Clarification - Ranger Favored Enemy Progression

[Malvoisin]

Hello,

The rules for a ranger's favored enemy progression in the SRD seem a little ambiguous to me. When a ranger hits fifth level, and chooses a second favored enemy, can he then also assign an additional +2 bonus to his first favored enemy?

Is it Favored Enemy #1, +2 bonus; Favored Enemy #2, +2 bonus.

OR

Favored Enemy #1, +4 bonus; Favored Enemy #2, +2 bonus.

Thanks for your help, gurus!

 

[drdevoid]

edited: removed erroneous info

 

[Klaus]

Hello,

The rules for a ranger's favored enemy progression in the SRD seem a little ambiguous to me. When a ranger hits fifth level, and chooses a second favored enemy, can he then also assign an additional +2 bonus to his first favored enemy?

Is it Favored Enemy #1, +2 bonus; Favored Enemy #2, +2 bonus.

OR

Favored Enemy #1, +4 bonus; Favored Enemy #2, +2 bonus.

Thanks for your help, gurus!

Neither.

The ranger gets a Favored Enemy at level 1. Say, Animals (+2).

Then, at level 5, he gets another Favored Enemy. Say, Magical Beasts (+2).

He ALSO gets to increase either of his Favored Enemy bonus by another +2. So that could mean either:

Animals (+4), Magical Beasts (+2) or Animals (+2), Magical Beasts (+4).

Then, at level 10, he gets another Favored Enemy. Say, Giants (+2).

He ALSO gets to increase any of his Favored Enemy bonus by another +2.

That could bring him to:

Animals (+6), Magical Beasts (+2), Giants (+2);
Animals (+4), Magical Beasts (+4), Giants (+2);
Animals (+2), Magical Beasts (+6), Giants (+2);

etc, etc.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The latter. If FE: Giants is your first selection, it goes up by 2 with each new selection.

So at 5th ranger level it's 4; at 10th it's 6; at 15th it's 8; and at 20th it's 10.

FYI, Improved Favored Enemy only adds its bonus once.

So it would be something like this at 20th: Giants (gained at CL:1) 10; Dragons 8 (gained at CL:5), Aberrations 6 (gained at CL:10), Magical Beasts 4 (gained at CL:15), Undead 2 (gained at CL:20)

This was only true in 3.0. It changed dramatically for the better in 3.5e, as Klaus has explained in detail.

Cheers

 

[Felix]

So it would be something like this at 20th: Giants (gained at CL:1) 10; Dragons 8 (gained at CL:5), Aberrations 6 (gained at CL:10), Magical Beasts 4 (gained at CL:15), Undead 2 (gained at CL:20)

You don't automatically gain a +2 to all your previous favored enemies at every 5th level.

At 1st level, you gain one favored enemy at +2.
(Example: Giants +2)

At 5th level, you gain a second favored enemy, also at +2. In addition, you may choose to increase either one of your favored enemy bonuses by 2.
(Example: Giants +2 / Magical Beasts +4)

At 10th level, you gain a third favored enemy, at +2. Again, you may choose any of your three favored enemies to increase by 2.
(Example: Giants +2 / Magical Beasts +6 / Aberrations +2)

At 15th level, you gain a fourth favored enemy, at +2. Again choose any of your four favored enemis to increase by 2.
(Example: Giants +2 / Magical Beasts +6 / Aberrations +4 / Dragons +2)

At 20th level, you gain a fifth and final favored enemy at +2. Choose any of your five favored enemies to increase by 2.
(Example: Giants +2 / Magical Beasts +8 / Aberrations +4 / Dragons +2 / Humanoid (Orcs) +2)

You'll have a total of +18 distrubuted among five favored enemies at 20th level.




EDIT: Scooped!

 

[Hypersmurf]

It changed dramatically for the better in 3.5e, as Klaus has explained in detail.

The main reason it's better, of course, is that usually the thing you want a small bonus on when you're 1st level isn't the thing you want a large bonus on when you're 15th level.

Under the 3E system, you either picked dragons at 1st level, and got no benefit from it for a long time, or you picked humanoid (orc) at 1st level, and used it heaps, but ended up with massive bonuses against orcs that you really didn't need when you were high level.

Under the 3.5 system, you can get your small bonuses against orcs at 1st level, and still get good bonuses against dragons or demons or whatever at high levels, never having to boost the orc bonus above +2.

-Hyp.