Disguise and Favoured Enemies.

[Mistah J]

Hey folks,

I know this topic has been covered before.. I remember reading it but darned if my Google-fu has failed me. I'm looking for the discussions on what to do when a PC with bonuses against a certain race comes up against what looks like that race but really is another.

In this specific case, it's a dwarf facing against halflings disguised as goblins. It hasn't happened yet, but I want to be prepared.

I'm thinking that the dwarf should not get the bonus, but that in itself should be a bonus to realize they are not actually goblins. My concern is how to make that happen without resorting to metagaming.

Thanks

 

[Shin Okada]

By RAW, if the Dwarf Ranger has Favored Enemy Humanoid (Goblinoids) and not Favored Enemy Humanoid (Halfling), he does not get bonus to skills and damages. That is all. Whether if the ranger identifies the true nature of the foe or not is irrelevant.

If I were the DM, when the Dwarf Ranger attacks the disguising halfling, I will tell the player that his usual technique against goblinoids does not work against that foe and the foe's way of fighting is somehow different from that of usual goblinoids.

 

[Vegepygmy]

I basically agree with Shin Okada, but I'd be a little sneakier about it. I'd tell the dwarf's player to add his +1 racial bonus to attack rolls against the halflings-disguised-as-goblins, then I'd mentally subtract it back out (so he wouldn't actually benefit from it). I'd tell the player: "There's something different about these goblins, but you can't quite put your finger on what it is."

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Yeah, I would let the player add the benefits he thinks he should be getting, and then secretly subtract them back out.

On the flipside, if he isn't aware he's attacking a foe he should have bonuses against because of its disguise, I would secretly add those bonuses in. Knowledge of the enemy isn't required for Favored Enemy to work, strange as that may seem.