Ranger Favored Enemy Bonus

[dreaded_beast]

Have useful do you consider this bonus in regards to sense motive and bluff since they are not even on the ranger skill list?

How about in general in regards to just receiving a bonus to skills?

 

[jgsugden]

Have useful do you consider this bonus in regards to sense motive and bluff since they are not even on the ranger skill list?

How about in general in regards to just receiving a bonus to skills?

These bonuses tend to be useless. In general, they are worthless. In certain circumstances, however, they are very important.

They can be used untrained, so they can be significant against certain foes. For instance, a ranger that gets +8 versus humans might be able to use these bonuses to track down local thieves.

One area where they consistently help out is when a foe tries to feint you. In the new rules, being able to add your BAB to your sense motive means that these bonuses make it very hard for a favored enemy to feint a ranger.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I think they were useless in 3e because they were too small, but now they are fine. Even +2 is a help, since it gives you an edge against non-rogue foes, if you have +4 or more it is very useful.

What's more, there is nothing to prevent rangers from occasionally spending cross-class skill points to get a rank or two in bluff or sense motive.

The only problem I've come across with them is DM-based, since the bonus can be a meta-gamey in identification of something "Spot check 14, or 20 if it is human". "you spot it because it makes typically human attempts to hide". That might not be a bad thing though.

Cheers,