Ah, no, I meant the +4 ability here. Swarms have these special abilities due to their structure, and it makes very little sense to be able to half-damage them with arrows for instance. Likewise, flanking also requires someone else to flank with you, who is not likely to have the same expertise at fighting vermin as you, which is terribly unintuitive.
Hmm, I didn't keep the level requirement in mind here I suppose.Autoconfirming doesn't seem overpowered; you still have to threaten a critical hit, and if you're attack bonus is high enough for that, then it probably will make a critical hit on average anyway. It's not much different from just a +10 to critical confirmation, and it does only come at level 20.
I can see how that might work, but that aspect of dodging doesn't really compare well to the standard implementation of it, that being that you have a chance to dodge, not a guarantee of doing so at a certain range. And while I understand the Poison Immunity from Vermin, I doubt you could build up a similar resistance to fire.The tentacles I was thinking was because you learn methods for dodging and evading them effectively so that they need to get closer to you to get through your evasive maneuvers. It was also because aberrations are a wide enough category that I couldn't think of anything better. Fire resistance was because you become more tolerant of fire damage after being exposed to it for so long, though I admit that fire immunity doesn't make much sense. Again, couldn't think of a good enough capstone there.
That would likely be a good idea for the finished product, and I'll see if I can come up with anything.Would it help if I add fluff explanations before each ability? I didn't do it before because I thought it would just make that section longer and more involved than it already is, but I can do that if too many of them defy explanation. And I definitely need some help with new ideas to replace some of the sketchier abilities, since I want to avoid plain +stat type abilities.
It's still a very crude idea, but I can jot down the basics. Yes you pick a Favored Enemy at first level and every fifth level thereafter (5th, 10th, 15th and 20). The difference is that you no longer automatically upgrade your previously selected bonuses by +2 when you do so. You are instead able to distribute these bonuses freely amongst the enemy types you have selected, up to a maximum bonus per type depending on your level. The problem is now how to set up that progression. Your changes to the Favored Enemy mechanic give the ability a new power level, while I have a hard time estimating the same for the standard ability.I like that idea. I'll look into it. Can you give a little more detail on how you're picking new types and how you're distributing the bonuses? Is it still a new Favored Enemy every 5 levels?
At 20th level your combined bonuses will total +30, divided into +10, +8, +6, +4 and +2. Your maximum bonus will either remain the same as it normally is (+4 at fifth level, +6 at 10th level, etc.) or it might change depending on how fast you want it to scale. The same goes for the amount of bonuses you get per level. Thinking that out will require a deal of math, which I'll save for tomorrow, since I need my rest. I'll think it through some more at a later date.
Also, if you change up the way bonuses are handed out, there's nothing stopping you from changing the rest of the mechanic. One variant would be to give no bonuses to attack etc., but to work purely with conditional special abilities or stat bonuses. Although such a thing would likely require a lot of balancing.