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The Horizon Walker's Terrain Dominance ability gives the character a favored enemy bonus against creatures that are native to any of the terrains chosen for Dominance. For most types of monsters this makes sense (Outsiders are native to their alignment or elemental plane, most aberrations are native to underground etc) but humanoids leave me wondering how to judge their native terrain.
My first impulse is to consider the "PC races" native to urban environments. But it's unclear in the ability description whether a creature's native terrain is the one that it's entire race is native to (in which case Elves and Gnomes should probably be native to "Forest") or if the native terrain is the one that the individual is native to. It also doesn't really clarify whether a creature can be native to two different terrains if they somehow overlap (Would Elves be native to "Forest" and "Urban" if they live in treetop cities? Halflings native to "Plains" and "Underground" if they live in hobbit-holes in a grasslands region?)
Terrain Dominance gives some hefty attack/damage bonuses, so it seems possible to pick something like "Urban" for a Horizon Walker who works as an assassin, bodyguard, or some other profession in which battling humanoids is a regular part of the job. I'm just not sure how wide the definition of those terrain bonuses can get, and I can't find any clarification in the FAQs.
Thanks in advance everyone!
The rules don't support it, so it becomes a GM's judgement call.
I'm on the same question today. Playing with an HW, but we did not actually know what to do with humanoids, and monsters without native environment listed on the bestiaries...
Then ruleswise they do not have a native terrain and never have to worry about this ability.
I wouldn't rule it for complete races but for the actual creatures you encounter. When you meet human desert nomads, their native terrain is desert. It makes sense to get favored enemy bonuses against them - you are very familiar with the terrain, so you are likely familiar with the people there, too - including their weaknesses.
That's just one take on it, though.