Ranger Favored Terrains - Plane (Hell) question

[Eleclipse]

I'm going to start a campaign that take place mostly in hell and his layers.

One of the players want to do a ranger and, by rules, he can just take "Hell" as a favored terrain and be good wherever he go in hell.

This just don't seem right to me, the layers of hell are vastly different from each others, and they also have cities.

Are there some rules i don't know regarding this kind of thing?

Thanks in advice for any help.

 

[tylermalan]

You're correct - he can just choose "Hell". However, I would say that when he is in a city in Hell, he would be in "urban" and probably wouldn't get his bonuses.

But yeah, even though there are multiple layers, he would get his bonus in all of them. Just play it like he's an expert on the layers of Hell. This really isn't overpowered.

 

[frankthedm]

Are there some rules i don't know regarding this kind of thing?

The ruleset is built around the notion that the players encounter numerous environments and enemy types over the length of a campaign. If you focus the game to just one type of environment or creature, you may need to tweak the system to compensate. Much like how in a city based campaign, the "Charm / Hold / Dominate Person" spells become much more useful than intended since the game normally has a monster rich opponent roster.

 

[Systole]

This is a problem with favored enemies/terrains: they get MORE powerful the LESS varied your terrain/monster list is. If a ranger takes Favored Enemy: Undead and the campaign is set in a zombie apocalypse, then essentially every single enemy the ranger is going to fight is a favored enemy. You might as well just give the ranger a flat +1 attack bonus.

However, this subverts the intent of the favored terrain/enemy, and in my opinion the GM should invoke Rule 0: "Because I said so." Disallow favored terrain: Hell.

 

[Eleclipse]

Thanks for all the advices!

I think i'll try let him take it at the condition that it don't work in cities and specific environment and see what happen. If he'll find a way to abuse it or if i see is just too much i'll "downsize" it