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Please change Track back to a feat and give the Ranger a bonus to it. Tracking is supposed to be something that is unique to the Ranger, and now it's something that's open to all.
I'm all for other classes being able to find tracks. That's a simple Perception check. But being able to accurately track a creature for a distance and discern things from those tracks (number of creatures, for instance) should be something special.
So please, change Track back to the way it was in 3.5. I never saw any issues with it, and never heard complaints from other players about it. I proposed a similiar thing for the Rogue's Trapfinding ability in this thread and will bring this issue up again once we get to the Feats section of the playtest.
In 3.5, if you were going to Track something, you would get the Feat somehow (as a character feat, or by taking 1 level of Ranger), and then putting skillpoints into Survival.
What distinguished the Ranger from everyone else was... he got the feat for free, and later Swift Tracker. Anyone who picked up the feat was EXACTLY as proficient as the Ranger in finding someone (just maybe not able to move as quickly).
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In Pathfinder, if you are going to Track something, you would put skillpoints into Survival.
What distinguishes the Ranger from everyone else is... he gets a major boost to his skill based on his level. At any given level, he has a major advantage over any other class.
Also, he retains Swift Tracker capability, but in addition gets Favored Terrain bonuses to Survival checks, as well as the Quarry, Improved Quarry and Master Hunter advantages to Survival checks.
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Really, the Ranger has become the king of tracking, moreso than ever. The change you are fighting against does not lessen the Ranger at all. Anyone that was going to focus on tracking anyways will still need to dump skillpoints into Survival, just like before. Anyone who hasn't been bothering to focus on it will still not be able to track higher than DC 10, since they won't have ranks in it.
Putting the ranks in is as conscious an effort as picking up the Feat and putting ranks in 3.5. It just doesn't cost a fairly lame power feat to do so now.
The Track feat was given a PF makeover, just like Toughness and other feats. It was deemed to be "not good enough to warrant a feat" and moved into the Skill itself.
Considering the Ranger got such a major boost to his Tracking capability, I have absolutely no problem with reducing the number of lame feats in the game.
Against. If it's a skill, it's a skill. If not, it's a class ability. Especially in the case of mundane effects - like being able to follow tracks or spot a booby trap - I'm against locking away some of a skill's effects so you need to use a feat for it.
Everyone at my table is amazed at how much better the ranger can track, and our ranger hasn't even tracked yet. I love the new track rules. Don't mess with them please. They are wonderful as written.
Firm ground DC is 15 (most normal outdoor surfaces) and Hard Ground is DC 20
A level 1 Ranger probably has +6 to Survival, which means he has a 55% chance to track a critter in the forest and a 30% chance indoors or over hard ground. Anyone with Survival as a class skill can have the same.
A level 6 Ranger has a +14 vs other classes at +11. So ranger tracks outdoors at 95% and indoors at 70%, vs other classes who track outdoors at 80% and indoors at 55%
At level 10+ they even out for the base check, as Ranger is at +20 and other classes are at +15, so both have 95% in Forest, with Ranger at 95% indoors vs 75% for other classes.
Of course there are situational modifiers such as time since tracks were made, size of creature, raining, etc which can make these checks much harder.
All that said, I think I've actually used track about 3 times in the 20+ years I've been playing DnD. I love it, think it's cool, but it just doesn't come up that often... especially at higher levels where a Ranger's Track bonus would really kick in. By that point it's all Find the Path, Locate Object and such spells.
Don't forget his Favored Terrain bonus as well. That's +2 at 3rd level, and higher or more frequently applicable bonus every 5 levels after that.
The new track is far better to the standard 3.5 one
The new track is far better to the standard 3.5 one
I agree with this. Track is now a feature of the survival skill which means anyone with ranks in survival can track which there is nothing wrong with. The fact a ranger is better at tracking than anybody else has been restored with the track class feature. Among other things it gives the ranger player an incentive NOT to multiclass. At 20th level a ranger gets a +13 bonus to all tracking rolls. Let me break that down for those that are confused. A ranger gets +3 on survival rolls because it's a class skill. In addition to that half your ranger level gets added to that as a class feature. And if you've been bumping up your wisdom score and buying more ranks in the skill you get to be the best frigging tracker in the game. Plus you get bonuses for favored enemy and favored terrain. If I was GM I'd let all that stack because tracking has always been the ranger's bread and butter. Nobody in the game is supposed to be able to track folks and critters better than a ranger. Track as a class feature definitely gives rangers that edge.
