Rangers & Favored Enemies

[Golem2176]

In the 3.5 PHB it does not say anywhere that the ranger must be evil to select her own race as a favored enemy! Are any 3.5 DMs stating that their players who are rangers must be evil to do this?

Also I had another thought, what if, instead of actually gaining another favored enemy, the character could gain another +2. Thus at 5th level a character that had vampires as their favored enemy had a total of +6 against them? Just an idea I might incorporate into my campaign.

 

[Tywyll]

In the 3.5 PHB it does not say anywhere that the ranger must be evil to select her own race as a favored enemy! Are any 3.5 DMs stating that their players who are rangers must be evil to do this?

Also I had another thought, what if, instead of actually gaining another favored enemy, the character could gain another +2. Thus at 5th level a character that had vampires as their favored enemy had a total of +6 against them? Just an idea I might incorporate into my campaign.

Personally, I always thought not selecting your own race was stupid. Lets face it, what are bounty hunter archtypes if not Rangers? Besides, what race will you know better, one you have studied or your own people? So, no, it doesn't bother me a bit.

As for letting you simply get another bonus... I would be leary of it. I think +2/+4 are high enough bonuses, and +6 at 5th level is starting to get stupidly excessive.

 

[AeroDm]

It depends on the type of game you play IMO and how your players approach it. I know a lot of people choose human just because they are what you face the most. I think this sucks, and hence I thought the 'evil' requirement was a good one. Others might approach it differently and find no problem with it.

As for the +6 at 5th, I'd shy away from this. You are allowing the ranger to spread themself a little thin so as to lose a majority of portion of their power. However, against vampires (as per your example) they would be very powerful. You are going to create a character that only wants to fight vampires because they rule against them and then complain whenever there are no vamps because the DM is screwing them. Bad scenario. Avoid.

 

[the Jester]

I wouldn't dream of letting a ranger put all +6 in one enemy at 5th level. Too aggressive and too tailored against one enemy. Take foe hunter if you want to get that bent at one type of enemy.

As for the 'evil' requirement, it went away. I mean, c'mon- what about the good kingdom with a traditional evil kingdom enemy? What about elves vs. drow, or dwarves vs. duergar?

 

[Golem2176]

I wouldn't dream of letting a ranger put all +6 in one enemy at 5th level. Too aggressive and too tailored against one enemy. Take foe hunter if you want to get that bent at one type of enemy.

Where can I get information on the foe hunter?

 

[FrankTrollman]

Where can I get information on the foe hunter?

It's a very crappy PrC from MotW.

It gives 3/4 BAB progression in exchange for a slightly faster Favored Enemy progression. Don't bother. You'd be better at fighting your enemies just by taking levels of Ranger (although ironically it makes a decent Epic class).

-Frank