I have just started my first campaign and I'm playing as a ranger. I want this ranger to be a beast master, to have his own wolf by the side, after a few discussions with my DM we decided that we were going to flavour the primal companion to make it a real and not a magical beast (because I really disliked the summoning features of primal companion). Does anyone of you have a suggestions for how it could be flavoured?
Things that I'm thinking about changing
Remove the ability to climb trees Make it so that it only understands common Remove proficiency bonus for arcana, deception, history, medicin, performance, persuasion, religion, sleight of hand, make him unable to use any of these skills (could a normal wolf even use these skills?)
Any suggestions for how I could rewrite charge, primal bond and/or maul to fit a wolf would be welcome. I don't know for example if Wolves charge or pounce at their enemies.
I was thinking about changing it's attack to a bite attack that deals piercing damage, but make it so that if the opponent is resistant or vurnerable to either slash or pierce, he does a claw attack instead, I don't know if this is considered flavour or not.
Changing mechanics is homebrew. Flavor is re-writing narrative explanation.
I say this because when discussing such topics it can cause confusion and you might get advice that causes dissonant results.
For example Flavor is saying spending a spell slot to re-summon the beast is really a beastmaster specific Resurrection spell and normally just carry your wounded beast(for 0 weight) until you do use the spell.
Meanwhile taking away mechanics is an actual "gamplay handicap". How big of one is dependent on your playstyle and table details. Often The little things make the most interesting deciding factorsin combat. (and those that really enjoy details can find the phb version a really powerful option)
So for things like arcana or other skills you want to search for narrative positions that explain how they work. A common magic narrative is animals sense supernatural effects different than humans. Those instincts could help guide the ranger/beast team to the answer.
For climbing it requires "extra movement" so while a human might climb slowly. a wolf might run back and forth then spring twice as high. Both in the end used the same movement/skill cobo to cover the distance. They are just described differently. (As long as you remember the original "tags" for other feature synergies)
Every feature can be explained if you start from the end results and naratively fill in the gaps. This is the meaning of flavor .
Now if you want advice because you prefer the homebrew method I could go down that route but it's not my preference.
My DM has said that we should flavour it (he doesn't want to touch mechanics, but he said that he otherwise was very open to flavouring). My problem was just that I couldn't find a logical solution for how all the effects of beast of the land could be explained for a normal wolf (like having proficiency in sleight of hand), so I just thought that they could be removed.
That being said, if I could find a good flavour that would cerainly be the better option. But then I would need some narriative positions that I just don't succed in finding myself (those that you suggested in the post were very good)
Sleight of hand is making you look the wrong way with one body part while doing something else with another - ever have a dog behind you whopping one side of you with the tail while he snatches your steak off the plate with his mouth. My cat “persuades” me to get up and let him out by crying pitiful until I do - at 5:30 am. Medicine - most anything meals know at least a few plants to chew on when something inside hurts. History - he may not know ancient history but he rembers people and places and who was good, bad, dangerous etc - and can smell thru disguises. Deception, performance, persuasion are all present but not quite in the form humans do - think about dogs and how they do it then more so with the wolf. Dogs nderstand lots of languages - every human language in fact - when raised or trained to it. The companion knows the languages you know - because you trained him to be multilingual. I think you can take it from there.
For history or religion there are lots of stories about animals telling of events as to how they were affected.
Wheel of time has Perin who interacts with a wolf as a form of spirit guide to the dream world. They constantly use Phrases like "wolves have long memories" referring to generational and and reincarnation information.
A different approach could be using animal social structures like the jungle book (not the Disney version but the original)
It could also be the animal was present while doing history classes or homework And they will try to remind the ranger of context where the animal saw a picture of a statue, architecture, painting ect. The animals might bark like the bell for "third period" or dance like they did for the teacher to win them over to be allowed in class. Or just drawing basics in the dirt All to trigger the rangers memories.
Hello everyone
I have just started my first campaign and I'm playing as a ranger. I want this ranger to be a beast master, to have his own wolf by the side, after a few discussions with my DM we decided that we were going to flavour the primal companion to make it a real and not a magical beast (because I really disliked the summoning features of primal companion). Does anyone of you have a suggestions for how it could be flavoured?
Things that I'm thinking about changing
Remove the ability to climb trees
Make it so that it only understands common
Remove proficiency bonus for arcana, deception, history, medicin, performance, persuasion, religion, sleight of hand, make him unable to use any of these skills (could a normal wolf even use these skills?)
Any suggestions for how I could rewrite charge, primal bond and/or maul to fit a wolf would be welcome. I don't know for example if Wolves charge or pounce at their enemies.
I was thinking about changing it's attack to a bite attack that deals piercing damage, but make it so that if the opponent is resistant or vurnerable to either slash or pierce, he does a claw attack instead, I don't know if this is considered flavour or not.
Changing mechanics is homebrew. Flavor is re-writing narrative explanation.
I say this because when discussing such topics it can cause confusion and you might get advice that causes dissonant results.
For example Flavor is saying spending a spell slot to re-summon the beast is really a beastmaster specific Resurrection spell and normally just carry your wounded beast(for 0 weight) until you do use the spell.
Meanwhile taking away mechanics is an actual "gamplay handicap". How big of one is dependent on your playstyle and table details. Often The little things make the most interesting deciding factorsin combat. (and those that really enjoy details can find the phb version a really powerful option)
So for things like arcana or other skills you want to search for narrative positions that explain how they work. A common magic narrative is animals sense supernatural effects different than humans. Those instincts could help guide the ranger/beast team to the answer.
For climbing it requires "extra movement" so while a human might climb slowly. a wolf might run back and forth then spring twice as high. Both in the end used the same movement/skill cobo to cover the distance. They are just described differently. (As long as you remember the original "tags" for other feature synergies)
Every feature can be explained if you start from the end results and naratively fill in the gaps. This is the meaning of flavor .
Now if you want advice because you prefer the homebrew method I could go down that route but it's not my preference.
My DM has said that we should flavour it (he doesn't want to touch mechanics, but he said that he otherwise was very open to flavouring). My problem was just that I couldn't find a logical solution for how all the effects of beast of the land could be explained for a normal wolf (like having proficiency in sleight of hand), so I just thought that they could be removed.
That being said, if I could find a good flavour that would cerainly be the better option. But then I would need some narriative positions that I just don't succed in finding myself (those that you suggested in the post were very good)
Sleight of hand is making you look the wrong way with one body part while doing something else with another - ever have a dog behind you whopping one side of you with the tail while he snatches your steak off the plate with his mouth. My cat “persuades” me to get up and let him out by crying pitiful until I do - at 5:30 am. Medicine - most anything meals know at least a few plants to chew on when something inside hurts. History - he may not know ancient history but he rembers people and places and who was good, bad, dangerous etc - and can smell thru disguises. Deception, performance, persuasion are all present but not quite in the form humans do - think about dogs and how they do it then more so with the wolf. Dogs nderstand lots of languages - every human language in fact - when raised or trained to it. The companion knows the languages you know - because you trained him to be multilingual. I think you can take it from there.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Thank you :)
For history or religion there are lots of stories about animals telling of events as to how they were affected.
Wheel of time has Perin who interacts with a wolf as a form of spirit guide to the dream world. They constantly use Phrases like "wolves have long memories" referring to generational and and reincarnation information.
A different approach could be using animal social structures like the jungle book (not the Disney version but the original)
It could also be the animal was present while doing history classes or homework And they will try to remind the ranger of context where the animal saw a picture of a statue, architecture, painting ect. The animals might bark like the bell for "third period" or dance like they did for the teacher to win them over to be allowed in class. Or just drawing basics in the dirt All to trigger the rangers memories.