own race as favored enemy = evil?

[Shadeus]

I was considering playing a ranger as my next character and I was discussing with the DM what I could have as my favored enemy. My DM finally said, "Well, in the area of the [homebrew] world you are in, the only race you really have contact with is humans, so why not take human?" I pointed out how only an evil ranger can take his own race as a favored enemy (playing a NG human ranger).

His response, "That's ridiculous. So its less evil for a human to take elves as their favored enemy or vice versa? It should be in the application and that's up to the character."

Anyone else Rule 0 this? Why do you think you have to be evil to have as your favored enemy your own race? It would make sense if you were around humans only, that you would be skilled at hunting and tracking them. I guess animals could always fit in though.

Thoughts?

 

[Wild Karrde]

I don't see why you couldn't have Humans as your preferred enemy. I know alot of people who aren't so nice in the present day world and Military forces that are specifically trained to take those people down.

It makes sense that you would be more familiar with humans as they are more than likely the people you grew up around. There are good and bad humans and it's not like all humans are nice. So I don't see how it could be considered evil to destroy evil.

 

[Chronosome]

I don't think it's evil. Not for humans, anyway. Maybe for a
race which is predominantly good, like elves or dwarves, but
not humans who are widespread and very varied...

My only real issue with this is that humans are such a wide
and varied race; I think it's silly to say Mr. Ranger gets a +3
to hit all humans, regardless of origin or culture.

I guess you could apply the same notion to elves, dwarves, etc...
But they've always seemed a little "predictable" in their mindsets.

What I'm going to do is break it up by culture...I've got a number
of human countries IMC that have very different views and stances
on fighting...makes more sense to me to do it that way.

Hope this helped.

 

[Shadeus]

Well, the same goes if you were an elf. What if you want to be the drow-hunter? You couldn't under the normal rules (and still be good) because drow are elves. The favored enemy "ability" is so weak to begin with, I hate to weaken it further by saying the bonus only applies to one nation of people.

 

[Galfridus]

I Rule Zeroed this for one character. It hasn't been a problem -- but then, the character only took one level of ranger so a +1 isn't going to throw anything out of whack.

I would definitely recommend having the character pick a particular culture and restricting the bonus to that culture, unless humans are rare in your campaign.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I left the rule in, but would bend it if a player wanetd to do it wth good reason.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I don't see it as evil either.

Thoughts on the Ranger could make them a bounty hunter or wildness protector.

 

[Noldor Elf]

At least in FR it's clearly stated that elf taking drow as favored enemy is only know breach of the rule (only evils can take own race as favored enemy), but I suppose it's same for dwarves and druergars.

 

[Agamon]

Bah. Of all the rules associated with Rangers that poeple don't like, I think this is the silliest. A ranger that spnds a lifetime hunting bandits in the woods most definitely has to be evil, does he? But if he was hunting elven children as they stray form their village, he can be lawful good, no problem.

 

[Tsyr]

Agreed. I rule0ed this long before I started experimenting with alt.rangers.