like yes, the beastie does gain hit points at a slower rate than the typical wizard, and yes the beast can only do things if you waste your action telling it to do so, but at the same time i dont think the beast master should be as unplayably bad as people say it is, i mean an giant frog companion can inflict the restrained condition whenever they hit without the target having a saving throw, and the only way for the target to escape is for it to waste its action to do so, the giant poisonous snake can deal more damage with an single attack than any other character even if the target makes a sucessful saving throw against the poison, the ptradon or whatever it is called is an medium creature with flyby and an 60 ft movement speed, perfect for any halfling with an bow or an lance to have some pretty ridiculous skirmishing strats, the deep rothé is an variant of the cow stat block that is both medium and gets free acess to the dancing lights cantrip, at 3rd level the giant wold spider has an +9 bonus to stealth checks, many of these creatures have underwater swimming speeds or climbing speeds, the wolf spider and the giant poisonous snake both have blindsight and can thus detect inivisible targets and act normally in darkness, the giant frog can leap to ridiculous heights and swallow enemies whole, the giant badger has an burrowing ´speed and can thus dig through solid walls and the cave badger variant of the giant badger stat block from the out of the abyss module has an increased burrowing speed, tremorsense and they create tunnels when they burrow, if i add any kind of armor to my animal at all (yes, an costly endeavor, especially since most of it will have to be made by you yourself or custom tailored to your beast) then that combined with their abillity to add your proficiency bonus to armor class should lead to AC values higher than that of an fighter or paladin with their silly heavy plate mail armor and shields.
Seriously who cares if its hit point maximum is that of an egg and that you need to "waste" an action to have them do anything if the beast deals more damage and is more accurate than you ever could be, has ridiculously high armor class and works best out of combat in the exploration and interaction pillars of the game anyways, and when the giant frog is one of the most valuable assets in the party who the rest of your friends will protect with their life in order to protect it due to free advantage on all attacks against the BBEG and also for eating goblins, it does not exactly matter that it is normally a bit frail
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
I agree. The beast master is a good subclass, and some choices are amazing. The only problem is that giant frog isn't very thematic for many people. Giant poisonous snakes as well. We just need some more beasts that can fit thematically for all rangers. Stuff that comes from a desert, swamp, arctic etc. Every environment. Then the beast master would be a lot more enjoyable. But otherwise, I love them.
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'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
As someone who played a crocfolk (lizardfolk flavored as a crocodile humanoid) strength based PHB beast master ranger that had an auto-grapple-and-restrain-on-a-hit beast, she (Amie) was a crocodile speced to a medium beast with a challenge rating of 1/4 (which is basically just changing the damage die to a d6), it is fun, FUN, FUN!!! Damage is great and all, but replacing one of the ranger's attacks for an attack that does a little less damage AND possibly knocking a target prone or grappling it is AWESOME!
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like yes, the beastie does gain hit points at a slower rate than the typical wizard, and yes the beast can only do things if you waste your action telling it to do so, but at the same time i dont think the beast master should be as unplayably bad as people say it is, i mean an giant frog companion can inflict the restrained condition whenever they hit without the target having a saving throw, and the only way for the target to escape is for it to waste its action to do so, the giant poisonous snake can deal more damage with an single attack than any other character even if the target makes a sucessful saving throw against the poison, the ptradon or whatever it is called is an medium creature with flyby and an 60 ft movement speed, perfect for any halfling with an bow or an lance to have some pretty ridiculous skirmishing strats, the deep rothé is an variant of the cow stat block that is both medium and gets free acess to the dancing lights cantrip, at 3rd level the giant wold spider has an +9 bonus to stealth checks, many of these creatures have underwater swimming speeds or climbing speeds, the wolf spider and the giant poisonous snake both have blindsight and can thus detect inivisible targets and act normally in darkness, the giant frog can leap to ridiculous heights and swallow enemies whole, the giant badger has an burrowing ´speed and can thus dig through solid walls and the cave badger variant of the giant badger stat block from the out of the abyss module has an increased burrowing speed, tremorsense and they create tunnels when they burrow, if i add any kind of armor to my animal at all (yes, an costly endeavor, especially since most of it will have to be made by you yourself or custom tailored to your beast) then that combined with their abillity to add your proficiency bonus to armor class should lead to AC values higher than that of an fighter or paladin with their silly heavy plate mail armor and shields.
Seriously who cares if its hit point maximum is that of an egg and that you need to "waste" an action to have them do anything if the beast deals more damage and is more accurate than you ever could be, has ridiculously high armor class and works best out of combat in the exploration and interaction pillars of the game anyways, and when the giant frog is one of the most valuable assets in the party who the rest of your friends will protect with their life in order to protect it due to free advantage on all attacks against the BBEG and also for eating goblins, it does not exactly matter that it is normally a bit frail
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
I agree. The beast master is a good subclass, and some choices are amazing. The only problem is that giant frog isn't very thematic for many people. Giant poisonous snakes as well. We just need some more beasts that can fit thematically for all rangers. Stuff that comes from a desert, swamp, arctic etc. Every environment. Then the beast master would be a lot more enjoyable. But otherwise, I love them.
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
As someone who played a crocfolk (lizardfolk flavored as a crocodile humanoid) strength based PHB beast master ranger that had an auto-grapple-and-restrain-on-a-hit beast, she (Amie) was a crocodile speced to a medium beast with a challenge rating of 1/4 (which is basically just changing the damage die to a d6), it is fun, FUN, FUN!!! Damage is great and all, but replacing one of the ranger's attacks for an attack that does a little less damage AND possibly knocking a target prone or grappling it is AWESOME!