The wording for a Ranger Beast Master Primal Companions' "actions" are confusing.
The level 3 subclass feature "Primal Companion" states:
"In combat, the beast acts during your turn. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes is the Dodge action,unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block orsome other action.You can also sacrifice one of your attacks when you take the Attack action to command the beast to take the Attack action. If you are incapacitated, the beast can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge."
So far so good!
Upon first reading it seems pretty clear that a Ranger can use it's bonus action to command your Primal Companion to take the Dash, Disengage or Help actions as these are all seem to qualify as "some other action".
The waters become muddied when you compare this to the 7th level Beast Master subclass feature "Exceptional Training" which states:
"Beginning at 7th level, on any of your turns when your beast companion doesn’t attack,you can use a bonus action to command the beast to take the Dash, Disengage, or Help action on its turn.
In addition, the beast's attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage."
The 7th level feature by making specific mention of the Dash, Disengage and Help actions would now seem to indicate that these actions were not intended to used as part of the bonus action commands that can be issued by a Ranger to it's primal companion prior to level 7.
Is this intended or is it a mistake? Is there supposed to be an overlap here and if not what is "some other action" in the level 3 subclass feature referring?
Personaly I would rule that a Ranger could use it's bonus action prior to level 7 to command it's Primal Companion to use the Dash, Disengage or Help actions as being unable to do this just makes sense thermatically to me but I wondered if anyone had seen any Sage advice or other clarification on this.
I think I've figured out where the confusion lies here and thought I would post it in case it helps anyone else who saw a contridiction here.
I have just realised that this is a hang over from when they added the "Primal Companion" as an alternative to the "Ranger Companion" in Tasha's.
To clarify, my reading is that a Primal Companion can Dash, Disengage or Help on a bonus action command prior to level 7 and that the 7th level feature is specifically referenceing the "Rangers Companion" and was not written with the "Primal Companion" in mind as it did not exist at that time.
Effectively that bit of the level 7 feature is redundant if you take the "Primal Companion" option at level 3 and you would just get the magical attacks added as your "Primal Companion" can already Dash, Disengage or Help as a bonus action.
Hope that helps some other people out when ruling on this interaction.
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The wording for a Ranger Beast Master Primal Companions' "actions" are confusing.
The level 3 subclass feature "Primal Companion" states:
"In combat, the beast acts during your turn. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. You can also sacrifice one of your attacks when you take the Attack action to command the beast to take the Attack action. If you are incapacitated, the beast can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge."
So far so good!
Upon first reading it seems pretty clear that a Ranger can use it's bonus action to command your Primal Companion to take the Dash, Disengage or Help actions as these are all seem to qualify as "some other action".
The waters become muddied when you compare this to the 7th level Beast Master subclass feature "Exceptional Training" which states:
"Beginning at 7th level, on any of your turns when your beast companion doesn’t attack, you can use a bonus action to command the beast to take the Dash, Disengage, or Help action on its turn.
In addition, the beast's attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage."
The 7th level feature by making specific mention of the Dash, Disengage and Help actions would now seem to indicate that these actions were not intended to used as part of the bonus action commands that can be issued by a Ranger to it's primal companion prior to level 7.
Is this intended or is it a mistake? Is there supposed to be an overlap here and if not what is "some other action" in the level 3 subclass feature referring?
Personaly I would rule that a Ranger could use it's bonus action prior to level 7 to command it's Primal Companion to use the Dash, Disengage or Help actions as being unable to do this just makes sense thermatically to me but I wondered if anyone had seen any Sage advice or other clarification on this.
I think I've figured out where the confusion lies here and thought I would post it in case it helps anyone else who saw a contridiction here.
I have just realised that this is a hang over from when they added the "Primal Companion" as an alternative to the "Ranger Companion" in Tasha's.
To clarify, my reading is that a Primal Companion can Dash, Disengage or Help on a bonus action command prior to level 7 and that the 7th level feature is specifically referenceing the "Rangers Companion" and was not written with the "Primal Companion" in mind as it did not exist at that time.
Effectively that bit of the level 7 feature is redundant if you take the "Primal Companion" option at level 3 and you would just get the magical attacks added as your "Primal Companion" can already Dash, Disengage or Help as a bonus action.
Hope that helps some other people out when ruling on this interaction.