Would it be horribly unbalanced to have them granted the same way a Fighter's Weapon Training is granted?
ie: Instead of a floating +2 bonus every time you gain it, you just gain another bonus to all previously chosen FE types.
I just mean... over your career you get to choose 5 things that you are great against. 5 things. Off of a list of 31+* (*-there are more humanoid choices!)
I could see it being fair the way it is if you could just pick "Humanoid" or "Outsider" as that knocks the list of potentials down from 31+ to 13, but as is it just seems an impossible choice unless you get special info from the GM, and that just feels... metagamey?
Thoughts/opinions definitely welcome!
In my opinion the solution is to talk to your GM about it.
All of Paizo's Adventure Paths give suggestions for what favored enemies for a ranger to take in their Player's Guides.
Don't think of it as yucky bad metagaming. Think of it as working together with your GM to tell better story! You don't have to just leave it at "Favored Enemy: Oozes will be totally relevant to this campaign" "Ok. I take favored enemy oozes." Build it into your character you when the first ooze shows up you get to see "Good thing I know how to deal with these! As a child growing up in Oozetown of Oozelandia one became an adult when one defeated one's first ooze... with one's bare hands!" And the rest of your party says "Thank goodness we're friends with Otto Oozebane, we would have been in a real pickle otherwise!" Totally worth a little "metagaming" to avoid your dragonslayer spending his whole career fighting Gnolls, never getting to address his goal to open a dragon-hide purse business or whatever.
If your GM doesn't want to help you pick your favored enemies to fit with the story, then do as blackbloodtroll suggested and play a Guide archetype.
Would it be horribly unbalanced to have them granted the same way a Fighter's Weapon Training is granted?
ie: Instead of a floating +2 bonus every time you gain it, you just gain another bonus to all previously chosen FE types.
That's how it does work. When you gain your 2nd FE, your 1st FE becomes +4 (2+2). At 10th level, your 2nd FE is now +4 and your 1st one is now +6 and on it goes.
Favored Enemy is huge. Taking FE: human at 1st level is one the single best things that a Ranger can do.
Would it be horribly unbalanced to have them granted the same way a Fighter's Weapon Training is granted?
ie: Instead of a floating +2 bonus every time you gain it, you just gain another bonus to all previously chosen FE types.That's how it does work. When you gain your 2nd FE, your 1st FE becomes +4 (2+2). At 10th level, your 2nd FE is now +4 and your 1st one is now +6 and on it goes.
Favored Enemy is huge. Taking FE: human at 1st level is one the single best things that a Ranger can do.
No it doesn't. Here's how it ACTUALLY works:
When you get your first FE, you have +2 against it.
When you get your second FE, you have +2 against a new type. Then the ranger selects ANY ONE of the FE he currently has, and increases the value by 2. At this point, he'll have a +2 and a +4, and either FE could have eithre.
When you get your third FE, you get +2 against a new type. Then you select ANY ONE of the FE you currently have and increase the value by 2. So you could at this point have a +6 and two +2s, or two +4s and a +2.
Because Favored Enemy is a spell, any ranger that doesn't forgo spellcasting is typically best off always pumping the same choice, meaning that they eventually end up with a +10 and four +2s.
That second paragraph in the CRB is a real doozy then...