Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

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Baron Saturday
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Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Baron Saturday » Sat Dec 23, 2017 6:20 am

There are 25 races in NWN. 24 of them may be selected for Favored Enemy and Studied Enemy (all but ooze).

So, question is, which should be taken as Favored Enemies, and which should be studied?

I would say that the playable races (excepting human, gnome, and possibly dwarf) should be Favored, while common NPC enemies (humans, undead, monstrous humanoids, outsiders, and so forth) should be studied.

But! I don't know enough about the enemies that you're likely to find in high-level dungeons to really advise.

Folks who know more about that? Whatcha think?
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Hunter548
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Hunter548 » Sat Dec 23, 2017 7:06 am

You probably want humans, elves, halflings, half orcs, undead, giants, dwarves, outsiders, and your pick of of half elves, aberrations, and dragons. That's as many as you get with 20 ranger, anyways.

Humans, outsiders, giants, dwarves, and undead are all relatively simple to study. Elves, halflings, aberrations and dragons are all going to be kind of a pain to pick up.
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by One Two Three Five » Sat Dec 23, 2017 7:16 am

Yeah, I'd study the ones you can start fighting relatively early- a hundred examples isn't much, but starting to fight, say, aberrations at 20 is going to seem longer than if you'd been fighting them since level 3, like humans.

There's also the question of which favoreds can be ruled out entirely? If we assume the aveage ranger will have 9 or.. what, 12? favoreds, but can rule out several, that makes for easier pickings. Animals (empathy), beasts (pretty rare?), ooze (See beasts), etc can probably be safely removed, dropping the list to 20.
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Baron Saturday
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Baron Saturday » Sat Dec 23, 2017 8:11 am

So, going off Hunter's list, maybe Favored should be:
Outsiders, halflings, half-orcs, elves, [aberrations/dragons/half-elves].

And Studied:
Humans, dwarves, undead, giants.

That look about right? Only thing I would debate on there is dragons, since there's not that many of them. Would elementals or constructs be worth including?

Obviously there's some wiggle-room related to RP and amount of expected PvP, but I would probably never include vermin, gnomes, fey, reptilians, animals or beasts, either because you're not going to run into many, or because the enemies in that category are generally weak.
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by One Two Three Five » Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:29 am

I mean even in pvp, humans, elves, dwarves, half-orcs, and halflings will cover, what, 90%? Half-elves no, gnomes no, but there's not exactly a surplus of either running around.
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Baron Saturday
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Baron Saturday » Sat Dec 23, 2017 1:28 pm

Hard to tell with half-elves, since they use the human model. I'm fairly sure that the subraces that are mechanically half-elves (hobgoblins and Deep Imaskari) are pretty rare.

Personally I would go for aberrations over dragons or half-elves anyhow, because beholders/mind flayers/all sorts of other crawly nastiness fits in that category.
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Astral » Sat Dec 23, 2017 1:43 pm

If I understand it correctly. It seems that its better to use your favoured enemy feat for the rare stuff (dragons, elves) and then study the common ones (human, half-orc, undead) by yourself. This way you cover more types faster and get most of the 20 types eventually.
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Nitro » Sat Dec 23, 2017 3:21 pm

Yep, that seems like the smart move, grab the feat for the rare stuff, then study the things you can find in droves in dungeons.

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Hunter548
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Hunter548 » Sat Dec 23, 2017 5:10 pm

One Two Three Five wrote: There's also the question of which favoreds can be ruled out entirely? If we assume the aveage ranger will have 9 or.. what, 12? favoreds, but can rule out several, that makes for easier pickings. Animals (empathy), beasts (pretty rare?), ooze (See beasts), etc can probably be safely removed, dropping the list to 20.
Assuming you get 21-24 ranger levels, you'll get 9 FEs, which gives you room for a UMD/Tumble dump, and then fighter levels.

As far as Half Elves, I'd say they're worth a pick up for pvp purposes if that matters to you; Half Elves have an advantage over humans in easy access to the moonblade, and if you go for weaponmaster, they end up feat equivalent. Granted, if you don't care about PvP, there's a grand total of like 1 half elf pve area.

Aberrations are a very good pick up for PvE purposes: Pretty much all of the Lowerdark is aberrations. If you decide to go for Aberrations, whether you should study it or not largely depends on if you're comfortable spending a lot of time in the Underdarker: Driders are Aberrations. Surface-side, Nagas are the only really common aberration that comes to mind, though I think some of the Yuan-ti are aberrations as well.

I probably wouldn't pick up constructs or elementals, just because there's a grand total of one area where they're super common, and neither is a high level area.
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Cybernet21 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 6:44 pm

From what i understood on this thread and seeing around,with someone 16 levels of Ranger,wich means 3 FE's and 3 SE's,Would it be a good idea to go Dragons,Outsiders,Aberrations as FE's and for example Goblinoids,Orcs,Giants(or any other common enemy) on SE's for PvE?
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Hunter548
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Hunter548 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 7:54 pm

Aberrations are kind of rare outside the UD; I'd also probably not take goblins or orcs. Keep in mind that player goblins are under halflings, and orogs and the like under half orc.

Honestly, if you're going for 16 levels, you should probably bite the bullet and get another five levels for Bane of Enemies. It's very solid.


16 ranger also means you have 4 FEs and 3 SEs, not 3 and 3. I'd probably do Outsiders, Humans, Undead (All three are fairly well represented at epic levels in dungeons) and then study Dwarves, Giants, and maybe Dragons or Aberrations, depending on where you spend most of your time.
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Cybernet21 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 8:11 pm

Hunter548 wrote: 16 ranger also means you have 4 FEs and 3 SEs, not 3 and 3. I'd probably do Outsiders, Humans, Undead (All three are fairly well represented at epic levels in dungeons) and then study Dwarves, Giants, and maybe Dragons or Aberrations, depending on where you spend most of your time.
I thought it was one favored enemy per 5 levels of Ranger no?

And would what you say count for both PvE and PvP?(wich means the ones you are recommending are so the ranger has favored enemies of both fields)

If so could you perhaps share your thoughts on good FE's and SE's focused on PvE and the ones focused on PvP separately,just so people know wich are the good choices if their build is focused more on one type of combat since this is a Guide ;)

EDIT:You already metioned half elves are more for PvP and aberrations are more for UD PvE for example
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Baron Saturday
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Baron Saturday » Wed Jan 31, 2018 10:07 pm

Don't forget that you get a favored enemy at level 1 as well, so 1, 5, 10 and 15.
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by TheShadowdove » Wed May 02, 2018 7:27 pm

Sorry for a bit of a rigor mortis Necro, but I'm considering a ranger too.

My main question is are the Xvarts in Skal technically halflings ? If so they'd be a good early farm.

For studied enemy purposes.

I think you'd want at least humans, elves, halflings, and dwarves. As they're likely the most represented by players. I've seen a good few dwarves lately. Actually, I've seen a surprising amount of halforcs too.

Are there any elven/human/halforc/dwarf dungeons?

It would be good to include your studied enemies in your leveling plan, so you can farm the right ones in order. I hope to know the popular and accessible races well enough before I plan out the ranger.

I'd probably go for all of those humanoid races first, then do other pve races that are heavily represented on the server where you're going to need it most, end game. I assume undead and possibly abberations from the sound of it?

You only have to level up once, but if you intend on farming endgame content, it's worth being able to kill the monsters THERE especially well. Early level monster races don't matter as much if they aren't in the endgame, as you'll be Overkill murdering them when the favored enemy monsters in the end would be better to do extra damage against.

With this train of thought... As a 21+ ranger with the rest as either AA, fighter, or Rogue, what would someone have to say about the endgame monsters? Which dungeons do people tend to hit the most endgame? Which are the most challenging/rewarding?

Thanks in advance folks,

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Baron Saturday
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Baron Saturday » Wed May 02, 2018 8:37 pm

Xvarts are almost certainly monstrous humanoids.

You definitely want half-orc. It's really good on Arelith, because they get power attack & ambidexterity for free, so they make amazing double-weapon barbarians.

There's a ton of low-level human dungeons, at least on the surface. Wharftown Boys, sewer rat gang, pallisade bandits, etc. Dwarves is a bit trickier - I can't think of anything before the duergar in the Dark Spires. Elven and half-elven mobs are rare enough as to be non-existent, and while there are probably some half-orc NPCs, they aren't common so far as I know. Undead and giants, however (the other two that are suggested for study), are fairly common at low-mid levels.

For favored enemies, I'd probably take elf/horc/hin first, then outsiders and your pick of dragon/aberration/half-elf.
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Tourmaline » Wed May 02, 2018 9:40 pm

I think xvarts are actually gnomes. You get a "killed first gnome" adventure xp bonus with them.

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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Baron Saturday » Wed May 02, 2018 10:52 pm

That's legitimately hilarious.
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Jagel » Tue May 08, 2018 1:36 pm

Do the playable monster races belong to their base race or something else?

I.e. halfling also gives bonus dmg against kobolds, goblins, imps etc., half-elves grants bonus against hobgoblin

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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Hunter548 » Tue May 08, 2018 3:54 pm

Jagel wrote:
Tue May 08, 2018 1:36 pm
Do the playable monster races belong to their base race or something else?

I.e. halfling also gives bonus dmg against kobolds, goblins, imps etc., half-elves grants bonus against hobgoblin
Base race, last I knew.
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by afreshstart » Fri May 11, 2018 5:44 pm

abberations are very easy to get at UD thanks to driders, and grimlocks count as human so you you can get it easy as well

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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by TheShadowdove » Fri May 11, 2018 7:01 pm

Hunter548 wrote:
Tue May 08, 2018 3:54 pm
Jagel wrote:
Tue May 08, 2018 1:36 pm
Do the playable monster races belong to their base race or something else?

I.e. halfling also gives bonus dmg against kobolds, goblins, imps etc., half-elves grants bonus against hobgoblin
Base race, last I knew.
So is this kind of a sweet free bonus? If you take halfling or halfelf as a FE you just automatically get all of the others that use their base race as a favored enemy by default? Or are we only talking player characters?

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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Baron Saturday » Fri May 11, 2018 7:10 pm

Player characters only, if I'm not mistaken, since the NPC races use the correct race, while player races use the base race from before subrace selection.

Still a pretty nice bonus in PvP!
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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by TheShadowdove » Fri May 11, 2018 7:21 pm

afreshstart wrote:
Fri May 11, 2018 5:44 pm
abberations are very easy to get at UD thanks to driders, and grimlocks count as human so you you can get it easy as well
Do surface folks venture into the ud often for pve?

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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by afreshstart » Fri May 11, 2018 7:38 pm

They do in epics, unless you have an UDer friend some nasty drow might spawn. So not usually at the range where you kill driders.

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Re: Ranger Favored & Studied Enemy Guide

Post by Kenji » Tue Jun 26, 2018 10:46 am

I compiled a list of FE and SE to take and their IG locations based on this thread and some of my own experiences.
Given that Ranger 30 can take 7 FE and 6 SE, take into account that most rangers want to dip rogue/bard and/or fighter/AA, 5 FE and 4 SE are most likely the average amounts for dedicated ranger players.

Orders are based on rarity (farmable or not, for FE) and epic level occurrences (The more often, the more favorable for SE).

PvE choices, PvP choices, Both
Favored Enemies: (The higher ranking on the list, the more efficient and favorable it is to be taken as FE instead of SE)
  1. Half-Orcs
  2. Halflings
  3. Elves - Can be farmed at Rider's Peak
  4. Dragons - Can be farmed on Skal (wyrmlings), Wyverns also count as dragons.
  5. Half-Elves - Can be farmed at Crinti
  6. Abberations - Can be farmed in Lower Dark or Surface, potential SE candidate
Note: Can possibly trade Gnomes for anything else on the list even for a PvP-focused build

Studied Enemies: (The lower ranking on the list, the harder it is to farm relative to other SEs)
  1. Undeads - Surface Endless Battlefield, Skal Ghostwood
  2. Orcs
  3. Goblinoids
  4. Humans - Surface areas with bandits or barbarian tribes
  5. Gnomes - Can be farmed at Sprigs or Xvarts in the Brog Lower Mountains
  6. Outsiders - Mephit on Skal, Imps from Cordor Archives, Demons or Devils from Abyss or Hell
  7. Giants - Surface: Auril Temple near Brog, Ogres and Trolls in Minmir region, Red Dragon Isle
  8. Dwarves - UD Darkspire, mostly Duergars or UD Derros
Last edited by Kenji on Sun Dec 08, 2019 1:38 am, edited 20 times in total.

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