Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Asilomar 10-08-07, 01:21 PM	I have someone in my group's party that has taken Favored Enemy: Elementals. Now he wants to learn how to summon stone elementals. Another member of the Party also has favored enemy: Elementals too and she is irritated that he wants to learn to summon that which, in her mind, they both dispise - enemy. He is saying that just because he has learned to kill them efficiently it does not equate to hatred of that thing. What do you think? Should he be able to summon the very thing that he has studied killing?
Kamin_Majere 10-08-07, 01:24 PM	I dont know. If I hated Elementals with a burning passions and I could summon them just to suffer and die for me, or do the electric slide for my amusement I think that would be quite nice. If I turely hated them that is. If I've just learned to kill them effectivly and hold no grudge towards them then summoning them to help me would be quite nice as well.
Hellsbells 10-08-07, 01:27 PM	Is there background information/roleplaying reasons for why he took favored enemy elemental? Also does the other player not like it in character or out of game? If his character hates elementals he should not be summoning, unless he has a "use there weapons against them" sorta complex. Wether they dont like it in character or out changes the question signifigantly
spectralphoenix 10-08-07, 01:27 PM	Mechanically? Absolutely (assuming he has a class combination that gives him both abilities, of course.) Flavorwise? I don't see why not. Assuming he hasn't been going on the entire time about how much he hates elementals, I find it perfectly reasonable to interpret him as a scholar of elementals. Hey, even if he hates them, what better way to act out that hate than to bring them into the material plane only to be killed by whatever monster they were being fodder for? Though I find it a bit odd that many people would have an enduring hatred for animate lumps of rock in the first place.
Wight_Chocolate 10-08-07, 01:39 PM	A ranger can take "Animals" as his favoured enemy. Does that mean that a ranger, a ranger that respects nature and worships a god of nature to receive his divine powers, hates animals if he does this? Nowhere does the ability mention that hatred of the creature in question is a requirement of, or even typical of the ability. If he wanted to take levels in the Foe Hunter class, then I could see the problem. As it is, "favoured enemy" implies no more than "I know a lot about these creatures and thus I can deal with them more aptly."
runestar 10-08-07, 10:05 PM	I agree - favoured enemy does not always have to mean that you hate that enemy with a passion. You might, but there are certainly many other reasons why you might opt to hunt them. So unless your backstory is something like "elementals burned down my village and killed my family", I don't see why you *must* despise them.
StevenO 10-08-07, 11:30 PM	Favored Enemy does NOT equal hated enemy. The Favored Enemy is one which has been studied the best and against which the character has developed the best tactics to use against it. Fortunately 3.5 did away with forbidding taking your own race as a favored enemy (unless you were evil) because in many ways you should have as good or better idea of how to kill your own kind as killing any other creature types. Would a human ranger with Favored Enemy (Human) want to kill themself? Most likely not so there is no reason to assume that just because a ranger has an advantage fighting one creature type that they actually hate that type.
Empirate 10-09-07, 09:40 AM	Just wanted to remark that Favored Enemy is likely wasted on Elementals: How many times are you going to seriously use skills against them? Survival? Bluff? Intimidate? And you don't even get a damage bonus, coz Elementals are immune to critical hits... and still you have two characters in the group that have taken Favored Enemy: Elementals...
Phrennzy 10-09-07, 10:18 AM	So unless your backstory is something like "elementals burned down my village and killed my family", I don't see why you *must* despise them. I got a great mental image of giant flint elementals smacking into each other in an attempt to start a fire and burn down the village.
spectralphoenix 10-09-07, 12:29 PM	Just wanted to remark that Favored Enemy is likely wasted on Elementals: How many times are you going to seriously use skills against them? Survival? Bluff? Intimidate? And you don't even get a damage bonus, coz Elementals are immune to critical hits... and still you have two characters in the group that have taken Favored Enemy: Elementals... Those are the old rules - in 3.5 the damage bonus applies to anything.
Lilinthra 10-09-07, 04:43 PM	Just wanted to remark that Favored Enemy is likely wasted on Elementals: How many times are you going to seriously use skills against them? Survival? Bluff? Intimidate? And you don't even get a damage bonus, coz Elementals are immune to critical hits... and still you have two characters in the group that have taken Favored Enemy: Elementals... We don't know the setting they are playing in. For all we know, they could be plane hopping or running Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Also, the skill bonus would apply to Listen and Spot, which are generally useful and more common than some of the others for Elementals.