It isn’t underpowered, even if you play PHB version you will be dealing high damage. I honestly think anyone who thinks the Ranger is underpowered is doing it wrong.
I wouldn’t say it’s underpowered in combat (except beast), because the subclasses are designed to boost it up. If you ignore XGtE, since it wasn’t out during the last survey, the Hunter traits are what helps the class out. Spellcasting is also the only important trait in the first 4 levels... and people keep arguing this is a valid balancing tool for combat effectiveness. The problem is you have two half spellcasters, so hypothetically you should be able to compare them....
But look at Paladin (Divine Health, Divine Smite, Divine Sense, Lay on Hands) vs Ranger (Favored Enemy, Natural Explorer, Primeval Awareness) and you will see a clear imbalance in not “power” but plain usefulness. If Ranger got something they could use as utility (Expertise in Relevant Skills, Constant boosts to tracking, heals etc) that should be fine! The problem is I would give up all 3 of the skills listed and it wouldn’t change how I play my Ranger in most sessions. They mechanically fail to add appropriate narrative flair to the class.
Divine Health is a lvl 3, so you really can’t count that without giving the Ranger a lvl 3 skill, but yes Paladins are great, but Rangers are too, and I personally always use revised Ranger which make favored enemy and natural explorer, favored enemy is still situational but natural explorer is applicable in 100% of situations.
I just want to be clear, all the classes are great, and I just want to weigh in so that if someone is thinking about playing a Ranger they don’t decide not to because of the belief they are underpowered. 5th edition is wonderfully balanced.
I am also addicted to multi classing, so my rangers always start as rogues anyway, lol
I disagree about the UA content being OP. Compared to the OG Ranger, it of course might look OP, because it's just soooo bad.
Also talk about Natural Explorer and Favored Enemy separately.
The OG Ranger's Natural Explorer was a joke of an ability. You have to pick a favored terrain at 1st, 6th, and 10th. IF you're in a Favored Terrain and traveling with a group means difficult terrain doesn't slow group travel, can't be lost except by magic, the Ranger gets a bonus "while traveling" action in addition to Perception, forage twice as much food, better tracking, and double proficiency bonus for Wis/Int checks. So now the ranger is either really good at finding food or navigating, but s/he can't do both at the same time.
An action is ~6 seconds in game time. Also, if you're foraging, you probably aren't travelling. More likely, you're setting up camp or taking a rest.
S/he can also move stealthily at normal pace if alone, but when is THIS going to be useful?
The Ranger works as a good scout. Yes, there are spell casters that are for that. Not every party is going to have people that invest in those spells. Not to mention, there are parties where the players aren't choosing magic slingers for one reason or another. Also, it works well for a situation where the party is ambushing an enemy and the Ranger wants to get to a superior vantage point to fire arrows.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM: Are you sure?
Wizard: Yes. I cast the Wish spell and I wish that everybody loves me!
DM: You transform into an irresistible, magnificent feast. It was so great, all who participated in devouring you tell of the joy they felt with tears in their eyes and all who hear the tale only feel sorrow that they weren't there to eat.
The PHB Ranger's Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer are both just trashy, unhelpful abilities that make the class super boring at it's basic level. Both features require you to metagame in order to see any significant use of them. The language(s) you get from Favored Enemy are the most useful part. Not being able to get lost is useful, but it's locked away behind terrain type, which inevitably becomes niche unless you have foreknowledge of where you are going to be campaigning.
Rework those abilities, and remove the spell slot requirement for Primeval Awareness, and the PHB Ranger would be dramatically more consistent in it's ability to contribute to a party.
I haven’t really worked it, but I would create terrain groups, have 4 separate groups of terrain for Favored Terrain and you pick a group at certain levels, by level 17 you are proficient in all environments, and mix in some of the features from the Revised, maybe this weekend I will write it up.
Beginning at 1st level, you have significant experience studying, tracking, hunting, and even talking to a certain type of creature commonly encountered. Choose a type of favored creature: beasts, fey, humanoids;monster [ex: Goblins, Kobolds, etc], humanoids;men [ex: Human, Elf, etc], monstrosities, or undead.
This choice grants the following benefits:
• You gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with weapon attacks against favored creatures.
• You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favored enemies, Intelligence checks to recall information about them, and Charisma checks to interact with them.
• You also learn one language of your choice, typically one spoken by your favored enemy or creatures associated with it. However, you are free to pick any language you wish to learn.
Greater Favored Enemy
At 6th level, you are ready to hunt even deadlier game. Choose a type of greater favored enemy: aberrations, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fiends, or giants. You may alternatively select a group from the favored creature list. You gain all the benefits against this chosen enemy that you normally gain against your favored enemy, including an additional language.
Additionally, you have advantage on saving throws against the spells and abilities used by any favored creature.
Natural Explorer
You are particularly familiar with environments in which you have honed your craft and are adept at traveling and surviving in such regions. Choose one environmental group as favored terrain:
Inhospitable: Arctic/Desert/Mountain
Natural: Forest/Grassland/Swamp
Urban: Coast/Cities/Towns
Desolate: Dungeon/Ruins/Underdark
While in any favored terrain you gain the following benefits:
• You ignore difficult terrain.
• You have advantage on initiative rolls.
• On your first turn during combat, you have advantage on attack rolls against creatures that have not yet acted.
While traveling for an hour or more in your favored terrain, you gain the following benefits:
Difficult terrain doesn’t slow your group’s travel.
Your group can’t become lost except by magical means.
Even when you are engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.
If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.
When you forage, you find twice as much food as you normally would.
While tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.
You choose additional favored terrain types at 6th, 11th, and 17th level.
Primeval Awareness
Beginning at 3rd level, your mastery of ranger lore allows you to establish a powerful link to beasts and to the land around you. You have an innate ability to communicate with beasts, and they recognize you as a kindred spirit. Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas to a beast as an action, and can read its basic mood and intent. You learn its emotional state, whether it is affected by magic of any sort, its short-term needs (such as food or safety), and actions you can take (if any) to persuade it to not attack. You cannot use this ability against a creature that you have attacked within the past 10 minutes.
Additionally, you can attune your senses to determine if any of your favored enemies lurk nearby. By spending 1 uninterrupted minute in concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), you can sense whether any of your favored enemies are present within 5 miles of you. This feature reveals which of your favored enemies are present, their approximate numbers, and the creatures’ general direction and distance (in miles) from you. If there are multiple groups of your favored enemies within range, you learn this information for each group. You can attune your senses in this way a number of times up to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) and regain all expended uses on a long rest.
I play a PHB beastmaster (giant frog companion) in AL games, and at no point have I ever felt underpowered in comparison to the rest of the party. Honestly, in most sessions, my big frog is basically the MVP of the night thanks to its auto-restrain on hits. My ranger and buddy are battlefield control machines and both do pretty significant damage. Plus, it's super fun to play. I get that the beastmaster has some odd mechanics that you have to work to flavor, but if anything, I feel like I go into games maybe a bit too dominant, with DMs often expressing surprise at how devastating the frog is in combat. And since other beasts are similarly wonderful, I just don't see any real mechanical worries about the PHB beastmaster.
I play a PHB beastmaster (giant frog companion) in AL games, and at no point have I ever felt underpowered in comparison to the rest of the party. Honestly, in most sessions, my big frog is basically the MVP of the night thanks to its auto-restrain on hits. My ranger and buddy are battlefield control machines and both do pretty significant damage. Plus, it's super fun to play. I get that the beastmaster has some odd mechanics that you have to work to flavor, but if anything, I feel like I go into games maybe a bit too dominant, with DMs often expressing surprise at how devastating the frog is in combat. And since other beasts are similarly wonderful, I just don't see any real mechanical worries about the PHB beastmaster.
What level are you? I am guessing pretty low, and sure, it may be great at lower levels, but at higher levels your frog is gonna die quick and often, and you will be left with a Ranger for the rest of the fight that is waaaay weaker then any other Ranger build.
That is not my experience with the Beast Master at higher levels. With the right coordination of actions, beast traits and Dodge, the companion can survive most of the challenges.
My duo is level 7. There's vulnerability to AOEs to worry about, but generally, the companion is targeted pretty infrequently and has only ever come close to being knocked out once. I guess it's conceivable that a DM could really try to eliminate the frog right from the jump, but that feels like a metagame-y move, since most enemies would be looking to deal with what they perceive as the greatest threats right away. In any case, it's never occurred. That gives the beast a couple of rounds to change the game before the realization that it's a huge problem for our enemies really sets in. By that time, most combats are all but over. And that's especially true of combats where a giant frog has restrained the main enemy, either granting advantage to anyone who wants it or forcing that enemy to burn an action to try to escape the bite (DC 11, so that typically works, but wasting an action on it is pretty rough for most enemies).
Yeah, because most DMs aren't going to wreck your fun, but if you are a group of enemies, and the frog keeps weakening your big hitter, they SHOULD attack the frog, but the DM probably isn't. I am not saying a BM isn't fun, just that it is much weaker than any other Ranger and should be updated.
Yeah, I just disagree with that being the rationale. Tactically without getting into metagame stuff, it makes way less sense for enemies to see your beast as a greater threat than the party barbarian or wizard or paladin. In the first round or so of combat, your enemies are going to go after the obvious heavy hitters. By the time it's obvious that your beast is among that group, they have already done a ton of important work toward ending that combat.
I've lost count of the amount of times that a DM has said, mid-game, something along the lines of "Crap, I did not expect the frog to be such a pain." The beastmaster's rep for being underpowered is a huge blessing to me as a player and has the added bonus that it makes in-character sense for most encounters that you're going to come across. You just don't have to deal with too many nature-focused enemies that are going to see your beast and immediately think "Ah! Scaled up to the level of this party, that snake/wolf/boar/spider/frog/whatever is going to be a huge problem--I better take care of it first!" Aside from that possibility, a campaign that features a consistent enemy that knows about your party might also learn its lesson, which presents a cool storytelling opportunity anyway. Other than those situations, though, you'd be working with a DM that is going outside of in-character monster tactics to specifically target your group's weaknesses, which is a problem that every class could conceivably have and would be obnoxious for all of them.
Thinking about it further, I actually think that the beastmaster holds up pretty well against a hyper-tactical to the point of metagaming DM, too. Basically, initially targeting the beast instead of, say, a spellcaster has the benefit of going after a lower HP body with likely worse saving throws depending on the beast and the spell, but the drawbacks of attacking a higher AC (significantly so if you use any sort of barding, which you definitely should), and in the event of a success, not impacting the players' action economy at all. If you take out the Sorcerer, you reduce the party by not only one body, but one action, bonus action, reaction, etc. The beast might be easier to kill, but none of those benefits are there. And if you are choosing to take out the beast rather than a PC, that's basically an acknowledgment that the beast is such a significant threat, that eliminating the subclass features of the beastmaster is worth ignoring other PCs. Obviously, AOEs give you a "Why not both?" option, but any game that's set up to be tactics-first should have PCs who actually think about their positioning and seek to avoid problems like that.
All in all, having a PC that is essentially two-bodied has a ton of benefits, including the fact that eliminating either gives your enemies less of a benefit than targeting most single-bodied players.
I didn't build my ranger to do maximum damage and wouldn't recommend anyone rolling up a beastmaster to play one for that reason. Some companions are obviously better than others in that regard (giant poisonous snakes are winners there, I think), but battlefield control is probably the biggest advantage a beastmaster has. Being a two-bodied PC is super useful for getting your party into the most useful positions and if your beast has a secondary control effect (like the big frog or a giant crab), even better. I guess if you are deciding whether or not the beastmaster is underpowered based exclusively on damage output, then we've been talking past each other entirely. That's just not what I'm thinking of when deciding about how useful a beastmaster is.
Rangers have hunters mark, Rangers should cast hunters mark. Up until 11th level they will then have the same attack routine as a fighter and deal more damage... with just hunters mark. Yes, when targets have the temerity to expire and you cant move the mark to the next target you are reduced to 'just as much potential as the fighters damage.'
Everything else is a bonus.
Beastmaster is odd, Im not even talking about revised versions. Its odd because powergamers dont like it, people who love animals dont like it because their friend will die too easily and does it mention they have deathsaves instead of auto expire on 0! like non players?? And people who played it because they thought they would fight with their animal as a team are disappointed cruelly that the animal wont attack unless you give up one of your own. So it wont appeal to anyone except those who love the flavour, (gods of their choosing bless them, they are the best of us. )
Beast master is for adventurers league for halflings and gnomes. A pteradon is inside the criteria for companions and allows you to fly if your a short folk and scout from the air at third level. Hmm that means any open area encounters that dont have a ranged attacks of 80' can now be solo'ed providing arrows for your shortbow dont run out. Thats the golden auto win unlocked at third level precisely what the restriction on flight races in adventurers league was to prevent (aside from aerial recon). This is an example of how potentially overpowered a reviled subclass can be. Its very specific and narrow in how you achieve it but thats the same with many other spells and abilities out there. They may seem to have no point, but find that angle and....
Have fun designing your shortfolk fighter squadron, at 4th sharpshooter is an obvious choice, your combat ceiling pushes up out of the range of Mage flak guns and you may start investing in alchemist fire for those pesky villages (you wont hit a house from 300 foot but it has to land somewhere right?) If you reach the heights rangers need to conjure volley, use the alchemist fire, thats a rather large napalm strike that will amusingly apply the rider of alchemists fire to the area. Did you ever dream of becoming a a 3' tall fighter bomber in a fantasy world? Welcome to 5th.
Beastmaster is odd, Im not even talking about revised versions. Its odd because powergamers dont like it, people who love animals dont like it because their friend will die too easily and does it mention they have deathsaves instead of auto expire on 0! like non players?? And people who played it because they thought they would fight with their animal as a team are disappointed cruelly that the animal wont attack unless you give up one of your own. So it wont appeal to anyone except those who love the flavour, (gods of their choosing bless them, they are the best of us. )
This is kinda where I am coming from, you take it because you like the flavor and are ok being less optimal in combat. Sure, having 2 different characters offers you some unique abilities, and some pets have secondary effects, but being a BM means two things.
One, you aren't multiclassing because you NEED every level to ensure the pet isn't completely useless and two, you aren't as good at combat as any of the fighters, paladins, barbarians (unlike other Rangers who can out pace them) and the level of control you can offer pales significantly to ANY caster, so at the end of the day you are playing a character just for flavor and are ok being the weak link in combat. Personally, I want to see a rework of the Ranger core, add spells to Hunter and BM and re-do BM from the ground up so that you don't have to sacrifice combat potential just to add flavor.
Divine Health is a lvl 3, so you really can’t count that without giving the Ranger a lvl 3 skill, but yes Paladins are great, but Rangers are too, and I personally always use revised Ranger which make favored enemy and natural explorer, favored enemy is still situational but natural explorer is applicable in 100% of situations.
I just want to be clear, all the classes are great, and I just want to weigh in so that if someone is thinking about playing a Ranger they don’t decide not to because of the belief they are underpowered. 5th edition is wonderfully balanced.
I am also addicted to multi classing, so my rangers always start as rogues anyway, lol
An action is ~6 seconds in game time. Also, if you're foraging, you probably aren't travelling. More likely, you're setting up camp or taking a rest.
The Ranger works as a good scout. Yes, there are spell casters that are for that. Not every party is going to have people that invest in those spells. Not to mention, there are parties where the players aren't choosing magic slingers for one reason or another. Also, it works well for a situation where the party is ambushing an enemy and the Ranger wants to get to a superior vantage point to fire arrows.
DM: Are you sure?
Wizard: Yes. I cast the Wish spell and I wish that everybody loves me!
DM: You transform into an irresistible, magnificent feast. It was so great, all who participated in devouring you tell of the joy they felt with tears in their eyes and all who hear the tale only feel sorrow that they weren't there to eat.
I suggested that WoTC create a new version combining aspects but don't think it is going to happen until wither 5.5 or even 6
The PHB Ranger's Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer are both just trashy, unhelpful abilities that make the class super boring at it's basic level. Both features require you to metagame in order to see any significant use of them. The language(s) you get from Favored Enemy are the most useful part. Not being able to get lost is useful, but it's locked away behind terrain type, which inevitably becomes niche unless you have foreknowledge of where you are going to be campaigning.
Rework those abilities, and remove the spell slot requirement for Primeval Awareness, and the PHB Ranger would be dramatically more consistent in it's ability to contribute to a party.
I haven’t really worked it, but I would create terrain groups, have 4 separate groups of terrain for Favored Terrain and you pick a group at certain levels, by level 17 you are proficient in all environments, and mix in some of the features from the Revised, maybe this weekend I will write it up.
Ranger Update
Favored Creature
Beginning at 1st level, you have significant experience studying, tracking, hunting, and even talking to a certain type of creature commonly encountered. Choose a type of favored creature: beasts, fey, humanoids;monster [ex: Goblins, Kobolds, etc], humanoids;men [ex: Human, Elf, etc], monstrosities, or undead.
This choice grants the following benefits:
• You gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with weapon attacks against favored creatures.
• You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favored enemies, Intelligence checks to recall information about them, and Charisma checks to interact with them.
• You also learn one language of your choice, typically one spoken by your favored enemy or creatures associated with it. However, you are free to pick any language you wish to learn.
Greater Favored Enemy
At 6th level, you are ready to hunt even deadlier game. Choose a type of greater favored enemy: aberrations, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fiends, or giants. You may alternatively select a group from the favored creature list. You gain all the benefits against this chosen enemy that you normally gain against your favored enemy, including an additional language.
Additionally, you have advantage on saving throws against the spells and abilities used by any favored creature.
Natural Explorer
You are particularly familiar with environments in which you have honed your craft and are adept at traveling and surviving in such regions. Choose one environmental group as favored terrain:
Inhospitable: Arctic/Desert/Mountain
Natural: Forest/Grassland/Swamp
Urban: Coast/Cities/Towns
Desolate: Dungeon/Ruins/Underdark
While in any favored terrain you gain the following benefits:
• You ignore difficult terrain.
• You have advantage on initiative rolls.
• On your first turn during combat, you have advantage on attack rolls against creatures that have not yet acted.
While traveling for an hour or more in your favored terrain, you gain the following benefits:
You choose additional favored terrain types at 6th, 11th, and 17th level.
Primeval Awareness
Beginning at 3rd level, your mastery of ranger lore allows you to establish a powerful link to beasts and to the land around you. You have an innate ability to communicate with beasts, and they recognize you as a kindred spirit. Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas to a beast as an action, and can read its basic mood and intent. You learn its emotional state, whether it is affected by magic of any sort, its short-term needs (such as food or safety), and actions you can take (if any) to persuade it to not attack. You cannot use this ability against a creature that you have attacked within the past 10 minutes.
Additionally, you can attune your senses to determine if any of your favored enemies lurk nearby. By spending 1 uninterrupted minute in concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), you can sense whether any of your favored enemies are present within 5 miles of you. This feature reveals which of your favored enemies are present, their approximate numbers, and the creatures’ general direction and distance (in miles) from you. If there are multiple groups of your favored enemies within range, you learn this information for each group. You can attune your senses in this way a number of times up to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) and regain all expended uses on a long rest.
I play a PHB beastmaster (giant frog companion) in AL games, and at no point have I ever felt underpowered in comparison to the rest of the party. Honestly, in most sessions, my big frog is basically the MVP of the night thanks to its auto-restrain on hits. My ranger and buddy are battlefield control machines and both do pretty significant damage. Plus, it's super fun to play. I get that the beastmaster has some odd mechanics that you have to work to flavor, but if anything, I feel like I go into games maybe a bit too dominant, with DMs often expressing surprise at how devastating the frog is in combat. And since other beasts are similarly wonderful, I just don't see any real mechanical worries about the PHB beastmaster.
What level are you? I am guessing pretty low, and sure, it may be great at lower levels, but at higher levels your frog is gonna die quick and often, and you will be left with a Ranger for the rest of the fight that is waaaay weaker then any other Ranger build.
That is not my experience with the Beast Master at higher levels. With the right coordination of actions, beast traits and Dodge, the companion can survive most of the challenges.
Maybe, but at level 10 a Giant Frog would have a 15 AC and 40 hitpoints, less than a wizard, who isn't a frontline fighter
My duo is level 7. There's vulnerability to AOEs to worry about, but generally, the companion is targeted pretty infrequently and has only ever come close to being knocked out once. I guess it's conceivable that a DM could really try to eliminate the frog right from the jump, but that feels like a metagame-y move, since most enemies would be looking to deal with what they perceive as the greatest threats right away. In any case, it's never occurred. That gives the beast a couple of rounds to change the game before the realization that it's a huge problem for our enemies really sets in. By that time, most combats are all but over. And that's especially true of combats where a giant frog has restrained the main enemy, either granting advantage to anyone who wants it or forcing that enemy to burn an action to try to escape the bite (DC 11, so that typically works, but wasting an action on it is pretty rough for most enemies).
Yeah, because most DMs aren't going to wreck your fun, but if you are a group of enemies, and the frog keeps weakening your big hitter, they SHOULD attack the frog, but the DM probably isn't. I am not saying a BM isn't fun, just that it is much weaker than any other Ranger and should be updated.
Yeah, I just disagree with that being the rationale. Tactically without getting into metagame stuff, it makes way less sense for enemies to see your beast as a greater threat than the party barbarian or wizard or paladin. In the first round or so of combat, your enemies are going to go after the obvious heavy hitters. By the time it's obvious that your beast is among that group, they have already done a ton of important work toward ending that combat.
I've lost count of the amount of times that a DM has said, mid-game, something along the lines of "Crap, I did not expect the frog to be such a pain." The beastmaster's rep for being underpowered is a huge blessing to me as a player and has the added bonus that it makes in-character sense for most encounters that you're going to come across. You just don't have to deal with too many nature-focused enemies that are going to see your beast and immediately think "Ah! Scaled up to the level of this party, that snake/wolf/boar/spider/frog/whatever is going to be a huge problem--I better take care of it first!" Aside from that possibility, a campaign that features a consistent enemy that knows about your party might also learn its lesson, which presents a cool storytelling opportunity anyway. Other than those situations, though, you'd be working with a DM that is going outside of in-character monster tactics to specifically target your group's weaknesses, which is a problem that every class could conceivably have and would be obnoxious for all of them.
Thinking about it further, I actually think that the beastmaster holds up pretty well against a hyper-tactical to the point of metagaming DM, too. Basically, initially targeting the beast instead of, say, a spellcaster has the benefit of going after a lower HP body with likely worse saving throws depending on the beast and the spell, but the drawbacks of attacking a higher AC (significantly so if you use any sort of barding, which you definitely should), and in the event of a success, not impacting the players' action economy at all. If you take out the Sorcerer, you reduce the party by not only one body, but one action, bonus action, reaction, etc. The beast might be easier to kill, but none of those benefits are there. And if you are choosing to take out the beast rather than a PC, that's basically an acknowledgment that the beast is such a significant threat, that eliminating the subclass features of the beastmaster is worth ignoring other PCs. Obviously, AOEs give you a "Why not both?" option, but any game that's set up to be tactics-first should have PCs who actually think about their positioning and seek to avoid problems like that.
All in all, having a PC that is essentially two-bodied has a ton of benefits, including the fact that eliminating either gives your enemies less of a benefit than targeting most single-bodied players.
It has its benefits to be sure, but I doubt it puts up the numbers other Rangers do, am I wrong?
What numbers are you referring to?
As explained by jhe, no other Ranger (arguably even any other class) has this "feature" of two-bodied PC. Pretty unique and useful.
Damage is the numbers I am referring to
I didn't build my ranger to do maximum damage and wouldn't recommend anyone rolling up a beastmaster to play one for that reason. Some companions are obviously better than others in that regard (giant poisonous snakes are winners there, I think), but battlefield control is probably the biggest advantage a beastmaster has. Being a two-bodied PC is super useful for getting your party into the most useful positions and if your beast has a secondary control effect (like the big frog or a giant crab), even better. I guess if you are deciding whether or not the beastmaster is underpowered based exclusively on damage output, then we've been talking past each other entirely. That's just not what I'm thinking of when deciding about how useful a beastmaster is.
Rangers have hunters mark, Rangers should cast hunters mark. Up until 11th level they will then have the same attack routine as a fighter and deal more damage... with just hunters mark. Yes, when targets have the temerity to expire and you cant move the mark to the next target you are reduced to 'just as much potential as the fighters damage.'
Everything else is a bonus.
Beastmaster is odd, Im not even talking about revised versions. Its odd because powergamers dont like it, people who love animals dont like it because their friend will die too easily and does it mention they have deathsaves instead of auto expire on 0! like non players?? And people who played it because they thought they would fight with their animal as a team are disappointed cruelly that the animal wont attack unless you give up one of your own. So it wont appeal to anyone except those who love the flavour, (gods of their choosing bless them, they are the best of us. )
Beast master is for adventurers league for halflings and gnomes. A pteradon is inside the criteria for companions and allows you to fly if your a short folk and scout from the air at third level. Hmm that means any open area encounters that dont have a ranged attacks of 80' can now be solo'ed providing arrows for your shortbow dont run out. Thats the golden auto win unlocked at third level precisely what the restriction on flight races in adventurers league was to prevent (aside from aerial recon). This is an example of how potentially overpowered a reviled subclass can be. Its very specific and narrow in how you achieve it but thats the same with many other spells and abilities out there. They may seem to have no point, but find that angle and....
Have fun designing your shortfolk fighter squadron, at 4th sharpshooter is an obvious choice, your combat ceiling pushes up out of the range of Mage flak guns and you may start investing in alchemist fire for those pesky villages (you wont hit a house from 300 foot but it has to land somewhere right?) If you reach the heights rangers need to conjure volley, use the alchemist fire, thats a rather large napalm strike that will amusingly apply the rider of alchemists fire to the area. Did you ever dream of becoming a a 3' tall fighter bomber in a fantasy world? Welcome to 5th.
This is kinda where I am coming from, you take it because you like the flavor and are ok being less optimal in combat. Sure, having 2 different characters offers you some unique abilities, and some pets have secondary effects, but being a BM means two things.
One, you aren't multiclassing because you NEED every level to ensure the pet isn't completely useless and two, you aren't as good at combat as any of the fighters, paladins, barbarians (unlike other Rangers who can out pace them) and the level of control you can offer pales significantly to ANY caster, so at the end of the day you are playing a character just for flavor and are ok being the weak link in combat. Personally, I want to see a rework of the Ranger core, add spells to Hunter and BM and re-do BM from the ground up so that you don't have to sacrifice combat potential just to add flavor.