So, our session's been going on for a few weeks, and our group's Ranger was keen on the idea of the Beastmaster for his third level archetype, until he discovered how... lackluster it seemed compared to the other Ranger options. I agreed that the Beastmaster's companion seemed a bit dead-weight in print, and looking through the forums and reddits and such, I noticed that it did suffer quite a bit in terms of both survivability and combat utility.
So, while my ranger player is leaning towards Gloom Stalker, I did some poking around, and noticed something on UA that caught my interest: The Animal Handler feat. While the Wisdom bonus and Animal Handling proficiency/expertise were nice, it was the last bit that held my attention: 'You can use a bonus action on your turn to command one friendly beast within 60 feet of you that can hear you and that isn’t currently following the command of someone else. You decide now what action the beast will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you issue a general command that lasts for 1 minute, such as to guard a particular area.'
Naturally, this piqued my interest, as this was almost directly a counter to perhaps the most limiting factor of a Beastmaster: The fact that the Ranger has to use an action to make his companion do much of anything in an encounter. For the cost of a bonus action, someone with this feat effectively could have ten turns of the given beast moving and attacking as per their instructions. So, now I'm thinking of doing a little house rule rework to make the Beastmaster more fetching a choice for my ranger's first DnD campaign, by using that feat's command-wording as a baseline, rather than the full-action cost that Beastmaster normally incurs.
Another idea I had was replacing the Exceptional Training feature at level 7 with something a little more relevant given this house-rework, as the Companion would be attacking more frequently: Allowing it to benefit from Hunter's Mark to a lesser degree by having its attacks count as magical, and perhaps adding a 1d6 rider to its attacks.
Level 11 seems to be alright as is, as does level 15. The only other thing I could think of would be giving it some more health as it levels, or more hit die to allow it better rests between encounters.
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Working on a supplement for the adventure-minded. A project including (and crediting) homebrew subclasses from the community, a world of my own design, premade characters, magic items, and even a prologue adventure to start things off!
Past and Current Characters: Morgann 'Duskspear' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Paladin/Fighter/Warlock; Ephemeral 'Skye' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Artificer; Zaldrick Lawscrip of Orzhov, Hobgoblin Wizard; Eremys Spydrun, Shadar'kai Monk; Cuchulainn, Wood Elf Blood Hunter.
At Level 5 your only sacrificing 1 attack to get your beast to attack. And at level 7 its just a bonus action to get it to do anything besides attacking. Then at level 11 it gets to attack twice so essentially the Beastmaster ranger has 3 attacks.
Giving it saving throw proficiency makes it more less and making its attacks magical tbh are 2 things that would make it so much better.
Worth pointing out that the errata that's coming out this month to coincide with the core book gift sets has two changes to the Beast Master:
If the animal companion isn't given any commands, it'll take the dodge action.
Its attacks will eventually count as magical (probably at 7th level, since that's when other classes get similar features.)
I don't have any real world experience with Beast Masters so I don't know how much survivability at high levels is a problem in practice. There are some ways to address that but they depend on the rest of the party being willing to help:
Worth pointing out that the errata that's coming out this month to coincide with the core book gift sets has two changes to the Beast Master:
If the animal companion isn't given any commands, it'll take the dodge action.
Its attacks will eventually count as magical (probably at 7th level, since that's when other classes get similar features.)
I don't have any real world experience with Beast Masters so I don't know how much survivability at high levels is a problem in practice. There are some ways to address that but they depend on the rest of the party being willing to help:
The class features for Cavalier Fighters, Ancestral Guardian Barbarians and Paladins (especially Oath of the Ancients.)
oh nice didnt know that was in the pipes.
Also if your a Small Race and you use it as a mount, if you take the Mounted Combat Feat it makes it much more survivable while your riding it. ((dex saves equal 0 on success and 1/2 dmg on failure.))
Beastmaster is so underpowered, I banned them and give any ranger subclass the beastmasters animal companion. There are some restrictions here and there, not more than one, if You lose one you have to level up, that kinda thing. The beastmaster just doesn't work, and rangers all used to get companions, so why not.
I think we have been handicapping the Beast Master by reading the archetype as the only things the animal companion can do. Reading the archetype as specific changes to the general rules gives rangers much more flexibility in how they can command the animal companion.
I just imported the revised ranger's beast conclave from UA. Haven't used it yet, but it looks strictly better (except being able to cast spells on yourself and companion at level 15 is lost).
I let my Beastmaster act freely with his companion as long as it makes sense that he could give it instructions. He picked a giant frog and generally uses it for utility; jumping, grappling etc. so I'm more than happy not to impose restrictions if it makes for interesting scenes. I was quite surprised when I first read that the Ranger must use his action to command his companion to attack, and it's only at level 11 that you gain a meaningful bonus to the companion attack.
Worth pointing out that the errata that's coming out this month to coincide with the core book gift sets has two changes to the Beast Master:
If the animal companion isn't given any commands, it'll take the dodge action.
Its attacks will eventually count as magical (probably at 7th level, since that's when other classes get similar features.)
Those fixes are still pretty lame. I would assume that simple self-preservation would make the animal dodge anyway, rather than simply stand there and get hit. At the very least, it should default to helping the Ranger.
Personally, I dropped any requirement of using an action or bonus action to command the beast. If you can yell a sentence to your companions as a free action, you should be able to yell "Mungo, kill that orc!" for free too. If people think that's overpowered, the beast should at least continue following the command without further action (i.e., once you tell Mungo to kill that orc, he will keep attacking until it's dead, at which point you will need to blow another action/bonus action/whatever to tell it to do something else).
I would suggest what a couple people already have and check out the Ranger Revised UA for the Beastmaster. It's a much better build including things like:
Your animal companion has it's own turn in initiative order.
You don't have to spend your action commanding it.
Your animal companion increases it's proficiency bonus, AC, hit dice, and stats with your character.
The creature gains two skills of your choice and proficiency in all saving throws
The upper level abilities are pretty good too, but they basically completely overhauled companion's bond, so your animal companion could be a lot more effective.
Yeah, I finally got around to peeking at the UA revised ranger, and I think I'm going to be using that. Definitely going to be fun. x3
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Working on a supplement for the adventure-minded. A project including (and crediting) homebrew subclasses from the community, a world of my own design, premade characters, magic items, and even a prologue adventure to start things off!
Past and Current Characters: Morgann 'Duskspear' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Paladin/Fighter/Warlock; Ephemeral 'Skye' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Artificer; Zaldrick Lawscrip of Orzhov, Hobgoblin Wizard; Eremys Spydrun, Shadar'kai Monk; Cuchulainn, Wood Elf Blood Hunter.
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So, our session's been going on for a few weeks, and our group's Ranger was keen on the idea of the Beastmaster for his third level archetype, until he discovered how... lackluster it seemed compared to the other Ranger options. I agreed that the Beastmaster's companion seemed a bit dead-weight in print, and looking through the forums and reddits and such, I noticed that it did suffer quite a bit in terms of both survivability and combat utility.
So, while my ranger player is leaning towards Gloom Stalker, I did some poking around, and noticed something on UA that caught my interest: The Animal Handler feat. While the Wisdom bonus and Animal Handling proficiency/expertise were nice, it was the last bit that held my attention: 'You can use a bonus action on your turn to command one friendly beast within 60 feet of you that can hear you and that isn’t currently following the command of someone else. You decide now what action the beast will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you issue a general command that lasts for 1 minute, such as to guard a particular area.'
Naturally, this piqued my interest, as this was almost directly a counter to perhaps the most limiting factor of a Beastmaster: The fact that the Ranger has to use an action to make his companion do much of anything in an encounter. For the cost of a bonus action, someone with this feat effectively could have ten turns of the given beast moving and attacking as per their instructions. So, now I'm thinking of doing a little house rule rework to make the Beastmaster more fetching a choice for my ranger's first DnD campaign, by using that feat's command-wording as a baseline, rather than the full-action cost that Beastmaster normally incurs.
Another idea I had was replacing the Exceptional Training feature at level 7 with something a little more relevant given this house-rework, as the Companion would be attacking more frequently: Allowing it to benefit from Hunter's Mark to a lesser degree by having its attacks count as magical, and perhaps adding a 1d6 rider to its attacks.
Level 11 seems to be alright as is, as does level 15. The only other thing I could think of would be giving it some more health as it levels, or more hit die to allow it better rests between encounters.
Working on a supplement for the adventure-minded. A project including (and crediting) homebrew subclasses from the community, a world of my own design, premade characters, magic items, and even a prologue adventure to start things off!
Past and Current Characters: Morgann 'Duskspear' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Paladin/Fighter/Warlock; Ephemeral 'Skye' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Artificer; Zaldrick Lawscrip of Orzhov, Hobgoblin Wizard; Eremys Spydrun, Shadar'kai Monk; Cuchulainn, Wood Elf Blood Hunter.
At Level 5 your only sacrificing 1 attack to get your beast to attack. And at level 7 its just a bonus action to get it to do anything besides attacking. Then at level 11 it gets to attack twice so essentially the Beastmaster ranger has 3 attacks.
Giving it saving throw proficiency makes it more less and making its attacks magical tbh are 2 things that would make it so much better.
Worth pointing out that the errata that's coming out this month to coincide with the core book gift sets has two changes to the Beast Master:
I don't have any real world experience with Beast Masters so I don't know how much survivability at high levels is a problem in practice. There are some ways to address that but they depend on the rest of the party being willing to help:
oh nice didnt know that was in the pipes.
Also if your a Small Race and you use it as a mount, if you take the Mounted Combat Feat it makes it much more survivable while your riding it. ((dex saves equal 0 on success and 1/2 dmg on failure.))
Beastmaster is so underpowered, I banned them and give any ranger subclass the beastmasters animal companion. There are some restrictions here and there, not more than one, if You lose one you have to level up, that kinda thing. The beastmaster just doesn't work, and rangers all used to get companions, so why not.
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
I think we have been handicapping the Beast Master by reading the archetype as the only things the animal companion can do. Reading the archetype as specific changes to the general rules gives rangers much more flexibility in how they can command the animal companion.
I just imported the revised ranger's beast conclave from UA. Haven't used it yet, but it looks strictly better (except being able to cast spells on yourself and companion at level 15 is lost).
I let my Beastmaster act freely with his companion as long as it makes sense that he could give it instructions. He picked a giant frog and generally uses it for utility; jumping, grappling etc. so I'm more than happy not to impose restrictions if it makes for interesting scenes. I was quite surprised when I first read that the Ranger must use his action to command his companion to attack, and it's only at level 11 that you gain a meaningful bonus to the companion attack.
Level 7 you spend your bonus action to have it use the help action. So a bonus action for advantage isn't a bad trade off.
Honestly the beastmaster isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. There are a lot of garbage subclasses out there as well.
The beast will be the strongest of its kind so people should compare it to that and not so much lvl 15 barbarians.
Those fixes are still pretty lame. I would assume that simple self-preservation would make the animal dodge anyway, rather than simply stand there and get hit. At the very least, it should default to helping the Ranger.
Personally, I dropped any requirement of using an action or bonus action to command the beast. If you can yell a sentence to your companions as a free action, you should be able to yell "Mungo, kill that orc!" for free too. If people think that's overpowered, the beast should at least continue following the command without further action (i.e., once you tell Mungo to kill that orc, he will keep attacking until it's dead, at which point you will need to blow another action/bonus action/whatever to tell it to do something else).
I would suggest what a couple people already have and check out the Ranger Revised UA for the Beastmaster. It's a much better build including things like:
The upper level abilities are pretty good too, but they basically completely overhauled companion's bond, so your animal companion could be a lot more effective.
Yeah, I finally got around to peeking at the UA revised ranger, and I think I'm going to be using that. Definitely going to be fun. x3
Working on a supplement for the adventure-minded. A project including (and crediting) homebrew subclasses from the community, a world of my own design, premade characters, magic items, and even a prologue adventure to start things off!
Past and Current Characters: Morgann 'Duskspear' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Paladin/Fighter/Warlock; Ephemeral 'Skye' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Artificer; Zaldrick Lawscrip of Orzhov, Hobgoblin Wizard; Eremys Spydrun, Shadar'kai Monk; Cuchulainn, Wood Elf Blood Hunter.