According to RAW a standard PHB ranger can get up to 4 favored enemies. I’m interested to hear what you think the typical 4 are or should be. I recognize that backstory can often twist things to something unusual but leaving those aside for now what 4 enemies do most of your PHB rangers pick? And why?
For me me the list looks like this: L1: Humanoids: A) either Orcs or goblinoids but not both so they have a common/very common foe at tier 1. B) elves - this gives bonuses for interacting with elves socially at low levels and for combat/tracking etc with Drow at medium to upper levels. L6: Giants - by now your starting to run into trolls and ogres and over the next 8 levels of the types of creatures you can choose giants are (IMO) the most common. But I can see this beingcampaing dependent or story dependent. L14: Dragons - ummmm do I really need to say more here?😳😁🤪
Isn't it 3 occurrences of favored enemy, which can be a total of 6 if you choose humanoids each time?
I rarely choose any humanoid. I typically go beasts, and some of the more fantastical in natural creature types. Like monstrosity, undead, aberrations, giant, dragon, and fiend.
My go-to is always humanoids first. Since Favored Enemy doesn't just help with tracking, but also with knowledge checks, picking humans and elves as my Favored Enemies pretty much gives me advantage on Int skills for what is likely the two most expansive civilizations in a given setting. Humans are also the most likely to be involved with the plot early on. Which makes tracking other creatures easier by tracking the humans traveling with them. Whether it's an Orc raid that took hostages or a dragon that kidnapped a princess or what-have-you.
Next is typically Fiends. Not only are they the most likely villains to appear in a given setting, but they also have the most amount of monster stat blocks compared to all the "Outsider" Creature types. So it's very likely you'll be running into them often. They also span the gamut of CR's, meaning they'll be appearing throughout the campaign in most tiers. And because they're fiends, they will likely be relevant to the story told. Hell, we have stat blocks for the actual Demon Lords, all of which are popular endgame villains.
My final pick is variable. I'm still trying to parse the data. But the frontrunner right now is Aberrations. They are in a very similar boat to Fiends in that there are a lot of them, they span the CR gamut, and they make for natural big Bads to the story.
This is anecdotal, but I've found that nine times out of ten, the true villains of a given campaign are aberrations or fiends.
Yes technically you could probably pick humanoids all 3 times and get 6. I’ve run into (& over😳🤪😁) a number of DMs that only allow it once however. I like giants in the middle as the most common “natural” group but I can choosing aberrations and/or fiends there as well - your reasons make sense to me.
Yes technically you could probably pick humanoids all 3 times and get 6. I’ve run into (& over😳🤪😁) a number of DMs that only allow it once however. I like giants in the middle as the most common “natural” group but I can choosing aberrations and/or fiends there as well - your reasons make sense to me.
Y'know, to this day, I have never played in a campaign where giants were a major part of the adventure. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever encountered giants at all. Huh.
Fiends and aberrations, however, I'm drowning in a sea of.
According to RAW a standard PHB ranger can get up to 4 favored enemies. I’m interested to hear what you think the typical 4 are or should be. I recognize that backstory can often twist things to something unusual but leaving those aside for now what 4 enemies do most of your PHB rangers pick? And why?
For me me the list looks like this: L1: Humanoids: A) either Orcs or goblinoids but not both so they have a common/very common foe at tier 1. B) elves - this gives bonuses for interacting with elves socially at low levels and for combat/tracking etc with Drow at medium to upper levels. L6: Giants - by now your starting to run into trolls and ogres and over the next 8 levels of the types of creatures you can choose giants are (IMO) the most common. But I can see this beingcampaing dependent or story dependent. L14: Dragons - ummmm do I really need to say more here?😳😁🤪
I would always pick based on knowledge of the game world, but if you force me to pick without foreknowledge, I would always choose from this list:
Beasts (common as dirt, but disappear at CR9+)
Undead (super duper common, you can learn any language you want)
Monstrosities (absurdly common)
Fiends or Constructs (common in a very specific way - you're usually not going to engage with them in huge numbers, but the odds of a campaign lacking them entirely are nearly nil)
The only humanoids I would ever assume a world has are humans and goblinoids, because DMs love them so much, but I won't willingly choose humanoids, because I don't trust them to be relevant.
Beasts are by far the best with no prior campaign knowledge. Humans and monsters have Mounts. That means you could track any groups with mounts or pets. Animal handling is also useful for party Mounts. Medicine checks on beasts are more likely to earn loyalty from woodland creatures to use with spells and class features. Animals are also weaker so allowing free stabilize when at zero is key.
It is also expected for rangers to be able to handle beasts. Beast are also the easiest to "negotiate" with because they have simple needs. Food, dens, predator removal. Bonus on animal handling and insight might just help you avoid combat with an animal protecting offspring.
Beasts should last any ranger until they get their next choice and by then you have clues to the rest of the campaign.
I'm not fully disagreeing with with some of these arguments they all make solid points. However, as pointed out Beasts disappear by CR9 and many of the features are things that could reasonably be handled with nature checks or animal handling checks alone. Similarly, while I agree that undead, constructs and monstrosities are all common enough and picking them grants certain benefits like being able to pick any language you want they are (to my mind) more situational and more combat oriented than strictly outdoors oriented or fairly general purpose. I used to take Orc regularly since (in earlier editions) they seemed to be the primary low level woodland foe. Now Goblins seem to be serving that roll and goblinoids gives you hobgoblins and bugbears as well as you progress. For some reason I can't explain I always seem to end up dealing with drow at medium and higher levels so elves gives me bonuses to deal with high elves, wood elves and drow both in combat and in social situations so I have found it quite useful. I can see replacing giants with aberrations or fiends for the reasons given. I grant dragons seem to be a bit more upfront and out in the open about their manipulations than aberrations and fiends but I just like dragons so its my go to unless I have some reason to believe/know that something else might be a better upper level choice. So obviously if I'm taking a ranger into Descent into Avernus I'm going to take fiends not dragons or giants.
"This is anecdotal, but I've found that nine times out of ten, the true villains of a given campaign are aberrations or fiends" and the tenth time its either an elf or a human.
1. Humanoid: Humans & Whatever enemy is common in the area (Orc, goblin, gnoll, ask you dm in session zero)
2. Fiends
3. Dragons
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Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
It kinda depends on your subclass too, in a roleplaying game I think theme is more important than number crunching.
Monster Slayer- Undead-Monstrosities/Abberations-Fiends (Witcher Theme) (according to your stats you might try using dips like Twilight Cleric, Hexblade Warlock, or almost any stereotypical Fighter classes)
Gloomstalker-(if you are an elf whether Drow or Wood Elf...or maybe Dwarf) Humanoid Dwarf/Elf prio if it is underdark setting otherwise first beast then the former.
Beastmaster- Beasts(I only dip in Beastmaster and that is if I am playing a forest gnome or a Goblin)
My Elf ranger bounty hunter was raised in an elven country in an settlement that crossed gnolls constantly so my Favorite Enemy was Humanoid(Elf,Gnolls). (could have chose Orc also or Dwarf since those were also neighbors)
My next one would have been Fiends 100% since at that part of the campaing we were encountering them a lot.
Last could be Dragon since that was the big bad monster at the beginning of the campaing. Agree that there are certain options that are more typical like Humanoids/Undeads/Beast at first, then giant fiend dragon or aberration ...
In another campaing with a heavy undead theme and enemies, the Ranger started with fav enemy Undead (and because of a 3er party subclass he wanted).
my character is only level 4 but I have elves and orcs for flavor, but I think the other bests are beasts and undead, for the simple reason everone can track a dragon or giant. the best humanoids are for the same reason probaly elves and goblinoids/gnomes/ other small sneaky things
Belegir is 12th. He has goblinoids (goblins, bugbears, hobgoblins, as per what my DM allowed), Giants, and Drow elves (He has led several incursions into the Underdark to rescue surface elves taken by drow elves, etc).
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Belegir, Wood Elf Ranger
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According to RAW a standard PHB ranger can get up to 4 favored enemies. I’m interested to hear what you think the typical 4 are or should be. I recognize that backstory can often twist things to something unusual but leaving those aside for now what 4 enemies do most of your PHB rangers pick? And why?
For me me the list looks like this:
L1: Humanoids: A) either Orcs or goblinoids but not both so they have a common/very common foe at tier 1.
B) elves - this gives bonuses for interacting with elves socially at low levels and for combat/tracking etc with Drow at medium to upper levels.
L6: Giants - by now your starting to run into trolls and ogres and over the next 8 levels of the types of creatures you can choose giants are (IMO) the most common. But I can see this beingcampaing dependent or story dependent.
L14: Dragons - ummmm do I really need to say more here?😳😁🤪
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Neat topic!
Isn't it 3 occurrences of favored enemy, which can be a total of 6 if you choose humanoids each time?
I rarely choose any humanoid. I typically go beasts, and some of the more fantastical in natural creature types. Like monstrosity, undead, aberrations, giant, dragon, and fiend.
My go-to is always humanoids first. Since Favored Enemy doesn't just help with tracking, but also with knowledge checks, picking humans and elves as my Favored Enemies pretty much gives me advantage on Int skills for what is likely the two most expansive civilizations in a given setting. Humans are also the most likely to be involved with the plot early on. Which makes tracking other creatures easier by tracking the humans traveling with them. Whether it's an Orc raid that took hostages or a dragon that kidnapped a princess or what-have-you.
Next is typically Fiends. Not only are they the most likely villains to appear in a given setting, but they also have the most amount of monster stat blocks compared to all the "Outsider" Creature types. So it's very likely you'll be running into them often. They also span the gamut of CR's, meaning they'll be appearing throughout the campaign in most tiers. And because they're fiends, they will likely be relevant to the story told. Hell, we have stat blocks for the actual Demon Lords, all of which are popular endgame villains.
My final pick is variable. I'm still trying to parse the data. But the frontrunner right now is Aberrations. They are in a very similar boat to Fiends in that there are a lot of them, they span the CR gamut, and they make for natural big Bads to the story.
This is anecdotal, but I've found that nine times out of ten, the true villains of a given campaign are aberrations or fiends.
Yes technically you could probably pick humanoids all 3 times and get 6. I’ve run into (& over😳🤪😁) a number of DMs that only allow it once however. I like giants in the middle as the most common “natural” group but I can choosing aberrations and/or fiends there as well - your reasons make sense to me.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Y'know, to this day, I have never played in a campaign where giants were a major part of the adventure. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever encountered giants at all. Huh.
Fiends and aberrations, however, I'm drowning in a sea of.
I would always pick based on knowledge of the game world, but if you force me to pick without foreknowledge, I would always choose from this list:
Beasts (common as dirt, but disappear at CR9+)
Undead (super duper common, you can learn any language you want)
Monstrosities (absurdly common)
Fiends or Constructs (common in a very specific way - you're usually not going to engage with them in huge numbers, but the odds of a campaign lacking them entirely are nearly nil)
The only humanoids I would ever assume a world has are humans and goblinoids, because DMs love them so much, but I won't willingly choose humanoids, because I don't trust them to be relevant.
Beasts are by far the best with no prior campaign knowledge. Humans and monsters have Mounts. That means you could track any groups with mounts or pets. Animal handling is also useful for party Mounts. Medicine checks on beasts are more likely to earn loyalty from woodland creatures to use with spells and class features. Animals are also weaker so allowing free stabilize when at zero is key.
It is also expected for rangers to be able to handle beasts. Beast are also the easiest to "negotiate" with because they have simple needs. Food, dens, predator removal. Bonus on animal handling and insight might just help you avoid combat with an animal protecting offspring.
Beasts should last any ranger until they get their next choice and by then you have clues to the rest of the campaign.
I'm not fully disagreeing with with some of these arguments they all make solid points. However, as pointed out Beasts disappear by CR9 and many of the features are things that could reasonably be handled with nature checks or animal handling checks alone. Similarly, while I agree that undead, constructs and monstrosities are all common enough and picking them grants certain benefits like being able to pick any language you want they are (to my mind) more situational and more combat oriented than strictly outdoors oriented or fairly general purpose. I used to take Orc regularly since (in earlier editions) they seemed to be the primary low level woodland foe. Now Goblins seem to be serving that roll and goblinoids gives you hobgoblins and bugbears as well as you progress. For some reason I can't explain I always seem to end up dealing with drow at medium and higher levels so elves gives me bonuses to deal with high elves, wood elves and drow both in combat and in social situations so I have found it quite useful. I can see replacing giants with aberrations or fiends for the reasons given. I grant dragons seem to be a bit more upfront and out in the open about their manipulations than aberrations and fiends but I just like dragons so its my go to unless I have some reason to believe/know that something else might be a better upper level choice. So obviously if I'm taking a ranger into Descent into Avernus I'm going to take fiends not dragons or giants.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
"This is anecdotal, but I've found that nine times out of ten, the true villains of a given campaign are aberrations or fiends" and the tenth time its either an elf or a human.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I'd go for:
1. Monstrosities or aberrations
2. Undead
3. Fiends
They're likely to prove useful at most experience levels.
Frankly, my dear, I'd rather be listening to Rehn Stillnight.
My default would be,
1. Humanoid, Elves and Humans
2. Giants
3. Dragons
1. Humanoid: Humans & Whatever enemy is common in the area (Orc, goblin, gnoll, ask you dm in session zero)
2. Fiends
3. Dragons
Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPmyTI0tZ6nM-bzY0IG3ww
It kinda depends on your subclass too, in a roleplaying game I think theme is more important than number crunching.
Monster Slayer- Undead-Monstrosities/Abberations-Fiends (Witcher Theme) (according to your stats you might try using dips like Twilight Cleric, Hexblade Warlock, or almost any stereotypical Fighter classes)
Gloomstalker-(if you are an elf whether Drow or Wood Elf...or maybe Dwarf) Humanoid Dwarf/Elf prio if it is underdark setting otherwise first beast then the former.
Beastmaster- Beasts(I only dip in Beastmaster and that is if I am playing a forest gnome or a Goblin)
I didn't play other subclasses
In my case its entirely campaing based.
My Elf ranger bounty hunter was raised in an elven country in an settlement that crossed gnolls constantly so my Favorite Enemy was Humanoid(Elf,Gnolls). (could have chose Orc also or Dwarf since those were also neighbors)
My next one would have been Fiends 100% since at that part of the campaing we were encountering them a lot.
Last could be Dragon since that was the big bad monster at the beginning of the campaing.
Agree that there are certain options that are more typical like Humanoids/Undeads/Beast at first, then giant fiend dragon or aberration ...
In another campaing with a heavy undead theme and enemies, the Ranger started with fav enemy Undead (and because of a 3er party subclass he wanted).
my character is only level 4 but I have elves and orcs for flavor, but I think the other bests are beasts and undead, for the simple reason everone can track a dragon or giant. the best humanoids are for the same reason probaly elves and goblinoids/gnomes/ other small sneaky things
Belegir is 12th. He has goblinoids (goblins, bugbears, hobgoblins, as per what my DM allowed), Giants, and Drow elves (He has led several incursions into the Underdark to rescue surface elves taken by drow elves, etc).
Belegir, Wood Elf Ranger