D&D 5E Favored Enemy needs a simple Damage +2

[Jester David]

Favoured enemy providing a damage bonus would be problematic.

First, it's a poor method of adjusting the class' damage output because it's inconsistent. In campaigns with lots of the appropriate monster, it's too good, and in games with none, it's too weak. There's no real way to get a solid balance.
While the same could be said about Turn Undead, that's such an archetypal power it'd be hard to leave out. It gets grandfathered in. Favoured enemy doesn't have the same name value, really only existing in 3e.

Second, the categories are really broad. You get three favoured enemies but choose from a list of 14. The bonus might not apply often. Especially of they take the humanoid option.
Because it doesn't come up often, it's super easy to forget.

Third, option also doesn't scale very well. +2 to damage versus goblins and orcs sounds great at 1st level, but doesn't seem so hot at 10th level when you haven't seen a goblin in five levels. And +2 to damage to anything seems "meh" at level 10.

Fourth, there's the tracking problem. You don't always know what type something is, especially if you're DM is describing this and not giving you a detailed stat block. It makes it harder for the DM to surprise people, when the player has to ask if they can apply their bonus or not.

 

[Eric V]

You might have been trying to build characters by the numbers since whenever but the systems themselves weren't really about that till 3rd edition came around.

Skills and Powers (2e) would like a word with you.

So would 1e Unearthed Arcana.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I want the fighter to be the best overall "fighter" ,and the ranger to be the best fighter versus his favored enemy....i.e. "I am the hunter and stalker of orcs, that they fear the night and the sound of the wind."

So when orcs hear or smell farts, they know the scary beast-friend killer of their cousins is near.

 

[Sailor Moon]

Skills and Powers (2e) would like a word with you.

So would 1e Unearthed Arcana.

I've got both and Skills and Powers don't really count because it was purely an optional book that you needed your DM's approval.

 

[Sailor Moon]

Very good point and well said. Oh, and I agree about the ranger, I think it works out fine and extra damage to a few types of monsters never worked well in 3e. I just don't like people saying the game isn't about the numbers, numbers matter. I have played with people who make silly useless characters because they want to roleplay and it is a pet peeve of mine.

But issue dropped.

And I don't like it when people say the game is about the numbers when they don't have any evidence to back it up

 

[Paraxis]

I've got both and Skills and Powers don't really count because it was purely an optional book that you needed your DM's approval.

Sure it counts, just like unearthed arcana counts, as does the build your own class section in the 2e DMG, it all counts it is all about the numbers. Just like knowing your DM and the campaign, if you know the campaign will last a long time or already starts at high level always play a spellcaster, if you know it is a flash in the pan kind of thing you played a barbarian, does the DM enforce level caps, stuff like that you game the system as well as the dungeon master.

And I don't like it when people say the game is about the numbers when they don't have any evidence to back it up

The evidence is all around you and 40 years of history, min/maxing and optimization have been around since the start it is human nature, 3rd edition didn't invent the idea, the internet allowed the idea to flourish with optimization threads and getting advice from tons of other players/dm's.

You can roleplay in a pure storytelling aspect without rules, it is pretty fun collaborative storytelling, but once you add game mechanics to the mix it is also a game and there are ways to get ahead in a game. You can use odds to help you play poker, logic problem solving in clue, deck building in magic the gathering, once you put out options for character building and altering the success mechanic in a roleplaying game you can and people have forever to optimize in a roleplaying game.

Now is it all about the numbers no not really that was just a rebuttal to your statement that "It's not about the numbers anymore."
That implies this edition is different than the editions that came before it and honestly it is not.

Play a ranger because you want to talk to animals and track people, I will play a ranger because I want good ranged DPR and access to interesting spells, in the end we are both playing rangers and having fun.

 

[Ahrimon]

You guys end up going back and forth like this a lot because you both talk in absolutes. The game is many things to many people. Saying it is or isn't any one specific thing or another is futile, silly, and could even be considered baiting in some communities.

I grow and RP character all day long and still focus on the numbers in the background. I can also go with one side of the argument or not depending on the character. In many ways I agree with both of you. I don't like people that play a character that is a liability or doesn't fit the theme of the game "because roleplaying!" and I don't like people that play a character that is nothing more than a collection of numbers designed solely to be "teh roxorz!".

Maybe I've been lucky and have never seen the mythical useless character that Praxis talks about. I've seen plenty of highly RP focused characters but none that were useless in a fight or other mechanical situation. I have seen mechanically focused characters where the player overcomes the lower social abilities with great roleplaying. That one always irks me.

To the subject at hand... I haven't played a ranger so I can't comment out of experience, but reading the book I think their combat abilities are in the sweet spot and balanced against exploration and social abilities. The fighter and the paladin both focus more on the combat tier than rangers do.

 

[Stalker Comic]

I'm playing Ranger Hunter, now at level 11 and ...

Fighter >>> Ranger
Barbarian >> Ranger
Cleric >>>>> Ranger
Rogue >> Ranger
Paladin >>>>>>>> Ranger

Are the characters of my gaming table.

 

[Stalker Comic]

Spells like Ensnaring Strike, Hunter's Mark, Lightning Arrow and others are very good but still does not place the class at the same level of the others.

Needs improvements urgently.

 

[Stalker Comic]

A Bard can emulate a Ranger archer.
He becomes a better archer than the Ranger.