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I've been using this alternate ability in the game I run for a few months now, but it hasn't seen a lot of use (mainly because we've been doing RotRL #4 and #5, which is giant heavy, so the ranger doesn't feel the need to change 'em much).
Any comments, suggestions, insights would be welcome, but so far I've found no snafus.
So, basically, he has the ability to retrain favored enemies built into the class feature, and can do so essentially at will.
This significantly changes what "favored enemy" actually means and also makes it dramatically more powerful. The time it takes to "refocus" means that this isn't as good as a constant +2 to +10, but it does mean he'll gain the bonus the majority of the time, without the DM having to cater to him. That's not a bad thing necessarily- the fact that DMs NEED to cater to rangers proves that they're normally underpowered in my book- but it could become overpowered if combined with other ranger houserules or with alternate rangers that also grant more power.
Other stuff:
-"DC 10 + the challenge rating of the new favored enemy" is gibberish. Creature types do not have challenge ratings. I can only assume that the DM is supposed to come up with something based on the "average" creature of that type. But between advanced versions, juvenile versions, homebrew monsters, alternate MMs/beastiaries, creatures with class levels, templates, etc, this is virtually guaranteed to be an arbitrary value.
-I wouldn't give him five different favored enemy slots if I used this houserule. You'll quickly reach the point where he has at least some favored enemy verses nearly every creature he sees. "Refocusing" will consist mostly of jockying between slots ("Oh, there are gnolls working for them? Okay, I'll bring in gnolls at the second slot. Keep dragons in the first slot. Drop reptilian humanoids from second to third slot, drop evil outsiders from third to fourth slot..."). Some players love that kind of thing, but for most players (and DMs) it amounts to a headache. If he can shift them at will, he probably only needs two slots at most.
-Because you reward rangers for having had a favored enemy in the past (by making it much easier to refocus it in the future), expect many players to refocus as often as possible just to cover all their bases.
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-"DC 10 + the challenge rating of the new favored enemy" is gibberish.
Oh yeah, I meant to add some language about using the lowest CR for the creature type available, but with the caveat that if the ranger is refocusing against a specific creature of that subtype to use that CR. For example:
The CR used to calculate the DC is the lowest CR for a creature of that type, however, if the ranger is refocusing in anticipation of encountering specific creatures of the new type, use the CR of the specific creature. For example, Rogan knows that the mountain pass is inhabited by ogres, frost giants, and harpies. If he wishes to refocus two of his favored enemy slots, one to humanoid (giant) and the other to monstrous humanoid, he uses the ogre's and harpy's CR to determine the DC of his Survival checks to confirm the refocusing. If Rogan is beginning an adventure he knows will take him into giant-infested mountains and wishes to refocus one of his slots, the CR is simply the lowest CR of giants known to inhabit that region (as determined by the GM).
Now, having said all that, I quite agree that this can result in a more-or-less arbitrary value (but one of the things I haven't gotten to test out yet).
Perhaps a simpler DC is in order? Here's what I brainstormed before moving on to CR.
DC = 15 + the bonus granted by the slot the ranger is attempting to refocus. This was my original idea, but one that does not scale well with level - hard to do at low levels, practically meaningless at mid-level and above.
DC = 5 + (the bonus granted by the slot the ranger is attempting to refocus x 2). This was idea #2, but this only fixed the low-level slots.
Then I moved to CR - suggestions for a scaling DC most welcome.
other stuff
I don't have any problem with the ranger refocusing as he sees fit, nor with him having five slots of varying usefulness. I made this change made exactly for the reason you posit: so the GM doesn't have to cater. Thanks for looking, btw.
The whole point of adding your level to something is so that it can be hard at low levels and easy at high levels (I think many designers totally lose sight of this, by making damned-sure that DCs scale at the exact same rate as bonuses).
If you still want a chance of failure at high levels, then maybe what you actually want is a wisdom check? Ability bonuses scale, but they do so much slower- if it starts at +1 it's unlikely to go higher than +5 by level 20.
If it were me, I might require the ranger to fight an enemy of that type before switching, or at least grant a bonus to the check (perhaps a big one) every time he tangles with them- training against an enemy just based on research might be possible, but not as sure as real experience.
And no problem. It's a cool idea. :)
Wouldn't it be easier to simply give rangers a new class ability? Something along the lines of:
Quick Killer
As a standard action, the Ranger may sacrifice one of his favored enemy bonuses to make a knowledge check against a specific creature type he is facing with a DC of 15+CR. If he succeeds he can add his wisdom modifier to damage rolls against any creature with that creature type for as long as he is without his favored enemy bonus. He may regain his favored enemy bonus as a move action.
Basically he'd get favored enemy light in fights he couldn't use his favored enemy bonus, but it costs a standard action to use. And let's face it, most rangers aren't pushing much more than a 14 wisdom.
I like the general idea but it seems to easy. I would favor switching favored enemies on level up or with a feat doing it with a day of study and reequipping.
I have always thought that part of the rangers favored enemy bonus should be equipment related. Special traps, musk, poisons, disguises. I would throw a cost in there to refocus as well. When you are gathering the tools needed across an adventuring career that cost is practicably zero but if you make major changes over night that should cost something.
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The whole point of adding your level to something is so that it can be hard at low levels and easy at high levels (I think many designers totally lose sight of this, by making damned-sure that DCs scale at the exact same rate as bonuses).
If you still want a chance of failure at high levels, then maybe what you actually want is a wisdom check? Ability bonuses scale, but they do so much slower- if it starts at +1 it's unlikely to go higher than +5 by level 20.
In principle I agree. In this particular case I feel there should always be a chance for failure. Speaking in terms of what an average character needs to roll on a d20 to succeed, I'd like to see success for a low level character (5-7) around a 12+, for mid-level characters (8-12) around a 10+ and for high level characters around a 5+.
Wisdom check? Eh, not so much, but only because I want there to be some "training" aspect to the roll, and ability checks come off as more innate... ability.
I don't know why I didn't think of it before but 15 + (favored enemy bonus x 2) is pretty close to what I want. This DC scales with level, but not with level, which is what I'm going for.
Wouldn't it be easier to simply give rangers a new class ability?
Originally I didn't want this to be something the ranger could do in combat. I saw it being used either in response or in anticipation of who your enemies are. But now, after having thought more about (thanks to yours and hydro's posts), I decided that on-the-fly swapping is... maybe ok. I modified your idea into a ranger feat here.
I like the general idea but it seems to easy. I would favor switching favored enemies on level up or with a feat doing it with a day of study and reequipping.
I considered limiting it to level ups only (like with feat/spell swapping some classes have), but the whole reason I'm doing it is so the ranger can - if in-game time allows - gain his favored enemy bonus more often (rather than waiting for the vs. giants adventure or the vs. undead adventure). Limiting it to level ups is only going encourage the ranger to switch to whatever baddie he expects to fight tomorrow, then lose that bonus (more often than not) until his next level.
But it may be a legitimate concern that suddenly having whatever opponent you're facing as a favored enemy is indeed, "too easy." One thing I thought of to limit that was to tie refocusing to favored terrain (as in, you can only refocus either while in your favored terrain or to a local beastie found in your favored terrain). Think that is worth pursuing?
I would throw a cost in there to refocus as well.
That's something I had not thought of. Not sure I'm a fan, but it's worth thinking about. A refocus check and a gold cost might be too much, no?
I would make the refocus check a survival check to find the items he needs to make it work. If he blows the roll make the cost very large and if he can not buy what he needs (no market ect.) then the action fails. (What?!? No brown cobra venom in this town? Anyone have some yak fat?)
If he makes the roll then give it to him for a small cost.
I don't know why I didn't think of it before but 15 + (favored enemy bonus x 2) is pretty close to what I want. This DC scales with level, but not with level, which is what I'm going for.
Adding your highest FE bonus to the roll against a flat DC of 15 or 17 gives almost the exact same spread. Just say'in.
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I don't know why I didn't think of it before but 15 + (favored enemy bonus x 2) is pretty close to what I want. This DC scales with level, but not with level, which is what I'm going for.Adding your highest FE bonus to the roll against a flat DC of 15 or 17 gives almost the exact same spread. Just say'in.
Possibly, I haven't looked, but again, to me, that doesn't reflect the easier-with-level/training aspect of using Survival. Also I feel there's a disconnect with using your highest favored enemy bonus to refocus a lower favored enemy slot. At least for now I'm going with what I've got and we'll see how that works.
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Well three rangers (in two different games, only one of which I run) have all used this ability a few times in the last two weeks, and each of the feats (here) has been selected once. Results so far:
-Versatile Focus combines in a nifty way with the Hunter's Bond (grant favored enemy) option. Gain your bonus as a standard action, grant that bonus to your allies as a move action. The party was just the right level for this combo (APL 7).
-The time contraints on refocusing were prohibitive at 8 hours on two occasions. The 4-hour time contraint was prohibitive once. I found this appropriate for the situation, since time was a factor in the adventures at that time.
-There were 4 refocusing checks attempted (not including the three "wish I had more time" things mentioned above). Two succeeded and two failed. One of the failures was by a 9th level ranger, who needed a 12+ to succeed, if that matters. All of the attempts were with the highest available favored enemy slot. Three of the checks were prompted because of previously-encountered baddies (the party was "going back in, so to speak"), and only one was prompted because of "expected" baddies (that check failed and there was no time available for a retry - turns out we could have used it!).
-The 9th level ranger, upon turning 10th level, took the Improved Refocus feat (which the GM allowed as a combat style feat - I disagree, but meh). The feat hasn't yet been used in game.
Opinions:
The players agree that it's nice to see the ranger actually using his favored enemy bonuses. The game I run is RotRL, which means the ranger has had little reason to refocus (he did pine for favored enemy: undead a while ago). The last two weeks they've been "off the path" so to speak, so the ability to refocus to a non-giant, non-monstrous humanoid enemy came in handy.
The other game (in which I am a player) is quite... non-standard (for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the GM is kinda noob). We know who the main enemy is (a group of monstrous humanoids), but we've yet to encounter them much. Being able to refocus is useful, but this was the game where most of the time constraints came into play.
My conclusion was that being able to refocus is a bit like a more-useful 'being able to create spells' ability: a good fit but not always a good option.