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I just noticed this today and I'm curious;
Under the ranger's Favored Enemy ability it says:
"A ranger may make Knowledge skill checks untrained when attempting to identify these creatures."
Does this mean that a ranger "should" be making knowledge checks against creatures in order to get his favored enemy bonus against them?
I've never run it that way or even had it run that way for me but like I said I'm curious.
You are not required to properly identify a creature to get your favored enemy bonus against it. It simply functions.
Even if a creature is polymorphed into something else (polymorph doesn't change your type/subtype) the ranger still gets his favored enemy bonus against an enemy, even if he can't see through the magic or make a perception check to see through a mundane disguise.
How and why does it work?
Hey! How exactly is a rainbow made? How exactly does a sun set? How exactly does a posi-trac rear-end on a Plymouth work? It just does.
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Just to play devil's advocate:
I would agree if the Ranger's Favored Enemy bonus was a (SU) or (SP) ability, but it's not, it's (EX). What if we throw the ranger's ability Quarry (EX) into the mix, it says:
"A ranger can have no more than one quarry at a time and the creature’s type must correspond to one of his favored enemy types."
So, does that mean that a ranger (without making a check) automatically knows what type of creature he's fighting? No other character can do that. Now some creatures are easy (Oh look, it's Zombie Bob again) but if it's a unique or even a rare creature, how does the ranger know? Does he just try it and hope for the best?
If a ranger has Favored Enemy Outsider (Eeevil) but he can't identify and evil outsider to save his life, why would he know to shoot or stab slightly to the left to maximize his damage potential?
Again, just curious.
I would say Quarry wouldn't be used unless the Ranger is aware that his Quarry is his favored enemy. Quarry requires an action to use on the part of the Ranger. He must make a decision for a specific creature to be his Quarry. If he doesn't know that enemy is one of his favored enemies he (as a character, and not using player knowledge) doesn't think he can use his Quarry ability against it.
Meanwhile, Favored Enemy just functions against any enemy that is of the correct type. There is no action or decisions to be made for the Ranger, if the target is of the correct type he gets the bonuses.
Just to play devil's advocate:
I would agree if the Ranger's Favored Enemy bonus was a (SU) or (SP) ability, but it's not, it's (EX). What if we throw the ranger's ability Quarry (EX) into the mix, it says:
"A ranger can have no more than one quarry at a time and the creature’s type must correspond to one of his favored enemy types."
So, does that mean that a ranger (without making a check) automatically knows what type of creature he's fighting? No other character can do that. Now some creatures are easy (Oh look, it's Zombie Bob again) but if it's a unique or even a rare creature, how does the ranger know? Does he just try it and hope for the best?
If a ranger has Favored Enemy Outsider (Eeevil) but he can't identify and evil outsider to save his life, why would he know to shoot or stab slightly to the left to maximize his damage potential?
Again, just curious.
Frsnkly, without houserules, the Ranger's FE ability is purely meta; as Claxon says, it just happens. This is one of the reasons I don't like it. :)
Favored Enemy and abilities based off of it are pretty meta.
If it was reworked you should probably be be required to successfully identify them first, but that would be house rules. And I'd probably give additional bonuses for identification to stack it heavily in favor of helping the Ranger identify them. The ability would severly suck if you couldn't get your bonus 90% of the time, when you might rarely encounter the correct type of creature.
If it's his favored enemy he really should probably just be able to recognize it through disguise or magic.
Actually, that would be a stellar ability. Allow you to instantly recognize an enemy despite being transformed.
"Guys, that dude over there is actually a human. He must be a wizard because he's polymorphed into a Elemental!"