Some random scout is just as good at stealth as a fucking panther

>some random scout is just as good at stealth as a fucking panther
>The average PC has better constitution than a bear, strength than a bull, wisdom than an owl, or dexterity than a cat
Why does wizards hate ordinary animals so much?

>Scout v. Panther

The Scout you are mentioning is a "skilled huntsman or tracker" who serves as a mercenary guide, bounty hunter, or "providing military reconnaissance". +6 to a skill in 5e is GOOD.

>Average PC stats

A brown bear is packing 19 strength and 16 con. Remember that in 5e the maximum stat a PC can get is generally 20.

To flip this around: a polar bear is as strong as a 20th level fighter (20). A deer has a Dex competitive with many skilled rogues and rangers (16). A warhorse is straight-up deadlier in a fight than most 3rd level characters, and a sea horse probably has a better wisdom score than the party's barbarian (10)... and a swarm of bats, a vulture, or that damn warhorse almost certainly do (12).

I'm saving "you're dumber than a sack of bats" as a line for my next druid.

...

>The newest playtest ranger rework gives your companion ASIs whenever you get one
>You can take an Ape, and at level 4 boost its Int to 8, equal to the party's barbarian or bumpkin sorcerer
>By the time you're 20 it can be 16, the same as an optimized level 1 wizard
You could just try to get a Headband of Intellect or Awaken spell, but that's just not the same.

hehehehe

Sooooo.. what the hell is wisdom even supposed to be?

In the text, wisdom is usually listed as ones observational ability, so it makes sense that Insight and Perception are based off of that. Survival also makes sense to me. But it also some how helps with handling wild animals (animal handling)? Shouldn't that be charisma, the dedicated stat for handling interactions? This

Ok, fine, let's say that charisma doesn't apply across species (unless a 10 ft tall dragonborn bard is trying to seduce a halfing, but whatever). Let's assume for whatever reason, Wisdom helps with calming down horses. How the hell is medicine a wisdom skill? Surely that's something that takes a high degree of intellect? That's why doctors are generally considered quite intelligent? I'm beginnging to think this game isn't very realistic

I have been playing D&D since 1995 and I still don't understand the reasoning behind the Wisdom stat. It really should have been divided into Perception and Willpower.

If any player comes up to me with this fucking shit at my table then i'm going to goddamn throw their book in their face and spit mounttain due on it.

I'm so fucking sick of wizards catering yo tou munchking loving faggs. Why the fuck do you need a monkey that smart? YOU DON'T. SO STOP YOUR BULLSHTI. THIS ISN'RT PLAYMORE'S SCHOOL FOR MENTALLY RETARDED ANIMALS, IT'S D&D, SO STOP GIVING ME SHIT. I AM YOUR DUNGEON MASTER YOU SALTY FAGGOT.

Firstly, it's playtest material because PHB Beastmaster is one of two subclasses in the game which is notably subpar so YOU'D have to approve it.
Secondly, the player would essentially be wasting those ASIs to get a 'smart' pet for shits and giggles, instead of raising its strength for damage or dexterity for AC or constitution for HP, and there's no way to benefit from it unless you decided to homebrew that the ape could take wizard levels or some shit.
I can't even tell if you're serious, but this is useful context for the not-5e crowd.

My group always has medicine as Int.

> I'm beginnging to think this game isn't very realistic

Your post literally mentions dragonborn

...for shits and giggles? Dude chill

Just curious - what's the other "notably subpar" subclass? EK, or something?

>wisdom than an owl
owls aren't wise

Way of the Four Elements monk.
>Get a single spell or spell like ability at levels 3, 6, 11, 17
>Many are locked behind level walls
>All cost a relative shitton of ki

My group generally considers wisdom to be kind of synonymous with composure. The ability to see or hear something in a high stress situation or to perform first aid without panicking. It makes sense especially once you also have fear effects that target wisdom.

You could make a party of normal human beings that overcome amazing odds.

It's just that nobody would want to play it for more than a session.

>you steal the macguffin
>the guards immediately impale you

>you travel the roads
>and are immediately murdered by two homeless guys with knives

>you take a single arrow
>and fucking die on the spot

I mean. It has promise for an ultra hardmode campaign, but there would be next to no room for humor, combat would be almost nonexistent since it practically ensures death, and the biggest thing you could possibly topple would be a local business through some brilliant legal work.

then again
Your party are the proud owners of one "Patrick's pub". The party includes a 0 level fighter, a 0 level illusionist, a 0 level Barbarian/Bard, a 0 level Bird, and a 1st level Rogue/Diplomat with obscene starting gold I'd play it

It seems like OP's problem has more to do with the stats of the animals than the people.

All the reasonable attempts itt to justify things aside, no d&d system ever had any connection to sense or realism, and when you bring it into contact with something as mundane as stats for cats and foxes it just falls apart, on one end or another.

Have you tried not playing D&D?

How is hypothetical gorrila fucker the salty faggot in this situation? Your literally rambling.

I would hope the average person has more wisdom than a bird.

He's using the name of the ability buffs from 3.x, Bull's Strength, etc.

He left off more charisma than an eagle though.

Wisdom=Intelligence^experience.
Think street smart vs. Book smarts.
Think, factoids vs intuition.

well there it is.

>name him harambe

Same game that a housecat can kill several commoners before someone kicks it to death. Yeah, the animals are the problem.

I'm hoping this is bait.

i'd say it's more of a problem of deciding the likelihood that things can happen. irl a housecat could technically kill several people and then get kicked to death, it just doesn't happen often.

>Housecat turns on stove and starts fire, kills family
>Housecat causes car accident that kills several
>Housecat knocks poisonous material into peoples food, killing or hospitalizing many
>Housecat is just a fucking cat, it doesn't know what it's doing. Maybe. Plot.

i mean, a housecat could sever femoral arteries of several people and still know he killed them. scratches have killed people before if they're in the right area.

>there would be next to no room for humor
You underestimate the power of the dark humor.

>combat would be almost nonexistent since it practically ensures death
There are reasons why most people don't get into deadly fights all the time, and why the people who do it regularly tend not to live very long.

I prefer to DM games that have negative consequences of violence, because it gives the players natural incentives to find options other than hacking and slashing. And those behaviors emerge as basic properties of violence itself, like they do IRL. It can lead to more believable RP as characters must seriously consider their own mortality and decide whether or not their goals are worth the risks they take on. I'm already starting to see this in an OSR game I'm running, as longtime hack-and-slashers are starting to do unthinkable things like fleeing when outnumbered.

>>you steal the macguffin
>>the guards immediately impale you
>>you travel the roads
>>and are immediately murdered by two homeless guys with knives
>>you take a single arrow
>>and fucking die on the spot
WELCOME TO WHFR!

of course it's bait

>Game of Fantasy Superheroes.
>The strong hero is stronger than a bear, the tracker hero is better than a panther, etc.

Yes, and?

There is no "normal people" characters in D&D after AD&D, and even then its iffy.

If you want "normal people characters" for dungeon crawling, go play GURPS/BRP.

D&D hasn't supported that campaign premise for decades, if it ever supported it at all.

>>I AM YOUR SALTY FAGGOT DUNGEON MASTER, YOU.
FTFY

>the tracker hero is better than a panther, etc.
We're not talking about the hero though, we're talking about the generic tracker NPC

The "Generic Tracker NPC" is not a normal person either (unless you built him as a level 1-5 commoner/warrior/expert with a far more realistic stat array/dice method than is normally used), he's got crazy high stats and bonuses and can do things far better than any real person.

D&D is a game where, through practics, anyone can achieve superhero levels of power.

In D&D 3.x/4e/5e, *EVERYONE* is a superhero, a few levels in, and most people are superheroes a before that.

By upper game you're no longer the X-Men, you're the Avengers.