Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Demonwolf 06-07-06, 03:35 PM	Any at all? The only things that come to mind are a reversal of the UA paladin and barbarian variants, to give the ranger Rage or Lay On Hands/Turn Undead/Remove Disease. Both are favorable, but they tweak and restrict the flavor severely. There's also the Touel'alfar Ranger from the Demonwars campaign setting, (and I would love to play that, even keeping in mind that the bonus was only meant to go upto +5 according to the designers) but the book itself seems to have faded into obscurity. But what I'm more concerned about are dragon/dungeon variants, if there's any place to find them, although if there's any other Wizards material that has Favored Enemy variants, I'd be grateful too.
Steggy 06-07-06, 04:15 PM	There's the "Favored Organizations" of the Urban Ranger. It's in Unearthed Arcana. I think it could be used for the ranger, especially if you don't use/allow the urban ranger.
Demonwolf 06-07-06, 07:40 PM	Your words sting me like the precise shots of a thousand Order of the Bow Initiates. It's the whole 'favored' thing that I don't like. I'm dying to have a way to play a ranger that's reliable in a variety of situations. Thanks, though.
MerlintheTuna 06-07-06, 08:52 PM	Eh, you could take levels in Horizon Walker, and get a favored region bonuses rather than favored enemy. *Shrug*
Rolof 06-08-06, 01:18 AM	So, you want to ditch favored enemy entirely, gaining some replacement ability? Depends on the DM, many are entirely unsympathetic about such things...read some of the recent threads about mages and sorcerors wanting to trade in the familiar for extra feats or alternate abilities, you will see. A few might let you trade it for something, others will say no dice, you don't like it, nobody says you gotta use it. Dunno any official things, other than perhaps the variant of favored enemy: evil, but that might only be allowed with a prestige class, not sure. Definitely increases the versatility, though. Just a few ideas to toss out, maybe at each level you would gain a favored enemy, you could gain something else instead; caster level/spell slots sneak attack/skirmish increase to animal companion stats feat fighting style (though this might be too strong a trade) I'm not familiar with Demonwars, so I have no idea what it is you'd actually like to emulate.
periscope 06-08-06, 03:35 AM	Well you could have the Rangers favored enemy work like in the archivists Dark knowledge ability. You get bonuses against your enemy if you make a successful knowledge check. Knowledge arcana for magical beasts, dragons, and constructs. Knowledge dungeoneering for aberrations. Knowledge nature for animals, fey, vermin, and giants. Knowledge religion for undead. Knowledge the planes for outsiders and elemental. See if you can trade the favored enemy for the knowledge skills as class skills. Since it requires you to make a knowledge check to be effective (I think once for each different type of creature per encounter would work) you might not always make it (natural 1s shudder). I think the bonus should be one fifth your check. You wont be able to abuse this to badly since you still have to spend skills in other places. Another I heard of was since the ranger gains his unique knowledge of his enemies through study, then whatever enemy he studied the longest would be the one he best against. the favored enemy would change from "every time you gain a new favored enemy, you gain a +2 bonus you can apply to any favored enemy" to every time you gain a new favored enemy, all previous favored enemy bonuses gain a +2. I would end up +10, +8, +6, +4, +2 with ten being the one you studied first. Another was kind of an add on. At 5th level, you gained the ability to detect your favored enemies within a 30 ft radius and could pinpoint what square they were in. At 10th all weapons wielded by the ranger gain the bane property against his favored enemies.