Terrain Dominance + Instant Enemy

[Scrynor]

Say a Ranger goes fully into Horizon Walker and always just keep picking the same favored terrain over and over again and that terrain the the terrain his favored enemy is native to.

Terrain Dominance says:
"When dealing with creatures native to that terrain, the horizon walker treats his favored terrain bonus for that terrain as a favored enemy bonus (as the ranger class feature) against those creatures. This bonus overlaps (does not stack with) bonuses gained when fighting a favored enemy."

Instant Enemy says:
"With this spell you designate the target as your favored enemy for the remainder of its duration. Select one of your favored enemy types. For the duration of the spell, you treat the target as if it were that type of favored enemy for all purposes."

Since you are treating it as that type for "all" purposes does that mean you can treat it as if it were also from that terrain effectively giving you a +16/+16 against it by the time you are Ranger 6 / Horizon Walker 10?

[mplindustries]

Instant Enemy is a 3rd level Ranger spell--you can't cast it until Ranger 10.

[Scrynor]

So say you UMD it with a wand. I'm more curious if terrain dominance and instant enemy actually play like that.

[mplindustries]

Instant Enemy lets you treat an enemy as a different Type.

Types are general things, like Magical Beast or Ooze.

So, let's say you have a +16 Favored Terrain bonus to Underground, but you're facing a Dire Tiger (which is from the forest, plains, or swamps) and has the Animal Type.

You can use Instant Enemy to treat the Dire Tiger as a Magical Beast, as an Ooze, as a Humanoid (Elf), or whatever else. But it doesn't change that it's still from the forest, plains, or swamp.

So, short answer: No, Instant Enemy changes Types, not home environments.

[Scrynor]

So you're saying that it is Type, as in a noun, and you are replacing the "magical beast" of the dire tiger with "humanoid gnoll" as opposed to "type of creature", as in the phrase, that is being treated "for all purposes".

So you're only replacing the one word in the entry as opposed to treating it as a humanoid gnoll which has an environment listing of its own (warm plains or desert).

Is that definitive? I feel like I'm gonna get called out on inferred sentence emphasis and parts of speech when I tell my friend he can't do this.

[mplindustries]

The spell says:

"With this spell you designate the target as your favored enemy for the remainder of its duration. Select one of your favored enemy types. For the duration of the spell, you treat the target as if it were that type of favored enemy for all purposes."

Favored Enemy says:

"At 1st level, a ranger selects a creature type from the ranger favored enemies table."

The table lists the following: Aberration, Animal, Construct, Dragon, Fey, Humanoid (by subtype), Magical Beast, Monstrous Humanoid, Outsider (by subtype), Plant, Undead, Vermin.

Therefore, when you choose a favored enemy, you are choosing a Type. When you use Instant Enemy, you are choosing a favored enemy, which means you are choosing a Type.

You can pick Humanoid (Gnoll) as the type, but the actual creature, Gnoll (which are from plains or desert), is not the only creature of that Type.

For example, I could make a Human with the Racial Heritage feat and gain the Gnoll subtype, making me a Humanoid (Human, Gnoll).

Anyway, the point is, with Instant Enemy, you choose a favored enemy, which is a Type, not a creature.

If your player fights you, tell him to come here and argue with me :P

[Scrynor]

Hah, yeah. It'd just be for a one-shot anyway so I typically don't shut stuff down unless it is definitively wrong. Half the game for those things is making a broken character.

I think the racial heritage thing has me covered. Makes it real clear where the emphasis on "Type" goes. It isn't like that thing gives you darkvision or something now that you are a subtype gnoll so why would you gain a native terrain? Should be enough to discard the "for all purposes" clause.