Hey Rangers! What is the *best* choice in Favoured Enemy?

[Pants]

How about Undead and Constructs?

They're the monsters that normally take least damage due to the lack of critty fun - plus Golems have immunity to magic as well, so you'll probably out-damage the entire rest of the party when fighting these two sets of enemies.

Just be sure to be an archer, okay?

I don't believe the bonus to damage applied to constructs and undead in 3.0 though.

 

[FireLance]

Really, it's best if the DM actually hints to the player what will be good choices. For example, in my current Eberron campaign, I've planned for the main opponents to be the Cults of the Dragon Below, the Lords of Dust and the Order of the Emerald Claw. Thus, Aberration, Outsider (Evil) and Undead would make good favored enemy choices.

That said, once the player has made the choice, it's up to the DM to ensure that it gets used. The ranger PC in my campaign has Aberrations as a favored enemy, so I ensure that there are at least two Aberration encounters in every adventure.

 

[greymarch]

In D&D 3.5, its undead. Not even worth arguing. There are simply too many kinds of undead to pick anything else. Undead are by far the most common type of monster in D&D.

In D&D 3.0, its a much more difficult decision. I would lean towards aberrations. There are lots of those.

 

[Li Shenron]

Thanks. I'm still going by the 3.0 rules but this helps out.

I think most of the posters thought you were playing 3.5, because if you choose undead in 3.0 you don't get the bonus damage, and because you must be EVIL to choose your own race: therefore if you're a nonevil human ranger, in 3.0 you CANNOT choose humans as your favored enemy.

 

[Tuzenbach]

The Rangers' favored enemy?

It's a toss-up between Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow.

That's the funniest thing I've read all year! Though Sather's a much bigger detriment to that organization, surely.............

 

[was]

I'd have to second (or 13th or 23rd..whatever) the vote for goblinoids. I'm currently on my third ranger since 3.0 came out (I am on 3.5 right now) and have found it to be a pretty good choice. They pop up all over the place and in large numbers.

 

[Steverooo]

If your GM will allow it, Humanoids (Evil) is even better. It will apply to Orc (and Half-Orcs, due to the Orc-blood special quality), Goblinoids, and a whole heap of other critters, too. Some GMs won't allow it, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[J_A_Garlock]

So if you pick goblinoids or whatever, later on you don't have to add more points to your bonus? You can choose a different favoured enemy?

 

[Testament]

Serious answer: Humans (soooo common), Magical Beasts (half the MM), Undead (common as heck, nice CR spread) or Evil Outsiders.

 

[Li Shenron]

So if you pick goblinoids or whatever, later on you don't have to add more points to your bonus? You can choose a different favoured enemy?

In 3.0 you choose a new favored enemy at levels 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20. Vs the new favored enemy your bonus is +1 and all the previous FE increase by 1.
So if you pick Goblinoids at level 1, it automatically raises to +2 @ lv5, +3 @ lv10, +4 @ lv15 and +5 @ lv20.

In 3.5 you choose a new favored enemy at the same levels, vs the new FE you already start with a +2, and you get to increase by +2 any of your current FEs (eventually even the new one).
In this case you have many choices: if you choose Goblinoids at level 1, you can later raise it up to +10, leave it at +2 and raise another one, or any other even bonus in-between.