Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 2128928" data-attributes="member: 12037">This question is posed fairly often in my game by the PC Ranger. Usually, its easy to answer. "Yep, that guy with pointed ears and moist scaly skin is an Evil Outsider." (Even then its kind of odd that a ranger will know the type difference between say, all monstrous humanoids and native outsiders, who often are not that distinguishable.)And, sometimes it isn't something I know how to answer. She has her main favored enemy as Evil Outsider, so whenever making a Sense Motive, Track, damage roll, etc. versus an ambiguous enemy, the question is likely to pop up. Now, she should get the bonus because that guy is an Evil Outsider. If it has normal human feet, she's going to get the +survival to track, and if it just happens to look like a goblin (barghest) she should get that +damage, etc.The problem arises of how on earth does she know that, say, this barghest is not a goblin? How do you run this? Does the ranger suddenly realize from the moves the barghest is making that it is actually something different: an Evil Outsider? What about a barghest traveling with goblins in goblin form? Are the tracks different (assuming it isn't using Pass Without Trace for some reason)?For a more mundane/average favored enemy, what about a human with an illusion to make them look like an elf. Sense motive gets a bonus to it? Damage? What do I tell the player? I don't want to give away that there's an illusion in place, or should I? "He seems to fight like a... human," just doens't seem right somehow. Should I reveal that the old man they're talking to is a dragon because she's making a skill check (2nd favored enemy). The flavor text implies that the bonuses are due to the PC knowing what to expect from that type of enemy...How do you run this? If a ranger faces an being that is one of their favored enemies, but is not obviously of that type, what do you do in your campaign?</blockquote>

Verification