This is a change to Rangers' favoured enemies based on ease of book keeping, rather than for any balance issues. It's not original, having already been done in Neverwinter Nights, but I think it's better than either the old 3e/PF method.
Currently you get a +2 to any one favoured enemy, then later on you get a +2 to another second FE, plus a floating +2 that you can add to whichever you want. Each time you get a new FE, you get a +2 against that enemy, and another +2. This seems to me to be quite complicated, as you might have +2 vs FE1, +4 vs FE2, +4 vs FE3, or +2/+2/+6 etc.
Consider the alternative: at level 1 you get your 1st FE, and you get a +1 against it then at level 5 you get a 2nd FE, and your FE bonus goes up to +2. At level 10 you get your 3rd FE, and a +3 to all. Level 15 you get 4 FE and +4 to all.
Pros: less book keeping, you only need to keep track of which enemy types you favour.
Cons: it's weaker at low levels, stronger at high levels (see below). Gives less flexibility (if you want it).
Level: new method / old method
L01: 1x1 = 1 / 2x1 = 2
L05: 2x2 = 4 / 2x2 + 1x2 = 6
L10: 3x3 = 9 / 3x2 + 2x2 = 10
L15: 4x4 = 16 / 4x2 + 3x2 = 14
L15: 5x5 = 25 / 5x2 + 4x2 = 18
L20: 6x6 = 36 / 6x2 + 5x2 = 22
etc.
So, do people think this improves things at all? Any tweaking you think might make it better, or is the old system just better (if more work)? The same adjustment could work with favoured terrain too.
This is a change to Rangers' favoured enemies based on ease of book keeping, rather than for any balance issues. It's not original, having already been done in Neverwinter Nights, but I think it's better than either the old 3e/PF method.
Currently you get a +2 to any one favoured enemy, then later on you get a +2 to another second FE, plus a floating +2 that you can add to whichever you want. Each time you get a new FE, you get a +2 against that enemy, and another +2. This seems to me to be quite complicated, as you might have +2 vs FE1, +4 vs FE2, +4 vs FE3, or +2/+2/+6 etc.
Consider the alternative: at level 1 you get your 1st FE, and you get a +1 against it then at level 5 you get a 2nd FE, and your FE bonus goes up to +2. At level 10 you get your 3rd FE, and a +3 to all. Level 15 you get 4 FE and +4 to all.
Pros: less book keeping, you only need to keep track of which enemy types you favour.
Cons: it's weaker at low levels, stronger at high levels (see below). Gives less flexibility (if you want it).
Level: new method / old method
L01: 1x1 = 1 / 2x1 = 2
L05: 2x2 = 4 / 2x2 + 1x2 = 6
L10: 3x3 = 9 / 3x2 + 2x2 = 10
L15: 4x4 = 16 / 4x2 + 3x2 = 14
L15: 5x5 = 25 / 5x2 + 4x2 = 18
L20: 6x6 = 36 / 6x2 + 5x2 = 22
etc.So, do people think this improves things at all? Any tweaking you think might make it better, or is the old system just better (if more work)? The same adjustment could work with favoured terrain too.
Favored enemy is strong when you get to use it. I don't think making it stronger is a good idea. It can almost double damage over the course of a full round at times.
It is not really that much book keeping since you can't change the favored enemy bonus around once it is chosen. You get to the level such as 5,10,15 and so on. You make a decision, write it on the character sheet and that is it.What I always do instead of trying to do the math on the fly is to precalculate all my bonuses and write them down.
Example(not actual math from a real character)
Long bow +8 1d8
FE +18 1d8+18
FE2 +16 1d8+16
Favored enemy is strong when you get to use it. I don't think making it stronger is a good idea. It can almost double damage over the course of a full round at times.
It is not really that much book keeping since you can't change the favored enemy bonus around once it is chosen. You get to the level such as 5,10,15 and so on. You make a decision, write it on the character sheet and that is it.
What I always do instead of trying to do the math on the fly is to precalculate all my bonuses and write them down.Example (not actual math from a real character)
Long bow +8 1d8
FE +18 1d8+18
FE2 +16 1d8+16
Any chance it would be better if the bonus was still the same for all FEs but was +2 at level 1, +3 at level 10, and +4 at level 20? That would tone it down a bit.
The idea is to not have FE1, FE2 etc., but to have just FE.
longbow: +8 1d8+2 (FE: +3 1d8+5)
repeat for each weapon
Basically, I just find having loads of different FEs with a different bonus for each too much to bother with. One single bonus that applies to any FE seems good enough to me.
Favored enemy is strong when you get to use it. I don't think making it stronger is a good idea. It can almost double damage over the course of a full round at times.
It is not really that much book keeping since you can't change the favored enemy bonus around once it is chosen. You get to the level such as 5,10,15 and so on. You make a decision, write it on the character sheet and that is it.
What I always do instead of trying to do the math on the fly is to precalculate all my bonuses and write them down.Example (not actual math from a real character)
Long bow +8 1d8
FE +18 1d8+18
FE2 +16 1d8+16Any chance it would be better if the bonus was still the same for all FEs but was +2 at level 1, +3 at level 10, and +4 at level 20? That would tone it down a bit.
The idea is to not have FE1, FE2 etc., but to have just FE.
longbow: +8 1d8+2 (FE: +3 1d8+5)
repeat for each weaponBasically, I just find having loads of different FEs with a different bonus for each too much to bother with. One single bonus that applies to any FE seems good enough to me.
You could do that, but a it would be a loss in power for the best FE. I would go with the guide variant archetype idea, but if you don't like that then:
+1 at level 1, and an additional +1 every 5 levels which ends up being a +5 at level 20 is a simple trade off.