Wanderer

[Millstone85]

What do you think should be my expectations regarding the Wanderer feature from the Outlander background?

The way I read it, when it would be possible to make an Intelligence (Nature) check to find my way in the wild or a Wisdom (Survival) check to find food and water for six, I get to automatically succeed in those tasks. That's really neat. I can feel like a ranger while playing an entirely different class.

However, a DM could decide that dire circumstances make these tasks difficult even for me. Not impossible, just uncertain. Or a DM could decide that I can't fully benefit from this feature without the hunting trap the background also gave me, or without a ranged weapon, or without some specific bait for the strange fauna of the place, or... I wouldn't consider it unfair but I would ask to make the checks with advantage and proficiency.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Like all background features, Wanderer is a tool for the DM. In this case, it gives them an excuse to handwave the party's food and drink requirements - they can just say "don't worry about that, your outlander keeps you fed". That eliminates tedious inventory management and allows you to focus on more rewarding challenges than finding your next meal.

In a scenario where survival is actually the main challenge and a hostile environment is your primary obstacle, I would expect this feature to stop working. Obviously the DM will have to find a pretext to shut it down, but that's just a formality. Maybe there's no water within 50 miles - literally none there to be found. Now you've got a problem. Maybe you've been thrown into a labyrinth of trials like the Via Purifico in FFX, and you have to devote all your attention to fending off monsters - no time to forage!

Basically, what I'm saying is: ignore your background features. They're for the DM. They're story hooks, ways to feed you information, and ways to eliminate the parts of the game most people forget about anyway.

[Millstone85]

Like all background features, Wanderer is a tool for the DM. In this case, it gives them an excuse to handwave the party's food and drink requirements - they can just say "don't worry about that, your outlander keeps you fed". That eliminates tedious inventory management and allows you to focus on more rewarding challenges than finding your next meal.If a DM wants to skip that part of the game completely, they should use an excuse that would not be threatened by the outlander's death, separation from the party or other unavailability. I am sure there are plenty such excuses to be found, if a DM even needs one. Now, as an outlander, this would deny me a mechanical edge contribution to the party's well being. But I could still roleplay the feature, by making my own claim that I can keep the party fed and by describing my general hunting-gathering activities.


In a scenario where survival is actually the main challenge and a hostile environment is your primary obstacle, I would expect this feature to stop working. Obviously the DM will have to find a pretext to shut it down, but that's just a formality. Maybe there's no water within 50 miles - literally none there to be found. Now you've got a problem. Maybe you've been thrown into a labyrinth of trials like the Via Purifico in FFX, and you have to devote all your attention to fending off monsters - no time to forage!While this is the opposite of the previous DM choice, with food and water being impossible to find by anyone instead of guaranteed for everyone, the consequences for the outlander are much the same. No mechanical value, but the outlander gets to inform the party about the aridity of the region or to complain about all the things they could do if the monsters would stop attacking for ten minutes. And now I am thinking about that Dungeon Meshi manga where the dungeon crawlers find ways to cook the monsters.

I would consider the feature actually shut down if it were possible to forage and the DM decided that the outlander would do it exactly like any other character. No automatic success, no advantage on rolls, no proficiency bonus, nothing. But now this is what I would call petty DMing.


Basically, what I'm saying is: ignore your background features. They're for the DM. They're story hooks, ways to feed you information, and ways to eliminate the parts of the game most people forget about anyway.I am interested in roleplaying every game feature of my character, be it from race, background or class, regardless of what the DM's campaign will or won't do with that feature.

[mgshamster]

What do you think should be my expectations regarding the Wanderer feature from the Outlander background?

The way I read it, when it would be possible to make an Intelligence (Nature) check to find my way in the wild or a Wisdom (Survival) check to find food and water for six, I get to automatically succeed in those tasks. That's really neat. I can feel like a ranger while playing an entirely different class.

That's about right. Background features are supposed to give you narrative power, which means overcoming certain obsticles automatically without needing a skill check. However, there may be times when your feature doesn't apply, such as in the underdark (there's a similar feature specific to the underdark) or when you're in an entirely foreign landscape. In those times, I'd rule that you would at least get a check or a bonus to a check, where others may not even be able to make a check.


However, a DM could decide that dire circumstances make these tasks difficult even for me. Not impossible, just uncertain. Or a DM could decide that I can't fully benefit from this feature without the hunting trap the background also gave me, or without a ranged weapon, or without some specific bait for the strange fauna of the place, or... I wouldn't consider it unfair but I would ask to make the checks with advantage and proficiency.

That's fair. Check out my signature for how background features should work. You could even have your DM read t.

[Millstone85]

That's about right. Background features are supposed to give you narrative power, which means overcoming certain obsticles automatically without needing a skill check. However, there may be times when your feature doesn't apply, such as in the underdark (there's a similar feature specific to the underdark) or when you're in an entirely foreign landscape. In those times, I'd rule that you would at least get a check or a bonus to a check, where others may not even be able to make a check.You just made me find out about that OotA feature. Well, the character I have in mind grew up on 4e Faerûn, first on the spellplagued border of the Chondalwood and later in the Underchasm. Thus, my highest expectations for the Wanderer feature will actually apply to both eerie forests and Underdark-ish places. But I suppose that, should the campaign take us to, say, a mountain, the tundra, the dunes or the true Underdark, then your ruling would be a generous one. It might not be that petty to completely negate the feature on such landscapes.


Check out my signature for how background features should work.Useful. :smallsmile:

[mgshamster]

You just made me find out about that OotA feature. Well, the character I have in mind grew up on 4e Faerûn, first on the spellplagued border of the Chondalwood and later in the Underchasm. Thus, my highest expectations for the Wanderer feature will actually apply to both eerie forests and Underdark-ish places. But I suppose that, should the campaign take us to, say, a mountain, the tundra, the dunes or the true Underdark, then your ruling would be a generous one. It might not be that petty to completely negate the feature on such landscapes.

I'm a big fan of modifying background features to fit the character, so for your character I'd rule that his feature would work in the underground (including underdark and near-surface caves) as well as forest environments - but he'd have difficulty using it in desert, ocean, or other extremely different environments. Definitely not city or farming environment, more wilderness - we'd just key off the specific ecosystems he'd be used to with several other similar ecosystems included.


Useful. :smallsmile:

Thanks!

[PoeticDwarf]

I can optimize but I often don't. One thing I do to kake my character "stronger" is taking outlander. So I don't have to spill time