Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Tarnafin 07-31-04, 11:52 PM	3.5 Ranger of course. I was thinking of taking archery as my combat style and picking up two-weapon fighting as well as the other archery feats to round out my character. To be specific, he is a wood elf ranger from the Forgotten Realms. I was also wondering if anyone could give me a good progression with favored enemies. Looking to get the most out of my selections.
Mitchell 08-01-04, 03:19 AM	Without consulting my books, For feats I recommend either TWF, to get it out of the way, or dodge, because I seem to remember dodge being a prerequisite to some of the other archery skills. From a practical standpoint, it doesn't matter a whole lot, but dodge will help you survive and TWF will only make you more likely to miss, so dodge seems the way to go. As for favored enemies, with the 3.5 system, it doesn't matter alot, as you could take a favored enemy at 1st level and never improve them to anything higher than the +2 base. Now, you know your background, so taking something that makes sense is always good. If there are alot of orcs in your neighborhood, take humanoid:goblinoids... If you have spent time killing drow, then take humanoid:elves. If you are looking for something that has a great deal of potential now and later, then abberations are pretty good, as there are some that are low level and they progress far up the power chart. Magical beasts are decent for this as well, though they seem more common at mid-range. Character is most important, though. If you are an orc hunter, then hunt orcs. When you gain a new favored enemy, just put your discretionary points there as well. You may run into a high level orc or five later, but you will probably have bigger fish to fry at 5th level than orcs. Happy hunting! :)
(Psi)SeveredHead 08-01-04, 06:47 PM	Why would your low Con character take TWF and trade full-round attacks with opponents who actually use good melee combat styles? Seems a bit odd to me. It's not useful for hit and run, it's not useful for hunting... like I said, odd. Do you inhabit a wilderness area currently being invaded by something? Magical beasts? Orcs? Or is it nearly unspoiled? If it's the latter, I suggest animal or even plant. If you live in a desert, try vermin!
Reiver 08-02-04, 09:21 AM	Or, if the campaign is even remotely people-oriented, take the humanoids... The odds of running into low level humans/elves/Dominant Humanoid(tm) is probably as good as running into the high-level ones, afterall. ;)
Grevious Windcruiser 09-01-04, 08:27 AM	I picked the Gnoll as my first fav. enemy, but I guess it really depends on the campaign and the DM.
The Souljourner 09-01-04, 09:29 AM	Rangers rock. You don't need to do much to make them good in many many situations. I really like taking the archery bonus feats and then wielding a two handed weapon in melee. You mention taking the archery bonus feats, then two weapon fighting and the rest of the archery feats... but you do realize you only get 7 feats, right? I think there are a lot better things to do with your feats than use them on two weapon fighting. Two weapon fighting just has too many drawbacks for the number of feats you need. Undead are a *great* category to take for favored enemies... there are so many of them, and many of the party's other special abilities won't work on them. Magical beast is good, because there are a lot of them in the DMG, so if you think you'll be fighting random monsters a lot, then go with that. What you take is really up to the campaign. First and foremost, ask your DM. If your campaign is going to be 90% versus orcs, then orcs would be a great thing to take. However, if orcs will never be seen past level 3, then it would be pretty silly. -The Souljourner
Wil Harvey 09-01-04, 01:22 PM	3.5 Ranger of course. I was thinking of taking archery as my combat style and picking up two-weapon fighting as well as the other archery feats to round out my character. To be specific, he is a wood elf ranger from the Forgotten Realms. I was also wondering if anyone could give me a good progression with favored enemies. Looking to get the most out of my selections. A wood elf in the Realms. Most excellent. I'm looking at playing one as a totem warrior from Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed, with my totem being the puma. But anyway, I'd suggest picking up dragon for your next favored enemy. They're one of those creatures that you can find at any point in a campaign, and when the bonuses start adding up when you fight a higher-level dragon, you'll be very happy.
Ao 09-01-04, 03:06 PM	[QUOTE=Mitchell]As for favored enemies, with the 3.5 system, it doesn't matter alot, as you could take a favored enemy at 1st level and never improve them to anything higher than the +2 base. Now, you know your background, so taking something that makes sense is always good. If there are alot of orcs in your neighborhood, take humanoid:goblinoids... If you have spent time killing drow, then take humanoid:elves. Actually, taking humanoids:goblinoids won't get you orcs. Humanoid:orcs will. The goblinoid type includes: goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears. I guess D&D orcs are there own species.
Bartleby_GoC 09-01-04, 03:13 PM	Something that few dedicated archers think to take: Exotic Weapon Proff (Arrow,melee). The PHB already lists the damage, now you lose the -4 improvised weapon penalty. You can then take Weapon Finesse (arrow). Spend the rest of your feats on archery feats. Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot ought to be the first two, followed by the arrow-melee feats. You will eventually never need to carry anything other than your bow, maybe a nicely enchanted sword. This path offers a reason to go human ranger vs. elven. The extra feat. It's not really the most effective, but it's cool. Bartleby
amethal 09-05-04, 06:02 PM	Undead are a *great* category to take for favored enemies... there are so many of them, and many of the party's other special abilities won't work on them. Magical beast is good, because there are a lot of them in the DMG, so if you think you'll be fighting random monsters a lot, then go with that. There are two ways of doing this. Method 1 - what creatures doesn't your character like? What sort of beasties plague his homeland, so that all the local rangers have had to become skilled at fighting them? Method 2 - take undead as your first favoured enemy; you can reasonably expect to be fighting them throughout your career, and you want to be able to wipe them out as quickly as possible, because most of them have all sorts of nasty things they can do to you if they get their hands on you. Its also gives you an excuse for expecting your DM to tell you whenever the enemy is undead (so you can add your damage bonus) I hadn't thought of method 3 - ask your DM - but hey, can't hurt to try.
wamagni 09-06-04, 02:03 AM	Urrm..correct me if i'm wrong, but wouldn't undead suck to take as a favored enemy? Loads of them are mindless, so the skill bonuses don't help much, and most of them don't move too fast, so you don't need more spot, and they're immune to critical hits, which i beleive makes the favored enemy damage bonuses not work? I would personally take goblinoid, but that's really just because my DM throws a lot of those at me. Most optimal would probably be aberration or magical beast. i'll have to check my MoTW, but i think ab. or magical beast would be the best. Just my two silver peices. (Yes they're silver, i'm better than you.)
amethal 09-06-04, 07:27 AM	Urrm..correct me if i'm wrong, but wouldn't undead suck to take as a favored enemy? Loads of them are mindless, so the skill bonuses don't help much, and most of them don't move too fast, so you don't need more spot, and they're immune to critical hits, which i beleive makes the favored enemy damage bonuses not work? I would personally take goblinoid, but that's really just because my DM throws a lot of those at me. Most optimal would probably be aberration or magical beast. i'll have to check my MoTW, but i think ab. or magical beast would be the best. Just my two silver peices. (Yes they're silver, i'm better than you.) I hope favoured enemy damage doesn't rely on the creature being subject to critical hits; you have got me worried now! Assuming that its ok, then extra damage ability is just what you need to get over damage reduction. I would say there are enough intelligent undead out there, and they tend to be the ones you should be worried about anyway. And personally, I'd say that you can never have too high a spot modifier, at least with our DM. (And I am our DM, so I should know.) The reason I went for undead is that its easy to justify in roleplaying terms - I see rangers viewing undead as the opposite of everything they stand for - it doesn't require any great experience on the part of the player (who might be a bit unclear as to what the heck an aberration or a magical beast actually is - apologies Tarnafin if you've been playing this game for years and have forgotten more than I'll ever know about aberrations) and you can get some dangerous undead encounters even at high levels. Having said that, a group of 3 enraged elephants made such a mess of our party last week that I am having to rethink my prior assumptions that at high levels animals are no longer a threat.
Kiri Sittori 09-06-04, 07:58 AM	Urrm..correct me if i'm wrong, but wouldn't undead suck to take as a favored enemy? Loads of them are mindless, so the skill bonuses don't help much, and most of them don't move too fast, so you don't need more spot, and they're immune to critical hits, which i beleive makes the favored enemy damage bonuses not work? I would personally take goblinoid, but that's really just because my DM throws a lot of those at me. Most optimal would probably be aberration or magical beast. i'll have to check my MoTW, but i think ab. or magical beast would be the best. Just my two silver peices. (Yes they're silver, i'm better than you.) Not this time; the 3.5 ranger CAN use the FE damage bonus against crit-ignorant enemies. And there isn't any text that prohibits rangers from claiming FE damage at >30' range, either. :) In short, it's not considered precision damage... more like Weapon Specialisation damage.
roll8dn 09-06-04, 02:51 PM	Since the two different ways of choosing your favored enemy have already been outlined, I'll not waste your time on reiterating them. From a damage perspective, my favorites are (in no particular order): Abberations, Magical Beasts, Undead, and Constructs. Due to the amount of Abberations, Magic Beasts, and Unead that you run into in the course of a campaign, it makes sense to be able to do the most damage against each of them. Since Constructs are so hard to kill usually (DR sucks), it makes sense to be able to do more damage against them than usual. From an RP perspective, my faves for an Elven (particularly a Wood Elven) Ranger are: Orcs, Goblinoids, Giants, and Animals. All of them make sense, either from a hunting perspective, or as threats to the Elven community as a whole.