Rangers & favored enemies

[Tor the Fallen]

I'm thinking of making the ranger's favored enemy class feature a little more useful by combining some of the types into one favored enemy. As it is, there are 32(!) different favored enemies.


I'd like to get it down to maybe eight or ten, with the idea that the extra damage, etc, comes from interaction/knowledge of the creature. So doing extra damage to undead would also apply to constructs, as you're striking where it hurts their structure.

List so far:
Humanoids (pointy end goes in, blood comes out)
Undead & Constructs (bones and gears break in surprisingly similar fashion)
Animal & Vermin (Vermin are mindless animals)
Dragon & Magical Beast (It was either a dragon or a wizard)
Aberration & Ooze (Uh, gross)
Fey
Giant
Plant
Monstrous humanoid
Elemental
Outsiders (elemental)
Outsiders (law-chaos)
Outsiders (good-evil)


An alternative would be having all the creature types under a specific knowledge skill be considered as favored enemies.
Hrm. That makes more sense. And then give those skills as class skills to the ranger, if he chooses them as favored enemies.
'Course, that makes knowledge: arcana and knowledge: nature really, really useful, as you get a whole bundle of favored enemies.

[Takamari]

I think that looks good. I would be concerned about it being overpowering though. Favored enemy: Humanoids, covers a huge base.

[Tor the Fallen]

I think that looks good. I would be concerned about it being overpowering though. Favored enemy: Humanoids, covers a huge base.

It gives the ranger a little more "oomph" at lower levels. Once you get to mid or late game, you're not going to be running into humanoid enemies unless your DM decided to give them class levels.

Still, seems a little much, huh?
Maybe humanoids (townsfolk) and humanoids (usually monsters)?

[Jasdoif]

Outsiders (law-chaos)
Outsiders (good-evil)

The problem here is twofold: One, it's not thematic (unless you have neutrality holding a position of power in your cosmology). Second, according to a FAQ an outsider qualifies under "outsider (evil)" if it has an evil alignment (or subtype). You'd need to address this somehow (like restricting it to subtype, but then you're back to the first problem).


I had trouble believing it at first (well, still) myself, so I'll quote:

Do flasks of holy water hurt tieflings? Would a bane weapon against evil outsiders get its increased enhancement bonus against tieflings and deal extra damage against tieflings?

An outsider is “evil” if it has any evil alignment (chaotic evil, neutral evil, or lawful evil). For the purpose of resolving any effect whose results depend on subject’s alignment, an outsider also is “evil” if it has the evil subtype, no matter what its alignment actually is (see the evil subtype description in the Glossary of the Monster Manual).

Holy water deals damage to undead and to evil outsiders that it strikes. An evil outsider bane weapon is more potent against evil outsiders. Since a tiefling is an outsider with the native subtype, it is susceptible to holy water or to the increased effects from an evil outsider bane weapon only if it has an evil alignment.

[Leon]

On the Note of Fav Enemies:

Talking to my DM about a number of things the other day and the topic of this came up in regard to the Variant in Comp Mage for Arcane Users.
He had a feeling that there was a Variant that allowed you to take a Fav Enemy againts a Class rather than a Racial Group - Anyone have any insight on this?

[Jasdoif]

On the Note of Fav Enemies:

Talking to my DM about a number of things the other day and the topic of this came up in regard to the Variant in Comp Mage for Arcane Users.
He had a feeling that there was a Variant that allowed you to take a Fav Enemy againts a Class rather than a Racial Group - Anyone have any insight on this?

Class is an abstract concept that doesn't really exist in the game world. It doesn't make sense to be able to take favored enemy against such an abstraction.

Afterall, why would an ability be able to work against Fighters but not Warriors, Rangers, Paladins, Swordsages, Warblades, Swashbucklers, etc.?

[Umarth]

One of the books, maybe PHB2, talks about taking favored enemy against a group. So all members of Ye ol' Woman’s knitting circle would be effected regardless of whither they where giants, outsiders, or dire animals.

Also that's one heck of a knitting group.

[Leon]

Class is an abstract concept that doesn't really exist in the game world. It doesn't make sense to be able to take favored enemy against such an abstraction.

Afterall, why would an ability be able to work against Fighters but not Warriors, Rangers, Paladins, Swordsages, Warblades, Swashbucklers, etc.?

Why not, well not down on a detailed focus but have it similar to the Comp Mage Variant - Divine users, Martial users etc

[JoeFredBob]

It gives the ranger a little more "oomph" at lower levels. Once you get to mid or late game, you're not going to be running into humanoid enemies unless your DM decided to give them class levels.

Which leads to something interesting about favored enemy: it's INCREDIBLY campaign dependant. I, for example, tend to put lots and lots of class levels into the enemies I make, which would nearly turn favored enemy (humaniods) into weapon specialization, but better and sooner.