rangers favored enemy?

[Will]

My point is that the ranger gets a special bonus because he learns to fight humans, as opposed to elves and halflings. He's specialized in one form of fighting knowing a specific opponent.

But if nearly everything that is fought is human... then you're telling me that fighters lack some crucial insight into fighting humans? The guys they fight almost exclusively?

Just makes the whole rationale fall apart, for me.

 

[Gort]

And class abilities are meant to come up alot... and an extra +10 damage (I know there's more then just damage) by 20th isn't that big a deal, even if it does come into play every day. YMMV

My mileage does vary, and quite a lot! My fighter does D8+13 damage at 18th level. (+5 magic, +6 strength, +2 weapon specialisation) +10 damage would go down rather nicely in my opinion!

And I don't get how rangers would need a different favoured enemy to kill evil humans or a specific subset of humans than to kill good humans or normal humans. Evil humans have their veins and arteries in the same places as normal humans. An arrow in the eye kills Theresa McGood just as dead as it kills Ghengis Von Bad.

(As an aside, apart from the argument at hand - As a DM, I find that a campaign containing little more than the core races leads to combat becoming a little boring. After a few fights involving humans humans and yet more humans, I begin to long for the freaky abilities that the monsters throw into the mix. You might find differently of course.)

 

[Chorn]

But if nearly everything that is fought is human... then you're telling me that fighters lack some crucial insight into fighting humans?

They lack the narrower focus of the ranger. Fighters train simply to be good at hacking things up. Ranger training would be that, but with a specific focus on their favored enemy. This focus applies not only in the martial sense, but possibly a mental or psychological sense as well. Think of a criminal profiler. They try to get a feel for how the criminal would think and in doing so predict how he would act. Remember, the FE bonuses also add checks like Bluff and Sense Motive.

The fighter can read his opponent in combat and anticipate a feint, but the ranger has a better grasp of how his opponent thinks and fights better because of that. Fighters who fight orcs most of the time won't be any different unless they go that extra level and do some studying on what makes them tick compared to humans.