Reworking Favored Enemy and 'Precision' damage

[Notmousse]

Preamble (or Ramble, I'll point out where I get to game theory).

Maybe I should've worded it the other way around, but I submit that both work on the same (or at least similar) principle.


Both the Ranger and Rogue fight more effectively against certain targets due to a knowledge of their enemies. The Ranger takes a detailed study of certain creature types to gain a static advantage in damage. The Rogue on the other hand has a broader sense of 'soft spots' to stick the 'pointy end' of their weapons which applies across a(n initially) broader group than the Ranger, but as a much more variable advantage, more obvious from 5th level onwards.


Having played in Living Greyhawk as both a Rogue and a Ranger (Fighter, Swashbuckler, Ex-Bard in the truest sense of the word... all in one character), I've found my character woefully inept when facing an unusually large portion of the opposition (Undead caused my dip into Ranger for the FE allowing me the chance to beat DR, and/or cause more damage than a crossbow wielding sorcerer).

This doesn't follow in game logic on several points in my mind as in most cases even the critical immune have structural weaknesses, or a center if nothing else.

Given the above, I thought to how to correct this (I'm not convinced 4e is my cup of tea, and that's all I say of it) and believe I have the roots for a solution with finesse.

---

Actual content ahead! Skip to here if you don't care why I'm bringing this up.

My solution is to allow the Knowledge skills associated with monster types to determine the amount of FE and SA allowed against them, with set maximums attributed to level.

I haven't tossed this into serious playtest or statistical analysis, but feel this is a fine starting point.

For Rangers the amount of bonus damage would be relevant knowledge skill, with a limit of level / 2 +1, while the number of FE would still be limited as per PHB. This allows a Ranger to 'specialize' in a certain type of monsters quite efficiently (Elementals come immediately to mind) while also allowing later FE choices to continue to be of some importance rather than background with a nod to statistical influence.

Rogues and other precision damage dealers would be along the lines of +1d6 per every rank in the relevant knowledge skill with a limit of level / 2 +1. This would be required only of types that are immune to critical hits, but may be applied to a normally vulnerable target with magical (or other) assistance.

---

Alternatively (for those who believe the above to be unbalancing, or simply love to roll dice)


Ranger bonus damage to be equal to relevant knowledge skill check / 2.5 (or +2 for every 5 if you prefer).

Rogue & Co. would be equal to relevant knowledge skill check / 2.5 per d6.

In both cases no limit to bonus damage given the increased burden to obtain them (feats, skill points, intelligence, and items to enhance the former).

---

C&C (and flames) requested.

 

[Kerrick]

While I agree that certain creatures that are currently immune to crits/sneaks probably shouldn't be, I think this system entails a little too much math. Most relevant Knowledge skills are cross-class for rogues; between Knowledge (dungeoneering and (nature), rangers have most of the creature types covered, but Knowledge (local) is useless for creature information.

What I did is change fortification - instead of a percentage chance of immunity, it reduces the crit multiplier and dice of sneak attack. So Light is -1 step or -5 dice; Medium is -2 steps or -10 dice; and Heavy is -3 steps or -15 dice. Creatures that are currently immune to crits/sneaks now have fortification - plants have light, undead and constructs have medium, and oozes have heavy (which, until you hit near-epic, is still immunity for all intents and purposes).

Getting back to ranger FE - that ability could definitely use a little sprucing up. I was just thinking of revamping the class to give it more FE abilities, based on the Hunter PrC - tone down the Su abilities, but do something similar - bonuses to Track if he has a body part, the ability to bypass DR if he has some blood, etc.

 

[Folly]

On the ranger that I played (LG as well), I found favored enemy to be incredible useful as it currently is. I say this, but my character had some settings advantages. Since I live in the Bandit Kingdoms area, I have a solid knowledge of the type of enemies I will face. Having 11 levels of rangers and 4 common enemies to pick from (undead, human, orc, and evil outsider), I am able to use FE in most encounters and at least once per module. I also took the Improved FE feat to get a bit more effect. So I gain a bonus of 9, 5, 5 against evil outsiders, humans, undead. This is a fairly significant swing for a ranged combatant.

This is all well and good if you have a lot of information about the campaign your character is going to be in, and can rely on it remaining the same flavor through the life of the character. My experience with most home game dms is that they rarely like to stick with a consistent type of monsters, and often campaigns shift due to story arcs ending. This creates a very difficult environment for rangers. Especially since the fluff really suggests that they wouldn't use the retraining rules for FE.