Well ... been doing some thinking and reading, and I'm not really sure *where* to drop this thread as I'm not house-ruling or anything. I'm more interested in what kind of impact a change to ranger's *may* have in the long run.
Ok, so "favored enemy" ... well, it kind of sucks. Mechanically-speaking. It's kind of terrible. The concept itself is solid (ie: hunt X critter VERY well), but the mechanics just fall short of pretty much EVERY other similar class feature.
They get what, 5 "favored enemy" selections and they are spread out amongst various races (as an option) to grant a negligible bonus, or heaped upon the SAME enemy for a "reasonable" bonus by end game (ie: 20th level or so).
I've read a few things about ways to tweak and I think the best I've come across are as follows:
1) Cumulative "grouping" or rather, the bonus stacks in the same way as the usual "one enemy" stack would work, BUT it's applied to a different/new type of enemy at each point (ie: get to use full bonus against say 5 different types of specific targets by end-game).
2) Leave a static "to hit" bonus that increases, and change the damage die adjustment to +1d6 over something static for each level of Favored Enemy. (possibly combined with the previous boost as well).
3) Leave a static "to hit" bonus that increases, and change the damage adjustment to +1/2 Ranger level (max of 10) again - can combo w/option #1 as well.
SO ... here's my question, HOW/WHERE/WHY would either of the changes above impact the game?
To *me* it's the kind of thing Rangers kind of need, especially given the PF update.
So ... what am I missing/not seeing?