that your favored enemy is in the area, it should be rewritten to give that result, and drop all the every-entity-within-6-miles language.

 

[iserith]

Of course, the ability's set up as written so that you also know if there are any undead NEAR the road that might then wander ONTO the road (which would be "yes" if the result was possible?), and then the ranger checks every road path, or look through a way between all the undead...and keeps the ability active while on the path, too...

If the point of the ability is to answer specific questions, then it should be re-written such that it works that way.

If the ranger wants to avoid random encounters with undead (goal) and uses this ability to do it (approach), then I say he or she just succeeds. Similarly, if the ranger wants to fight some undead on the way to Krezk (goal) and uses this ability to find them (approach), then, again, I say he or she just succeeds. In the latter situation, the DM can always say there are no undead if the DM is unprepared for that battle or simply doesn't want to do it right now (due to time constraints or desire for a particular pacing or whatever).

As with any rule, it's on the DM to adjudicate based on the context of the fictional situation that is unfolding. It can't account for every situation that arises during play, no matter how detailed or well-written.

"There are undead in the next room and.....give me five minutes wile I read every room description, here...."

If the intent of the ability is to know that your favored enemy is in the area, it should be rewritten to give that result, and drop all the every-entity-within-6-miles language.

I think folks are getting hung up on this 6 mile radius thing. As I have explained, once you put it in context, most players aren't going to want that information because it's almost entirely irrelevant to their situation. And in many cases, so non-specific as to Type that it'll only be so much unfiltered noise. They'll want to know about something more specific. And if they do want that information for no apparent reason, then it's time to drill down on why.

As for needing to look up what undead are in a location, shouldn't you know you have a ranger with this ability in the party and prepare accordingly?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Next session today!

She got some mileage out of the ability to read the feelings and communicate concepts with beasts, and I think that made her feel very "ranger-y." She also began using Primeval Awareness to check for ambushes. No notable combat power issues arose (with a GWM barbarian on one side and a sneak-attacking rogue on the other vs. enemies with low AC's, her +4 damage is not swinging things notably, even when it applies).

I'm centering in on Primeval Awareness's detection abilities to be a little bit of a blunt instrument when a few different and more precise tools might be more relevant. The concentration isn't a significant cost, and it's easy to basically walk around pinging this and always knowing where your enemies are hiding if they happen to be your favored enemies.