Publication:Unearthed Arcana/Favored Enemy Variant - Favored Environment

Favored Enemy Variant: Favored Environment
Instead of selecting a type of creature against which to apply a bonus on certain skills and damage rolls, the ranger selects a specific natural environment and gains bonuses when in that environment.

At 1st level, a ranger may select a natural environment from among those given on Table 2-3: Ranger Favored Environments. Due to the ranger's experience in that environment, he gains a +2 bonus on Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills in that environment. He also gains the same bonus on Knowledge (nature) checks made in association with that environment ( or on Knowledge (dungeoneering) checks made in association with underground environments, if the ranger has selected underground as a favored environment).

At 5th level and every five levels thereafter (at 10th, 15th, and 20th level), the ranger may select an additional favored environment from those given on the table and gains an identical bonus on the appropriate skill checks in that environment. In addition at each such interval, the bonuses in any one favored environment (including the one just selected, if so desired), increase by 2. For example, a 5th-level ranger has two favored environments. In one he has a +4 bonus on the appropriate skill checks, and in the other he has a +2 bonus. At 10th level, he has three favored environments, and he gains an additional +2 bonus, which he can allocate to any of his three favored environments. Thus, his bonuses could be either +4, +4, and +2 or +6, +2, and +2.

If the ranger chooses desert or forest, he must also choose a climatic type, as indicated on the table (either "cold" or "temperate or warm" for desert, or "cold or temperate" or "warm" for forest).

The DM can rule that a ranger can't select an environment that he has never visited.