Beast Master is such a cool concept, but the execution is very frustrating. In my opinion, the only thing holding it back is the fact that you have to spend a bonus action to tell your animal to do anything?!? Why has no one ever suggested just giving it it's own turn that you control??
The way it functions now is completely nonsensical, both from a roleplay and gameplay standpoint. It doesn't make sense that an animal bonded to you and summoned to aid you would WANT to just sit and dodge everything unless explicitly told otherwise, and even if it did, it doesn't make sense why that would take you an entire bonus action to issue a verbal command (a thing that is frequently given leeway throughout dnd to be done without an action at all, INCLUDING in the beast master subclass), you could easily give a command while striking with a sword or whatever.
From a gameplay standpoint, I mean come on, in a combat scenario, how is replacing your bonus action with a d6 ANYTHING but a straight up nerf? By the time you're level three, any spell will deal more dmg, including cantrips you could learn from magic initiate. Your big buff at level three is to have a strong incentive to permanently reduce your RANGER bonus action into a d6 damage. Or you can turn invisible, and have your freaking crab do freaking nothing for the next fifteen seconds.
GIVE IT ITS OWN TURN. Right after you go, your beast takes its own turn, and you determine what it does, where it goes, and what action it takes. Maybe you verbally command it, maybe you telepathically link, idc. Why is this not considered? Would this be too OP or something? This is what I would homebrew from level 3 on, if someone played a beastmaster in my campaign. A late game beast master like this would get to attack twice, cast steel wind strike or something, and then have their wolf buddy attack two more times. Is that not the sickest thing ever?? And the entire fantasy behind a beast master? And still the same number of attacks a monk can make? You can't tell me Drizzt Do'Urden jumps into a fray of dozens of goblins, slashes one of them, and then comes to a complete stop, points his finger, and says, "alright panther buddy, get that one." STUPID
IMO, as a DM, the strongest arguments against giving the beast its own turn are:
It would mean giving one player twice as much time in combat as everyone else. That can feel unfair for some of the other players and lead to things being less fun for someone.
It would mean giving one player twice as much time in combat as everyone else. That would be one more thing slowing down combat for everyone, which is already the slowest part of the game. That could lead things being less fun for someone.
It would mean giving one player twice as much time in combat as everyone else. That ends up being one more factor the DM has to track, and if whenever they lose track of stuff it bogs things down and then people start wondering what else might have gotten missed. That could lead things being less fun for someone.
Sure is, it's also incredibly broken power-wise. At 7th level this Ranger can: Action - attack 2x, Bonus Action - attack 1x, free action - have Summon Beast attack, + on a second turn have their beast attack 2x, for a total of 6 attacks, every turn. Plus you have in the battle (assuming CON of 14): 60 hp (Ranger), 35 hp (Companion), 25 hp (Summoned Beast) = 120 total hit points.
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Beast Master is such a cool concept, but the execution is very frustrating. In my opinion, the only thing holding it back is the fact that you have to spend a bonus action to tell your animal to do anything?!? Why has no one ever suggested just giving it it's own turn that you control??
The way it functions now is completely nonsensical, both from a roleplay and gameplay standpoint. It doesn't make sense that an animal bonded to you and summoned to aid you would WANT to just sit and dodge everything unless explicitly told otherwise, and even if it did, it doesn't make sense why that would take you an entire bonus action to issue a verbal command (a thing that is frequently given leeway throughout dnd to be done without an action at all, INCLUDING in the beast master subclass), you could easily give a command while striking with a sword or whatever.
From a gameplay standpoint, I mean come on, in a combat scenario, how is replacing your bonus action with a d6 ANYTHING but a straight up nerf? By the time you're level three, any spell will deal more dmg, including cantrips you could learn from magic initiate. Your big buff at level three is to have a strong incentive to permanently reduce your RANGER bonus action into a d6 damage. Or you can turn invisible, and have your freaking crab do freaking nothing for the next fifteen seconds.
GIVE IT ITS OWN TURN. Right after you go, your beast takes its own turn, and you determine what it does, where it goes, and what action it takes. Maybe you verbally command it, maybe you telepathically link, idc. Why is this not considered? Would this be too OP or something? This is what I would homebrew from level 3 on, if someone played a beastmaster in my campaign. A late game beast master like this would get to attack twice, cast steel wind strike or something, and then have their wolf buddy attack two more times. Is that not the sickest thing ever?? And the entire fantasy behind a beast master? And still the same number of attacks a monk can make? You can't tell me Drizzt Do'Urden jumps into a fray of dozens of goblins, slashes one of them, and then comes to a complete stop, points his finger, and says, "alright panther buddy, get that one." STUPID
IMO, as a DM, the strongest arguments against giving the beast its own turn are:
ifwhenever they lose track of stuff it bogs things down and then people start wondering what else might have gotten missed. That could lead things being less fun for someone.Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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Sure is, it's also incredibly broken power-wise. At 7th level this Ranger can: Action - attack 2x, Bonus Action - attack 1x, free action - have Summon Beast attack, + on a second turn have their beast attack 2x, for a total of 6 attacks, every turn. Plus you have in the battle (assuming CON of 14): 60 hp (Ranger), 35 hp (Companion), 25 hp (Summoned Beast) = 120 total hit points.