Packmaster

The Packmaster is able to develop a close bond with a group of beasts, and train them together as a strategic fighting unit.

Bonus Proficiency

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Stealth, or Survival.

Pack Companions

At 3rd level, you learn to use your martial training to create a powerful bond with a domesticated beast. Choose a beast that is no larger than Medium, that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower. The beast can be one you have purchased from a market or convinced to be your companion with a successful Animal Handling check.

With 8 hours of work and the expenditure of 50 gp worth of fine food, you train the beast to serve as your faithful companion. You normally select your companion from among the following animals: a blood hawk, a giant rat, a mastiff, or a wolf. However, your DM might pick one of these animals for you, based on the surrounding terrain and on what types of creatures would logically be present in the area, or by what is available in the local markets.

At the end of the 8 hours, your pack companion gains all the benefits of your Pack Bond ability. You gain the ability to train one additional pack companion at 7th and 13th levels.

Pack Bond

Your pack companion gains a variety of benefits while it is linked to you.

The pack companion loses its Multiattack action if it has one.

The companion obeys your commands as best it can. It rolls for initiative like any other creature, but you determine its actions, decisions, attitudes, and so on. If you are incapacitated or absent, your companion acts on its own.

Your pack companions have abilities and game statistics determined in part by your level. Your companion uses your proficiency bonus rather than its own. In addition to the areas where it normally uses its proficiency bonus, a pack companion also adds its proficiency bonus to its AC and to its damage rolls.

Your pack companion gains proficiency in one skill of your choice. It also becomes proficient with all saving throws.

For every two levels you gain after 3rd, your pack companion gains an additional hit die and increases its hit points accordingly.

Whenever you gain the Ability Score Improvement class feature, your companion’s abilities also improve. Your companion can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or it can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, your companion can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature unless its description specifies otherwise.

Your companion shares your alignment and has a personality trait and a flaw that you can roll for or select from the tables below. Your companion shares your ideal, and its bond is always, “The fighter who trained me is a beloved companion for whom I would gladly give my life.”

When you use your Second Wind feature, you can move up to 10 feet to target one of your nearby pack companions that is within range instead.

Companion Flaws

Roll a d6

d6	Flaw
1	If there’s food left unattended, I’ll eat it.
2	I growl at strangers, and all people except my ranger are strangers to me.
3	Any time is a good time for a belly rub.
4	I’m deathly afraid of water.
5	My idea of hello is a flurry of licks to the face.
6	I jump on creatures to tell them how much I love them.

Companion Traits

Roll a d6.

d6	Trait
1	I’m dauntless in the face of adversity.
2	Threaten my friends, threaten me.
3	I stay on alert so others can rest.
4	People see an animal and underestimate me. I use that to my advantage.
5	I have a knack for showing up in the nick of time.
6	I put my friends’ needs before my own in all things.

Pack Superiority

At 7th level, you gain a set of combat abilities, referred to as maneuvers, which are fueled by special dice called superiority dice.

Additionally, you gain advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of your pack companions is within 5 feet of the creature and your pack companion isn't incapacitated.

Maneuvers.

You spend your superiority dice on your maneuvers. You can use more than one maneuver per turn, but no more than one maneuver per attack.

You know the following maneuvers:

Superiority Dice.

You have four superiority dice, which are d6s. A superiority die is expended when you use it. You regain all your expended superiority dice when you finish a short or long rest.

You gain another superiority die at 10th level and one more at 15th level.

Ambush Tactics

Beginning at 10th level, you and your pack companions form a more potent fighting team. When you use the Attack action on your turn, if your companion can see you, it can use its reaction to make a melee attack.

If your pack companion uses its reaction this way and you have no superiority dice remaining, roll a d10. On a roll of 10, you regain one superiority die.

Strength in Numbers

Starting at 15th level, if you start your turn within 15 feet of all three of your pack companions, you gain the benefit of the Disengage action.

Additionally, your superiority dice turn into d8s.

Dominant Stance

Starting at 18th level, as a bonus action on your turn you and your pack can strike fear into your enemies. Each creature of your choice that is within 30 feet of you and can see you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to this feature for the next 24 hours. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows: 8 + your Charisma (Intimidation) modifier + one for each pack companion within 10 feet of you.

Once you've used this feature you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.