behold the ultimate sea tank to drag your foes into the depths. also its just super funny
I wonder if you could put barding on giant crab? Nail up some metal scales or plates to the shell? Perhaps a halfling sized "gunner station" at the top (partial cover saddle good only for crossbow attacks)? Sounds great!
behold the ultimate sea tank to drag your foes into the depths. also its just super funny
I wonder if you could put barding on giant crab? Nail up some metal scales or plates to the shell? Perhaps a halfling sized "gunner station" at the top (partial cover saddle good only for crossbow attacks)? Sounds great!
It'd be a 2d6 mounted crossbow. So heavy a medium creature with 20 or lower Strength (15 with Powerful Build) can't wield it without the mount.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
behold the ultimate sea tank to drag your foes into the depths. also its just super funny
I wonder if you could put barding on giant crab? Nail up some metal scales or plates to the shell? Perhaps a halfling sized "gunner station" at the top (partial cover saddle good only for crossbow attacks)? Sounds great!
It'd be a 2d6 mounted crossbow. So heavy a medium creature with 20 or lower Strength (15 with Powerful Build) can't wield it without the mount.
If I were DM'ing, I would rule that that any mounted weapon would have to follow rules similar to the Ballista (action to aim, action to load, action to fire). I wouldn't go that in depth, especially since you're not getting Ballista damage. I'd suggest maybe a 90° firing arc that takes an action to adjust, but otherwise using the heavy crossbow rules to load/fire. My reasoning is that if a small character is utilizing this, NORMALLY they'd not be able to wield a heavy crossbow ("heavy" property), so there should be some penalty to bypass that. But yeah, a mounted heavy crossbow (standard 1d10 damage), or the suggested large sized crossbow (2d6 damage) would be cool. I personally wouldn't allow larger than that.
So what kind of cover? I'm thinking 1/2 cover (+2 AC) vs all incoming attacks, and the rider would have that 1/2 cover imposed on their melee attacks. Or it could be a 3/4 cover (+5 AC) vs all incoming, but the rider would not be able to make attacks with anything but the mounted crossbow.
For my first ranger I chose a wolf because I was a ranged ranger. In the first fight he was in ,he almost died, so in stead of using my gray die for Fluffy(my wolf) our paladin switched out the die for a red and gray die while I wasn't looking.
I have a UA Beast Master Conclave Ranger called Aelin Naïlo Xylia who has an albino companion Panther called Fayre. Aelin is a Hideling which is a homebrew race that is the equivalent of an elf but inspired by norse fairytales. When she was 8 (currently 58 which is young adult) she went from the village bog to the forest to play and when she came back the village was gone with no sign of how. From then on she has lived in the forest and became a ranger. At the age of 10 she found cub Fayre abandoned by her mother (because she is white and that is very rare for panthers so she was outcast) and little Aelin decided to nurse the cub back to health and they created a bond that way. Because Hidelings live so long, Fayre has been brought back from natural death 4 times (a panther's lifespan is about 12 years) and she is all Aelin has as a family. I really play into Aelin being uncomfortable and weird around people as she grew up in the forest. This is not too much of a problem though as our party consists of her, a pony sized centaur (3ft and a bit), a draft horse sized centaur (10ft), a satyr and a dragonborn, so they all have some animal-ish aspects. By now they have been traveling together for about 6 months and are trying to find a solution to drive off an invasion from an army of Mindflayers and their slaves who have taken over half the continent.
That is amazing. Your party sound awesome and I giggle thinking about what looks you guys get by bystanders. I play a half-drow so I wear a mask to hide my face but it does not work because of my gray wolf. Lol
Had a Human Ranger that was raised by Dwarves, this was in the ancient times 2nd edition, they used a cross breed of dire boars and regular hogs as mounts. Any way Hellbent made friends with Bacon, the runt of the litter the spring before he sat out the next fall. He ended up being slated as breakfast due to his size, it bonded with the young Ranger while he was taking care of it and the others. He then asked if it could be spared and become his pet/companion. It turns out that with individual care he grew to the size of a Dire Boar, large enough or hum to ride he was 6'8". Now that the back story has been told I can tell you the fate of Hellbent and Bacon.
The DM was tired of the group not playing their characters in a consistent manner, with the exception of Hellbent I played him as a loud drunk in taverns and a down to business fighter on quests, created a party killer monster. His plan was to have Hellbent and Bacon survive the encounter to lead the new group to get revenge on the creature's master. Being a Ranger and using a bow Hellbent attacked on Bacon back as the Boar ran in circles around the creature he aimed at the center, this tactic was to help the group escaper since the creature was very slow moving or at least it walking speed was slow, Bacon was grabbed and was swallowed unfortunately Hellbent was using a war saddle which meant he too was grabbed and swallowed. As the group all ran, except the Paladin wanted to stay and fight but was forced to run to be able to protect his betrothed the parties thief. Hellbent threw down his bow and drew his Sword and dagger to do as much damage before dying as he could while Bacon just started to gore the closest thing to him. As the party ran away they could here shouts of things like good Bacon bite him back and this Bacon isn't going to go down well at all. The DM them came up with a secondary plan to kill the rest of the party by having an ancient Red Dragon sense the magic and investigate it. putting the group between the creature and the Dragon. Needless to say the creature choked to death on its own blood, Hellbent and Bacon. the Dragon killed the party to retrieve the magic Items. we then built new characters and the group disbanded the next time we played.
My character calls it her "Wargoat". It's really just a medium size Goat with mostly standard goat stats (skinned off a mashup of Goat/Boar template). It's a size category bigger than her so it's her mount with a little saddle and all.
Currently, I'm playing a Ghostwise Halfling and using the UA ranger rules to test out a "Nightglider" class. Therefore, in keeping with the limited lore on the subject, I chose a Giant Owl. My DM is willing to see how it plays for the sake of homebrewing this class, but if I recall there is something about the Giant Owl that makes it fall outside a strict interpretation of what animals are allowed.
Not my character, but I am running a homebrew pirate based campaign. My friend's Merfolk (in my universe they can walk on two legs but move at 25 spd because of flipper feet) Ranger has a Mishipeshu (an aquatic panther from North American mythology). Basically a reskinned panther with a swim speed instead of a climb speed and is amphibious.
My ranger's companion will be a flying snake (with feathered wings, not bat-like wings). I make this distinction so I can make sure that his/her diet will be fruits. Still trying to figure out if it's a boy or a girl, what it's name will be, and at what age my ranger obtains her flying snake ( leaning toward raising it from an egg).
Currently, I'm playing a Ghostwise Halfling and using the UA ranger rules to test out a "Nightglider" class. Therefore, in keeping with the limited lore on the subject, I chose a Giant Owl. My DM is willing to see how it plays for the sake of homebrewing this class, but if I recall there is something about the Giant Owl that makes it fall outside a strict interpretation of what animals are allowed.
The Giant Owl is Large. Both the UA:Revised Ranger and the PHB: BeastMaster both state <=CR:0.25 and <=Medium.
Giant Wasp (CR:1/2) and Pteradon (CR:1/4) are both Medium creatures.
The Preradon also has mostly the same stats of a Giant Owl.
I'd recommend adding feathers to the Pterandon and calling it an Owl if there are any balance worries.
Giant Owl has: +1 Size, +1 Str (no Str bonus), +2 Con, +6 Int, +4 Wis, +5 Cha, Keen Hearing/Sight, Training: Perception & Stealth, Darkvision: 120ft, -5 ft land speed, and knows 3 languages... the Giant Owl is significantly beefier then the Pterandon!
I'm developing a high level dwarven ranger npc character (believe it or not) and am not too savvy with a lot of dnd rules since it has been over 30 years since I last played. My dwarven npc lives along the coast and I would like to give him an aquatic companion such as a dolphin. Would this be doable? I'd like to get some advice if this would work or not.
I'm developing a high level dwarven ranger npc character (believe it or not) and am not too savvy with a lot of dnd rules since it has been over 30 years since I last played. My dwarven npc lives along the coast and I would like to give him an aquatic companion such as a dolphin. Would this be doable? I'd like to get some advice if this would work or not.
Hi grevicci, welcome to the D&D Beyond forums!
To answer your question, probably not. A dolphin may work in a nautical-themed campaign, but otherwise it's going to be bound to the water. It won't be able to travel or help your NPC on land whatsoever. To put it simply, it's severely limiting.
You could look into something that can function in the water, and on land. A giant crab springs to mind, or a blood hawk as a creature that potentially flies over the coast/water.
I have done a custom search on D&D Beyond's monster listing, to show you all the creatures tagged with the coastal or underwater environment, that are allowed by the rules of the Beastmaster subclass: Monster Listing
GIANT CRAB
behold the ultimate sea tank to drag your foes into the depths. also its just super funny
That would be fantastic!
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
For my first ranger I chose a wolf because I was a ranged ranger. In the first fight he was in ,he almost died, so in stead of using my gray die for Fluffy(my wolf) our paladin switched out the die for a red and gray die while I wasn't looking.
Had a Human Ranger that was raised by Dwarves, this was in the ancient times 2nd edition, they used a cross breed of dire boars and regular hogs as mounts. Any way Hellbent made friends with Bacon, the runt of the litter the spring before he sat out the next fall. He ended up being slated as breakfast due to his size, it bonded with the young Ranger while he was taking care of it and the others. He then asked if it could be spared and become his pet/companion. It turns out that with individual care he grew to the size of a Dire Boar, large enough or hum to ride he was 6'8". Now that the back story has been told I can tell you the fate of Hellbent and Bacon.
The DM was tired of the group not playing their characters in a consistent manner, with the exception of Hellbent I played him as a loud drunk in taverns and a down to business fighter on quests, created a party killer monster. His plan was to have Hellbent and Bacon survive the encounter to lead the new group to get revenge on the creature's master. Being a Ranger and using a bow Hellbent attacked on Bacon back as the Boar ran in circles around the creature he aimed at the center, this tactic was to help the group escaper since the creature was very slow moving or at least it walking speed was slow, Bacon was grabbed and was swallowed unfortunately Hellbent was using a war saddle which meant he too was grabbed and swallowed. As the group all ran, except the Paladin wanted to stay and fight but was forced to run to be able to protect his betrothed the parties thief. Hellbent threw down his bow and drew his Sword and dagger to do as much damage before dying as he could while Bacon just started to gore the closest thing to him. As the party ran away they could here shouts of things like good Bacon bite him back and this Bacon isn't going to go down well at all. The DM them came up with a secondary plan to kill the rest of the party by having an ancient Red Dragon sense the magic and investigate it. putting the group between the creature and the Dragon. Needless to say the creature choked to death on its own blood, Hellbent and Bacon. the Dragon killed the party to retrieve the magic Items. we then built new characters and the group disbanded the next time we played.
Displacer beast modded off the panther template
I have adapted a Blink Dog for my wife's ranger...
My character calls it her "Wargoat". It's really just a medium size Goat with mostly standard goat stats (skinned off a mashup of Goat/Boar template). It's a size category bigger than her so it's her mount with a little saddle and all.
Currently, I'm playing a Ghostwise Halfling and using the UA ranger rules to test out a "Nightglider" class. Therefore, in keeping with the limited lore on the subject, I chose a Giant Owl. My DM is willing to see how it plays for the sake of homebrewing this class, but if I recall there is something about the Giant Owl that makes it fall outside a strict interpretation of what animals are allowed.
Not my character, but I am running a homebrew pirate based campaign. My friend's Merfolk (in my universe they can walk on two legs but move at 25 spd because of flipper feet) Ranger has a Mishipeshu (an aquatic panther from North American mythology). Basically a reskinned panther with a swim speed instead of a climb speed and is amphibious.
My ranger's companion will be a flying snake (with feathered wings, not bat-like wings). I make this distinction so I can make sure that his/her diet will be fruits. Still trying to figure out if it's a boy or a girl, what it's name will be, and at what age my ranger obtains her flying snake ( leaning toward raising it from an egg).
Thanks for the tip!
I'm developing a high level dwarven ranger npc character (believe it or not) and am not too savvy with a lot of dnd rules since it has been over 30 years since I last played. My dwarven npc lives along the coast and I would like to give him an aquatic companion such as a dolphin. Would this be doable? I'd like to get some advice if this would work or not.
To answer your question, probably not. A dolphin may work in a nautical-themed campaign, but otherwise it's going to be bound to the water. It won't be able to travel or help your NPC on land whatsoever. To put it simply, it's severely limiting.
You could look into something that can function in the water, and on land. A giant crab springs to mind, or a blood hawk as a creature that potentially flies over the coast/water.
I have done a custom search on D&D Beyond's monster listing, to show you all the creatures tagged with the coastal or underwater environment, that are allowed by the rules of the Beastmaster subclass: Monster Listing
Site Rules & Guidelines - Please feel free to message a moderator if you have any concerns.
My homebrew: [Subclasses] [Races] [Feats] [Discussion Thread]