Inspired by the thread on favored foe, I figure I will talk about favored enemy.With XGE and Tasha's I no longer think the Ranger is underpowered, even without the new optional features. Using a few of the subclasses, the Ranger class holds up well even without the new features. That said, how bad are the oroginal 1st-level abilities.
1. Favored Enemy: Everyone really complains about favored enemy and has been since the PHB, but I don't see it as that bad. Advantage on intelligence checks against a whole group of enemies and an extra language is pretty cool. Not effective in combat, but broadly useful in general. the tracking feature is less useful.
Favored Foe is better in combat and if you are building a combat-focused character I get why this would maybe be a better choice, but I don't think it is a better ability overall especially if you are building a skill character.
2. Natural explorer: NAtural explorer usefulness depends entirely on the game and DM. In an outdoor campaign, if your DM is rolling for you to get lost or slowing you in difficult terrain,find food etc, this ability is actually OP for a 1st-level ability .... especially the never lost part. Playing Tomb of Annihilation at 1st level my party was lost so often that I chose to multiclass to Ranger at level 2 with a character who happened to have a 13 Wisdom and dex. This was not even remotely in my original build idea for that character but we needed a solution to being lost all the time. This 1-level dip completely changed the nature of our game.
I like the idea of Deft explorer and as a character who likes skill monkeys I really like the idea of expertise in a skill and am drawn to it. I think this is way inferior to natural explorer if you are playing the kind of outdoor game noted above, but better in just about every other game.
Thoughts?
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