rangers favored enemy?

[Nifft]

Ask yourself what percentage of enemies (not just NPCs) will be Human.

If it's more than 20%, you should allow your PCs to take FE (Humans).

If it's more than 60%, you should break them down into different groups.

Note that even if you have mostly human NPCs, you can still have a variety of enemies -- say, one human is a Summoner with a Dark Pact who's surrounded by Imps pretending to be people, one alleged Human is really a Yuan-Ti Pureblood (Monstrous Humanoid), one is a Necromancer and attacking him involves going through a lot of undead (made from former humans), one hunt involves finding an animal trainer / beast-master / Druid who's going to throw a lot of Animals at your party, etc.

-- N

 

[Otterscrubber]

I have no problem with rangers choosing humans IMC and there certainly is no need to force them to be evil to do this. Humans have been fighting other humans as much or more than any of the other races in most campaigns I've ever been a part of, why should they not have humans as an option?

 

[TracerBullet42]

Think of it this way, remember Tommy Lee Jones' character Marshall Sam Gerard from The Fugitive? How he could organize a manhunt so well, anticipate what people were going to do? That's his Ranger Favored Enemy bonus at work there. He doesn't hate the people he's chasing (doesn't mean he likes them either), but he does know their tendencies very well.

And you never argue with the Big Dog cuz the Big Dog is always right...

 

[Hypersmurf]

And you never argue with the Big Dog cuz the Big Dog is always right...

Oh, yeah, Big Dawg, you never wrong.

-Hyp.

 

[Shin Okada]

If your players (and their PCs) are aware of that they will meat same kind of creatures (humans, in this case) again and again, there also be other creature specific counter measures they can take. For example, spellcasters may simply make a lot of "human bane" weapons by themselves. They will also try to learn and prepare "xx person" spells more often. Even fighter types may choose feats specific type of opponents in mind. So just disallowing Favored Enemy ability does not solve something.

Let them use their abilities freely. Instead of disallowing them, adjust encounters and make them balanced. For example, even if the majority of the villains in your campaign are humans, it does not mean most of the encounters should be against humans. Villains may summon/create/breed other monsters and let them fight against PCs. I strongly suggest this way, it is more fun to fight against various different types of foes.

 

[BastionLightbringer]

Thanks

It sounds like I was overreacting. FE: human is ok and won't unbalance the campaign. Thanks for your help and ideas. Also at higher levels it will become less useful as he will be fighting greater monsters and less humans.
Thnks

 

[Will]

Well, my question is this. If 90% of the opponents you fight are human, what is a ranger learning that a fighter isn't?

 

[Darklone]

@Will: See a fighter as a strategist and tactician, while a ranger learns specific combat manoevers. The fighter will know how to position himself in combat and how to use the weapons he's given, the ranger will be pretty helpless against an opponent that doesn't fit his training.

 

[Len]

Well, my question is this. If 90% of the opponents you fight are human, what is a ranger learning that a fighter isn't?

Fighters don't know everything. They can't sneak attack, for another example.

 

[ARandomGod]

Does anyone else feal that the Ranger should not be allowed to pick human as favored enemy (unless evil)? I believe you are allowed in 3.5, unless i'm reading it wrong. My campaign is primarily inhabited by human npcs and will unbalance it.

Personally, I've always felt that that reasoning was just stupid. Saying that you can't take FE: Human unless you're evil is akin to saying that there are no evil humans... ie if you're thinking that you have to be "evil" to want to have humans as an enemy... and that's a self-contradictory statement.

I'd say it's perfectly reasonable for a good uman to want to hunt down evil humans. Even less evil than wanting to hunt down orcs, really. I mean, who's to say that those orcs are really evil? Sure, they seem so to US, but what if that's just racial predjudice? But hunting down humans, that's more *right* somehow. Less simple hatred... and hatred really is a form of evil.

Also, it's important to note that humans are the easiest race to stop being human. They branch out into so many forms of less than human that it's silly. Elves, on the other hand, tend to stay elves even when they brach out (drow are still elves, for instance).