Of all the optional features from Tasha's, Favored Foe is the one I recommend least. Frankly, it's a more boring option than Favored Enemy.
And since it costs concentration and only does damage 1x/round, it's just a free (but inferior) hunter's mark.
You also cannot move it, so unless you're fighting one big guy that lasts multiple rounds you get very little out of it. 80% of the time when I'm playing I just forget about it completely.
Personally I'd have rather seen Favored Enemy get a slight boost, because I really like it as an integral part of the Ranger identity. They could have folded in the Ranger capstone ability right from level 1 and it wouldn't break a thing. I would have also loved to see the subclasses grant thematic minor perks against your FE. I think with slight homberew tweaks you can make FE feel a lot more impactful.
If you could spend something like ... a week? ... of downtime to study a new enemy and switch your Favored Enemy it would take care of basically all the complaints about it not being applicable.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I don't know if a week would suffice, but yeah, I think it would be perfectly reasonable (with permission from the DM, of course) for your ranger to spend enough time in a certain environment to learn Favored Enemy of that terrain.
You also cannot move it, so unless you're fighting one big guy that lasts multiple rounds you get very little out of it. 80% of the time when I'm playing I just forget about it completely.
Personally I'd have rather seen Favored Enemy get a slight boost, because I really like it as an integral part of the Ranger identity. They could have folded in the Ranger capstone ability right from level 1 and it wouldn't break a thing. I would have also loved to see the subclasses grant thematic minor perks against your FE. I think with slight homberew tweaks you can make FE feel a lot more impactful.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
If you could spend something like ... a week? ... of downtime to study a new enemy and switch your Favored Enemy it would take care of basically all the complaints about it not being applicable.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I don't know if a week would suffice, but yeah, I think it would be perfectly reasonable (with permission from the DM, of course) for your ranger to spend enough time in a certain environment to learn Favored Enemy of that terrain.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.