Pathfinder 1E Best favored enemy choices

[Kinak]

Even when I told him from what part of the continent I wanted to come and I asked him which creatures where most common in that area he just told me that he couldn't spoiler it.

That seems really weird. I mean, if you're an 8th level character, surely you have some experience and backstory. It's usually hard to get GMs to shut up about stuff like that, filling in the entire history of the area.

I'm not honestly really sure what I'd do about that. I really expect GMs to help when it comes to connecting character backstory to the world and that's definitely part of your backstory.

From what little he said, I'd lean towards animal or magical beast and probably not giant, monstrous humanoids, or humanoid subtypes like orc or goblin. It might be worth asking what sort of countries or civilizations exist in that area. If nothing else, natural enemy of the dominant race in the area can't hurt.

If I was still set on being ranger, I'd probably take very broad options and just not depend on using them very much. When you get up to 10th level, you'll be able to use the spell Instant Enemy, which lets you use your favored enemy bonus regardless.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Ramaster]

Undead is such a broad type that it will almost never be a bad choice. Ditto for the "dominant humanoid" type on the area (human, most likely)

Bear in mind that on Ultimate Campaign there are rules for retraining, so that you can change your favorite enemy for a new one. Ask you DM if he will allow it and if he'll give you time off regularly to do this kind of stuff. Here’s the link to the SRD: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/basics-ability-scores/more-character-options/retraining

 

[Khitan]

Thanks again for the advices.
Maybe I will able to convince the master to tell me something more after all. I'm working hard to manipulate him into telling me what I need^^
The problem is that I don't know him or the other players at all because it's a character for a play by forum and I never played with anyone of them so I don't know what to expect.

For now I'm inclined to choose Undead as first favored enemy because my character is a treasure hunter, spending a lot of time in ancient dungeons and, in my experience, dungeons are always full of undeads^^
I have no idea what to do for the second, I don't really like humans (there are no savages, every humanoid race is civilized and I don't like going against normal people, I find it hard to justify) and I don't think we're going to fight a lot of animals (8th level.... there aren't that many interesting animals for that level) so maybe I'll go for magical beasts or aberrations... just need to find a reason for it (there are dragons in the settings, and they're quite important, but I don't know if we're actually going to fight them beacuse, from what the master told us, he's mastering another campaign in the same setting with dragons as primary enemies so I don't know if he's going to put them as main villains in two parallel campaigns).

 

[Luz]

There are always undead around.

 

[mr_outsidevoice]

Humans
Animals
Magical Beasts

Though I believe the GM has an ethical obligation to work with players so they do not waste character resources

 

[brvheart]

Humans
Animals
Magical Beasts

Though I believe the GM has an ethical obligation to work with players so they do not waste character resources

Why? Characters generally have all the advantages in the first place. So what if they waste a few resources. I think it is the DM's job TO waste some! Although I do agree that by 8th level characters will have some idea of what types of beast are prevalent in an area if they have been campaigning in that area. Only if they are going to a totally new area would it be spoilering, but we are presuming here. My opinion at 8th level, undead and outsider is generally good, but it depends on the campaign. Magical beast and aberrations may be more prevalent in others.

 

[Angrydad]

I'm sorry, as a DM, I find it rude to not at least tell my players to pick some favored enemies they would like for their character and then do my best to work them into the campaign. This may be what your DM is going to do, but I'd be certain to tell him that you hope to be able to take advantage of your class abilities with at least some frequency. I don't think that it'd be unreasonable to retrain your ability if the DM insists on throwing specific creatures at you guys though.

 

[brvheart]

I don't consider it my job to tailor my campaigns to players whims as a DM. I guess that is where I differ from a GM. I run rather expensive prepackaged campaigns and try and give the players as much background information as I can on each so they can suit their characters to the campaign. Rappan Athuk sees a lot of humans, outsiders, monstrous humanoids, aberrations, etc while Slumbering Tsar has a lot of outsiders and aberrations. Razor Coast is not likely to see a lot of undead, likewise Skulls & Shackles. Frog God Games stuff suits my style as well as my regular players.

 

[Angrydad]

I don't consider it my job to tailor my campaigns to players whims as a DM. I guess that is where I differ from a GM. I run rather expensive prepackaged campaigns and try and give the players as much background information as I can on each so they can suit their characters to the campaign. Rappan Athuk sees a lot of humans, outsiders, monstrous humanoids, aberrations, etc while Slumbering Tsar has a lot of outsiders and aberrations. Razor Coast is not likely to see a lot of undead, likewise Skulls & Shackles. Frog God Games stuff suits my style as well as my regular players.

I've always done homebrew adventures and settings with my games, which makes it way easier to tailor things to the players' capabilities if I need to. So I suppose if I was running more packaged adventure paths I'd not so much cater to my players' whims in that regard. However, I'd still be willing to give them some hints about things like potential favored enemies. Each approach is just fine depending on the group's tastes.

Personally, I do see some responsibility on the DM's part to make sure that players don't feel left out if their powers/abilities aren't seeing some use for a while. No one wants to invest a character's feats, favored enemies, etc. go to waste all the time.