Ancestral Origin - Replaces - Favored Enemy

Ancestral Origin is a Ranger Ability that replaces Favored Enemy

What it does: When a Ranger takes their Favored Terrain, they gain the effects of Favored Enemy on all creatures originating from that respective terrain.

For Example; Wolves, and Bears originate from the Forest, while Sharks originate from the Coast.

The biggest concern being that the origin is dependant on world structure from the GM, in addition to it being widespread. By the classes design itself, it requires conversation and knowledge from GM to Player.

Theoretically a Ranger who studies a terrain knows what creatures exist within the chosen terrain. So from a Lore standpoint or perspective is not an issue. The concern is more mechanical.

I'm looking for feedback on the ability replacement and the overall opinion. The core design of the ability is make the Ranger more viable without prior knowledge to a game setting or module.

Ideally, a homebrew campaign will lead the DM to giving the player opportunities to shine, making prior knowledge irrelevant. Similarly, if the table is playing a set campaign, there should be enough foreshadowing to give the player enough context to not need specific information.

However, if you want to ensure applicability, I would suggest making the ability adaptable. For example, allow the ranger to attune to an environment over the course of a week or so. Call it something like "Lay of the Land". Fast enough that the player can optimize themselves during play, but not fast enough that they can simply switch from environment to environment between quests.

Mechanically, "Ancestry" is intimately tied to prior knowledge. The player will either need to know world information ahead of time, or discover their heritage during play. By replacing a 1st level ability, you're kind of stuck with talking to the DM. However, if you bake it into a particular subclass, or have it replace a higher level ability, then the player will have an opportunity to learn before committing.

The "ancestry" part of it is in reference of the origin of the creatures/world, not the players background/history. The reason it is being tied to terrain is so that as the player levels and get more terrains from NE their ancestral origin will grow.

The ability is one part of an idea for an entirely new ranger archtype focused more on NE, I'm just unsure of the ease of use from a mechanics standpoint. The baseline would be just going with the terrain from the monster manual.

The only other idea that would work with the archtype would be completely tying the foe bonuses to NE and saying you get them as long as you are in one of your chosen terrains. While this sounds easier mechanically, it feels like a cop out.

Hmmm.... Can't say I really understand the use of "ancestry" in this context, but that's not the issue.

I've always liked the idea of using Favored Terrain as an alternative to Favored Enemy. However that type of feature is definitely contextual. My vote would be to not worry about needing prior game knowledge. Communicating with the DM is important and Session 0 is all about taking care of those kind of issues.

Forest, Mountain, Underground, Urban, etc are all very, very common environments to encounter, so the odds of a Ranger taking a shot in the dark and choosing something they will later regret is pretty low.

Yes that is why I want to focus more on terrain rather than favoured enemy. The question is how to tie the monsters into it.

Option 1 being use the monster manual/GM descretion to tie every creature to a terrain. Like you choose forest, wolves originate from the forest so you get the bonus against wolves even if you are fighting them on a mountain.

Or

Option 2 tying the favoured enemy bonuses to the terrain itself instead. So you pick forest, you get the bonus as long as you are in a forest, no matter the enemy.

(Neutral Tone)

Just as a refresher, and clarification. While the biggest concern is Player/GM interaction at its core, that is not the only curious issue with the ability as a replacement.

The ability itself aims to take care of back and forth between the GM and the Player while still retaining it to a degree that even if the Player doesn't have all the details. It can be compensated for. Which Favored Enemy does not allow given its strict limitations. Tasha's Cauldron does fix this, but in a more slap job fashion then a proper overhaul. (This however is personal opinion, and not in question for the sake of inquiry.)

How the Creatures are affected due to the change in the ability is also called into question. See the previous post to this one for the details.

Rambling at this Stage forward.

I should also clarify, the ability is that of a Sub Class for the Ranger which has actually changed most of the features to work around the Terrain aspect of the class but those have already been balanced by the creator and myself, keeping in line with the power structure and scaling of the pre-existing Sub Classes for the Ranger.

Favored Enemy for example is replaced with a versatile pool of D6, 1 for each Ranger Sub Class Feature that is gained. In addition, each Terrain the sub class chooses gives the Ranger a benefit only they have access to until later levels that they can share with 1 other creature of their choice. Along with a landslide of minor adjustments to pre-existing abilities such as the ever horrible Hide in Plain Sight.

This however is moot as the topic is around the ability effect of Ancestral Origin. That aside, it will be made available via the Home Brew Sub Class creation once some wording issues are worked out.

Please, and I hope you will forgive the immediate lack of understanding and asking the wrong questions. I typically don't use forums, much less the general populace for trying to balance something. Experience has proven it difficult to trust the masses, especially with Home Brew.

No response except from a singular individual after a week.

Requesting thread closure, and Private/Direct messages if further discussion on the topic is desired.

Appreciate the time taken to peruse and explore this thread od conversation.