Level Up (A5E) Will a Druid ruin my exploration heavy game?

[Jacob Vardy]

Even with eagle eyes, five hours of flight is not going to allow detail examination of a lot of ground. Especially since half of it will be flying back to the rest of the party. Point to contemporary warfare, even with extensive air assets, tactical and strategic surprise is possible. Like in the Nagorno-Karabakh War, or the Taliban kicking the Yankees out of Afghanistan.

But as was written above, don't take away the player's shinnies.

I'd be inclined to make the druid's scouting an off-screen / downtime kinda-thing. After which the druid sleeps in a wagon or sling. Leaving them able to participate in the eight hours of "adventure" time. Give the player a choice of doing a broad survey, a quick check of a couple of things, or detailed inspection of one thing. "Are you going to watch out for threats? Look for watering holes? Or make sure the next camp site has drinkable water?" Let the player roll their attempt, do a quick narration, then give the party appropriate bonuses.

 

[aco175]

You actually have another option:

4. Give the exploration its full due, but do periodic "scene switches" back to the rest of the party and have something happen where they are. You said the plan was for them to escort a column of refugees, right? Let those people have personalities, agendas, needs, wants, and things they can contribute that will keep the other PC occupied.

Do a little of the druid's thing, hit "pause" on that, go back to the rest of the party, let them do their thing for a bit, hit "pause" there, lather, rinse, repeat. Ideally, both parts of the party will have something to the other part when they're reunited.

I like this idea. Similar to a lot of TV shows where there is a main episode plot and a minor plot to involve the rest of the cast. The refugees are there to be used and they can come up with ideas that get them into trouble and need rescuing.

1- A fight is always good. Druid is scouting and the other PCs are in a fight. It can come from many different ways. NPC could wander off looking for food and and PCs find him tied up by goblins, hiding in a tree from a rhino, or leads monsters back to the rest of the group.

2- NPCs want to split the group and the rest of the PCs need to figure out how to keep the group together.

3- Lost in Space Dr. Smith has great ideas but keeps causing problems wanting to lead the group. Might make a deal with other locals that attack or resort to using poison to try to kill someone/ PCs. Denies that he thought it was poison or diverts suspicion on another NPC.

4- NPC gets hurt and slows party down

5- Strange storm causes the PCs to hide out in old temple/ cave/ giant tree and deal with monster that lives there. You can also give a clue about another adventure. Perhaps there is a petrified person there of a strange monolith with ancient runes. Means nothing now, but foreshadows.

 

[Baron Opal II]

This is incorrect. The party will start in an open area surrounding by a large variety of regions. Forests, jungles, open grasslands, blasted lands, the whole show.

Ah, okay.

Realizing that, I could see the party insisting that the druid do some pretty heavy scouting for a couple of days to make an informed choice on which direction to go. You might want to make up a few handouts for each direction and maybe tied to perception scores. If you think that would be likely, you could even just give them one or two directions before the session.

I agree that this would be a good pre-game conversation; what do you want to do, and here is how I see it becoming a pain in the neck.

 

[CleverNickName]

So my fear is a huge part of the exploration is going to be druid only, not all of it of course (there will always be some things that will warrant the full party's attention), but the druid will singlehandedly suss out a lot of the interesting things and steal a lot of the screentime.

Nah, I doubt it. Just make sure the rest of the party has a way to follow the Druid, and then take the exploration phase of the game with them, wherever they go.

The party burrows beneath the ground? Give them caves, tombs, and forgotten vaults to find when they get there.
The party takes to the sky? Give them airships and cloud castles to explore when they get there.
The party takes to the sea? Give them uncharted islands, dead ships, and floating cities to explore when they get there.
The party dives beneath the waves? Drowned catacombs, sea caves, and sunken cities, baby.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I think someone mentioned it earlier, but any 1st level character with a flying familiar creates half of these issues, and there have been flying familiars since day 1 of O5e.

Given that, it does not seem that aerial reconnaissance is intended to be a challenge in 5e in general. So this particular issue isn't a Level Up rules issue at all, it‘s a philosophical question about whether you agree with the 5e philosophy that aerial reconnaissance is essentially free.

 

[MarkB]

I think someone mentioned it earlier, but any 1st level character with a flying familiar creates half of these issues, and there have been flying familiars since day 1 of O5e.

Given that, it does not seem that aerial reconnaissance is intended to be a challenge in 5e in general. So this particular issue isn't a Level Up rules issue at all, it‘s a philosophical question about whether you agree with the 5e philosophy that aerial reconnaissance is essentially free.

Flying familiars aren't an issue in this particular situation, though, because you lose direct control of them beyond a certain range. At best, you could send it on survey flights while seeing through its eyes, but with no way to make it focus on a point of interest. Plus a familiar is easy prey to any flying predator, and in a wilderness scenario there's no telling when you'll be able to restock on spell components.

 

[Legendweaver]

Someone else mentioned it already, but why not foreshadow some aerial predators early on? Not something unbeatable, just enough of a threat for the players to be cautious about sending someone to soar through the open skies on solo-scouting missions?