so, you get a bunch of benefits while traveling in your favored terrain, but rather interestingly you gain no features that help you combat the specific dangers of the terrain you chose. An ranger with desert as their favored terrain is no more enduring of extreme heat and hot weather than others, an ranger who chose mountains is no more adapted to high altitudes, an coastal ranger is no better at swimming or holding their breath, an under dark ranger does not see better in the dark than anyone else, an swamp ranger is just as susceptible to horrible bog disease, an ranger with the arctic is no more resilient to cold weather, like what the heck even in your favored terrain where you are supposed to be like in your element you are still shit at exploring, like yeah in real life spending a lot of time adapting to high altitudes will only give you an benefit for short periods of time, and it takes time for your eyes to adapt to the dark, but this is supposed to be magic fantasy land and you are supposed to be like an magic survival expert, not an normal survival expert, you dont see bear grills or whatever he is called go around casting spells like ensnaring strike, good berry and conjure animals, because he is not magic, but you are magic so why no special benefit for each terrain it would be so simple and would really help the ranger be useful in some niche situations outside your favored terrain
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
I think that you make a good point. Rangers should get some other benefit for it, and this would make ranger more appealing to not use UA class variants.
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'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
or better yet, the abillity to change freely between natural explorer and deft explorer, so maybe at level 1 i choose favoured terrain (desert) since that fits my character better, and then later since me character is still mostly an desert dweller i pick up tireless from deft explorer, since that feature works perfectly with the flavour as an desert explorer, or canny to give me advantage on survival checks. Or maybe it is vice versa, that an character starts out at 1st level as this person who is determined to explore the entire world, but then at some point ether at level 6 or 14 he begins to settle down somewhere in a local mountain or forest and begins to take care of that local enviorment. Allow an player to get favoured foe, and then to later also pick up favoured enemy, or to start with favoured enemy and get favoured foe later. The variant rules are fun, the old rules are interesting, but executed poorly and an merger or the two might be fantastic
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
a Wisdom Survival check made with advantage to resist the terrain environmental hazard (topped up with double proficiency because of the feature) is pretty much makeing you resistant to any temperature hasard in your environment, you can even find food and water in the desert because of that featuire as opposed to not being able to find anything at all if you dont. It also helps you to avoid all terrain dangerous features like quicksands, sandstrom and exposure.
The key here is advantage + double proficiency of the Wisdom (Survival) it does everything you think the features lacks.
a Wisdom Survival check made with advantage to resist the terrain environmental hazard (topped up with double proficiency because of the feature) is pretty much makeing you resistant to any temperature hasard in your environment, you can even find food and water in the desert because of that featuire as opposed to not being able to find anything at all if you dont. It also helps you to avoid all terrain dangerous features like quicksands, sandstrom and exposure.
The key here is advantage + double proficiency of the Wisdom (Survival) it does everything you think the features lacks.
Except you rarely make Wisdom (Survival) checks to resist environmental hazards. It's useless against extreme heat or cold.
a Wisdom Survival check made with advantage to resist the terrain environmental hazard (topped up with double proficiency because of the feature) is pretty much makeing you resistant to any temperature hasard in your environment, you can even find food and water in the desert because of that featuire as opposed to not being able to find anything at all if you dont. It also helps you to avoid all terrain dangerous features like quicksands, sandstrom and exposure.
The key here is advantage + double proficiency of the Wisdom (Survival) it does everything you think the features lacks.
Except you rarely make Wisdom (Survival) checks to resist environmental hazards. It's useless against extreme heat or cold.
True, this would likely be a Con Save, which Natural Explorer does not benefit
a Wisdom Survival check made with advantage to resist the terrain environmental hazard (topped up with double proficiency because of the feature) is pretty much makeing you resistant to any temperature hasard in your environment, you can even find food and water in the desert because of that featuire as opposed to not being able to find anything at all if you dont. It also helps you to avoid all terrain dangerous features like quicksands, sandstrom and exposure.
The key here is advantage + double proficiency of the Wisdom (Survival) it does everything you think the features lacks.
Except you rarely make Wisdom (Survival) checks to resist environmental hazards. It's useless against extreme heat or cold.
True, this would likely be a Con Save, which Natural Explorer does not benefit
the rules are in the dungeon master's guide, you do in fact make a con save in both instances of extreme cold and heat (but by making shure to stay hydrated and wearing adequate clothing you do not have to make the save at all, and like honestly the DC's get kinda trivial). That being said seeing as how you most often make an constitution saving throw to resist enviormental hazards and to resist poisons as well as to determine how long you can subsist without food or water, how come rangers are not proficient in constituion saving throws? it makes much more sense than for them to be proficient in strength, seeing as how it governs what an ranger would need to encounter in their daily life? also why do they not get more tricks that might help them against specific enviorons and creatures, like getting see invisibillity, blight, protection from energy and create water
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
When in the party there are more strenght & willing to fight than efficient and strategic chars, then it's time to choose an explorer, and let them clear the path ( plus the bonus on adquiring info about what's on our vaccinity ), to later just let the killers satisty their pride and honour.
That being said seeing as how you most often make an constitution saving throw to resist enviormental hazards and to resist poisons as well as to determine how long you can subsist without food or water, how come rangers are not proficient in constituion saving throws? it makes much more sense than for them to be proficient in strength, seeing as how it governs what an ranger would need to encounter in their daily life?
Because the Ranger is a real mess design-wise.
The class is fine, albeit a little front-loaded. And the feature we're discussing is Natural Explorer, not Gone Native. It's a fantastic feature for tackling the exploration pillar of the game. But you have to actually use the pillar for it to matter.
The concept of the baseline ranger is built to enhance a lot of things many tables and players (DMs includes) don’t value, understand, or use in their games. Favored Enemy (which I still think should have been called Favored Creature) and Natural Explorer enhance the ranger through their mental game, intelligence and wisdom skills and knowledge. A ranger doesn’t get combat or direct mechanic benefits from natural explorer like you mentioned, just as a regular person won’t get them, them get enhanced knowledge regarding those environments. A ranger would be able to “know” how to tell the forecast and predict bad extreme weather (storms, change of temperatures), know how to find and/or make things to protect the party from existing external weather (salves, furs, moss, etc), know how to find food and water in extreme weather (water in a cactus plant), and the like. It grants the ability to know/remember/find the answers they need for the whole party, not just an image mechanical ability that only benefits them.
The concept of the baseline ranger is built to enhance a lot of things many tables and players (DMs includes) don’t value, understand, or use in their games. Favored Enemy (which I still think should have been called Favored Creature) and Natural Explorer enhance the ranger through their mental game, intelligence and wisdom skills and knowledge. A ranger doesn’t get combat or direct mechanic benefits from natural explorer like you mentioned, just as a regular person won’t get them, them get enhanced knowledge regarding those environments. A ranger would be able to “know” how to tell the forecast and predict bad extreme weather (storms, change of temperatures), know how to find and/or make things to protect the party from existing external weather (salves, furs, moss, etc), know how to find food and water in extreme weather (water in a cactus plant), and the like. It grants the ability to know/remember/find the answers they need for the whole party, not just an image mechanical ability that only benefits them.
Thank you for hitting the nail on the head. The ranger is support-oriented. They make the party better, and they do it really well, but because of that, rangers have a negative reputation. One of the reasons why I loathe theorycrafting so much is because it almost always only thinks inward. I can't recall the last one I saw that offered a suggestion on how to make the party better.
And their overall damage output isn't that bad. My only two gripes are their spellcasting got shafted and Primeval Awareness is...difficult to use. But they're not bad or unplayable. If they're going to shine, then you need a DM and party that is willing to care about exploration so they have the opportunity. If people don't care about those things, that doesn't mean it's a bad class or feature. It means they're not playing the game "as intended."
Or are they? We are, after all, empowered to customize the experience, use what we like, and discard what we don't.
The concept of the baseline ranger is built to enhance a lot of things many tables and players (DMs includes) don’t value, understand, or use in their games. Favored Enemy (which I still think should have been called Favored Creature) and Natural Explorer enhance the ranger through their mental game, intelligence and wisdom skills and knowledge. A ranger doesn’t get combat or direct mechanic benefits from natural explorer like you mentioned, just as a regular person won’t get them, them get enhanced knowledge regarding those environments. A ranger would be able to “know” how to tell the forecast and predict bad extreme weather (storms, change of temperatures), know how to find and/or make things to protect the party from existing external weather (salves, furs, moss, etc), know how to find food and water in extreme weather (water in a cactus plant), and the like. It grants the ability to know/remember/find the answers they need for the whole party, not just an image mechanical ability that only benefits them.
Thank you for hitting the nail on the head. The ranger is support-oriented. They make the party better, and they do it really well, but because of that, rangers have a negative reputation. One of the reasons why I loathe theorycrafting so much is because it almost always only thinks inward. I can't recall the last one I saw that offered a suggestion on how to make the party better.
And their overall damage output isn't that bad. My only two gripes are their spellcasting got shafted and Primeval Awareness is...difficult to use. But they're not bad or unplayable. If they're going to shine, then you need a DM and party that is willing to care about exploration so they have the opportunity. If people don't care about those things, that doesn't mean it's a bad class or feature. It means they're not playing the game "as intended."
Or are they? We are, after all, empowered to customize the experience, use what we like, and discard what we don't.
i was by no means suggesting that one abillity to replace their pre-existing abillities, merely for it to be an small add-on to simply please the player and give them a small additional trick that might work when they are in terrain that is unfamiliar to them, because as it is right now barbarians and rouges are just as good if not better at the thing that is supposed to be the ranger's niche, an rouge or bard who picks up expertise in nature and survival will be just as knowledgeable about the ranger's favoured terrain or any other terrain as an ranger would, an barbarian will be going around shrugging off bad weather, hunger, thirst, sleep deprivation and long travel better whilst boosting the travel pace of their party via the elk totem. I also personally think a slight boost to the favoured enemy feature by making an ranger more familiar with the lairs of an favoured enemy and letting him gauge the numbers of favoured enemies he is tracking in the same manner he can while in his favoured terrain would be a good idea, two slight boosts to exploration letting him shine in some contexts
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
The problem with Natural Explorer is that you'll hardly ever get to use it. Even if you take a rather ubiquitous Favored Terrain type like Forest, unless you have a very forgiving DM, only a fraction of your adventuring career will take place within forests. You're in a town/city? It does nothing. In a dungeon? It does nothing. On a ship? It does nothing. In mountains? It does nothing. Etc.
Natural Explorer would be good if it didn't require you to select a terrain, but rather applied to all natural terrain.
And, yes, you get additional Favored Terrains at 6th and 10th, but even having three total subject terrain types might get you to the point where the character can benefit from the ability in about half of travel circumstances.
It's the same issue with Favored Enemy. The issue isn't that the benefit is not flashy. The issue is that it is far too restrictive in when and where it can be used. This is a serious design flaw and demonstrates a significant lack of balance between classes. Compare it to the other core class's 1st level abilities to the Ranger's level 1 abilities; none of them have similar restrictions on when/where they can use their 1st level abilities. Imagine if Barbarians could only Rage in specific terrain types, for comparison, or if a Fighter could only use his Fighting Style against a specific creature type. The closest restriction is the Paladin's Divine Sense, but that can be used against three different enemy types (Celestial, Fiend, and Undead), whereas a Ranger's Favored Enemy could only select one of them.
To me, these two features as they exist in the Player's Handbook never should have made it out of playtest. I feel like they were kept more as a nod to previous editions than because they actually work. If they wanted Rangers to be good at the "exploration phase" of the game, these two benefits should have been constant in all situations rather than forcing a Ranger to be limited so narrowly.
so, you get a bunch of benefits while traveling in your favored terrain, but rather interestingly you gain no features that help you combat the specific dangers of the terrain you chose. An ranger with desert as their favored terrain is no more enduring of extreme heat and hot weather than others, an ranger who chose mountains is no more adapted to high altitudes, an coastal ranger is no better at swimming or holding their breath, an under dark ranger does not see better in the dark than anyone else, an swamp ranger is just as susceptible to horrible bog disease, an ranger with the arctic is no more resilient to cold weather, like what the heck even in your favored terrain where you are supposed to be like in your element you are still shit at exploring, like yeah in real life spending a lot of time adapting to high altitudes will only give you an benefit for short periods of time, and it takes time for your eyes to adapt to the dark, but this is supposed to be magic fantasy land and you are supposed to be like an magic survival expert, not an normal survival expert, you dont see bear grills or whatever he is called go around casting spells like ensnaring strike, good berry and conjure animals, because he is not magic, but you are magic so why no special benefit for each terrain it would be so simple and would really help the ranger be useful in some niche situations outside your favored terrain
Except that it does make sense. Just because you know how to traverse a desert or climb a mountain doesn't make you somehow magically resistant to heat or cold. Why would a spelunker magically develop dark vision just because they like crawling around in caves? That's what Gloom Stalkers are for. Or just pick up Darkvision as your second level spell.
You kind of answer your own question, though. Adapting to certain enviroments only gives you short term benefits. And just like you say, Rangers already are magic survival experts. Need food and healing? Goodberries. Get sick? Lesser restoration. Need to travel long distances? Longstrider. So the Ranger already has what you are asking for.
or better yet, the abillity to change freely between natural explorer and deft explorer, so maybe at level 1 i choose favoured terrain (desert) since that fits my character better, and then later since me character is still mostly an desert dweller i pick up tireless from deft explorer, since that feature works perfectly with the flavour as an desert explorer, or canny to give me advantage on survival checks. Or maybe it is vice versa, that an character starts out at 1st level as this person who is determined to explore the entire world, but then at some point ether at level 6 or 14 he begins to settle down somewhere in a local mountain or forest and begins to take care of that local enviorment. Allow an player to get favoured foe, and then to later also pick up favoured enemy, or to start with favoured enemy and get favoured foe later. The variant rules are fun, the old rules are interesting, but executed poorly and an merger or the two might be fantastic
This is exactly what I plan to do with the ranger I’m running through Rime of the Frostmaiden. I took Natural Explorer and Favored Enemy up front, but it would make no sense to add another environment when I hit level 6, when this guy is staying in Icewind Dale for his whole life. I want to try out Roving and Tireless. I figure I’ll take those in order to avoid an OP option, skipping Canny, since I took Skill Expert at 4 and the other ones don’t really build on each other (also, I haven’t been taking language lessons, so it would be weird to pop two languages into my skill set for no good reason). I haven’t decided about Favored Enemy, but I’ve encountered such varied foes, choosing one would make little sense. I plan to take the 1d4 FE at 6th level, since that’s where the tree starts, and it seems greedy to start in the middle of that progression. My DM is down with this. We don’t think it’ll break anything! Has anyone tried something like this?
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so, you get a bunch of benefits while traveling in your favored terrain, but rather interestingly you gain no features that help you combat the specific dangers of the terrain you chose. An ranger with desert as their favored terrain is no more enduring of extreme heat and hot weather than others, an ranger who chose mountains is no more adapted to high altitudes, an coastal ranger is no better at swimming or holding their breath, an under dark ranger does not see better in the dark than anyone else, an swamp ranger is just as susceptible to horrible bog disease, an ranger with the arctic is no more resilient to cold weather, like what the heck even in your favored terrain where you are supposed to be like in your element you are still shit at exploring, like yeah in real life spending a lot of time adapting to high altitudes will only give you an benefit for short periods of time, and it takes time for your eyes to adapt to the dark, but this is supposed to be magic fantasy land and you are supposed to be like an magic survival expert, not an normal survival expert, you dont see bear grills or whatever he is called go around casting spells like ensnaring strike, good berry and conjure animals, because he is not magic, but you are magic so why no special benefit for each terrain it would be so simple and would really help the ranger be useful in some niche situations outside your favored terrain
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
I think that you make a good point. Rangers should get some other benefit for it, and this would make ranger more appealing to not use UA class variants.
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
or better yet, the abillity to change freely between natural explorer and deft explorer, so maybe at level 1 i choose favoured terrain (desert) since that fits my character better, and then later since me character is still mostly an desert dweller i pick up tireless from deft explorer, since that feature works perfectly with the flavour as an desert explorer, or canny to give me advantage on survival checks. Or maybe it is vice versa, that an character starts out at 1st level as this person who is determined to explore the entire world, but then at some point ether at level 6 or 14 he begins to settle down somewhere in a local mountain or forest and begins to take care of that local enviorment. Allow an player to get favoured foe, and then to later also pick up favoured enemy, or to start with favoured enemy and get favoured foe later. The variant rules are fun, the old rules are interesting, but executed poorly and an merger or the two might be fantastic
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
That sounds cool.
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
You should check out the Happy Fun Hour video that Mike Mearls did for his personal Revised Ranger. It has more of the effects you are looking for.
thanks but i have already made my own, will probably check it out anyways
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
This is untrue,
a Wisdom Survival check made with advantage to resist the terrain environmental hazard (topped up with double proficiency because of the feature) is pretty much makeing you resistant to any temperature hasard in your environment, you can even find food and water in the desert because of that featuire as opposed to not being able to find anything at all if you dont. It also helps you to avoid all terrain dangerous features like quicksands, sandstrom and exposure.
The key here is advantage + double proficiency of the Wisdom (Survival) it does everything you think the features lacks.
Except you rarely make Wisdom (Survival) checks to resist environmental hazards. It's useless against extreme heat or cold.
True, this would likely be a Con Save, which Natural Explorer does not benefit
the rules are in the dungeon master's guide, you do in fact make a con save in both instances of extreme cold and heat (but by making shure to stay hydrated and wearing adequate clothing you do not have to make the save at all, and like honestly the DC's get kinda trivial). That being said seeing as how you most often make an constitution saving throw to resist enviormental hazards and to resist poisons as well as to determine how long you can subsist without food or water, how come rangers are not proficient in constituion saving throws? it makes much more sense than for them to be proficient in strength, seeing as how it governs what an ranger would need to encounter in their daily life? also why do they not get more tricks that might help them against specific enviorons and creatures, like getting see invisibillity, blight, protection from energy and create water
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
When in the party there are more strenght & willing to fight than efficient and strategic chars, then it's time to choose an explorer, and let them clear the path ( plus the bonus on adquiring info about what's on our vaccinity ), to later just let the killers satisty their pride and honour.
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
The class is fine, albeit a little front-loaded. And the feature we're discussing is Natural Explorer, not Gone Native. It's a fantastic feature for tackling the exploration pillar of the game. But you have to actually use the pillar for it to matter.
The concept of the baseline ranger is built to enhance a lot of things many tables and players (DMs includes) don’t value, understand, or use in their games. Favored Enemy (which I still think should have been called Favored Creature) and Natural Explorer enhance the ranger through their mental game, intelligence and wisdom skills and knowledge. A ranger doesn’t get combat or direct mechanic benefits from natural explorer like you mentioned, just as a regular person won’t get them, them get enhanced knowledge regarding those environments. A ranger would be able to “know” how to tell the forecast and predict bad extreme weather (storms, change of temperatures), know how to find and/or make things to protect the party from existing external weather (salves, furs, moss, etc), know how to find food and water in extreme weather (water in a cactus plant), and the like. It grants the ability to know/remember/find the answers they need for the whole party, not just an image mechanical ability that only benefits them.
Thank you for hitting the nail on the head. The ranger is support-oriented. They make the party better, and they do it really well, but because of that, rangers have a negative reputation. One of the reasons why I loathe theorycrafting so much is because it almost always only thinks inward. I can't recall the last one I saw that offered a suggestion on how to make the party better.
And their overall damage output isn't that bad. My only two gripes are their spellcasting got shafted and Primeval Awareness is...difficult to use. But they're not bad or unplayable. If they're going to shine, then you need a DM and party that is willing to care about exploration so they have the opportunity. If people don't care about those things, that doesn't mean it's a bad class or feature. It means they're not playing the game "as intended."
Or are they? We are, after all, empowered to customize the experience, use what we like, and discard what we don't.
i was by no means suggesting that one abillity to replace their pre-existing abillities, merely for it to be an small add-on to simply please the player and give them a small additional trick that might work when they are in terrain that is unfamiliar to them, because as it is right now barbarians and rouges are just as good if not better at the thing that is supposed to be the ranger's niche, an rouge or bard who picks up expertise in nature and survival will be just as knowledgeable about the ranger's favoured terrain or any other terrain as an ranger would, an barbarian will be going around shrugging off bad weather, hunger, thirst, sleep deprivation and long travel better whilst boosting the travel pace of their party via the elk totem. I also personally think a slight boost to the favoured enemy feature by making an ranger more familiar with the lairs of an favoured enemy and letting him gauge the numbers of favoured enemies he is tracking in the same manner he can while in his favoured terrain would be a good idea, two slight boosts to exploration letting him shine in some contexts
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
The problem with Natural Explorer is that you'll hardly ever get to use it. Even if you take a rather ubiquitous Favored Terrain type like Forest, unless you have a very forgiving DM, only a fraction of your adventuring career will take place within forests. You're in a town/city? It does nothing. In a dungeon? It does nothing. On a ship? It does nothing. In mountains? It does nothing. Etc.
Natural Explorer would be good if it didn't require you to select a terrain, but rather applied to all natural terrain.
And, yes, you get additional Favored Terrains at 6th and 10th, but even having three total subject terrain types might get you to the point where the character can benefit from the ability in about half of travel circumstances.
It's the same issue with Favored Enemy. The issue isn't that the benefit is not flashy. The issue is that it is far too restrictive in when and where it can be used. This is a serious design flaw and demonstrates a significant lack of balance between classes. Compare it to the other core class's 1st level abilities to the Ranger's level 1 abilities; none of them have similar restrictions on when/where they can use their 1st level abilities. Imagine if Barbarians could only Rage in specific terrain types, for comparison, or if a Fighter could only use his Fighting Style against a specific creature type. The closest restriction is the Paladin's Divine Sense, but that can be used against three different enemy types (Celestial, Fiend, and Undead), whereas a Ranger's Favored Enemy could only select one of them.
To me, these two features as they exist in the Player's Handbook never should have made it out of playtest. I feel like they were kept more as a nod to previous editions than because they actually work. If they wanted Rangers to be good at the "exploration phase" of the game, these two benefits should have been constant in all situations rather than forcing a Ranger to be limited so narrowly.
Except that it does make sense. Just because you know how to traverse a desert or climb a mountain doesn't make you somehow magically resistant to heat or cold. Why would a spelunker magically develop dark vision just because they like crawling around in caves? That's what Gloom Stalkers are for. Or just pick up Darkvision as your second level spell.
You kind of answer your own question, though. Adapting to certain enviroments only gives you short term benefits. And just like you say, Rangers already are magic survival experts. Need food and healing? Goodberries. Get sick? Lesser restoration. Need to travel long distances? Longstrider. So the Ranger already has what you are asking for.
This is exactly what I plan to do with the ranger I’m running through Rime of the Frostmaiden. I took Natural Explorer and Favored Enemy up front, but it would make no sense to add another environment when I hit level 6, when this guy is staying in Icewind Dale for his whole life. I want to try out Roving and Tireless. I figure I’ll take those in order to avoid an OP option, skipping Canny, since I took Skill Expert at 4 and the other ones don’t really build on each other (also, I haven’t been taking language lessons, so it would be weird to pop two languages into my skill set for no good reason). I haven’t decided about Favored Enemy, but I’ve encountered such varied foes, choosing one would make little sense. I plan to take the 1d4 FE at 6th level, since that’s where the tree starts, and it seems greedy to start in the middle of that progression. My DM is down with this. We don’t think it’ll break anything! Has anyone tried something like this?