Hey there, I've been playing a Nature Cleric 1/ Beastmaster Ranger 11 for the past few years and I love it. It's fun, the utility is helpful in many situations and my DM took a bit of inspiration from Dael KIngsmill's beastmaster (at level 2, I earned the respect and saved the life of an animal & in return, they gave me an egg to protect - at level 3, I had to protect, train and feed the hatchling... and now as a level 11 Beastmaster, that animal is now about as large as a horse & will keep growing).
Looking at the upcoming Ranger levels, I feel a bit uninspired by them (level 12 ranger planning on getting fey touched/ misty step)
This gives me 7 levels to have fun with. I have three choices.
flesh out my cleric levels
go kensei monk
go battlemaster fighter
Our party has no shortage of healing and my 1 level in cleric is a vestige of when I was the only healer in the group. I tend to play cold, calculated, coordinated and "all in" during combat - frequently doing the high risk/ high reward tactics. Roleplay-wise, I play up my middling charisma to be a city leader, politician, diplomat, business-elf and I'm building my own employee owned trade business. I generally play down the cleric stuff, but bless, guidance and guiding bolt are clutch.
Tactical Things I Like
extra attack from monk/ fighter
tactical options with maneuvers (disarm/ push)
extra HP with fighter
crazy mobility with monk
AC is equal
balanced melee/ range options with monk
action surge is bonkers cool
flurry of blows + hunters mark is bonkers cool
What am I missing? What are the unintended consequences? Is there something about the multiclass I'm looking at that would be a deal-killer for you?
The idea of leaning into being a cleric & proving that extra bit of support, survivability and utility seems fun - but as a ranger half/ caster going full caster like druid or cleric just seems to double down on being bad at casting.
The idea of a balanced, mobile, ranger/ monk that can move across the battlefield just seems like a lot of fun. I do a lot of moving in my combat and like the idea of a balanced melee/ ranged combat ability.
With a battlemaster, it's about doubling down on those maneuvers that add extra combat options and gotta be honest - an action surge that throws 6 sharp shooter arrows downrange just sounds like FUN.
My current group is a human paladin, tortle cleric, & a tabaxi rogue.
your extra attacks would not stack with your current ranger extra attack. If you continue as cleric, picking up spiritual weapon and potentially spirit guardians might work for you.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Another option would be to go Spores Druid or Wild Fire Druid. The Spores option gives you an extra cushion of hit points and gives you party some cheap fungus zombies to throw at the enemies' own minions, plus the usual Druid goodness of strong control spells. Wild Fire version gets you a fire pet that lets you and other teleport around the battlefield, which can be very helpful for a Rogue or Paladin party members due to their nova damage capabilities.
The deal killer for me is that the beast companion would stop scaling. If this were my character I would be set on going ranger the rest of the way. I personally find the level 15 feature where you share spells cast on yourself with your companion a very exciting prospect and perhaps looking into how best use that could be a way to get more exciting about sticking to ranger.
If you're set on another multiclass though, 3-4 levels of Battlemaster would be fine. You would be taking away from the companion to put more focus on your own damage dealing potential, but it is a steep trade in my opinion. Mechanically speaking it would only really be worth it if you're a sharpshooting archer (or great weapon master I suppose, strength rangers are a thing) otherwise I don't think you're capable of enough damage to justify making the companion that much worse of a contributor to combat. As mentioned, multiple extra attack features don't stack so I wouldn't take fighter past 4. Kensei gives very little as a 3-4 level dip on a build that already has extra attack and a good use of the bonus action so I wouldn't consider that one at all.
The beastmaster critter scales HP with Ranger level and the rest of the features scale with PB. Right now your critter has 60 hp (65 with level 12). That should keep it from being one shot in most encounters. Those 7 levels mean it would be 90 hp. The level 15 power is the biggest thing you would be giving up and its big. Both stoneskin and guardian of nature when applying to two things is a big deal. Even using your cleric slots to cast shield of faith is interesting. It would function like an automatic upcasting of bless since it would affect the critter but still get two others. It even works on absorb elements/shield which is pretty amazing and really boosts the survivability of the critter. Upcasting Ashardalon's stride is pretty great as well. It's a really powerful feature.
The ability to get shield spell on both of you means that I would recommend eldritch knight over battle master. But BM is fine. Its a loss on the hp for the critter, but otherwise would work fine.
I don't see much out of kensei monk. The bonus action strikes and hunter's mark interfere with each other too much to be that useful. Your bonus action is already clogged with too many options.
Either way. Getting to 4th level spells is probably your biggest win and in my opinion the 15th level feature of Ranger is probably the strongest you would be chasing. I would probably get to 15th/16th and then burn the remaining levels on cleric for upcasting.
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Hey there, I've been playing a Nature Cleric 1/ Beastmaster Ranger 11 for the past few years and I love it. It's fun, the utility is helpful in many situations and my DM took a bit of inspiration from Dael KIngsmill's beastmaster (at level 2, I earned the respect and saved the life of an animal & in return, they gave me an egg to protect - at level 3, I had to protect, train and feed the hatchling... and now as a level 11 Beastmaster, that animal is now about as large as a horse & will keep growing).
Looking at the upcoming Ranger levels, I feel a bit uninspired by them (level 12 ranger planning on getting fey touched/ misty step)
This gives me 7 levels to have fun with. I have three choices.
Our party has no shortage of healing and my 1 level in cleric is a vestige of when I was the only healer in the group. I tend to play cold, calculated, coordinated and "all in" during combat - frequently doing the high risk/ high reward tactics. Roleplay-wise, I play up my middling charisma to be a city leader, politician, diplomat, business-elf and I'm building my own employee owned trade business. I generally play down the cleric stuff, but bless, guidance and guiding bolt are clutch.
Tactical Things I Like
What am I missing? What are the unintended consequences? Is there something about the multiclass I'm looking at that would be a deal-killer for you?
My current group is a human paladin, tortle cleric, & a tabaxi rogue.
I appreciate any and all feedback.
your extra attacks would not stack with your current ranger extra attack. If you continue as cleric, picking up spiritual weapon and potentially spirit guardians might work for you.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Another option would be to go Spores Druid or Wild Fire Druid. The Spores option gives you an extra cushion of hit points and gives you party some cheap fungus zombies to throw at the enemies' own minions, plus the usual Druid goodness of strong control spells. Wild Fire version gets you a fire pet that lets you and other teleport around the battlefield, which can be very helpful for a Rogue or Paladin party members due to their nova damage capabilities.
The deal killer for me is that the beast companion would stop scaling. If this were my character I would be set on going ranger the rest of the way. I personally find the level 15 feature where you share spells cast on yourself with your companion a very exciting prospect and perhaps looking into how best use that could be a way to get more exciting about sticking to ranger.
If you're set on another multiclass though, 3-4 levels of Battlemaster would be fine. You would be taking away from the companion to put more focus on your own damage dealing potential, but it is a steep trade in my opinion. Mechanically speaking it would only really be worth it if you're a sharpshooting archer (or great weapon master I suppose, strength rangers are a thing) otherwise I don't think you're capable of enough damage to justify making the companion that much worse of a contributor to combat. As mentioned, multiple extra attack features don't stack so I wouldn't take fighter past 4. Kensei gives very little as a 3-4 level dip on a build that already has extra attack and a good use of the bonus action so I wouldn't consider that one at all.
The beastmaster critter scales HP with Ranger level and the rest of the features scale with PB. Right now your critter has 60 hp (65 with level 12). That should keep it from being one shot in most encounters. Those 7 levels mean it would be 90 hp. The level 15 power is the biggest thing you would be giving up and its big. Both stoneskin and guardian of nature when applying to two things is a big deal. Even using your cleric slots to cast shield of faith is interesting. It would function like an automatic upcasting of bless since it would affect the critter but still get two others. It even works on absorb elements/shield which is pretty amazing and really boosts the survivability of the critter. Upcasting Ashardalon's stride is pretty great as well. It's a really powerful feature.
The ability to get shield spell on both of you means that I would recommend eldritch knight over battle master. But BM is fine. Its a loss on the hp for the critter, but otherwise would work fine.
I don't see much out of kensei monk. The bonus action strikes and hunter's mark interfere with each other too much to be that useful. Your bonus action is already clogged with too many options.
Either way. Getting to 4th level spells is probably your biggest win and in my opinion the 15th level feature of Ranger is probably the strongest you would be chasing. I would probably get to 15th/16th and then burn the remaining levels on cleric for upcasting.