Ranger Features: Favored Quarry & Favored Terrain

[Kane0]

Oh yeah of course. Okay so it might be beneficial for me to go back and start with some assumptions:

- Both of these features come at level 1

- These should fall into a somewhat standard level 1 pattern like feature + ribbon or feature + feature + ribbon (see rogue and paladin), especially since levels 2 and 3 have so much packed in

- If both come along at the same time we want something like one active/one passive and one generic/one specific, which is useful for both power balancing and user-friendliness

- These features shouldn't double-up with what is in the PHB nor Tasha's Alternate Features, otherwise we should just use/change those instead of positing this as another alternative feature
- Both of these features come back at later levels so that needs to be accounted for
- The Ranger doesn't need help dealing damage, these should definitely lean towards utility and mobility

Also for some reason I had in my head that you picked two Favored Enemies with corresponding benefits, my bad on that part.

So my reasoning is from the above that Natural Explorer should be the more passive, broadly applicable benefit and Favored Enemy the more active, circumstantial stuff.

With that in mind, perhaps my incorrect 'choose 2 FEs' could actually be implemented, as the majority of the FEs would functionally be ribbons. Plus because we have 14 choices we can afford for some to be a little more broad and others a little more specific.

Aberrations: Save-each-turn effects aren't super common, but this would apply to all of them. Arguably comparable to magic resistance since that typically only applies to spells and not creature abilities but on the other hand you need to be affected in the first place for this to be of any benefit
Beasts: You're right, it could be monkey-pawed by a DM to essentially be useless
Celestials: It's applicable to 6 creature types and Ranger's don't actually get casting at level 1 so I'd say it's fair to give it once per day without a slot and more importantly concentration, plus add it as a spell known for free when level 2 comes around. Duration is a bit short though.
Constructs: Not too strong, but A) a combat benefit that I don't think is necessary and B) barely of any use. Fighting resistant/immune enemies probably won't happen in Tier 1, but even then I wouldn't expect to deal that little damage against a Resistant creature at any level. Immunity is better, but you also have other means to just have a magic weapon which 99% of the time will do the trick
Dragons: As above don't think damage needs it, yeah this is on the more specific side like beasts but on the other hand has the right flavor IMO. The DM already has that sort of trouble as it is (I'm sure you've seen Pex post about it?)
Elemental: Didn't want to overdo it for the same reason as just giving them free Hunter's Mark like the UA. One a day and a free spell known is plenty.
Fey: Needed to make sure this didn't give the same benefits as just being an Elf, but also a specific ribbon that you can't find elsewhere (from my knowledge)
Fiends: Same as celestial, kinda hard to pick out something for these
Giants: Like Fey didn't want to double up with just being a Halfling
Humanoids: Even tougher than Celestial/Fiends, it's just sooo generic. Bonus languages is just the stock feature so wanted to avoid that, Detect Thoughts is a good spell (and a level higher) while also being a noncombat thing so didn't include the free-concentration part
Monstrosities: I think this hits the right level of 'ribboniness', it's very specific (you have to encounter a monstrosity AND have a spell that you want to use on it) but also very helpful in that situation. Actually come to think of it this would be useless at level 1 since you don't have spells yet, perhaps also allow Animal Handling to apply to Monstrosities (without penalty).
Oozes: This is handy just for dungeoncrawling and such, any cramped space really. It isn't magically slipping through cracks under doors, just being able to function normally in confined spaces. Again what I would call just the right amount of ribbon
Plants: Ironically I just had the party face a Roper last session so I tried to include the same terms the MM entry used
Undead: You're right, the saves are too strong and widely useful. Probably drop the extra 2 death saves and include a rewording of your 'ignore immediate drop to 0' idea? Banshees man...

I'm always an advocate of reducing complexity where possible, especially since all of these are options of an optional feature that you will at some point get multiple of (either 1 or 2 to start with plus an extra at level 6 and 14). On power, yeah I suppose these should be mostly ribbons (but useful ribbons!) balanced by the fact that you can choose exactly the one(s) you want.
Rangers are mechanically very solid though. They get 3 skill profs, d10 HP, fighting style, extra attack, half casting and some damn fine subclasses. These two features aren't bad because they're weak, they're bad because they fail to deliver on the 'class fantasy' as I've heard some say. Natural Explorer removes gameplay where it should make you shine when it even applies, and Favored Enemy functions nothing like what you would expect with an 'enemy'

Re favored environment, that was the idea. Because Favored Enemy makes up the bulk of the exciting, situational stuff you can have (and I argue should have) a boring but always handy benefit here. This floating damage resistance doesn't mind what race you are (which is important) and really makes level 1 seem worthwhile without being overwhelmingly strong. You are giving up Deft Explorer for this after all.

Hope this helps!