Once upon a time (d&d 2e?) Rangers could only choose their own race if they were evil. IIRC.
That one (I guess it exists) got a revival in Pathfinder: The Kinslayer feat. Which isn't PFS legal, but that's likely because it requires being evil, too.
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That’s misremembering.
I do think that someone (Compton? Mike Brock?) at least once commented in a thread (or possibly at a convention panel) about how much of a no-brainer it was to take human as your favored enemy. His response was basically “yeah, I know. But humans are the most widespread race on Golarion and we aren’t going to start reducing the number of human enemies just to make a greater challenge for rangers making what is a perfectly reasonable in-world choice. Maybe for seasonal metaplot reasons, but not for spite.”
OP, you might be confusing the humanoid type with the human sub-type.
Human is a valid selection for a ranger to choose, and often a very good one.
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What a horrifying thought! Favoured Enemy is already a bit too close to "racism as a power source", but to make make that literal would be beyond the pale.
Only if you want to read racism into the ability. Favored Enemy has pretty much always been just a means to specialize in hunting or battling particular creatures or types of creatures. It has nothing to do with the perception of racial superiority or that one race is better than another. Used by a morally suspect character (usually a villain, but whatever floats your boat), it can certainly be used to that effect but as a whole, Favored Enemy is not 'racism as a power source'. It is more of: "I know these kinds of creatures so well that I have advantages when interacting/fighting them".
Favored enemy does not have to be based on hatred. It can simply be that is the type of creature you deal with most. A human ranger with favored enemy human makes a very good law enforcement character. Take favored enemy human and favored terrain urban and you have effective sheriff or commander of the watch. By 8th level this ranger will have around a +20 bonus to perception against humans in an urban environment without feats, magic or racial adjustments.
It has been suggested that Conan is actually a ranger with maxed out favored enemy human instead of a barbarian. Having a +6 to hit and damage does significantly increase your combat ability. Add in power attack and a decent STR and the 12th level ranger is going to be an absolute beast.
Was there ever a PFS rule that you cannot select Human as a category for Bane weapons or Favored Enemy? I vaguely remember seeing something somewhere that you had to specify an ethnicity as a further subtype because so many enemies in PFS are human.What a horrifying thought! Favoured Enemy is already a bit too close to "racism as a power source", but to make make that literal would be beyond the pale.
Also, this should be in the PFS forum. Flagged for a move.
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glass.
I think Oli is remembering the PFS ruling on Dedicated Adversary (FE as a feat) which requires you to choose an ethnicity in the case of humanoid: Human.
Ironically, there are a couple characters in canon that are racist on an ethnic level, and have ranger favored enemies of human, which will give the bonus to all humans, not just the specifically hated ethnicity, which means on some level, the racist ranger has to realize that all humans really are the same on the inside.