Class is back in session. This week, we are greeted by an animal companion who loyally stands at our side. A Beast Master is a ranger who is bonded to a beast from the lands they wander. Some fight alongside a loyal wolf, others with a flying snake, a giant poisonous snake, or even a pteranodon from the primeval jungles of Chult. A ranger who chooses to become a Beast Master walks a challenging path, but with careful consideration of your animal companion, you can become a powerful warrior.
We’ve completed our first full rotation of the twelve classes, and exhausted all the content that the Basic Rules have to offer—as far as classes go, that is. This next wave of the Class 101 series will appraise every subclass within the Player’s Handbook and break down each subclass’s strengths, weaknesses, thematic elements, and everything else a player would want to know before playing that subclass. Because of this, you will need to own the Player’s Handbook (or purchase the subclass a la carte on the Marketplace) in order to make full use of this series.
Check out other articles in the Ranger 101 series, like our broad overview in Ranger 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Exploring the Wilderness, and Ranger 101: Hunter. If you’re interested in playing other classes, check out the entire Class 101 series.
Story of the Beast Master
“Vine, fangs!” barked the ranger. He was locked in combat with a trio of snarling hobgoblins—well-armed scouts from the forward camp of an invasion force that was slowly pushing into jungle. He was flanked, with one hobgoblin’s spear tip mere inches from his back, goading him straight into the sharp, hungry blades of the two others. For a brief moment, he looked over his shoulder as he barked a command, and then leapt forward, drawing his scimitars in a single motion, like a hawk unfurling its wings.
Suddenly, the hobgoblin at the ranger’s back gargled and fell limp, hitting the hard roots of the forest floor with a jangle of chain mail. The ranger, free to focus on the two foes before him, fought expertly. He put pressure on one warrior with the blade in his right hand, while deftly parrying blows from the other with the sword in his left. Sweat poured from the defending hobgoblin’s brow, and she looked to her squadmate in panic. The ranger noticed this subtle motion, and barked another command.
“Vine, bind!”
Before the attacking hobgoblin could react, a venomous python lunged at the hobgoblin warrior, coiling around his neck in an instant. He fell to the ground as the air was squeezed from his throat. The ranger glanced back just long enough to give a faint smile to his loyal companion, and then renewed his assault on the now-solitary hobgoblin. The advantage of numbers lost, the hobgoblin took a halting step backward, and then dropped her sword and shield and fled towards the forest’s edge. The ranger spit in her footprints, and turned back to the creature whose neck was constricted by his venomous companion.
“Vine, let him breathe.” The ranger lowered himself on one knee and grabbed the hobgoblin’s long, greasy hair, and pulled so that his neck was raised. He pressed the blunt curve of one of his scimitars against his captive’s neck as he returned to consciousness. “Now, let’s talk.”
Beast Master Features
The ranger gains four subclass features starting at 3rd, 7th, 11th, and 15th level. You can read all of the Beast Master features in the Player’s Handbook. In summary, your subclass features allow you to:
- Gain the aid of a beast companion, allowing you to command it to take action both in and out of battle, and grant it bonuses based on your proficiency bonus.
- Command your beast to take non-attack actions as a bonus action.
- Command your beast to attack more than once when it takes the Attack action.
- Allow the spells you cast on yourself to also affect your beast companion.
Benefits of the Beast Master Archetype
In the first article written for D&D Beyond, I spoke with then-D&D freelancer and now-D&D designer Dan Dillon about the Beast Master, its benefits, its shortcomings, and the many ways the Beast Master can be misunderstood. Discussing the benefits and drawbacks of the Beast Master archetype is complex, as its strengths and weaknesses are often intertwined. Nevertheless, they’re presented here in as clear and simple a manner as possible.
Playing a Beast Master ranger grants you the most powerful animal companion in the game, even when compared to the familiar of a Pact of the Chain warlock, or a Battle Smith artificer—though to do so, you’ll need to choose wisely. As discussed in more detail below, there are many great options for animal companions, but countless more beasts that will hinder you in combat as much as they help.
A Beast Master’s animal companion grows in offensive and defensive power as you level up. Though you must spend your action to command it to attack at first, you eventually gain the ability to trade one of your attacks (with Extra Attack) to command your beast to attack. Later still, your beast can attack multiple times when you command it to attack, allowing you to trade one of your attacks for several of your companion’s. A beast with a single powerful attack, such as a giant poisonous snake or a monster with an attack that requires a creature to be grappled, like a giant frog, is very well served by this additional attack.
Beyond this, some beasts have a mobility advantage that makes it easy for rangers to Help their allies from afar, making the Beast Master a versatile offensive and supportive character. If you have a flying snake companion, you can use your action to command it to fly up to 60 feet to an enemy, use the Help action, and then fly away, using the Flyby trait to escape without provoking opportunity attacks. Your party rogue, if you have one, can make serious use of this advantage to gain Sneak Attack against that foe.
Drawbacks of the Beast Master Archetype
Though it’s true that many of the benefits of the Beast Master archetype are often forgotten, it can’t be denied that this subclass has problems. Some of these problems are legitimate mechanical deficiencies, such as the Beast Master’s lack of bonus spells (a drawback it shares with the Hunter archetype)—some are problems of balanced options that don’t feel fun, like having to find a new beast companion if your current one dies—and some are both, like having to sacrifice your own action at early levels to command your beast to attack.
The most egregious challenge that new Beast Master players face is the endless sea of animal companions to choose from, ranging from CR 0 to CR 1/4. This not only requires the player to dig through an ostensibly DM-only resource, the Monster Manual (or the D&D Beyond monster database), but also to have the in-depth game knowledge required to choose a helpful beast. Some options, like the hawk may seem iconic, but ultimately provide little help, since they can’t contribute much in combat, and are unable to communicate with their ranger, making them poor scouts. Many of the most powerful options, like the giant poisonous snake and giant frog are odd and distinctly un-iconic choices, making new players unlikely to choose them right out of the gate.
The issue of the Beast Master’s drawbacks have been discussed to death on countless social media posts and optimization forums, and don’t need to be discussed any further here. Likewise, innumerable fixes to the subclass exist, such as allowing your animal companion to continue performing an action (like Help or Attack) on subsequent turns until you command it to perform a different action, or allowing you to command your animal companion to attack as a bonus action instead of as an action or sacrificing an attack.
Side Note: Unearthed Arcana
A few weeks ago, the most recent Unearthed Arcana presented several options that mitigate some of the Beast Master’s most egregious flaws. Namely, the new Ranger Companion Options eliminates the risk of falling into one of the many of the “trap options” of low-CR animal companions, and allows you to resurrect your animal companion if it dies during your adventures. Though these are playtest options, they’re worth looking at. If you like what you see, consider asking your Dungeon Master if you can use them in your game.
Suggested Build
If you’re building a Beast Master ranger from 1st level, be aware that you won’t gain your subclass until 3rd level. When creating your character, you should choose a race that gives you a bonus to Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom—ideally at least two of the three. You can play a ranger that focuses on Strength instead of Dexterity, and uses large melee weapons instead of dual-wielding light weapons or shooting a bow, but it’s definitely nontraditional. For this reason, playing a wood elf or a stout halfling are your best bets; both give a large bonus to Dexterity and a small bonus to Constitution or Wisdom, and give some useful traits, as well.
Though playing a forest gnome grants you a +2 to Intelligence, a decidedly less important ability score, gaining the ability to speak with Small beasts can be useful if you have a Small animal companion. On the other hand, if you play a Small race (like gnome or halfling), and choose a Medium animal companion, you can ride it as a mount! Riding on a giant wolf spider or flying on the back of a pteranodon is just awesome.
As usual, your character’s background is up to you. Some rangers were born in civilization and felt the call of the wild from an early age, while others have lived in the wilderness their entire lives. As such, Outlander or Hermit would be a fairly standard starting background for a ranger, while choosing soldier, acolyte, or sailor could be an interesting way to “play against type.”
Select EQUIPMENT when creating a character. Choose scale mail if you’re playing an unusual ranger with low Dexterity; otherwise, choose leather armor. Also, unless you have a specific reason to want a simple melee weapon, choosing two shortswords is a good route to go. As a Beast Master, you will often find yourself sacrificing your action to allow your beast to attack. As such, your choice of weapon doesn’t matter greatly—until 5th level, when you gain Extra Attack and the ability to trade just one of your own attacks to let your beast companion attack. Then, fighting with two weapons becomes very attractive, as it lets you make one attack with your Attack action, then make a second with the bonus action granted by dual wielding.
At 1st level, figure out which you enjoy more: fighting in melee with a shortsword in each hand, or fighting from afar with your longbow. Once you know your preference…
Fighting Style
Your first major build decision comes at 2nd level, when you have the option to choose your Fighting Style. Rangers have several options, but the best two options for you are either Archery or Two-Weapon Fighting. Archery gives you a serious accuracy bonus when fighting with ranged weapons (not just bows!) and Two-Weapon Fighting grants you a small damage bonus while dual wielding. Archery is probably the better style in a vacuum, but your character concept should supersede what is mechanically “optimal.”
Defense is a perfectly reasonable fighting style if you have mediocre defenses, but generally speaking, investing in offense is better for rangers. Only consider the Dueling fighting style if you’re playing an unusual Strength-focused ranger with a one-handed melee weapon and a shield.
Spells
Your second major decision comes at 2nd level, too! You first gain the ability to cast spells at this level, drawing from their own unique spell list. While your spell selection is more limited and you gain access to more powerful spells more slowly than “full caster” classes, you balance it out with your robust combat arsenal. Take this time before you gain your subclass at 3rd level to feel out what your role in the party is. That way, when you do gain your subclass, you’ll know what spells your party needs you to have access to on a regular basis.
When you reach 2nd level, you learn two 1st-level spells from the ranger spell list. Unlike some other spellcasting classes, once a ranger learns a spell, they know that spell forever. You can "trade out" one known spell for another spell on your spell list when you gain a level, but that's it. From here on out, you learn one new ranger spell at 3rd level, and at every odd-numbered level thereafter. You also gain access to a new spell level at 5th level, and every four levels thereafter. This is where retraining spells becomes important; if you know low-level spells that just aren’t useful to you anymore, you can swap them out for higher-level spells one-by-one to adapt to rising challenges.
As an offense-focused subclass, you’ll want to start by picking two spells labeled OFFENSE at 1st level. From there, you can be the judge of what spells you need to best support yourself and your party. Picking up a few spells labeled DEFENSE or SUPPORT over time couldn’t hurt, but you’ll want to make sure that your offense is always top-notch. As mentioned above, a large number of ranger spells require concentration, and you can’t have more than one concentration spell active at a time, so be careful.
Note that this list only includes some spells from the Player's Handbook, so if you want to choose more unusual spells, or have other sources like Xanathar's Guide to Everything, you'll have to do a little self-directed research. This list is just here to get you started if this is your first time playing a Beast Master ranger.
- Beast bond (OFFENSE/SOCIAL)
- Cure wounds (SUPPORT)
- Ensnaring strike (OFFENSE/DEFENSE)
- Hail of thorns (OFFENSE)
- Hunter’s mark (OFFENSE/EXPLORATION)
- Speak with animals (SOCIAL)
This list of spells is geared towards helping you select spells, while giving you freedom to pick your own spells and stand out from the pack. Nevertheless, there’s one spell that no Beast Master should be without: beast bond. Though this spell takes an action to cast, it’s such a serious buff to you and your beast companion that you should learn it the instant you rise to 3rd level. As long as you maintain your concentration, you can communicate telepathically with your animal companion while within line of sight, and the beast has advantage on attack rolls against any creature within 5 feet of you.
Of course, this spell is much less powerful if your animal companion has Pack Tactics, such as a wolf.
Animal Companion
Once you reach 3rd level and choose this subclass, you gain the Ranger’s Companion feature, allowing you to choose your animal companion. If you want your animal companion to aid you in combat, you should choose a beast with a challenge rating of 1/4 (the highest you’re allowed to choose). Here is a list of all Small or Medium CR 1/4 beasts in the Monster Manual. Of these beasts, you’ll want to pick ones with powerful attacks, or with other powerful offensive benefits. Some include:
- Giant frog. The frog’s Swallow attack lets it eat Small enemies, temporarily taking them out of the fight! This is great against packs of enemies like goblins or kobolds, but it loses steam as enemies become larger.
- Giant wolf spider. For a stealthier ranger, this creepy companion has a quick climbing speed, and a powerful poisonous bite. Gnomes and halflings can ride this guy up walls!
- Panther. This jungle cat’s Pounce trait can turn it into a damage machine, as long as it has room to move.
- Pteranodon. This prehistoric beast is notable for its Flyby trait, which allows it to avoid opportunity attacks, and its size—making it flying mount for Small rangers like halflings and gnomes!
- Wolf. A classic ranger companion, the wolf is one of the most powerful “iconic” beast to have by your side. Its Pack Tactics and Keen Senses make it useful in both combat and exploration.
Feats
At 4th level, you get to gain either an Ability Score Increase or a feat. Choosing an Ability Score Increase lets you increase one ability score by +2 (such as increasing your Wisdom score from 14 to 16) or increase two ability scores by +1 (like increasing your Dexterity from 15 to 16 and your Wisdom score from 13 to 14). Increasing your ability scores makes you better at a wide variety of things; for instance, increasing your Wisdom score makes it harder for enemies to resist your spells, and also makes you better at making Wisdom checks and saving throws.
Feats, on the other hand, give you a special ability that could be more helpful in a specific circumstance, as opposed to the broad improvement that an Ability Score Increase could give you. Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom are likely your most important ability scores, since they govern your offensive, defensive, and spellcasting abilities. Since you have several ability scores to pour Ability Score Increases into, you may only want to only choose a feat if it seriously speaks to you. You can choose any feat you want to support your character concept, but there are some feats that may be more useful to your character than others. These feats include:
Crossbow Expert. Forget longbows, what you want is a crossbow—if you’re using this feat, at least. Ignoring loading restrictions and ignoring disadvantage on ranged attacks while in melee is incredibly powerful. Once you reach 5th level, have your beast attack, make one attack with a shortsword, and use your bonus action to shoot your hand crossbow. Pretty sweet.
Dual Wielder. This feat ups both your offense and your defense while wielding a weapon in both hands. A fine feat to take, especially if your Dexterity score is already maxed out at 20.
Mounted Combatant. If you’re a Small-size character riding a Medium-size beast, this feat has interesting potential, as it lets you protect your companion from harm while you’re riding it. You probably won’t gain advantage on attacks since your mount is only Medium-size, but it could still happen every now and then.
Sharpshooter. If you’re a ranger with a longbow and the Archery Fighting Style, this feat can turn you into a mobile laser cannon, tearing enemies to shreds with arrows that regularly deal 20 damage in a single hit. Ignoring cover is a potent benefit, in addition to the damage. If you command your animal companion to Help you from range as a bonus action, this feat can just become unfair.
If you want more advice for building a ranger, check out Ranger 101. Have you ever played a Beast Master? What advice would you give to players that want to play this subclass?
James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, a member of the Guild Adepts, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and other RPG companies. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his fiancée Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
One thing worth pointing out is that the animal companion doesn't have any magic item support in the books, unless you can convince your GM to allow them to use rings, amulets, or other related pieces. You may want to talk to your GM about having custom items available for the companion: Collars, barding, things of that nature.
The question all of this has to ask is: what is the ranger best at? Then what does each subclass thrive at?
The ranger has tons of exploration ability. But that exploration ability is handcuffed right out of the gate by locking to certain terrains. They have plenty of scouting ability through things like vanish and pass without a trace, but it happens late, and early scouting is beat by rogues or warlocks with invisible companions, or wizards with stamdard familiars.
The outright negatives are a lack of damage potential, outclassed by every other class. The ranger has too many ribbons. The subclasses provide value, but not enough to strictly say "no, if youre into this, try this".
Then we get to the subclasses, beastmaster is the one that leaves the PC itself weak, but that makes sense, youre getting a second body to control. But that second body has to be protected. Even if just for story reasons you /want/ to keep the same pet if at all possible. The pet isnt an insane amount of damage and it requires personal damage reduction output to be more than utility. You mention in this post that with a rogue it can be helpful, true! But why not have the pet be you support rather than very limited party support?
The ranger is handcuffed, and for good reason, it has the barebones potential to be the strongest. But everything about it is handcuffed, which is why the revised version is a big improvement. Exploration and scouting unchained, damage moderately fixed. Before that my table gave the beastmaster a smite mechanic like the warlock or paladin, but im not sure how viable that truly is.
The ranger has the weakest builds across most all of its subclasses. So bad nearly every table fixes it. Just make a rework official. Lord knows that the game has evolved from its conception, and no other class is remotely in the same position
I don't know why everyone's complaining. This is D&D not a computer game, just level up the companion, if everyone agrees it's unenjoyable than there shouldn't be any protest.
Play a Ghostwise Halfling with a Giant Eagle.
Disappointed in this article - Beastmaster can be good, but the tools to make it good weren't mentioned in the article.
Two Feats can really make your animal companion shine -
1. Sentinel
2. Mobile
This really comes down the revised ruling that your companion dodges if you don't command it to do anything. They also get a reaction. Most good animal companions will have an AC of 15-16 through tier 1-2. Disadvantage to hit on 15-16 AC is surprisingly resilient - your DM will start looking for other options to attack after disadvantage spoils a crit or tanks 3-5 hits in an encounter.
So now our strategy comes down to which of the above feats you want to take -
1. Sentinel - Get ready, you are going to bring those extra 4 hp per level and extra reaction to maximum effect. Take defense or dueling fighting style, strap a shield on and buy the best medium armor you can afford (bonus points for races like Goliath and Half-orc who get abilities that let them take more hits). Flank the baddest melee creature that really wants to attack something else with your companion. The Creature (DM) has to choose - attack the ranger with high AC, attack the dodging companion and take the Sentinel reaction attack from the ranger, or try to move out of your reach and take two attacks of opportunity and possibly get stuck with options 1. and 2. anyways. Wolf, Giant Frog, and Giant Crab are particularly good for this strategy.
2. Mobile - Epitomize the Hit and Run style of the ranger. Mobile lets you run in, hit, run out. With Zephyr Strike from Xanathar Guide to Everything you can make this work without the feat even! Use your animal companion in one of two ways -
a. Your animal companion acts as an anchor-
Sit the companion down within 5 ft. of the enemy you are attacking, and when you back out that creature(DM) will have to choose whether they take the attack of opportunity from the companion, or attack your dodging companion. Wolf, Panther, and Giant Crab are the best options here (Giant Frog, and giant poisonous snake aren't bad either).
This strategy can also work with the archery fighting style and without the mobile feat if you want, helping to guarantee that non of those pesky melee creatures get within 5 ft of you without regretting it, and other archers have to deal with your companion before earnestly targeting you
b. Your animal companion hits and runs with (or without) you-
Both you and your companion run in hit, and run out. This works best if someone else in the party can try to hold the enemy in place (looking at you fighters, barbarians, and paladins). Duelist fighting style is best for this, you can also stand at a distance and use archery fighting style and let the animal companion do the running in and out (mobile is not necessary in that case) Best animal companions here are wolf, panther, Pteranodon(check with your DM first here) work best here as their speed and effects allow them to most effectively move out of reach without taking an attack or making that attack occur at disadvantage.
For those of you who read this far - Thank you! Give the beast master a shot, not as bad as you think.
The ammunition trait is still on the weapon and requires a free hand for reloading.
I run two parties of about 10 players in the given age range each and don’t have a single Beast Master? Very strange that you have about 60%, maybe it’s just a quirk of your party.
But giant eagle is CR 1, and a large creature, so your DM let you!!!????!!??
Does it sound ok for my dm to let me have a black bear? And do you think it's ok for me to take boar (as a dwarf) and be allowed to ride it?
https://youtu.be/GcqyGITBTv8
An hour Long video, but worth the watch. He does a build for BM to Level 20, making a case that it isn't as bad as people make it out to be, and does the math to back it up. It boils down to planning, and not having the DM out to get you for choosing BM. The video description lays it out for those without the time to watch the video for the whole explanation, so I will do a direct copy/paste for the same reasons, and for those that don't trust clicking links. (Or if the website doesn't let you do so; I've never tried it before.)
Also, I think his calculations are off, but I'm not sure, and haven't taken the time to do it myself yet, as I do not have a BM planned for my future.
Edit: I tried to clean up the presentation below, and it doesn't seem to want to work. I, myself, work nights and haven't slept yet, and have no further patience to fix it until I get sleep. The description on the above video has the clean version.
Edit 2: Sometimes it seems to fix itself, and other times it shows all clumped together. The video is a good watch, regardless.
The Baseline damages and calculations can be found here: https://youtu.be/zg0bAl1WPGQ
Ranger Build: Poisonous Snake + Melee Ranger
Variant Human 16 Strength. Magic Initiate Feat (find familiar/booming blade)
Level 4: GWM, Level 8:+1 str Level 12:+1 str
Weapon: Maul
Summary:
Level 1: (.84x10)+(0.0975x7)=9.0825 (+55%)
Level 2: Add in a Hunter’s Mark (.84x13.5)+(0.0975x10.5)=12.36375 (+62%)
Level 3: Giant Poisonous Snake
Ranger Attack: (.84x13.5)+(0.0975x10.5)=12.36375 (+62%)
Snake Attack: +8 to hit (+3 to baseline) 1d4+4+prof (1d4+6 or 8.5)
(.9375x8.5)+(0.0975x2.5)+(.9375x8.0)=15.7125 (+105%)
Level 4: Greater Weapon Mastery. Baseline attack drops by -1 for both Ranger(-6gwm)and snake
(.91x8.5)+(0.0975x2.5)+(.91x8.0)=15.25875 (+85%)
Level 5: Snake bite damage +1, Ranger can make single attack, Familiar helps Ranger
Snake bite: (.7x9.5)+(0.05x2.5)+(.7x8.0)=12.375
Ranger+HM (.51x23.5)+(0.0975x10.5)=13.00875
9.75% chance of crit
No advantage, on extra attack 0.095x((0.30x23.5)+(0.05x10.5))=0.7871906
Total Damage: 26.17 (59%)
Level 8: Snake base to hit -1, Ranger Str +1, base damage +1
Level 9: Snake damage +1
Level 11: Snake can attack twice. Familiar helps Ranger.
Snake Bite (0.65x10.5)+(0.05x2.5)+(.65x8)=12.15x2 attacks = 24.30
Ranger+HM (.51x24.5)+(0.0975x10.5)=13.51875
Crit 0.0975x(.3x24.5)+(0.0975x10.5)=0.8164406
Total Damage: 38.86 (+42%)
(Flying snake)
Snake Bite (0.65x5)+(.65x11)=10.4x2 attacks = 20.8
Total Damage: 35.64 (+31%)
Level 12: Ranger +1 str, +1 to hit to baseline and +1 damage.
Level 13: Snake base damage +1
Level 17: Snake +1 base damage
Snake Bite (0.65x11.5)+(0.05x2.5)+(.65x8)=12.8x2 attacks =25.6
Ranger+HM (.5775x25.5)+(0.0975x10.5)+(crit extra attack))x1.0975=17.29
Total Damage: 42.89 (21%)
Ranger+GN (.5775x25.5)+(0.0975x10.5)+(crit extra attack))x1.0975=17.29
Snake Bite (.8775x15)+(0.0975x6)+(.8775x8)=20.7675
Second bite (.65x15)+(0.05x6)+(.65x8)=15.25
Total Damage: 53.31(+51%)
this is epic
PH Ranger is bad ... Beastmaster even worse.
I DM some and play one... just aweful.
the first article I do not concure with
First, ditch the idea of a griffon as a ranger's beast companion, doesn't work under 5e rules, not even close.
Instead, use the UA Sidekick rules (I'd require at least a mini-adventure to est. the character and the griffon as friends, but YMMV.) Now you can use any creature CR1 or below. Next, apply the Reduced-Threat Monster template from Tale From the Yawning Portal (pg 113.) Then, using the DMG rules on creating a new monster, recalculate the griffon's CR.
Eg:
AC: (still) 12
hp 29
AT: +4
Defensive CR: 1/8, Offensive CR: 2, Final CR: 1 1/16 --> 1
And you're good to go. Your reduced-threat griffon is very old or very young, or just the runt of the litter, or what have you.
I've wondered that myself. You can chose a mule (which is a medium animal with the carrying capacity of a large one) but it lacks a certain coolness factor, to be sure. You could always take a few levels in fighter and snag Cavalier, which is a pretty good mounted subclass, then continue a career as a ranger. Another option would be to go barbarian, and use the new UA Class Features option to get expertise in Animal Handling (for the riding) and Survival (for the tracking.) That'd give you a very ranger-ish mounted barbarian. I'm picturing a (*fictional) Mongol type.
* Fictional because the real Mongols were more Panzer division than Dothraki horde; they used highly sophisticated intelligence gathering, communications, and logistics to conquer most of the known world.
“A Beast Master is a ranger who is bonded to a beast from the lands they wander. Some fight alongside a loyal wolf, others with a flying snake, a giant poisonous snake, or even a pteranodon”...
I know it’s a typo...but I want me a Flying Snake. 😏
Death from above!
The flying snake isn’t a typo. That is an actual creature often used by Zhent agents to relay messages.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/flying-snake
Not a typo
Weird quirk about the new UA companion options is that the stat blocks have an intelligence of 8, so they are a non-bo with Beast Bond.
I would probably say that starting out the griffon is a baby.
Then use the new UA companion options and pick Beast of the Air as the template for the creature. This will start it out as size small and from there you can use your DM discretion to determine if it gets bigger as time goes on.
Yeah, I think the sidekick would be a better fit here and then can mean she can be a different archetype if she still wants to be a ranger. I forgot there was a way to change the CR like you mentioned.
I believe crossbow expert allows you to ignore the reloading property.