Racial enemies

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If you're playing a ranger, what do you usually pick as your racial enemy? Do you go for something you're going to see a lot of during the course of the game, like trolls or vampires? Or, do you go for the really tough stuff that you want a bonus against, like dragons and liches? My personal feeling is that I really don't need help killing the simple stuff. I usually go for something that is harder to kill. In BG1, I usually chose spiders. In BG2, I usually go for dragons, especially with an archer.

 

Usually Vampire or Dragon. Sometimes Mindflayer or Beholder.

 

+4 to hit and damage (and -4 encounter modifier) is no big deal. So against dragons it is not so good.
In BG1 ogre is my choice, because you can kill a lot when you are only at low level, and get much XP. In BGII, Vampires perhaps...
Minsc had Gnoll as racial enemy in BG1, and in BGII Vampire has become his racial enemy... as if rangers could change that! Anyway, Minsc is a special ranger so it is okay.

 

Speaking of Minsc, how did his racial enemy change from gnolls in BG1 ( his witch has been taken by gnolls, makes sense) to Vamps in BG2 ? he'd never even seen a vamp at the start of BG2 ( the're were none in BG1), and that gave me a serious plot hint that we were going to meet several vampires!!

 

He might have felt his fate by the side of the protagonist and changed his skills against Vampires
He is a great warrior after all, having Berserk despite of the fact he is a ranger

Taking the thing seriously, I agree. I also suppose that it was a plot hint...

 

I've chosen Fell (for the various demons) and Dragons the few times I've run a ranger.

Yes, indeed, he is special.

 

Well I don't think Dragons or Demons should even be on the list because if you think about it, you grow up in candle keep and racial enemies are usually creatures that have in someway had a negative impact your characters life like, tasoli kobolds or ogres, I know it doesn't make much sense practically but roleplay wise I think it does.

 

If you really want to press it, how did you get ranger training in Candlekeep anyways? But that is not important.

I would go with dragons, just for the extra oomph when fighting them.

 

In BGI I always chose Undead since after my first play halfway through the game I really started to hate Skeletons, don't even ask me why. And in BGII I had a similar experience with the vampires, so that's what I choose for my Ranger, but at least here I know why I started hating them, Level Drain. It's still the effect I hate most after Imprisonment.

With all this hate I'd make a great Ranger.

 

I hate them too if I am not careful (so I deserve what I get). Even when I was playing as an experienced player, and forgot to pay enough attention, the darting skeletons darted out poor Xan from existence

 

In my first time through the game, I think I chose ogres because traditionally speaking, rangers deal extra damage to giant-sized creatures. But after realizing what monsters appear in the game, and how hard they are, I choose vampire almost all the time.

 

In case anyone's interested, SimDing0's Tweak Pack expands the favored enemy list to include every beast/monster/undead in the game. You can get it here: http://www.forgottenwars.net/?page=mods/sim

 

I would choose from these, depending on my mood:

demon, dragon, vampire, lich, mind flayer, troll

All for different practical reasons.

 

I think it would be much more practical to choose common foes like vampires and fell.

Racial enemies are usually for a given advantage when going up against these scum. So, take a good look at the more difficult albeit common foe and choose it wisely.

For my Ranger character, I chose vampires, it helps alot, especially when raiding the vampire lair!
Take that Bodhi-wannabes!

 

That was my point. You encounter a few dragons during the game. +4 helps a bit against them (they have very good Armour Class), but why if you encounter only a few (less than 8, I will not list them now) dragons? It is much better against more common creatures, which, in addition, have worse AC so +4 helps much more.

 

Well Candlekeep was a library fortress in the middle of the wood's which is where Rangers spend most of thier time, and who's to say that you were never allowed outside of the keep?

 

Well, the game itself. It tells you you have never before left Candlekeep. But you could become a Ranger because Gorion told you stories of Heroes and Monsters, Lovers and Infidels... and I'm quite sure there were tales of every class so maybe your character was most attracted by the tales of the Rangers and so tried to become one. The same goes with the racial enemy, you could have picked hatred for one through what you learned of them through the stories you were raised on.

 

Meatdog have you ever heard of "territorial borders"? just because it say's you never leave Candlekeep doesnt mean that Candlekeep is only what's inside the stone walls, I'm not really sure if the FR world is like the real world in the sense that every country has x amount of territory outside of it's land or whatever, for example if the Chinese had a few ships go towards America they would need prior permission from them to enter their waters (alternative would probably be to get blown away by a couple of Dubya Bush's nukes).

 

Good point!

 

Yes I have, but I only heard them ever being mentioned concerning countries. And the game clearly stated you never went outside the high and secluded walls of Candlekeep. But from those walls you could see the forests outside the keep, as is mentioned in the Ranger/Druid's biography for the PC. (but I don't remember which of both)