I am not one of the people who thinks Ranger (or Beastmaster) are broken. I don't think they need a major fix. But what I do believe is that Hunter and Beastmaster both need extended spells like the Xanathar's subclasses. So I put together an extended spell list for both subclasses. I stuck to the same rules the Xanathar's subclasses used (no Ranger spells, only spells from the PHB). Tell me what you think.
This I believe fixes any lingering issues with Beastmaster. Warding Bond effectively gives the Beast double the HP pool by splitting damage with the Ranger, Revivify helps keep the beast alive, Find Familiar helps people who want noncombat pets like hawks, and the others are just thematically appropriate.
I can't fault your logic and it does offer a rather simple solution for the Beast Master. I do like it.
Not sure if I'm in love with your choice for the Hunter spells, but don't want to split hairs as I think the simplicity of your approach is quite nice.
When it comes to the core class I believe we still have a lot of dissatisfaction with Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer in that they are way too situation specific and in the case of the latter, when you are in your favoured terrain the so-called Exploration pillar of the game is wrecked as the ranger succeeds at everything. But that's a different conversation.
I am not one of the people who thinks Ranger (or Beastmaster) are broken. I don't think they need a major fix. But what I do believe is that Hunter and Beastmaster both need extended spells like the Xanathar's subclasses. So I put together an extended spell list for both subclasses. I stuck to the same rules the Xanathar's subclasses used (no Ranger spells, only spells from the PHB). Tell me what you think.
This I believe fixes any lingering issues with Beastmaster. Warding Bond effectively gives the Beast double the HP pool by splitting damage with the Ranger, Revivify helps keep the beast alive, Find Familiar helps people who want noncombat pets like hawks, and the others are just thematically appropriate.
Still thinking about your idea. I do still like it, a lot. But the one problem it does not fully address is the beast's fragility especially at lower levels. A beast master gets his companion at 3rd level and won't get warding bond until 5th, which will help. And revivify not arriving until 9th. So still some vulnerability between levels 3-8. That aside, the elegance of your suggestion is its simplicity!
I can see the possible issues. Level 3 to 5 are still funky because you don't yet have extra attack and you don't have Warding Bond, so the companion can feel useless in combat at these low levels. I allow my Rangers to use TWF with the beast attacks so that at levels 3 and 4 they can both make attacks, as long as they otherwise follow the TWF rules. That helps the action sharing issue until level 5 hits.
For survivability, it can be rough. Your companion is like a Wizard in terms of HP for these levels. The only thing I can suggest without whole sale changes is to ask the Cleric nicely to Warding Bond for you until you hit 5. Or keep the pet back and use them for exploration for now until 5 hits.
I am not too worried about the revivify hitting later. Your Cleric or Druid should be preparing those spells for your party at these levels anyway. You getting it at 9 just means you can stop asking them for the help.
Here's the list of spells I use. There's a lot of overlap with your Beast Master table, but the Hunter spells I choose are pretty different. I also treat the Beast Master a bit differently: their subclass spells don't require material components when they're cast on their animal companion.
I am not one of the people who thinks Ranger (or Beastmaster) are broken. I don't think they need a major fix. But what I do believe is that Hunter and Beastmaster both need extended spells like the Xanathar's subclasses. So I put together an extended spell list for both subclasses. I stuck to the same rules the Xanathar's subclasses used (no Ranger spells, only spells from the PHB). Tell me what you think.
This I believe fixes any lingering issues with Beastmaster. Warding Bond effectively gives the Beast double the HP pool by splitting damage with the Ranger, Revivify helps keep the beast alive, Find Familiar helps people who want noncombat pets like hawks, and the others are just thematically appropriate.
I have suggested giving these classes spell list but hadn’t written them out yet, gonna start with BM, your list is ok, but their are some pretty big issues.
Find Familiar is a solid choice, great spell and one my Ranger has via Ritual Caster feat
Warding bond is interesting, though I am not wild about the idea of taking half damage for the pet who can be easily revived or 1.5 the damage of an aoe that gets us both, I would rather see Find Steed on the list.
I don’t mean this to sound harsh, but Revivify is a terrible option. Why would I ever want to burn 300gp in diamonds on bringing a dead pet back to life instead of 8 hours to get a new one for free. From an RP perspective I would think most DMs would be ok if you to said that you spend 8 hours performing a ritual to bring YOUR pet back to life rather then a new one. I would put either Aura of Vitality or Beacon of Hope as either would benefit a pet, you, and the party. As an alternative I would re-flavor Spirit Guardians to say that you call forth creatures in the area, but otherwise it works the same.
Dominate Beast is an ok choice, but really limited in use unless your DM throws a fair amount of creatures into the mix of combat as it only last 1 minute, I would much rather give them Giant Insect, it fits thematically and would be useful in all combats.
Again, this isn’t being mean, but Awaken is a terrible choice, you blow 1000gp once to make your pet intelligent and capable of speech, then you never use the spell again, and you’ve been able to talk to your pet since level 3 via Speak with Animals, if you want the rest of the party to talk to it Rary’s Telepathic Bond would do more, albeit for only an hour, but you could use it more often. I would personally go for Insect Plague.
going to look over the Hunter list and will post my thoughts.
Hunter: 3rd faerie fire is neat, but it will be competing with Hunter’s Mark for concentration, an alternative that would fit would be bane or if you want to avoid concentration Guiding Bolt.
9th Fear is ok, but it is on the Gloomstalker list and I would rather see something different, Haste would probably be the most interesting, though Blink could be really neat - how the Horizon Walker didn’t get that is a mystery to me.
13th Confusion is solid, possible alternatives could be Death Ward or Blight, but I would probably stick with your choice.
17th Hold Monster is really good, I like Cloudkill and Bigby’s Hand, but they don’t really fit thematically better then your choice, so I would stick with that.
Find Familiar is a solid choice, great spell and one my Ranger has via Ritual Caster feat
Warding bond is interesting, though I am not wild about the idea of taking half damage for the pet who can be easily revived or 1.5 the damage of an aoe that gets us both, I would rather see Find Steed on the list.
Warding Bond works great if you're using a ranged weapon and your beast is fighting in the front lines.
Find Familiar and Find Steed feel out of place on a subclass that revolves around forming a bond with a wild animal. Plus, they're signature wizard and paladin spells.
Find Familiar is a solid choice, great spell and one my Ranger has via Ritual Caster feat
Warding bond is interesting, though I am not wild about the idea of taking half damage for the pet who can be easily revived or 1.5 the damage of an aoe that gets us both, I would rather see Find Steed on the list.
Warding Bond works great if you're using a ranged weapon and your beast is fighting in the front lines.
Find Familiar and Find Steed feel out of place on a subclass that revolves around forming a bond with a wild animal. Plus, they're signature wizard and paladin spells.
I always go ranged on a Ranger, but a surprising number of people go melee, as for Familiar and Steed, sure they are magic, but I think most DMs would allow you to flavor them as an actual animal, and there are many ways to get them in other classes, so one more wouldn’t be a deal breaker.
I always go ranged on a Ranger, but a surprising number of people go melee
Even in those cases, taking x1.5 times damage but having your companion survive is preferable to taking x1 damage and ending up with a dead companion. Also, you can usually reduce the damage with Absorb Elements; your companion doesn't have that luxury.
as for Familiar and Steed, sure they are magic, but I think most DMs would allow you to flavor them as an actual animal, and there are many ways to get them in other classes, so one more wouldn’t be a deal breaker.
A ranger could pick up Find Familiar with feats if they really want it, same as everyone else.
The only class that can pick up Find Steed trivially is the Bard, and that's just because they can pick literally any spell in the game.
By putting it on the subclass spell list for the Beast Master you're essentially saying "these spells are every Beast Master's bread and butter", and they should feel right for the vast majority of players.
I am not one of the people who thinks Ranger (or Beastmaster) are broken. I don't think they need a major fix. But what I do believe is that Hunter and Beastmaster both need extended spells like the Xanathar's subclasses. So I put together an extended spell list for both subclasses. I stuck to the same rules the Xanathar's subclasses used (no Ranger spells, only spells from the PHB). Tell me what you think.
This I believe fixes any lingering issues with Beastmaster. Warding Bond effectively gives the Beast double the HP pool by splitting damage with the Ranger, Revivify helps keep the beast alive, Find Familiar helps people who want noncombat pets like hawks, and the others are just thematically appropriate.
I have suggested giving these classes spell list but hadn’t written them out yet, gonna start with BM, your list is ok, but their are some pretty big issues.
Find Familiar is a solid choice, great spell and one my Ranger has via Ritual Caster feat
Warding bond is interesting, though I am not wild about the idea of taking half damage for the pet who can be easily revived or 1.5 the damage of an aoe that gets us both, I would rather see Find Steed on the list.
I don’t mean this to sound harsh, but Revivify is a terrible option. Why would I ever want to burn 300gp in diamonds on bringing a dead pet back to life instead of 8 hours to get a new one for free. From an RP perspective I would think most DMs would be ok if you to said that you spend 8 hours performing a ritual to bring YOUR pet back to life rather then a new one. I would put either Aura of Vitality or Beacon of Hope as either would benefit a pet, you, and the party. As an alternative I would re-flavor Spirit Guardians to say that you call forth creatures in the area, but otherwise it works the same.
Dominate Beast is an ok choice, but really limited in use unless your DM throws a fair amount of creatures into the mix of combat as it only last 1 minute, I would much rather give them Giant Insect, it fits thematically and would be useful in all combats.
Again, this isn’t being mean, but Awaken is a terrible choice, you blow 1000gp once to make your pet intelligent and capable of speech, then you never use the spell again, and you’ve been able to talk to your pet since level 3 via Speak with Animals, if you want the rest of the party to talk to it Rary’s Telepathic Bond would do more, albeit for only an hour, but you could use it more often. I would personally go for Insect Plague.
going to look over the Hunter list and will post my thoughts.
I always appreciate constructive criticism. I don’t agree with your assessments tho.
Revivify does have a cost, yes. But most players would rather pay to keep the pet they have a bond with than go find another. On top of that, 300 gp is really nothing to most players around level 9+. If you don’t have enough for a bunch of diamonds by then you’re doing something wrong as an adventurer as far as I’m concerned.
Hell most players have trouble actually spending enough gold at higher levels.
The other thing to note: both Revivify AND Awaken can be used on more than just your companion. You can raise fallen teammates, and awaken many different beasts or plants. So they provided more utility Beyond just being used on your companion.
As for the other options, Aura of Vitality and Beacon of Hope both require concentration also, and by that level most Beast Masters are gonna spend concentration on Conjure Animals.
I do see your point about Faerie Fire, but I personally think it is a good enough spell that some Rangers would choose it over Hunters Mark, especially for Sharpshooter shenanigans.
Fear is on Gloomstalkers list, but Haste is also on Horizon Walker. I felt Fear was more thematically appropriate. Tho in a perfect world, Horizon Walker would have gotten Blink, and I could give Haste to Hunter and there’d be no overlap.
I really like Blindness/deafness also, but Hold Person was too good to pass up honestly.
Ha, didn’t catch that Haste was on the Walker list.
I know money isn’t super hard to come by, and Revivify is good for team mates too, it just doesn’t feel particularly “beast master” to me, maybe I will take another look at the list to see about an alternative that doesn’t use concentration.
Awaken can be used on anything, but I don’t see it being useful more then maybe once during a campaign, maybe that is just me having not played a high level campaign, but it just seems super situational and not overly thematic, I personally still argue that Insect Plague fits better, but hey 5e is flexible, take whatever your DM is willing to roll with and fun with it.
Thanks for taking the time to build the initial list, been fun thinking on it
Personally, I really like Awaken. I think it is a nice reward for a ranger to be able to bestow a deeper level of consciousness and awareness (Intelligence) on the companion, and really fits with the concept that at her core, the ranger is most at home in the wilds with just her companion. After a career of adventuring with a party, I can see the ranger and her wolf withdrawing to the wilds to reflect on their long adventures. Awaken sort of makes this more interesting. It can also be used on other creatures the ranger encounters, and could allow a high level ranger to assemble a retinue of beasts to help guard the forest against the inevitable horde that will threaten it. I would much rather have Awaken than another attack spell (by 17th level I’m quite happy with Steel Wind Strike or Swift Quiver to give me the boost in combat I need; Insect Plague is surplus to requirements at least for me).
...It can also be used on other creatures the ranger encounters, and could allow a high level ranger to assemble a retinue of beasts to help guard the forest against the inevitable horde that will threaten it.
ha, yes! would be an interesting experiment to cast awaken on a mated pair of wolves to see how the pups turned out. if the awaken spell is active at the chromosomal level, it might just be passed on! (as an aside, based on my experience of life on earth, i might be willing to bet that a world run by beasts with 10 INT could be a fairer and more decent place than the sh*t sandwich of a world our species has managed to construct!)
I am not one of the people who thinks Ranger (or Beastmaster) are broken. I don't think they need a major fix. But what I do believe is that Hunter and Beastmaster both need extended spells like the Xanathar's subclasses. So I put together an extended spell list for both subclasses. I stuck to the same rules the Xanathar's subclasses used (no Ranger spells, only spells from the PHB). Tell me what you think.
This I believe fixes any lingering issues with Beastmaster. Warding Bond effectively gives the Beast double the HP pool by splitting damage with the Ranger, Revivify helps keep the beast alive, Find Familiar helps people who want noncombat pets like hawks, and the others are just thematically appropriate.
What's the point in find familiar you already have a beast so why want another one,i think mage armour or sanctuary.Warding bond is fine,although revivify cold be swapped with remove curse.All in all i like the idea and will check with my DM to see if i can use this.
I am not one of the people who thinks Ranger (or Beastmaster) are broken. I don't think they need a major fix. But what I do believe is that Hunter and Beastmaster both need extended spells like the Xanathar's subclasses. So I put together an extended spell list for both subclasses. I stuck to the same rules the Xanathar's subclasses used (no Ranger spells, only spells from the PHB). Tell me what you think.
This I believe fixes any lingering issues with Beastmaster. Warding Bond effectively gives the Beast double the HP pool by splitting damage with the Ranger, Revivify helps keep the beast alive, Find Familiar helps people who want noncombat pets like hawks, and the others are just thematically appropriate.
What's the point in find familiar you already have a beast so why want another one,i think mage armour or sanctuary.Warding bond is fine,although revivify cold be swapped with remove curse.All in all i like the idea and will check with my DM to see if i can use this.
Find Familiar is there because, at least in my experience, a lot of Beast Masters either want to pick a non optimal companion like a Hawk, or wants to command multiple beasts. This helps both those issues. You can pick a weaker companion and use them for scouting and other utility while keeping an optimal combat companion like a Panther or Snake.
Ha, didn’t catch that Haste was on the Walker list.
I know money isn’t super hard to come by, and Revivify is good for team mates too, it just doesn’t feel particularly “beast master” to me, maybe I will take another look at the list to see about an alternative that doesn’t use concentration.
Awaken can be used on anything, but I don’t see it being useful more then maybe once during a campaign, maybe that is just me having not played a high level campaign, but it just seems super situational and not overly thematic, I personally still argue that Insect Plague fits better, but hey 5e is flexible, take whatever your DM is willing to roll with and fun with it.
Thanks for taking the time to build the initial list, been fun thinking on it
No problem! I’m hoping this inspires more folks to try the Beast Master and Hunter archetypes without having to feel like they are missing out on something.
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I am not one of the people who thinks Ranger (or Beastmaster) are broken. I don't think they need a major fix. But what I do believe is that Hunter and Beastmaster both need extended spells like the Xanathar's subclasses. So I put together an extended spell list for both subclasses. I stuck to the same rules the Xanathar's subclasses used (no Ranger spells, only spells from the PHB). Tell me what you think.
Hunter:
3rd faerie fire
5th Hold Person
9th Fear
13th Confusion
17th Hold Monster
Beastmaster:
3rd Find Familiar
5th Warding Bond
9th Revivify
13th Dominate Beast
17th Awaken
This I believe fixes any lingering issues with Beastmaster. Warding Bond effectively gives the Beast double the HP pool by splitting damage with the Ranger, Revivify helps keep the beast alive, Find Familiar helps people who want noncombat pets like hawks, and the others are just thematically appropriate.
Seems fine :)
could considder the paladin grester steed spell for beastmaster.
I can't fault your logic and it does offer a rather simple solution for the Beast Master. I do like it.
Not sure if I'm in love with your choice for the Hunter spells, but don't want to split hairs as I think the simplicity of your approach is quite nice.
When it comes to the core class I believe we still have a lot of dissatisfaction with Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer in that they are way too situation specific and in the case of the latter, when you are in your favoured terrain the so-called Exploration pillar of the game is wrecked as the ranger succeeds at everything. But that's a different conversation.
All in all I like your ideas!
:-)
---
Don't be Lawful Evil
#OpenDND
Still thinking about your idea. I do still like it, a lot. But the one problem it does not fully address is the beast's fragility especially at lower levels. A beast master gets his companion at 3rd level and won't get warding bond until 5th, which will help. And revivify not arriving until 9th. So still some vulnerability between levels 3-8. That aside, the elegance of your suggestion is its simplicity!
---
Don't be Lawful Evil
#OpenDND
I can see the possible issues. Level 3 to 5 are still funky because you don't yet have extra attack and you don't have Warding Bond, so the companion can feel useless in combat at these low levels. I allow my Rangers to use TWF with the beast attacks so that at levels 3 and 4 they can both make attacks, as long as they otherwise follow the TWF rules. That helps the action sharing issue until level 5 hits.
For survivability, it can be rough. Your companion is like a Wizard in terms of HP for these levels. The only thing I can suggest without whole sale changes is to ask the Cleric nicely to Warding Bond for you until you hit 5. Or keep the pet back and use them for exploration for now until 5 hits.
I am not too worried about the revivify hitting later. Your Cleric or Druid should be preparing those spells for your party at these levels anyway. You getting it at 9 just means you can stop asking them for the help.
Here's the list of spells I use. There's a lot of overlap with your Beast Master table, but the Hunter spells I choose are pretty different. I also treat the Beast Master a bit differently: their subclass spells don't require material components when they're cast on their animal companion.
Hunter Spells
Ranger Level
Spell
3rd
hunter’s mark
5th
pass without trace
9th
plant growth
13th
locate creature
17th
conjure volley
Beast Master Spells
Ranger Level
Spell
3rd
mage armor
5th
warding bond
9th
revivify
13th
stoneskin
17th
commune with nature
I really like this Hunter spell list, I got my DM to swap fear for haste which it the only thing I would change.
I have suggested giving these classes spell list but hadn’t written them out yet, gonna start with BM, your list is ok, but their are some pretty big issues.
Find Familiar is a solid choice, great spell and one my Ranger has via Ritual Caster feat
Warding bond is interesting, though I am not wild about the idea of taking half damage for the pet who can be easily revived or 1.5 the damage of an aoe that gets us both, I would rather see Find Steed on the list.
I don’t mean this to sound harsh, but Revivify is a terrible option. Why would I ever want to burn 300gp in diamonds on bringing a dead pet back to life instead of 8 hours to get a new one for free. From an RP perspective I would think most DMs would be ok if you to said that you spend 8 hours performing a ritual to bring YOUR pet back to life rather then a new one. I would put either Aura of Vitality or Beacon of Hope as either would benefit a pet, you, and the party. As an alternative I would re-flavor Spirit Guardians to say that you call forth creatures in the area, but otherwise it works the same.
Dominate Beast is an ok choice, but really limited in use unless your DM throws a fair amount of creatures into the mix of combat as it only last 1 minute, I would much rather give them Giant Insect, it fits thematically and would be useful in all combats.
Again, this isn’t being mean, but Awaken is a terrible choice, you blow 1000gp once to make your pet intelligent and capable of speech, then you never use the spell again, and you’ve been able to talk to your pet since level 3 via Speak with Animals, if you want the rest of the party to talk to it Rary’s Telepathic Bond would do more, albeit for only an hour, but you could use it more often. I would personally go for Insect Plague.
going to look over the Hunter list and will post my thoughts.
So you have...
Hunter:
3rd faerie fire is neat, but it will be competing with Hunter’s Mark for concentration, an alternative that would fit would be bane or if you want to avoid concentration Guiding Bolt.
5th Hold Person is a solid choice, I could also see (no pun intended) Blindness/Deafness.
9th Fear is ok, but it is on the Gloomstalker list and I would rather see something different, Haste would probably be the most interesting, though Blink could be really neat - how the Horizon Walker didn’t get that is a mystery to me.
13th Confusion is solid, possible alternatives could be Death Ward or Blight, but I would probably stick with your choice.
17th Hold Monster is really good, I like Cloudkill and Bigby’s Hand, but they don’t really fit thematically better then your choice, so I would stick with that.
Warding Bond works great if you're using a ranged weapon and your beast is fighting in the front lines.
Find Familiar and Find Steed feel out of place on a subclass that revolves around forming a bond with a wild animal. Plus, they're signature wizard and paladin spells.
I always go ranged on a Ranger, but a surprising number of people go melee, as for Familiar and Steed, sure they are magic, but I think most DMs would allow you to flavor them as an actual animal, and there are many ways to get them in other classes, so one more wouldn’t be a deal breaker.
Even in those cases, taking x1.5 times damage but having your companion survive is preferable to taking x1 damage and ending up with a dead companion. Also, you can usually reduce the damage with Absorb Elements; your companion doesn't have that luxury.
A ranger could pick up Find Familiar with feats if they really want it, same as everyone else.
The only class that can pick up Find Steed trivially is the Bard, and that's just because they can pick literally any spell in the game.
By putting it on the subclass spell list for the Beast Master you're essentially saying "these spells are every Beast Master's bread and butter", and they should feel right for the vast majority of players.
I always appreciate constructive criticism. I don’t agree with your assessments tho.
Revivify does have a cost, yes. But most players would rather pay to keep the pet they have a bond with than go find another. On top of that, 300 gp is really nothing to most players around level 9+. If you don’t have enough for a bunch of diamonds by then you’re doing something wrong as an adventurer as far as I’m concerned.
Hell most players have trouble actually spending enough gold at higher levels.
The other thing to note: both Revivify AND Awaken can be used on more than just your companion. You can raise fallen teammates, and awaken many different beasts or plants. So they provided more utility Beyond just being used on your companion.
As for the other options, Aura of Vitality and Beacon of Hope both require concentration also, and by that level most Beast Masters are gonna spend concentration on Conjure Animals.
I do see your point about Faerie Fire, but I personally think it is a good enough spell that some Rangers would choose it over Hunters Mark, especially for Sharpshooter shenanigans.
Fear is on Gloomstalkers list, but Haste is also on Horizon Walker. I felt Fear was more thematically appropriate. Tho in a perfect world, Horizon Walker would have gotten Blink, and I could give Haste to Hunter and there’d be no overlap.
I really like Blindness/deafness also, but Hold Person was too good to pass up honestly.
Ha, didn’t catch that Haste was on the Walker list.
I know money isn’t super hard to come by, and Revivify is good for team mates too, it just doesn’t feel particularly “beast master” to me, maybe I will take another look at the list to see about an alternative that doesn’t use concentration.
Awaken can be used on anything, but I don’t see it being useful more then maybe once during a campaign, maybe that is just me having not played a high level campaign, but it just seems super situational and not overly thematic, I personally still argue that Insect Plague fits better, but hey 5e is flexible, take whatever your DM is willing to roll with and fun with it.
Thanks for taking the time to build the initial list, been fun thinking on it
Personally, I really like Awaken. I think it is a nice reward for a ranger to be able to bestow a deeper level of consciousness and awareness (Intelligence) on the companion, and really fits with the concept that at her core, the ranger is most at home in the wilds with just her companion. After a career of adventuring with a party, I can see the ranger and her wolf withdrawing to the wilds to reflect on their long adventures. Awaken sort of makes this more interesting. It can also be used on other creatures the ranger encounters, and could allow a high level ranger to assemble a retinue of beasts to help guard the forest against the inevitable horde that will threaten it. I would much rather have Awaken than another attack spell (by 17th level I’m quite happy with Steel Wind Strike or Swift Quiver to give me the boost in combat I need; Insect Plague is surplus to requirements at least for me).
---
Don't be Lawful Evil
#OpenDND
or start Planet of the Apes, lol
ha, yes! would be an interesting experiment to cast awaken on a mated pair of wolves to see how the pups turned out. if the awaken spell is active at the chromosomal level, it might just be passed on! (as an aside, based on my experience of life on earth, i might be willing to bet that a world run by beasts with 10 INT could be a fairer and more decent place than the sh*t sandwich of a world our species has managed to construct!)
---
Don't be Lawful Evil
#OpenDND
What's the point in find familiar you already have a beast so why want another one,i think mage armour or sanctuary.Warding bond is fine,although revivify cold be swapped with remove curse.All in all i like the idea and will check with my DM to see if i can use this.
Find Familiar is there because, at least in my experience, a lot of Beast Masters either want to pick a non optimal companion like a Hawk, or wants to command multiple beasts. This helps both those issues. You can pick a weaker companion and use them for scouting and other utility while keeping an optimal combat companion like a Panther or Snake.
No problem! I’m hoping this inspires more folks to try the Beast Master and Hunter archetypes without having to feel like they are missing out on something.