3.5 Rules: Rangers

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willpell
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3.5 Rules: Rangers

Post by willpell » Wed Oct 08, 2014 4:44 pm

I learned D&D by way of the 3.0 rules, and have always been a little "off" since switching to 3.5...one of the classes that changed the most was the Ranger, which used to have d10 hit dice and x4 skills, and now instead has d8s and x6, plus a lot of the skills related to nature were shuffled around between demi-editions. As a result, rangers have long confused me a little, and today I stumbled upon a particular couple of problems. One is a rules question, and hopefully we have some rules gurus that can clear it up; the other is probably just me failing to brain, but input is still appreciated by anyone.

1. If a ranger selects Favored Enemy: Lawful Outsiders, do you get the bonus against a Native Outsider who happens to be lawful in alignment, or does it only apply to outsiders with the Lawful subtype?

2. Am I imagining things, or did there used to be rules text saying "A ranger cannot select his own race as a favored enemy unless he is evil"? If it's still there, I can't find it anymore. My campaign uses a lot of near-humans, and I often decide whether to make a character Human or a Maenad or an Azurin or whatnot based on purely mechanical reasons, assuming that they're all mingling together in a single society (it helps that I decided my Maenads, like my vampires, do not sparkle in bright light; they look no different from humans, nor do most other such almost-human races). Thusly, I have difficulty following the letter of the law in the case of this rule.
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Theis2
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Re: 3.5 Rules: Rangers

Post by Theis2 » Sun Oct 12, 2014 11:01 am

1. I think it's any outsiders wether they are on their own plane or another plane.

2. It's still a rule that a ranger has to be evil to choose his own race (and subtype) as his favoured enemy. So a neutral halfling would be able to take humanoid (gnome) as favoured enemy but not humanoid (halfling).
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Amara
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Re: 3.5 Rules: Rangers

Post by Amara » Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:50 pm

Dang, missed this earlier. Theis2 explained it perfectly, though. Yes, they have to be evil to take their own race + subtype, but any other is fair game. This is how my last game had a CG Kitsune ranger that was able to take human as a his favored enemy.

On the "Lawful Outsiders" question, as I understand it it'd apply only to outsiders with the lawful subtype and "Native outsider" is actually a separate type all its own, AFAIK. (Though personally I'd rule the bonus as still applying if they have the right type for it. IE, Outsider (Good) still giving bonuses against a half celestial native outsider.) So for example, if you had favored enemy Outsider (Good), you'd get the bonus against any outsider with that type, but not an Outsider (Fire) that just coincidentally happened to be good aligned.
Amusingly, I believe Outsider (Good) would still apply to any fallen outsiders that were no longer good aligned, too, just due to their type still being good.

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Re: 3.5 Rules: Rangers

Post by willpell » Mon Oct 13, 2014 1:10 pm

Amara wrote:Dang, missed this earlier. Theis2 explained it perfectly, though. Yes, they have to be evil to take their own race + subtype, but any other is fair game.
I still want to know where this rule is, since I couldn't find it the last time I read fairly-thoroughly through the entire PHB section on rangers.
On the "Lawful Outsiders" question, as I understand it it'd apply only to outsiders with the lawful subtype and "Native outsider" is actually a separate type all its own, AFAIK.
This is how I'm inclined to think it should work. If someone dedicates their life to hunting devils, they might reasonably argue that they should be able to affect a Tiefling, but definitely not an Air Genasi who just happens to be in the Faerunian Mafia.
Amusingly, I believe Outsider (Good) would still apply to any fallen outsiders that were no longer good aligned, too, just due to their type still being good.
I am almost certain that part is right. There's a succubus paladin on the Wizards website (personally I'm not convinced this should be possible, but they clearly decided it was okay), who by virtue of being Lawful, Good, {Chaotic} and {Evil} will Detect as being every alignment.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
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Theis2
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Re: 3.5 Rules: Rangers

Post by Theis2 » Mon Oct 13, 2014 10:26 pm

I think you loose the native outsider if you change which plane you are on. So demons would be native outsiders in the abyss, but outsiders everywhere else.
They just assume everything happens on the material plane after my understanding

I think the rule is mentioned in the favoured enemy description
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Re: 3.5 Rules: Rangers

Post by Amara » Tue Oct 14, 2014 6:07 am

Found it!
PHBI wrote:Favored Enemy: At 1st level, a ranger may select a type of
creature (dragons, giants, goblinoids, undead, etc.) as a favored
enemy. (A ranger can only select his own race as a favored enemy if
he is evil.)
This was in the original PHB for 3.0. This line was removed when the PHB was revised for 3.5.
So, as it stands, the rule no longer applies in 3.5. That would explain why I remembered seeing it, but couldn't find it in my own PHB anywhere.

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