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An observation from our last session: druids can have an immense impact on the hexploration part of the campaign.
The first 2 levels, the group had a hard time exploring the map, with slow horses and slower ponies.
But then they reached 3rd level, and the gnome druid got the eagle eye spell from the APG. At 3rd level, the eye appears at a height of 520 ft, which means the horizon is about 27 miles away, that's more than 2 hexes.
Although the hexes cannot be explored this way, the spells makes it a lot easier to get an overview of the lay of the land.
When the druid will get wild shape, he can turn into a bird and, combined with eagle eye, get an overview of large parts of the map very quickly.
Later on, when he gets commune with nature, he will even be able to explore the hexes very easily.
Greetings, fellow travelers.
I'm not sure if your comment was just that or a criticism or something completely different.
Anyhow, if the ease of exploration bothers you, you could use disadvantageous weather conditions to slow exploration down somewhat (from the core rule book) without spoiling all the fun for a druid enjoying her new "power"level.
I am DMing with core material only (and don't have a druid in my group), but weather will definitely play a role in my game.
Ruyan.
The exploration aspect is becoming less and less important to my PCs (they've just started RRR).
I think what I'll do is give them the opportunity to acquire the Narthropple Map that shows all (or most) of the terrain of the Southern Greenbelt, but only the particular points of interest mentioned in the module. They'd still need to personally explore each hex to gain xp and discover sites, but I think it makes sense.
Maybe.
I don't know.
Anyway, I'll give them the option when they encounter the Narthropple expedition.
We'll have a druid in the campaign I am getting set to start in September. I suspect that will help with a lot of things during the exploration phase as it really fits her environment and specialties. I see it as a moment for that character to shine and not seeing it as a significant issue. Actually looking forward to seeing what creative things they come up with!
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An observation from our last session: druids can have an immense impact on the hexploration part of the campaign.
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My KM group has a druid in the party. Although she can and does aid to the act of exploration, none of the spells or examples you mentioned take the place of time spent doing the task.
Note also that a lvl 1 small druid can have a Roc companion (from the Bestiary), letting him have a flying mount with a flying speed of 80ft. This will probably aid in exploration. But I don't see the problem, since unless
a) One of the other players would like to be "master explorer" and he only has a horse.
b) The group really enjoys "you are ambushed at night"-encounters
since the druid is probably gonna feel good for choosing something useful for the campaign (and having a flying mount to explore more efficiently is not my idea of min-maxing).
This and clever spellcasting is a great way for the druid to feel like he's contributing, and can be great for giving the players the feel of a sandbox, assuming you give the "scout" info like where the landmark sites are if he does a "quick flyover" og "animal recon" (they have multiple interesting places to go, not simply blindly walking into empty hexes).