Favored enemy

One of my Players (of a ranger character) asked me this past game session:

“How does a ranger know when he’s facing one of his favored enemies?”

In the case of this ranger, the favored enemy is outsider (evil). How does she know when she’s facing an evil outsider?

Also, is the ranger’s favored enemy ability too broad? I mean, a ranger can take aberrations as a favored enemy, and it includes beholders, aboleth, mindflayers, and gibbering mouthers, among many other highly varied creatures. Humanoids requires a more detailed pick, even though I would think even orcs and elves have more in common than beholders and gibbering mouthers.

With outsider (evil), a ranger has the same bonus against demons and devil and efreeti and night hags. And with all the new demons and devils introduced to the game through new monster books, the ranger’s favored enemy category just gets bigger and bigger and bigger with such a general category

Quasqueton

Well, the idea behind Favored Enemy is that the ranger has studied up and practiced techniques against that enemy, so I would assume that their training would tell them!

-The Gneech

That's a good point.

The way I see it, it is an understanding of general weaknesses of a group. As the group gets larger and more diverse, it seems unreasonable that one could know the weaknesses of all types within that group.

I suppose from a pure metagame view, the subdivsion of the humanoids was to temper the ability at low level, where a +2 to damage[edit - not to attack, my bad], bluff, spot etc. any humanoid would be very powerful. At higher levels when you expect to start meeting up with things like Aberrations and Outsiders, the increase isn't worth quite as much.

This came up occasionally with my Ranger, whose favored enemy was Magical Beasts. My GM just had me make a Knowledge check at low DC to make sure that I recognized the type correctly, and would give me more details on the specific creature the better the roll. For instance, if a Ranger has favored enemy (aberrations), just have him make a Knowledge (Dungeoneering) check at the beginning of the encounter.

I have always played that if the ranger cannot tell that that someone or something is a member of its favored enemy group he/she does not gain the bonus against him/it until he figures it out.

However, I will apply the +2 spot bonus on a secret roll (or lower the DC by 2).

Favored enemy is already situation specific, requiring knowledge checks or PC identification just makes rangers more subpar in D&D combat IMO.

I would give the ranger in question the bonuses even if facing a succubus in disguise as a humanoid, though I probably wouldn't tell the PC they were getting the bonuses, just add them in myself in my head.

My Dm had a habit of not telling us about bonuses. So, situational and circumstancial bonuses or penalties, dodge, and the like he would take care of,a nd add in after teh numbers are crunched.

So if you are a ranger with a +4 to goblinoids, trying to hit a 17 AC. You roll a 12+4BAB. He would say you hit. Which gives you and the other players a good idea that you are facing some form of favored enemy.

Or usually the description gives away a lot. He will usually drop enough hints to let you know that you recognise the type.

A ranger in my current game has Favored Enemy: Undead, but does not have any ranks in Knowledge (religion). I've worked this out to be that the ranger may not have a lot of information on specific types of undead and their unique individual abilities, but he has a broad grasp on:

- the habits of most undead (often nocturnal, sometimes shy away from bright light, often easily attracted/distracted, etc.)
- what drives or motivates most undead (a hatred of the living, need to consume some sort of life in most cases, etc.)
- how to spot the identifying marks/tracks of undeath/the undead
- knowledge of where to aim attacks against different forms of undead (intact corpses, skeletons, etc.) so that he maximizes tissue damage, damages/destroys whatever organs remain that the undead may continue to rely on even in undeath, etc.

He may not be able to recognize the numerous strains and variations of undead and their multitudinous qualities, but he's well informed on the general creature type. I'm not sure how well this would/will work with his future choices for Favored Enemy, but it's worked well so far!

In my group, we just joke that the favored enemy bonuses are powered by highly refined racism and hatred. Somehow you smell that you're near something you hate, and you gain bonuses against it. How else would you get a bonus to Listen checks?

"Ah, that sounds just like how an elf would walk! I hate elves. I must kill it."

el-remmen said:

I have always played that if the ranger cannot tell that that someone or something is a member of its favored enemy group he/she does not gain the bonus against him/it until he figures it out.

However, I will apply the +2 spot bonus on a secret roll (or lower the DC by 2).

Click to expand...

I use kind of the opposite method to this... The ranger knows the tricks and techniques of his enemy so well, that he is able to counter them intuitively. I give the bonus whether the character knows whether he's facing one of his favored enemies, or not.

Later
silver