Whether using the rangers companion in the PHB or the primal companion in TCOE you can only have one, you can only bond with a new rangers companion if the old one dies and with the primal companion you also have the option of summoning a different beast aftera long rest but if you do the old one vanishes.
You can however use spells to summon other beasts if you really want a lot (not caring that they are fragile and likely to break the game due to the length of your turn in combat and the bility to swarm enemies without AoE attacks) your best bet is conjure animals at level 9 you can summon 8 animals (as well as your companion) at level 17 you can cast the sepll with a 5th level slot to create 16 animals (as well as your companion). If you really want to go crazy you can multiclass with druid, a beastmaster 3, Druid 16 has access to 9th level spell slots so you can conjure 32 animals (33 with your companion)
Actually, the pet death loophole exists. A phb ranger can get multiple.
They do so by getting a pet and having it die. Then after gaining another and they resurect the old one.(but it must still be willing to be resurrected and the costs and effort involved are quite high).
Finally both pets are still bound by the action economy of the phb ranger basically making it only useful to keep one around at a time.
Since the pet death loophole takes teamwork (rangers don't get Resurrection spells), time, money and character development, I usually think it's fun to play with because it rarely unbalance the game any more than a shop that sells "magic bags" or statues.
I also once played a beastmaster in adventures league that had a silver raven statue magic item, a phb pet companion (flying snake), a story reward miniature bear.
I may not be the expert but I think it's possible to have multiple (2-3) beast companion. However, during combat or important stuff, the ranger can only use one of them or pick one as the primary beasts. The other beasts may just treated as pets for flavor.
The action economy restrictions so many people dislike are exactly what prevented the phb beastmaster from shenanigans like magic jar, clone, or even conjure spell quantity problems. They literally future proofed the design. The problem is dms became uncomfortable with any type of progressions for the beast or open implications of such a design.
Just wondering how many beast companions can a single beast master ranger have at any given time?
If so please post any funny or interesting stories.
Whether using the rangers companion in the PHB or the primal companion in TCOE you can only have one, you can only bond with a new rangers companion if the old one dies and with the primal companion you also have the option of summoning a different beast aftera long rest but if you do the old one vanishes.
You can however use spells to summon other beasts if you really want a lot (not caring that they are fragile and likely to break the game due to the length of your turn in combat and the bility to swarm enemies without AoE attacks) your best bet is conjure animals at level 9 you can summon 8 animals (as well as your companion) at level 17 you can cast the sepll with a 5th level slot to create 16 animals (as well as your companion). If you really want to go crazy you can multiclass with druid, a beastmaster 3, Druid 16 has access to 9th level spell slots so you can conjure 32 animals (33 with your companion)
Actually, the pet death loophole exists. A phb ranger can get multiple.
They do so by getting a pet and having it die. Then after gaining another and they resurect the old one.(but it must still be willing to be resurrected and the costs and effort involved are quite high).
Finally both pets are still bound by the action economy of the phb ranger basically making it only useful to keep one around at a time.
Since the pet death loophole takes teamwork (rangers don't get Resurrection spells), time, money and character development, I usually think it's fun to play with because it rarely unbalance the game any more than a shop that sells "magic bags" or statues.
On a tangential note here's a thread/story around AI and the pet death loophole. https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/class-forums/ranger/165676-i-asked-an-ai-chatbot-about-rangers-and-pet-death
I also once played a beastmaster in adventures league that had a silver raven statue magic item, a phb pet companion (flying snake), a story reward miniature bear.
I may not be the expert but I think it's possible to have multiple (2-3) beast companion. However, during combat or important stuff, the ranger can only use one of them or pick one as the primary beasts. The other beasts may just treated as pets for flavor.
The action economy restrictions so many people dislike are exactly what prevented the phb beastmaster from shenanigans like magic jar, clone, or even conjure spell quantity problems. They literally future proofed the design. The problem is dms became uncomfortable with any type of progressions for the beast or open implications of such a design.