[RPG] choose the range of Primeval Awareness in the favored terrain

class-featurednd-5eranger

The Primeval Awareness feature for Rangers states:

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).

While the non-favored terrain section lists a specific range, the favored terrain version says "up to." Does this mean I can choose the range? If so, is 1 mile the minimum or is there no minimum?

Best Answer

Probably.

The phrase used is "within up to 6 miles" rather than "within 6 miles." The preposition "up to" would be redundant if the range were a constant instead of a variable with an upper bound. By contrast with the "within 1 mile" wording for use outside your favored terrain, the "up to" wording seems to imply you can choose the number of miles.

The rules are generally consistent with their use of the "up to" phrasing, but this is the only instance of the phrase "within up to" in the Player's Handbook, so this isn't definitive, and as of this posting there is no other rule, clarification in the Sage Advice Compendium, or designer statement on the issue to be able to rule definitively. It's probably a matter for DM interpretation.