Troll Lord Games

Question: should (human) rangers be allowed to choose humans as a favored enemy?

On the one hand, it seems logical and justifiable. If a 6th level ranger has spent much of his early career hunting human bandits and outlaws along the trails of the East Mark, why shouldn't he be permitted to choose 'humans' as his favored enemy?

On the other hand, it feels like it might be subverting the spirit of the rules; since humans are arguably the most common foe, in most campaigns, the character would be gaining the favored enemy bonuses more frequently. When fighting humans, the ranger's to-hit bonus would equal a fighter with a specialized weapon (at least until 7th level, when the fighter pulls ahead by +1).

In looking for past precedent, the 2E AD&D PHB calls it a 'species enemy,' which has a very different connotation. The D20 SRD does include humans among the choices for favored enemies.

I'm on the fence with this one...would like a ruling from a senior Troll.
Thanks.

This is a decision that should always be campaign-set. If the ranger has been battling human enemies for most of his career, it would seem natural to allow the choice as a favored enemy, just as it would for one who encounters giants on a regular basis. This is an ability the Castle Keeper has to be flexible with: it can be very powerful (ie, everything qualifies against it) or, it can be one of those things that gets discarded as useless (ie, what 15th level ranger regularly faces a goblin?) Therefore, it should be considered by both player and Castle Keeper on what seems the best, most efficient, yet "non-breaking" choice. At high levels, monstrous foes, especially constructs, undead, dragons, and aberrations become fairly standard fare for many games, but a more civil-centric one might have monstrous humanoids and even humans as the mainstay... this is one reason I went with a slight change to the way the ability functions in my games: it only works against active threats to the ranger's homeland. Anyway: I would have no issue with allowing a ranger to take human (and, that is human only) as the favored enemy. And then, I would have him face mixed groups so the benefit was there... just not constantly.