Hey Guys. 

Kind of new to the game and was looking at playing a beastmaster ranger. It appears to me though the companions are very week since they are limited to 1/4 CR, though they do get bonuses as the ranger levels on but not to damage. Am I wrong, am I missing something? It would be good to know so I don't waste time leveling a beastmaster ranger if they a bad class.

Thanks.

Not to damage, but I believe they get to attack more. You get to attack, then they do first. They eventually get to have more targets. They can also make enemies deal half damage at the last beast master ability, although they don't get to reaction attack.

You should be smart with them, even though they can attack, they can be very helpful. I believe they get a proficiency bonus, so if you had a pet that had a skill proficiency you could have a very stealthy crab or something of the sorts.

The animal companion’s damage receives a bonus equal to the ranger’s proficiency bonus. It’s not a very fast scaling factor, but it does scale.

Quote from BobobSyxtieNein >>

Not to damage, but I believe they get to attack more. You get to attack, then they do first. They eventually get to have more targets. They can also make enemies deal half damage at the last beast master ability, although they don't get to reaction attack.

You should be smart with them, even though they can attack, they can be very helpful. I believe they get a proficiency bonus, so if you had a pet that had a skill proficiency you could have a very stealthy crab or something of the sorts.

 At low levels, you are forced to choose between your attacking, and your Beast attacking.  You must spend your Action in order to order your companion to use it's Attack (or do anything, really).  It's not until 5th level when you get your first Extra Attack, which lets you use 1 of your Attacks to command your companion.  Before that point, it's pretty much just there in order to give flanking bonus and probably draw enemy fire (which will probably kill it).  The flanking effect can be useful, but it's a significant risk.

The worst part, personally, is that you are permanently restricted by the 1/4 CR limit for your companion.  It doesn't scale as you level at all.  So if you meet a stronger creature that is willing to become your companion, you can't use it.

The concept is fun, but it is mechanically inferior to the other specializations, which is very sad.

The beast master is considered one of if not the least powerful character option.

They have some utility and role play to make up for it a little.

It seems a shame the CR rating of the animals available doesn't increase with the Rangers level. I mean who wouldn't want a Sabertooth Tiger as a pet or something really cool. It just seems an obvious fix for what looks to me to be a bit of a broken class. 

Quote from Zhing >>

It seems a shame the CR rating of the animals available doesn't increase with the Rangers level. I mean who wouldn't want a Sabertooth Tiger as a pet or something really cool. It just seems an obvious fix for what looks to me to be a bit of a broken class. 

 If you have access to it you could try to replace the animal companion with the Artificer's Steel Defender (reflavour it to make it less steely).

I think the Steel Defender makes for a really well-balanced companion.

And it's been through playtesting, so you probably have less risk of suddenly overpowering the ranger than you would have if you try to scale the CR.

By reading the Beast Master description as specific changes to the general rules, you can have a companion that can do anything a DM controlled NPC could do. This interpretation means the ranger can command the Ready action without using the ranger’s action. This allows the companion to a lot more without the ranger using their action and allows the ranger to use their action and bonus action to do all the things other rangers can do (i.e. two-weapon fighting, Hunter’s Mark).

If the ranger can command the Ready action, then the animal companion can make an attack using its action and reaction. To some, this may seem a little overpowered but the companion is still kind of fragile so the ranger who does this all the time is going the risk having the companion killed.

it says as follows: "add your proficiency bonus to the beasts AC, attack rolls and damage rolls, as well as to any skills or saving throws it is proficient in"

your proficiency bonus is 2 at first level, and then increases by 1 every four levels thereafter, so at 5th level, 9th level, 13th level and 17th level the bonus increases and at last at 17th level your bonus should be an solid 6.

seeing as to how it is worded, you add your proficiency bonus on top of the beasts pre existing proficiency bonus, so for example an beast master with an giant poisonous snake as their companion would at 3rd level add an ludicris +8 to their attack roll and would deal 1d4 + 6 plus (3d6 + 2, halved if the target suceeds on an easy DC 11 con save), and their armor class would be at 16, by spending 135 gold pieces on studded leather barding one could get their mount's AC as high as 18 at this level, and of course it increases by 1 every four levels.

they gain hit points at an really slow rate and as such armor will be an really wise investment all things considered, think of them as an glass cannon, they deal damage and they can evade but if they get hit even once they are in serious trouble, this is an serious flaw in the design

also since you seemingly are supposed to add your proficiency bonus on top of the existing proficiency bonus, the beast gains this weird "pesudo expertise" so for instance an panther animal companion would add +8 to their stealth checks at level 1

really, they seem to hold up and they are really decent, but the fact that they are supposed to fight in the front lines and yet they get less hut points than a wizard with 10 in con plus the fact that you must waste your action to let them do anything really, really holds them back in a big way, if those two obstacles were removed i think they would do just fine or even be down-right op, but honestly not so much that it would be a big problem.

Poisonous snake is the best pick, as it can do 40ish damage at max, and has a con save.

I thought the UA took care of a lot of the issues with this stuff?

Quote from Lordneg >>

I thought the UA took care of a lot of the issues with this stuff?

 

 well what it did was it lets an ranger get two more options for the beast master, adding the beast of the air and the beast of the earth. Both of them add some quality of life improvements that already exists for the artificer companions like Hp equal to 5 times your ranger level plus their con plus you wisdom score (essentially overriding the existing hit point progression) and letting you use a bonus action to let the beast make one attack or take an hide action. While this is great for those people who like to have an elemental compaion or are fine with reflavouring some stuff, that is great, but for those who want pets who cannot be described by those two stat blocks the UA did absolutely nothing

or wait a second you were talking about the revised ranger? oh sorry in that case i think they overdid it a little, it essentially made them an player character by giving them abillity score increases and extra hit dice, but you still get to add proficiency to everything so one might make an dex based giant crab build and suddenly find themseves with an companion who has an armor class of like 1 billion, and since proficiency is added to damage you just have this powerhouse of damage per attack and you let it make a bunch of attacks and congratulations the room is now full of corpses. They did add an concrete list of animals and that was nice, as was the rules not being as dependent on challenge rating, and i have never played an ranger before but i feel like it is just way too strong

Advance your animal companion according to the sidekicks UA if you want it to scale with your level.

The pets are weak in battle, but can be useful in other scenarios. Take, for instance, the wolves keen hearing and smell. It allows the wolf to have advantages on all hearing and smell perception checks, making it useful to find hidden enemies.

Quote from TeamRocketGrunt >>

The pets are weak in battle, but can be useful in other scenarios. Take, for instance, the wolves keen hearing and smell. It allows the wolf to have advantages on all hearing and smell perception checks, making it useful to find hidden enemies.

 or your companion is an deep rothé, an variant on the cow stat block that is medium, has magical flashing lights and can cast dancing lights at will using charisma

also due to adding proficiency bonus to damage and to hit means they often have really high to-hit bonuses and damage, especially at later levels

The beast companion gets beefy very quick. Here is a leveled up wolf beast companion at ranger level 13...

And here is a normal dire wolf which a paladin with the find greater steed spell can summon...

After level 10 (11-20) the beast companion makes two attacks when commanded to do so. Depending on your type of beast, this can surpass the damage output of the hunter subclass.

Beast Master pets are pretty decent damage wise; for one of your attacks you can get multiple attacks from the pet at higher levels.

The problem with them isn't damage output but survivability; while every point of attack damage they take is a point that you don't have to (and vice versa), big area of effect spells/abilities can put them in danger very quickly at higher levels, and if a big bad does go for the pet with attacks it can be taken out in a single round if you're not careful.

During Critical Role season one, managing Vex's pet resulted in a lot of customisation from the DM, and she still hardly ever used it despite a death-ward amulet that teleported it away if it was reduced to 0 HP, custom armour, and the pet being a higher than normal level). Of course a DM is free to give similar bonuses, or even go further, as having to find a new pet after every battle isn't going to be fun.

I feel like Warding Bond would have been a perfect spell to give Beast Masters, though it'd need to ignore Share Spells; a generous DM might allow it, as otherwise with it being a 2nd level spell it's an awkward one to get. With Share Spells you can at least cast healing and such on both of you at the same time, which is great for spell economy, and the 4th level Stoneskin can give you both protection against non-magical physical damage, but it's competing for concentration (i.e- you'll be relying on your pet for bonus damage in place of Hunter's Mark).

Assuming the UA class variants make it into the upcoming Tasha's book it ought to make a big difference; free uses of Hunter's Mark without concentration means the spells you cast on your pet don't need to compete with it, and there's the possibility of a higher level pet option.

I like that warding bond was one of the several added spells to the ranger spell list in the CFV UA. I hope if makes it to Tasha's.

I have always thought that the BMR ability pretty much begs for the DM and player to work together to make a great beast. The only restrictions for the companion are medium or smaller, a beast, and CR of 1/4 or less. It never says you have to use a specific stat block, like so many other animal spells or abilities. Using the rules in the DMG dungeon masters have guidelines for changing or creating creatures. Having 0 to 2 saving throw proficiencies doesn't change the CR of a creature, for example. They do have limited hit points, but around as many as a wizard or (non-draconic) sorcerer. Any big AoE spell or effect that would bring the companion to 0 (I believe that companions should make death saving throws just like PCs) would likely bring a wizard or sorcerer at or close to 0 as well. Also, how much damage would an effect have to do to bring down a companion, and at what levels? An adult red dragon (CR 17) does an average of 63 (fire) damage with their breath weapon. An adult red dragon is a "hard" encounter for a level 15 party of 4. A wizard with a constitution bonus of +1 would have 77 hit points at level 15. A companion would have 60 hit points. So that breath weapon could take out either of them depending on the damage roll. At level 15 the BMR can share spells with the companion, and absorb elements is a great spell for this very situation! Even on a failed saving throw, the beast would take only 31 points of damage at the cost of a level 1 spell slot.

Quote from FrankReynoldsGaryGygax >>

A wizard with a constitution bonus of +1 would have 77 hit points at level 15. A companion would have 60 hit points.

Sure, but your average Sorcerer or Wizard is usually going to have a good higher level AC and a bunch of reaction options they can use themselves (and more slots to use them with) such as Shield, plus they can be effective at a safer range, whereas an animal companion needs to be in close range to deal damage.

While Absorb Elements is a great spell, it only helps your animal companion if you're also hit by the same effect and your DM is happy to rule that Absorb Elements affects you both in time, as it's you that has to make the reaction, and it only applies against specific damage types. There's also the more general issue that every spell slot you spend on protecting or healing your companion is one slot you can't use on improving damage; Rangers actually have a few nice damage spells, so not using them means dealing less damage.

Now to be clear; I'm not a power gamer, I don't care about maximising damage as such, and I'm not saying beast master pets are weak or even flimsy as such, I'm just pointing out that their survivability is more of an issue than their damage output, yet for some reason a lot of people focus on their damage more than anything else. They're absolutely at their best in situations where you're fighting groups, especially ones with casters or ranged enemies that you can send a high mobility pet after, even better if they can grapple.

I'm really just saying that I wish they had more protection options that didn't conflict with Hunter's Mark; hopefully the UA changes suggest we will, because this is what they need to really scale up a bit better, and let you get more out of your other spells and abilities while also having a cool animal companion to fight alongside you.

Also I can't believe I somehow missed that the spell I want was in the very UA I linked to, definitely want that to make it in, as it will make a huge difference for Beast Masters, it's a very good spell, even better on a (relatively) high HP Ranger, and since it doesn't require concentration (and neither will Hunter's Mark, hopefully) you can then layer an AC boost or other form of damage reduction on top for good measure.