Even the 3.5 ranger is a wimp

[tarchon]

Well, it's just being used to hunt/track/fight them...

You rarely do that against yourself.

It's not so much experience tracking yourself (though knowledge of your own behavior would help) but knowledge of others in your community. In 3.0, the justification for Ranger FE was apparently hatred - players in our 3.0 campaign always played them as being slightly demented as a result - but in 3.5 it seems to be more a matter of familiarity. If you were raised in a human community, chances are you'd have grown up seeing human tracks, fighting other humans, watching their behavior etc. Now we're saying the character is a "smart fighter" type, who knows how to use extensive knowledge of an enemy to improve chances when fighting, which is why advanced Rangers can learn new favored enemies. They already know how to use knowledge in combat/tracking; they just have to acquire new knowledge to get new FEs. If we go with this theory of FEs, it's hard to figure how Rangers in general know their own kind less well than they know, say, Lawful Outsiders.

 

[wysiwyg]

in 3.5 it seems to be more a matter of familiarity. If you were raised in a human community, chances are you'd have grown up seeing human tracks, fighting other humans, watching their behavior etc. Now we're saying the character is a "smart fighter" type, who knows how to use extensive knowledge of an enemy to improve chances when fighting, which is why advanced Rangers can learn new favored enemies.

Your idea sounds sound except for one problemo: why is it called F.Enemy? The wording sounds like the rangers really really HATE them.
I like your idea and maybe the ability should change to "Most Familiar" instead.

 

[tarchon]

Your idea sounds sound except for one problemo: why is it called F.Enemy? The wording sounds like the rangers really really HATE them.

I think that was the concept at various points in D&D's history, though it seems to waffle between different viewpoints over time. "Enemy" though could just imply opposition - you know how to hunt/fight ape adversaries very well, but you don't necessarily hate every ape you see, from chimpan-A to chimpan-Z. Obviously Rangers who have FE (their race) don't necessarily hate every single member of their race, including themselves.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm playing a ranger with favored "enemy" animals right now. He's a hunter and "knows the way of the beast" and certainly doesn't hate them. In fact, he's found camels are very good at setting up flanking opportunities (Long story, that one.) And yes, his favored enemy choice actually came in handy once, though I wasn't expecting that. (Critted a horse. 39 damage! Woot!)

 

[Sejs]

why is it called F.Enemy? The wording sounds like the rangers really really HATE them.

Because if it was called Favored Ally it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. Generally there's only two categories of things you kill - enemies, or victims. And Favored Enemy sounds alot less sinister than Favored Victim.

 

[Plane Sailing]

What race, elf, half elf?

He's an elf - for the alertness and good nightwatchman characteristics (things you look for in a cohort )

FWIW I think it is incredibly sensible that races can now take their own race as a favoured enemy. It makes rangers could policemen and bounty hunters. 2e introduced the idea of hatred of an enemy (and gave a penalty to reaction rolls), 3e very helpfully eliminated that aspect of it.

Regards,

 

[Darklone]

Yupp. Same here: Cityguards are fighters and warrior, but the watch officers and "detectives" are pretty often rangers and rogues.

 

[Rawwedge]

You are not addressing the problem (your party), you are only moving it somewhere else!

Bye
Thanee

P.S. Crothian is overpowered!

I would have to agree with this. The ranger could be getting creamed for any number of different reasons and changing his crunch is probably the worst solution and only to be used as a last resort.
In my group, our party tends to have 3-5 characters with one or two heavy hitters and one or two backup fighters (such as rangers). Our encounters almost always involve being significantly outnumbered by low to moderate strength baddies. This means that everybody, including pure spellcaster (who cannot yet get out of harm's way) end up getting bloodied. Despite the abuse dished out to all, everyone manages to get by equally. If you want a heavy hitting Ranger think Ranger/Barbarian; I have one now and he's great.