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What is/should be the Ranger's "thing"?
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<blockquote data-quote="TheCosmicKid" data-source="post: 6670617" data-attributes="member: 6683613"><p>I stand corrected on the pedigree of the writing.</p><p></p><p>But doesn't this actually just reinforce my position? Gygax saw this combination of abilities and thought, not "favored enemy guy", but "woodsman".</p><p></p><p>That's my position too. I simply don't believe it has to be favored enemy -- and I see reasons why it <em>shouldn't</em>.</p><p></p><p>Which is why I recommend expanding the coverage of the Natural Explorer ability.</p><p></p><p>There's an idea that's been floated a few times in this thread that favored terrain (as well as favored enemy) give unique abilities that are dependent on the choice of terrain, but "always on" once chosen. For instance, a climb speed if your favored terrain is forest or a swim speed if it's swamp. You picked up these particular talents in your homeland, but they're applicable anywhere. This could differentiate characters. Then just give the class the Natural Explorer benefits flexibly or permanently as a baseline level of wilderness competence. Is that appealing to you?</p><p></p><p>The consensus among the "change favored enemy" crowd in this thread seems to be converging on something like hunter's mark. Activating it by tracking and/or unseen observation rather than just a swift action seems very flavorful to me.</p><p></p><p>I believe that, rather than give players an oddball ability and ask them to re-fluff it, it's better for the game not to give players an oddball ability in the first place, but rather give them abilities they'd expect <em>a priori</em>.</p><p></p><p>I think we're reaching an understanding.</p><p></p><p>I should say that I don't think the rogue's "thing" is Sneak Attack <em>per se</em>. The rogue's "thing" is being tricky; Sneak Attack arises as the most important natural expression of that theme in a game as combat-focused as D&D. And I think the same applies to the ranger. Its "thing" is survival; now the game designers have to find an ability that naturally expresses that theme in a way such as to make the ranger's combat encounters interesting.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheCosmicKid, post: 6670617, member: 6683613"] I stand corrected on the pedigree of the writing. But doesn't this actually just reinforce my position? Gygax saw this combination of abilities and thought, not "favored enemy guy", but "woodsman". That's my position too. I simply don't believe it has to be favored enemy -- and I see reasons why it [I]shouldn't[/I]. Which is why I recommend expanding the coverage of the Natural Explorer ability. There's an idea that's been floated a few times in this thread that favored terrain (as well as favored enemy) give unique abilities that are dependent on the choice of terrain, but "always on" once chosen. For instance, a climb speed if your favored terrain is forest or a swim speed if it's swamp. You picked up these particular talents in your homeland, but they're applicable anywhere. This could differentiate characters. Then just give the class the Natural Explorer benefits flexibly or permanently as a baseline level of wilderness competence. Is that appealing to you? The consensus among the "change favored enemy" crowd in this thread seems to be converging on something like hunter's mark. Activating it by tracking and/or unseen observation rather than just a swift action seems very flavorful to me. I believe that, rather than give players an oddball ability and ask them to re-fluff it, it's better for the game not to give players an oddball ability in the first place, but rather give them abilities they'd expect [I]a priori[/I]. I think we're reaching an understanding. I should say that I don't think the rogue's "thing" is Sneak Attack [I]per se[/I]. The rogue's "thing" is being tricky; Sneak Attack arises as the most important natural expression of that theme in a game as combat-focused as D&D. And I think the same applies to the ranger. Its "thing" is survival; now the game designers have to find an ability that naturally expresses that theme in a way such as to make the ranger's combat encounters interesting. [/QUOTE]
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