I noticed there's a lot of threads about Ranger, so I'm sorry that I have to add one more to the pool.
But I've been wondering, either as a DM or a player how exactly does this work?
I understand the mechanic itself. I'm talking about from a technical standpoint, because what if we're out in an area where the players don't know that let's say some Undead are lurking around oh, and the Rangers favored enemy is the undead.
Now let's say the ranger wants to check to see if there happened to be any Undead within the radius or if they can spot tracks from the undead etcetera, but since you have to make a roll for your perception and or investigation, since you have to roll with Advantage if your favorite enemy is nearby and you're looking for them, I've kind of had trouble with this both as a player and as a dungeon master.
Because if you told them to roll with advantage that kind of tells everyone on the meta level before the roll is even occurred that there are in fact Undead around you
So would you just have them roll with Advantage regardless and take the lower if there were no Undead, or how would you handle this?
You could also interpret it as the Ranger having great knowledge into their favored enemy, if they specifically look for tracks/signs of that creature they get advantage, but it doesn't mean that there actually is such creature nearby, just that if there are indeed tracks/signs, they would pick them up more easily.
Even a "success" in an area where the are no favore enemies around can be simply "You don't see any sign of undeads around". The important bit is for the player to specifically say they are looking for signs of their favored enemy, so they would focus on specific things and unconsciously disregarding other, therefore potentially missing signs of other creatures/dangers.
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
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I noticed there's a lot of threads about Ranger, so I'm sorry that I have to add one more to the pool.
But I've been wondering, either as a DM or a player how exactly does this work?
I understand the mechanic itself. I'm talking about from a technical standpoint, because what if we're out in an area where the players don't know that let's say some Undead are lurking around oh, and the Rangers favored enemy is the undead.
Now let's say the ranger wants to check to see if there happened to be any Undead within the radius or if they can spot tracks from the undead etcetera, but since you have to make a roll for your perception and or investigation, since you have to roll with Advantage if your favorite enemy is nearby and you're looking for them, I've kind of had trouble with this both as a player and as a dungeon master.
Because if you told them to roll with advantage that kind of tells everyone on the meta level before the roll is even occurred that there are in fact Undead around you
So would you just have them roll with Advantage regardless and take the lower if there were no Undead, or how would you handle this?
Occassional Dungeon Master.
If the ranger’s passive perception is high enough, there isn’t a need to roll. Advantage adds +5 to passive checks.
You could also interpret it as the Ranger having great knowledge into their favored enemy, if they specifically look for tracks/signs of that creature they get advantage, but it doesn't mean that there actually is such creature nearby, just that if there are indeed tracks/signs, they would pick them up more easily.
Even a "success" in an area where the are no favore enemies around can be simply "You don't see any sign of undeads around".
The important bit is for the player to specifically say they are looking for signs of their favored enemy, so they would focus on specific things and unconsciously disregarding other, therefore potentially missing signs of other creatures/dangers.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games