Species Enemy (ranger)

[Yarash]

This is a standard concept that was never implemented. The basic idea is that every ranger has a creature type that he loathes. The enemy is chosen when character is made or before a certain level is reached, and cannot be changed. When a ranger fights his species enemy, he gains special combat modifiers due to his knowledge of the beast and intense emotions.

This would be cool for role playing purposes as well.

- Mike

[teflor the ranger]

que?

[Kifle]

Isn't this a 2nd edition skills/powers type thing? I like it though.

[Hyldryn]

Yeah, +1 hit and +1 dam per species of your choice! That'll make rangers uber!

[Treladian]

Isn't this a 2nd edition skills/powers type thing? I like it though.

It's actually about the only consistent theme of the ranger class in each edition of D&D.

In 1st edition, there was a fairly big list of creatures, mainly humanoid and giants like orcs, ogres, trolls, gnolls, etc., that a ranger got a damage bonus against equal to their level.

In 2nd, it changed to just choosing one creature type and getting a +4 hit bonus against them and having a -4 penalty when dealing with them in social situations. Essentially one of the two classes that had an alignment requirement of good also became the hatemonger class.

In 3rd, they essentially took 2nd edition's version and spread the benefits throughout the levels, but by now players realized that it was just a silly feature to begin with and wasn't done well either. You either chose to focus on a creature type you weren't going to see til high levels and hence have a useless ability early on, or you do the opposite. The hit bonus was changed to a damage bonus and while it now added bonuses to various skill checks against the chosen creature, the majority of those skills weren't on the ranger skill list. And to top it off, many of the creatures you could choose were also immune to the damage bonus. And really, I don't think anyone would ever choose to get a bonus to bluffing slimes or plants.

3.5 has done things much better. The damage bonus is always applicable and you can either add a new creature to your list as you gain levels or boost an existing one, so you're not stuck with one choice.

The best implementations I've seen of the ability are in other d20 games though, ie d20 Modern with one of the PrCs in Urban Arcana. Basically lets you switch your focus every now and then, which is a great way to make it a handy ability even if you're not in a campaign that has a strong bent towards particular types of creatures.

But to address the original suggestion, it's not really something that's going to garner much opinion one way or the other until more basic issues with melee balance are addressed.

[kiryan]

I think it would be cool to give them species enemies... add one new one every 10 levels?

Could also make this a part of a bigger system where every melee char gets a specialization enemy or two, then allow rangers to have some innate ones in addition to any selected ones.

[Dalar]

dragons, humanoids, elementals, demons. that's all you ever need.

[Arilin Nydelahar]

You forgot one Brian.

WD Salesmen.

[Yarash]

This is just a simple idea that may make the game more interesting. It would provide minor combat benefits while perhaps encouraging rp, as there should be a good story behind the chosen enemy.

This is not a suggested way to "fix melee / rangers", as should be intuitively obvious to the most casual observer.

- Mike

[Sesexe]

This is a standard concept that was never implemented. The basic idea is that every ranger has a creature type that he loathes. The enemy is chosen when character is made or before a certain level is reached, and cannot be changed. When a ranger fights his species enemy, he gains special combat modifiers due to his knowledge of the beast and intense emotions.

This would be cool for role playing purposes as well.

- Mike

Would he also go berserk and auto engage the type of Species Enemy?

flee

Flee?!? There are still so many (insert species enemy name here) left to kill!

[Yarash]

Would he also go berserk and auto engage the type of Species Enemy?

No. In the official description it mentioned that given multiple opponents, the ranger would automatically fight the species enemy, but that would not be worth implementing. It never mentioned anything about the ranger losing all control of himself. Basically I was thinking of two, maybe three points:
1. Player chooses from a list of mob types, picks his species enemy.
2. When fighting that mob type, a small combat bonus is given (+dam)
3. *perhaps* a special message could sometimes be shown when the ranger is fighting the species enemy (to encourage RPing about it).

- Mike

[kiryan]

Why a small bonus, the larger the bonus the more variety you create in melee classes... like increasing crit percentage, or add a potential for doing double damage or getting an extra attack or all 3 at various levels of specialization.

I'd like to see us bring back the concept of specialization for all classes especially melee. We used to have it for casters but then we did things like move vitality to healing instead of enchantment. I do realize that we decided specialization meant new classes (invoker, enchanter) not a skill, however, I would still like to see some more uniqueness in players of a class.

[kiryan]

I really like this idea, I hope they consider it strongly.

[moritheil]

I'd say make it a significant bonus but only good against one race, ever, upon completion of a quest.

[Yarash]

I'd say make it a significant bonus but only good against one race, ever, upon completion of a quest.

Questing makes little sense as the incident that causes the emotions is specific to the individual ranger. The event is also a personal experience and not a set of tasks to perform. A quest would be cool if it could be made to fit these requirements, but I can't think of any way that it could. A role play session would be ideal, but is obviously impractical.

- Mike

[moritheil]

The pre-fab quest wouldn't be ideal, but it could be done and still allude to those specific instances. I guess it's just a question of how much people can suspend disbelief, which varies widely.