UA Ranger Primeval Awareness or PHB?

[Willowran]

In the campaign I am running I have allowed the use of the UA ranger revision, given that I personally found that the original ranger was kind of underwhelming compared to the mid-late games provided by other classes.

I expected the revision to be Adventurer's League legal with Xanathar's, however Xanathar's did not bring out the ranger revision, and best I've been able to tell the revision is not going to become AL legal.

For the most part, I don't find that the revised rangers are imbalanced, however I have been thinking about their skill "primeval awareness." This is a skill that rangers get at level 3, which was altered in the revision from the PHB.

PHB:

Beginning at 3rd level, you can use your action and expend one ranger spell slot to focus your awareness on the region around you. For 1 minute per level of the spell slot you expend, you can sense whether the following types of creatures are present within 1 mile of you (or within up to 6 miles if you are in your favored terrain): Aberrations, Celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, Fiends, and Undead. This feature doesn't reveal the creatures' location or number.


Revised:

Additionally, you can attune your senses to determine if any of your favored enemies lurk nearby. By spending 1 uninterrupted minute in concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), you can sense whether any of your favored enemies are present within 5 miles of you. This feature reveals which of your favored enemies are present, their numbers, and the creatures’ general direction and distance (in miles) from you. If there are multiple groups of your favored enemies within range, you learn this information for each group.


Now in my campaign I am using variant rest rules as suggested by the DMG. Long rests are 3 days, short rests are 10-30 minutes. I've also added a "Night's Rest," which is a standard 8 hour resting period, which restores 1 3rd of all character abilities, HP, and spell slots (rounded down). As a result of these resting rules, spell usage is something which needs to be monitored by my players lest they run out too early- there is a level of resource management.

UA Primeval Awareness can be cast an infinite number of times. With the 'favored prey' of 'humanoids' in a largely humanoid-based campaign setting, the ranger can track nearly everyone or avoid nearly everyone as she desires while travelling, and this will only get worse as the game continues. For the massive utility that this is providing, I was going to suggest redacting the PA skill to the PHB version, which costs a spell slot. In doing so, the PC would have to choose when to 'radar-ping,' and it would always be a cost-benefit decision in keeping with resource management.

My PC disagreed, suggesting that the low number of spells rangers have, and the high requirements for spell-slot-regaining giving the campaign's rest rules would make the cost of PA too prohibitive. She instead proposed that it be the UA PA, however as an additive perhaps limit it to being cast a number of times equal to half of her level between long/night's rests.

I'm still working out some kinks with some balance issues that arise from my rest rules, and figured I would ask the opinion of the comparatively experienced community. What do you think? Is the PHB PA skill too cost-prohibitive for the variants of the rest rules in play in my campaign? Or would that be fine?

[Khrysaes]

You can instead model it after the Paladin's Divine sense, usable a number of times equal to 1+ stat. Regained on a long rest. This will limit the ping, but separate it from the spell list. Many abilities also use this precedent.

[thoroughlyS]

If you are planning on reverting entirely back to the old feature, don't. It is a completely worthless ability because it doesn't even provide useful information, just a yes/no on the presence of those creature types. Costing a spell slot is just adding insult to injury.

If instead, you are simply imposing a limit on the revised Primeval Awareness, then I second Khrysaes that it should be a function of the ranger's wisdom. Costing a spell slot from a half caster, especially when they regain them at 1/3rd the usual rate is asking too much, and being a function of level doesn't have as much precedent. 1+ Wis mod per long rest is perfectly serviceable.

[Khrysaes]

If you are planning on reverting entirely back to the old feature, don't. It is a completely worthless ability because it doesn't even provide useful information, just a yes/no on the presence of those creature types. Costing a spell slot is just adding insult to injury.

If instead, you are simply imposing a limit on the revised Primeval Awareness, then I second Khrysaes that it should be a function of the ranger's wisdom. Costing a spell slot from a half caster, especially when they regain them at 1/3rd the usual rate is asking too much, and being a function of level doesn't have as much precedent. 1+ Wis mod per long rest is perfectly serviceable.

on another note.. I rarely used my paladin's divine sense, the range limit was... limiting. I either already knew there were undead or demons present or that there weren't. I never was in a situation that I only suspected some might be present.

[Willowran]

That's actually a pretty neat idea, fellas, thanks for that!

(Also, for clarification, we would be running the UA PA skill, except using spell slots- or now being a cast-able ability where the maximum number of casts would correspond with 1+ the ranger's WIS modifier).

The main goal was to create a situation where the ranger would stop spamming the skill in order to guarantee-keep from losing track of targets, and/or avoid literally any humanoid conflict or ambush without me having to rely on the same narrative spins every time- and the 'Divine Sense' patch does just that! Cheers, mates.