D&D (2024) Ranger 2024 is a bigger joke than Ranger 2014:

[ECMO3]

Not discounting the rest of your lengthy post but this is something that may be the crux of our disagreement. What you describe above is not how favored foe works. It’s only +1d8 the first time you hit on each of your turns.

It is how it works. You can mark someone on every single hit. It is not an action so the only limit is your concentration (which you drop every time you activate it again) and the number of uses you have.

You never should try to get more than one attack out of a single use, that just nerfs it. If you try to use FF like a nerfed Hunter's Mark or Hex where it sits on one creature it is a lot worse and in that case I would agree with you. I use it (and most Rangers use it) similar to how Divine Smite was used with Paladins in 5E. Hit and activate it for that one attack and only that one attack and then drop concentration and activate a new use of it again on the next hit.

Yes if you houserule that you can only expend one use of the Favored Foe feature per turn then that changes it but that is not RAW.

Every time I hit it is a new use. So hitting 3 times in one turn uses up every single use of favored foe at level 5 and half of your daily uses at level 20. This is RAW.

 

[Minigiant]

Not discounting the rest of your lengthy post but this is something that may be the crux of our disagreement. What you describe above is not how favored foe works. It’s only +1d8 the first time you hit on each of your turns.

He's burning a use on every hit.

It's DM discretion on whether or not that works.

 

[ECMO3]

Dispel Magic was in 2014.

It was not a Ranger spell in 2014. I misunderstood what you were saying. Ragers can get Starry Wisp and Elementalism through Druidic Warrior.

 

[Minigiant]

It is how it works. You can mark someone on every single hit. It is not an action so the only limit is your concentration (which you drop every time you activate it again) and the number of uses you have.

You never should try to get more than one attack out of a single use, that just nerfs it. If you try to use FF like a nerfed Hunter's Mark or Hex it is a lot worse and in that case I would agree with you. I use it (and most Rangers use it) more similar to how Divine Smite was used with Paladins in 5E. Hit and activate it for that one attack and only that one attack and then drop concentration and activate a new use of it again on the next attack.

Yes if you houserule that you can only use the Favored Foe feature once a turn then that changes it but that is not RAW.

Every time I hit it is a new use. So hitting 3 times in one round uses up every single use of favored foe at level 5 and half of your daily uses at level 20. This is RAW.

DM's discretion.

RAW, It only works on the first hit.

It's up to the DM whether or not, a new casting resets the time

 

[Minigiant]

It was not a Ranger spell in 2014. I misunderstood what you were saying. Ragers can get Starry Wisp and Elementalism through Druidic Warrior.

Not Ranger spells though.
Neither were they designed for Ranger.

Which is the point.
No new spells were designed for Ranger.

 

[FrogReaver]

DM's discretion.

RAW, It only works on the first hit.

It's up to the DM whether or not, a new casting resets the time

Agree. I at least understand the use case with the lenient view now.

One design trend in 2024 has been to mostly get rid of smite free action style abilities. Given the possibility of the lenient view I get why they replaced the old favored foe with hunters mark.

 

[ECMO3]

DM's discretion.

RAW, It only works on the first hit.

It's up to the DM whether or not, a new casting resets the time

There is no "reset the time".

"When you hit a creature with an attack roll, you can call on your mystical bond with nature to mark the target as your favored enemy for 1 minute or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell)."

There is nothing in there about doing it once a turn and RAW you can end concentration at any time.

The first time on each of your turns that you hit the favored enemy and deal damage to it, including when you mark it, you increase that damage by 1d4.

"The favored enemy" refers to the current favored enemy from the current use of Favored Foe and it even specifies "including when you mark it".

Like I said if you think it is too powerful (which is preposterous) you can nerf it, but RAW you can hit a new enemy with every single hit and deal the extra damage on every single hit as long as you burn a use.

Theoretically if you use it on the last hit from one round and hold on to concentration and then happen to hit that same creature with the first hit of the next round you can get the damage a second time from a single use on two different rounds, without using it again, but I have never had that happen in play.

 

[FrogReaver]

"The favored enemy" refers to the current favored enemy and it even specifies "including when you mark it".

This is an assumption and not explicit. If I hit Bob and use favored foe then bob’s been my favored foe this turn. Just because I end it and make bob my favored foe again doesn’t mean the 2nd hit on him now counts as my first hit against my favored foe this turn. A RAW acceptable ruling could go either way.

For what it’s worth I would go the lenient route. But I think the other possibility is just as much RAW.

 

[Minigiant]

There is no "reset the time".

"When you hit a creature with an attack roll, you can call on your mystical bond with nature to mark the target as your favored enemy for 1 minute or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell)."

There is nothing in there about doing it once a turn and RAW you can end concentration at any time.

The first time on each of your turns that you hit the favored enemy and deal damage to it, including when you mark it, you increase that damage by 1d4.

"The favored enemy" refers to the current favored enemy from the current use of Favored Foe and it even specifies "including when you mark it".

Like I said if you think it is too powerful (which is preposterous) you can nerf it, but RAW you can hit a new enemy with every single hit and deal the extra damage on every single hit as long as you burn a use.

Theoretically if you use it on the last hit from one round and hold on to concentration and then happen to hit that same creature with the first hit of the next round you can get the damage a second time from a single use on two different rounds, but I have never had that happen.

"The first time on each of your turns"

It's up to the DM whether not that resets if use it again.

It's Not too powerful it's just free damage for the exchange of a tracking and language bonus.

Like I said it really depends on how your DM runs the game.

 

[ECMO3]

This is an assumption and not explicit. If I hit Bob and use favored foe then bob’s been my favored foe this turn. Just because I end it and make bob my favored foe again doesn’t mean the 2nd hit on him now counts as my first hit against my favored foe this turn. A RAW acceptable ruling could go either way.

Two things.

First off if you accept this interpretation then if I hit Bob and damage him and don't use FF and then I hit Bob a second time and damage him and use FF with that 2nd attack then I don't do additional damage him because I already hit and damaged him this turn?

That is an interpretation with seemingly no real purpose other than to nerf what is already a weak ability.

Second in terms of raw damage it is irrelevant, because while this interpretation would mean I can't damage Bob a second time, I can still for sure damage both Jill and Mike in addition to Bob on the same turn, which is really one of the biggest shortfalls of HM.