Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Grimcleaver May 12, 2015 14:40:32	So rangers have an ability where for a spell slot they can tell whether there's something fey, aberrant, fiendish or undead within a mile of them. It's binary. Yes or no. No sense of direction, distance, type (could be a skeleton or a lich), anything. So fairly underwhelming. You might know if there's a demon in town or undead within a mile of your campsite, but really kind of a dog of an ability. The frustration is that when you use it with your favored terrain it gets worse! The range goes from one mile to six! Now here's the thing: if you have a binary sense for something bad, you want to be able to hone that ability in--zoom in closer to the area you're in to winnow out false reads or less pressing threats. A tighter focus. Blasting it out six miles is sort of crazy. Instead of being able to pin down a target to a two mile range, they could be anywhere in twelve. Is there some logic to this I'm missing? Some secret utility this has that I just am not seeing? I had to try and sell this to a player of mine who was not super thrilled about this edition's take on rangers--and this ability kind of made her throw her hands up. I'd like to be able to sell this ability to my players, or at least find a simple house rule so that it's at least a little bit useful. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.
#2 Kentus May 12, 2015 15:28:55	First, you can just be specific in their terrain, if it's in the 'long' or 'short' range. Long range also says 'up to', so you are able to adjust it beforehand, I presume. If you use it one time, you get through all these types, so you will know if there are undead, dragons AND aberrations withing these ranges. So you can simply use it at a dungeon entrance and consider if you're ready to face off the several menaces within (since a dungeon seldom succeeds 1 mile radius, even if it's normally no natural explorer territory). Do it a day before and some spellcaster classes can prepare some spells for the fights (for example, if you know dragon, you better have Calm Emotion and Protection from Energy ready).   In the end, I think of Primeval Awareness more of an ribbon type ranger feature. The ranger gets his archetype at 3rd level, too, so Primval Awareness isn't supposed to be overwhelming. But the party I'm DMing is using it often, since at least they're warned. And if you're hunting for something (like trying to find a dragon's hoard), it can be a very valuable trait. But it's simply meant to be a nice to have.   If this is still not enough, here are some houserules: You might include favored enemies in the felt types, but be sure to think about it carefully Even if the location isn't known or the numbers, the ranger might roughly know the direction and a undefinite amount (few, horde, army) If there is no creature of the type there, you regain the used spell-slot
#3 iserith May 12, 2015 15:42:06	Grimcleaver wrote:
#4 jaelis May 12, 2015 19:05:25	Another idea: allow the ranger to use the ability like a ritual.. take 10 minutes to activate, but don't use up a slot.
#5 Grimcleaver May 13, 2015 4:16:50	What would folks think about something like this? You can detect the approximate numbers (one, a few, a lot, a ton), size catagory, general direction and/or if they are approaching, moving away or stationary. This way you would want the six-mile version and the power is beefy enough I could see people using it. Does that seem okay? All of this? Some of this?
#6 iserith May 13, 2015 7:40:04	Grimcleaver wrote:
#7 Dyndrilliac May 13, 2015 13:57:24	Primeval Awareness as written is a horrible ability, "ribbon" or not. I choose to house-rule that it works identically to the Paladin's Divine Sense, only with the exceptions that Wisdom is used to calculate the number of uses instead of Charisma and it only works on dragons, fey, elementals, and abberations (and not on celestials, fiends, or undead so as not to step on the Paladin's toes but still be useful).
#8 Grimcleaver May 13, 2015 14:07:41	That's actually a really good fix. I like that. Thanks!
#9 cowleymen May 13, 2015 14:08:55	jaelis wrote:
#10 Horwath May 13, 2015 21:38:11	Just give rangers expertise in survival and one other skill. It will work better than this.
#11 AndyDay May 14, 2015 8:03:03	iserith wrote:
#12 iserith May 14, 2015 8:12:03	AndyDay wrote: