I'm currently playing a Ranger and considering taking the Infiltrator archetype. Infiltrator loses Favored Terrain though, and I'm trying to understand what I'm really giving up here.
The bonus are nice. Not killer, but a Stealth bonus won't hurt, Initiative is nice. (Perception is overkill for me, because it is already sky high.) But it's extremely circumstantial. We happen to be playing a desert campaign, so desert sounds like an obvious choice for favored terrain, except that most of our encounters take place in or around a semi-abandoned town on a hill in the desert. Is that urban, hill or desert? And we're about to explore the basement of a temple. Is that urban or underground? Can a place count as multiple terrains? Am I completely subjected to the whim of the GM here?
Infiltrator at least lets me decide when it works, even if it's only for a limited time per day.
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It is good, but personally I like Infiltrator more. You aren't at the whims of the DM for this, and yes a terrain can be multiple terrains at once. Anything with snow on it is considered cold, anywhere within a man-made area is considered urban, etc. etc. Honestly you may just want to go urban as your main one as it is the most broad of terrains if you don't want to use infiltrator and choose desert and other random ones as your secondary terrains. 10 minutes/level/day is not that limited for an ability by the way. The best favoured enemies for Infiltrator in my opinion are Humanoid(Reptilian), Humanoid(Giant), and Animal. This will let you choose between getting the best bonuses in my opinion: +10' movement speed, 15' climb speed, 15' swim speed, +2 AC, +2 to a save, Lunge, Throw Anything, Resist 10(Fire, Electric, or Cold), Skill Focus(Stealth). It is so variable that you can basically be better in any situation because of it.
The strength of the infiltrator archetypes depends on what kinds of enemies you will be encountering most. While it is useful to be able to get the varied bonuses of Adaption over Favored Terrain, remember that it also forces you to make specific decisions with you Favored Enemy bonus as well. Until you get Instant Enemy, this could result in your Favored Enemy bonus being all but useless.
Also remember, Rangers can also get the terrain bond spell allowing them to count any terrain as their highest favored terrain bonus for hours.
Adaptions are better than favored terrain, but the specific choices required to be made by favored enemy make it less so.
When I play rangers I've found Favored Terrain to be very useful. Initiative bonuses are great. Hitting first in a fight can make a huge difference if you do it right.
Sadly, my own problem with Favored Terrain is that I usually forget that I have it at all. *facepalm* It's NOT of any use to me when I forget it's there.
My Favorite Enemy are Gnolls. Strange choice, I know, but we fought a lot of Gnolls so far. (Unfortunately it seems we're at peace with the Gnolls now, and they won't let me murder any more of them. We might be headed into undead or demon territory, if I'm reading the direction of the campaign correctly.)
Anyway, Gnolls. That means Infiltrator is going to give me either Darkvision or Natural Armor. Both are absolutely nice. Darkvision for a high sneak/perception scout (though I already have low-light vision), and a bit of extra armor is certainly nice for a switch-hitter, though I'm leaning towards Darkvision (if I pick Infiltrator, that is).
@Helcack, I don't see the value in that long list of abilities, since I have to pick only one of them. I can't switch abilities around, as far as I understand. At level 8 (9 in my case, because I've also got a level of Barbarian) I get two more adaptations, but by that time I'll also have my second favored enemy.
Although you do have a point; looking at my likely options: if my next favored enemy is going to be undead, that only adds saving throw boosters and Skill Focus (Stealth) to my options. If it's Outsiders, I get Energy Resistance 5. Not a lot of choice there. Which means I'll have to pick less likely enemies. But I really see no sign that we might encounter reptilians or giants here. Animals are more likely, but the desert isn't exactly teeming with life.
@Claxon, Instant Enemy is cool. Terrain Bond is unfortunately 4th level, and therefore unlikely to matter much for the foreseeable future. It's also from a book we're not using.
@Pipefox, I already have that problem with Favored Enemy. We've fought tons of Gnolls so far, but I think I must have forgotten my bonus half the time. I suspect the Infiltrator bonuses might be easier to remember.
So it looks like I won't get optimal use out of Infiltrator, but also not out of Favored Terrain.
I think the big question is how the GM is going to rule edge cases in favored terrain: will they count for both or not? If they do count, that might make Favored Terrain better. If not, it becomes extremely circumstantial.
According to my GM, each place has only one terrain type, so it's either urban, or desert, and not both. On the other hand, the Natural Armor +2 stacks with the bonus from an amulet or Barkskin (though not both), so I went with Infultrator and the Natural Armor adaptation.