You are particularly familiar with one type of natural environment and are adept at traveling and surviving in such regions. Choose one type of favored terrain: arctic, coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp, or the Underdark. When you make an Intelligence or Wisdom check related to your favored terrain, your proficiency bonus is doubled if you are using a skill that you’re proficient in.
I’ve always loved how the last sentence of this (see above) paragraph is specifically worded. It doesn’t require you to be in your favored terrain at all. The task you are trying to complete, using a wisdom or intelligence based skill check you are proficient in, only has to be related to your favorite terrain to gain the double proficiency bonus bump. This, for me anyway, just opens up the doors of creativity! If your table uses the variant on page 175 of the PHB (skills with different abilities) these “doors” is even bigger!
What are some of your creative ideas to use this ability to gain that wonderful “expertise”?! Some of my ideas are:
Investigation, perception, history, nature, or survival checks on artwork (tapestries or paintings), plants in a garden, herbalist shop ingredients, or kitchen ingredients using plants or animals native to your favored terrain.
Nature or survival checks regarding using a map to plan a route through, planning a siege upon a fortress located in, or discussing plants, animals, or landscape features of your favored terrain.
Religion checks about the deities that are associated with your favored terrain.
Making an animal handling check on a beast native to your favored terrain?
Using insight on someone when they are making a statement, claim, or sales pitch regarding animals, plants, weather, geographical features, or history regarding your favored terrain.
Making a medicine check using supplies (plants, herbs, etc) from your favored, treating a venom or poison from a creature or plant from your favored terrain, or diagnosing and treating a disease commonly associated with or in your favored terrain.
Using nature to predict the weather changes before you start traveling.
History, survival, or nature checks to know about the type of creatures and environmental hazards that typically exist in your favored terrain. Favored enemy gives you advantage on tracking and recalling information about your favored enemies, but if a creature is associated with your favored terrain (giants and goblins in mountains, hags and black dragons in swamps, unicorns and shambling mounds in the forest) you could get double proficiency other checks about them instead/also!
Using wisdom or intelligence with the stealth skill proficiency to create camouflage from, and use while in, your favored terrain.
This is correct. The people that consider Favored Terrain to be a binary feature hasn't read the feature properly.
Also, For those thinking that you can't miss your destination as a Ranger in their terrain, that is incorrect.
Rangers in their terrain cannot get lost. That doesn't mean they automatically know their destination. If they don't know the direction and distance of their objective, they may still go the wrong way.
Yep! Thank you! It isn’t a so called “auto win” ability for overland travel at all.
I (as a DM) also don’t mind allowing a common thing, like tracking a creature, to branch out (no pun intended) to other places. If you are tracking a creature in a cave or dungeon, it is reasonable to say that it is related to your favored terrains if they are are forest and/or mountain. Same for tracking in a sewer system with favored terrains of swamp and/or underdark.
As a DM you should be aware of this in other ways too. If you ask characters to make perception checks because there is a chance they might notice a creature sneaking up on them, the ranger should have double their proficiency bonus if that creature is native to their favored terrain. Perhaps even advantage, if the creature is one of their favored enemies.
Remembering, knowing, or deducing information about a creature (translation: a character having information the player does without meta gaming) is one of the hallmarks of their ranger’s ability toolkit. Nature, history, religion, arcana, investigation, insight, or perception along with favored enemy and favored terrain. The XGtE doubles down on this idea.
A beast master with a hawk or owl and the beast sense spell can be flying around with double proficiency and at advantage making tracking or perception checks.
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Natural Explorer
You are particularly familiar with one type of natural environment and are adept at traveling and surviving in such regions. Choose one type of favored terrain: arctic, coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp, or the Underdark. When you make an Intelligence or Wisdom check related to your favored terrain, your proficiency bonus is doubled if you are using a skill that you’re proficient in.
I’ve always loved how the last sentence of this (see above) paragraph is specifically worded. It doesn’t require you to be in your favored terrain at all. The task you are trying to complete, using a wisdom or intelligence based skill check you are proficient in, only has to be related to your favorite terrain to gain the double proficiency bonus bump. This, for me anyway, just opens up the doors of creativity! If your table uses the variant on page 175 of the PHB (skills with different abilities) these “doors” is even bigger!
What are some of your creative ideas to use this ability to gain that wonderful “expertise”?! Some of my ideas are:
Investigation, perception, history, nature, or survival checks on artwork (tapestries or paintings), plants in a garden, herbalist shop ingredients, or kitchen ingredients using plants or animals native to your favored terrain.
Nature or survival checks regarding using a map to plan a route through, planning a siege upon a fortress located in, or discussing plants, animals, or landscape features of your favored terrain.
Religion checks about the deities that are associated with your favored terrain.
Making an animal handling check on a beast native to your favored terrain?
Using insight on someone when they are making a statement, claim, or sales pitch regarding animals, plants, weather, geographical features, or history regarding your favored terrain.
Making a medicine check using supplies (plants, herbs, etc) from your favored, treating a venom or poison from a creature or plant from your favored terrain, or diagnosing and treating a disease commonly associated with or in your favored terrain.
Using nature to predict the weather changes before you start traveling.
History, survival, or nature checks to know about the type of creatures and environmental hazards that typically exist in your favored terrain. Favored enemy gives you advantage on tracking and recalling information about your favored enemies, but if a creature is associated with your favored terrain (giants and goblins in mountains, hags and black dragons in swamps, unicorns and shambling mounds in the forest) you could get double proficiency other checks about them instead/also!
Using wisdom or intelligence with the stealth skill proficiency to create camouflage from, and use while in, your favored terrain.
This is correct. The people that consider Favored Terrain to be a binary feature hasn't read the feature properly.
Also, For those thinking that you can't miss your destination as a Ranger in their terrain, that is incorrect.
Rangers in their terrain cannot get lost. That doesn't mean they automatically know their destination. If they don't know the direction and distance of their objective, they may still go the wrong way.
Yep! Thank you! It isn’t a so called “auto win” ability for overland travel at all.
I (as a DM) also don’t mind allowing a common thing, like tracking a creature, to branch out (no pun intended) to other places. If you are tracking a creature in a cave or dungeon, it is reasonable to say that it is related to your favored terrains if they are are forest and/or mountain. Same for tracking in a sewer system with favored terrains of swamp and/or underdark.
As a DM you should be aware of this in other ways too. If you ask characters to make perception checks because there is a chance they might notice a creature sneaking up on them, the ranger should have double their proficiency bonus if that creature is native to their favored terrain. Perhaps even advantage, if the creature is one of their favored enemies.
Remembering, knowing, or deducing information about a creature (translation: a character having information the player does without meta gaming) is one of the hallmarks of their ranger’s ability toolkit. Nature, history, religion, arcana, investigation, insight, or perception along with favored enemy and favored terrain. The XGtE doubles down on this idea.
A beast master with a hawk or owl and the beast sense spell can be flying around with double proficiency and at advantage making tracking or perception checks.