ranger favored enemy damage

[ersatzphil]

what's the usual (or one used in your campaign) rationale for ranger favored enemy damage? if it results from ferocity of attack against hated opponents or special knowledge about combating certain foes, why doesnt it work against undead, constructs, and such? even if there aren't internal organs for you to hit and score criticals against, a canny ranger might think to start aiming for joints, or somesuch. simply a mechanics issue?

relatedly, what kind of damage is ranger bonus damage counted as? simply more piercing/slashing/etc, or something else?

 

[melkoriii]

I personaly have it from special knowledge.

Not everyone has to have anger managment.

 

[AuraSeer]

The standard rationale is that the extra damage comes from hitting vulnerable points, just like a critical hit or a sneak attack. Some creatures (undead, constructs, elementals) have no vulnerable points at all, by definition.

A common house rule is to allow rangers their bonus damage against those types, even though crits and SAs still don't work. That might represent going after joints or other structurally weak areas, or striking in a special manner, or whatever else the DM thinks is reasonable.

In terms of damage type, the bonus damage for favored enemy is of the same type as the weapon (blunt for a mace, etc.) The favored enemy modifier is not a separate source of damage by itself; it just increases the amount of damage that the weapon does, like a Strength bonus or enhancement bonus does.

 

[greycastle]

Hmm...does this mean that on a critical hit *lets say with a Cutlas, does 1d6 slashing piercing damage* against a goblin, who is the favoured enemy of this ranger...

Ranger Hits Goblin (favored enemy), gets a critical hit. Is level 5 (so +4 vs goblins), and the hit with the cutlass results in 11 *including str*...does this mean he does an extra +4 or +8 damage against the goblin? is the faorved enemy damage multiplied?

 

[Hypersmurf]

I still can't follow your freaky punctuation, but all bonus damage not expressed as bonus dice is multiplied on a critical.

-Hyp.

 

[AuraSeer]

Yes, favored enemy damage is multiplied when you score a critical. If the ranger has Strength 14 (bonus of +2), a favored enemy bonus of +4, and is wielding a shortsword, normal damage on the enemy will be 1d6 + 6. On a critical, he deals 2d6+12.

Note that the ranger would need to be 15th level in order to have a favored enemy bonus reach +4.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Note that the ranger would need to be 15th level in order to have a favored enemy bonus reach +4.

I think he's using the 3.5 snippets, which certainly give a Ranger higher FE bonuses. Not sure what the threshold levels are, though.

-Hyp.