[Pathfinder] Battle Scout Ranger question

[Caladera]

Hello everyone, I am going to repeat here my question about one specific Battle Scout Ranger Archetype problem, that wasn't really answered on Paizo Pathfinder forum. All I got was "yeah, I think it works" but I'm still confused :smalleek:

So, without further ado:

The Battle Scout can have only one favored enemy, because the other choices are replaced with his terrain abilities. Does he still gets +2 bonus increase on levels 5 and 10 to his single favored enemy? Or do Battle Scouts have only permanent +2 bonus on a single fav. enemy?

The problem emerges in the core book ruling where it states: "At 5th level and every five levels thereafter the ranger may select an additional favored enemy." But the Battle Scout only gets two favored enemies, first one at first level and second one at the level 20.

The really confusing part: "In addition, at each such interval, the bonus against any one favored enemy (including the one just selected, if so desired) increases by +2."

I can think of reasons why it should get the bonuses and reasons why it shouldn't, so please, share your opinions and experience before my GM and me houserule it... :smallbiggrin:

[Caladera]

moved this question into Pathfinder Q&A

[grarrrg]

I'd say you only get a +2 until you hit level 20, where you'd have a +4 and a +2.
The increases are tied into when you get additional Favored Enemies. If you don't get additional Enemies, you don't get additional bonuses.

Compare/Contrast to the Nirmathi Irregular (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/ranger/archetypes/paizo---ranger-archetypes/nirmathi-irregular) archetype:

At 1st level, a Nirmathi irregular selects one favored enemy (usually “humanoid [human]”). He does not gain additional favored enemies at higher levels. He does get to increase his favored enemy bonus by +2 at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level.

[Caladera]

Ok, so Nirmathi Irregular increases his fav. enemy bonus, but doesn't get another fav. enemy. The problem with Battle Scout is that it's the only archetype that gets some but not all favored enemies and there's no specific wording explaining it in detail.

The other answer I got on this forum was



By my reading, the first sentence is (effectively) removed by the archetype. But there is nothing in the archetype that removes/replaces the second sentence. So at 5th, 10th, and 15th levels you gain the new class feature of the archetype and your favored enemy you selected at 1st level increases by +2.

I would go with increasing the bonus, the Scout is basically a supporting ranger and having one maxed-up favored enemy fits in...