Originally Posted by
Hal
I'm currently running a hexcrawl exploration campaign. If the game is going to focus heavily on the wilderness exploration part, you might find you'll get a lot of mileage out of either a Ranger or a Druid. A lot of people complain about the Ranger's class features, but if you're spending a lot of time in the wilderness, they really do shine.
Druid won't have the same exploratory benefits, but their spellcasting makes up for it, along with wildshape scouting. If you're worried about healing due to the Gritty Realism elements, the Circle of Dreams will give you some backup in that regard as well.