Favored terrain overlap and Horizon Walker questions

[FlanGG]

I kind of expected something like this to happen when I went into Horizon Walker in Reign of Winter, but still decided to roll with it.

1) The cold terrain is not explained well. Is it a big type of all terrains that are not temperate or hot, or is it specifically glaciers/tundra? Does Irrisen as a whole count as a favored terrain, even when the terrain is not a glacier, like a forest or even a city as big as the Whitethrone? Does any terrain during winter count, when it's covered in snow or is filled with ice? Paizo explicitly changed terrain type to "arctic" in 2e, should cold terrain be viewed as such?

2) Do planes overlap with the terrain type? Can you count First World foresty areas as a forest? Can you count Cocytus as a cold terrain? You can argue that any planar terrain requires specifically selected plane as a favored terrain.

3) Specific Horizon Walker/Forester Hunter question regarding creature native terrain for Terrain Dominance. It is simple for most monsters, but what about humanoids? Do Humans that lived most of their lives in the north count as native to cold terrain? Does it depend in the settlement size, when huge urban cities count as native urban terrain, and small villages count as cold? What about the norhtern-native centaurs subraces, that always live in the northern terrain, but are stated as temperate-climate creatures? I went for RAW bestiary native climate at first, but it gets dumb in the latter case.

4) How does Terrain Dominance work with Instant Enemy? I am specifically playing Forester Hunter with Horizon Walker levels, so I do not have the Favored Enemy class feature, but against creatures, natuve to my dominated terrain, I treat favored terrain as a favored enemy. Does that mean I can use Instant Enemy against creatures not native to the dominated terrain and use my dominated terrain against them? Do I count as having Favored enemy (cold)?

[AwesomenessDog]

1/2) What terrain type(s) you are in is mostly a GM decision, but there are guidelines in the favored terrain list which includes "ice, glaciers, snow, and tundra". That said, terrain types are not mutually exclusive, you can be in a snowy forest and it would give you the better of your Cold and Forest terrain bonus (if you even have both). Likewise, a plane could partially (or entirely overlap) with certain specific biomes (e.g. the plane of water is likely entirely aquatic). But these planes can also be as diverse if not more diverse as Golarion, so having the correct plane FT will mean you at least get some bonus no matter where you are in the plane (and note there are places where other planes overlap into golarion, or even each other).

3) Again, probably a case by case GM question, where you might say all Ulfen would qualify, but again there can be overlap. In either case, there are often plenty of "variant" creatures that even if there are such things as "desert rats", there would also be rats that have acclimated to colder climates, and anything that can easily be said to be native (i.e. not a Garundi man, born in Garund, and happened to come all the way to Irrisen should qualify).

4) I would say probably no, as the spell is a ranger only spell specifically only working with FE, and the Terrain Dominance ability isn't actually giving you new FE's with different qualifying terms, it's just letting you treat your FT as a FE. Basically since you traded away FE, the spell wouldn't be on your list anymore.

[FlanGG]

There is actually no "aquatic" terrain, it's "water" terrain.

The biggest problem my DM is insisting on is that "cold" terrain as just being cold isn't really a terrain type and is more about climate type (on the scale of cold/temperate/hot), which is out of place among other choices, so it's got to be the terrain type - like glaciers, tundra and such. But those almost universally can be described as cold plains (or maybe deserts). Or is the same as with jungle not being treated as a forest?

Case by case defining of every creature type sometimes slows things down, but, I guess, it's inevitable.

Also, on the latter, how the things change if I dip into ranger and actually get favored enemy?

I am obviously trying to get some Paizo™-approved answers, because the first three questions are up to debate. I am not sure if I'll be able to get those, but it doesn't hurt to try.

[Solariel Sunleaf]

There is actually no "aquatic" terrain, it's "water" terrain.

The biggest problem my DM is insisting on is that "cold" terrain as just being cold sounds out of place, because it's not really a terrain type and is more about climate type (on the scale of cold/temperate/hot) and is out of place among other choices, so it's got to be the terrain type - like glaciers, tundra and such. But those almost universally can be described as cold plains (or maybe deserts). Or is the same as with jungle not being treated as a forest?

Case by case defining of every creature type sometimes slows things down, but, I guess, it's inevitable.

Also, on the latter, how the things change if I dip into ranger and actually get favored enemy?

I am obviously trying to get some Paizo™-approved answers, because the first three questions are up to debate. I am not sure if I'll be able to get those, but it doesn't hurt to try.

[AwesomenessDog]

You wont get a Paizo answer, they gave up on 1e years ago. And sure, semantics of naming aside, you can either try to convince your GM that the examples given by the class itself does not align with his view and that the terrain types are not meant to be mutually exclusive.

And again, the intent of terrain dominance is that it should apply to anything that isn't out of place to the terrain (e.g. a red/blue dragon in Irrisen).

If you do go into ranger or otherwise get actual favored enemies, then those specific values and options determine your best favored enemy for Instant Enemy.

[Temperans]

The terrain is pretty clearly about what type of terrain you are in not what type of climate you are in.

Terrain wrote:

a stretch of land, especially with regard to its physical features.

The ability is asking you, "what are the physical features on the area you are in?" If you answer that there is snow and its a desert, you are in both the "cold" and "desert" terrains. If you answer that its full of snow and there are buildings, you count as being in "cold" and "urban". If you answered that you are in the first world, there is snow, there are buildings, and its in a mountain you count as being in "cold", "mountain", "urban", and "first world".

Hence,

Favored Terrain wrote:

If a specific terrain falls into more than one category of favored terrain, the Ranger's bonuses do not stack; he simply uses whichever bonus is higher.

*******************

Regarding the favored enemy question.

You are only treated as having a favored enemy vs creatures of your favored terrain. You do not actually have the favored enemy class feature and as such cannot use it for abilities that require you have that feature. You can however still modify the bonus you get or trigger abilities that require you interact with a favored enemy.

Its the same logic behind the "you may use X metamagic on Y spells" or "treat X spells as being modified by Y metamagic" abilities. For as much as you can use and modify that abilities, you are not considered to have the feat.