I would say the the biggest thing to lookout for is BA conflict. Commanding the drake means you wont be casting any BA spells or dual wielding or using crossbow expert BA attacks. Some (but not all) Players are frustrated by this.
The second issue would be if they summoned the drake too early and it "times out" before being useful. Usually not an issue but it could happen if a player expects combat when its a information waypoint. I can think of several AL adventures that could set this up.
Bonus action. My bad for not typing it out. Hunters mark, dual wielding, and several other spells are bonus actions. The drake (and new pets in general) take a bonus action to command.
In my game I have a 2nd Level Druid who multi'd over to Ranger who will be taking Drakewarden in the next session or two. I've already looked over the new Summon Beast spell available to Rangers via Tasha's and I'm curious what you all might think of that spell being used in concert or to supplement draconic gift. Mechanically speaking summoned beast doesn't change at all, just skinned to be "drake like" (land based, aquatic, or avian, draconic in appearance though not stature), though we do have a Sorcerer who could learn Dragon Breath. I think this is a "neat" possibility to flavor this character as inspired by draconic energies/magics, but haven't yet looked at the idea critically.
Not sure what to say about pros and cons. Pro you can summon a drake? Con you can't summon a swarm? Dunno, every player will haver their own list of pros and cons for any subclass. As DM it should only matter whether the subclass is going to break anything and that's a clear no for the Drakewarden. The Drake itself is solid but doesn't do anything without the Ranger using their Bonus Action and the usual bonus damage feature Ranger subclasses get at level 3 uses the Drake's Reaction.
I think I see the action economy a bit differently re: the Draconic Companion's reaction. To my reading the companion's reaction does not require the spending of the Ranger's bonus action. Rather, the only action the drake has listed, bite, requires command via bonus action. Movement and bestowing or using its reaction belong to the drake and managed by the player, but not taking the bonus action from the character, if that makes sense. So really, the companion can do a lot on its own, except bite.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Not sure what to say about pros and cons. Pro you can summon a drake? Con you can't summon a swarm? Dunno, every player will haver their own list of pros and cons for any subclass. As DM it should only matter whether the subclass is going to break anything and that's a clear no for the Drakewarden. The Drake itself is solid but doesn't do anything without the Ranger using their Bonus Action and the usual bonus damage feature Ranger subclasses get at level 3 uses the Drake's Reaction.
I think I see the action economy a bit differently re: the Draconic Companion's reaction. To my reading the companion's reaction does not require the spending of the Ranger's bonus action. Rather, the only action the drake has listed, bite, requires command via bonus action. Movement and bestowing or using its reaction belong to the drake and managed by the player, but not taking the bonus action from the character, if that makes sense. So really, the companion can do a lot on its own, except bite.
I never said you need to use your Bonus Action to use the Drakes Reaction.
I apologize if you feel my attempt to establish clarity somehow offended you. I did say "I think I see the action economy a bit differently" which I can only read as a polite introduction to a differing point of view. When you write "The Drake itself is solid but doesn't do anything without the Ranger using their Bonus Action" and within the same sentence you write "the usual bonus damage feature Rangers subclasses get at level 3 uses the Drake's Reaction" you've made the latter subordinate to the prior language, meaning the reaction fits into your broad term of "do(ing) anything). That may sound pedantic but when discussing RAW even in UA I don't see how you couldn't recognize my questioning of your interpretation any thing but a fair inference. Wasn't trying to be hostile, just bouncing a point of view and open to the possibility that there was either mis-phrasing on your part or I may be missing something on the action economy. It's hard to say "you never said" when it's there in your writing.
I'll just assume my interpretation of the rules is accurate.
When one says "I never" when they clearly did, as indicated, any rhetorical analysis calls that expression "defensive." You say never, I showed you how it's easy for your reader to misunderstand your muddied interpretation of the Drake's action economy, everything else was just what a rhetorician would call "politeness."
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Look, you interpreted my words wrong. Happens to all of us at times. Going circles and being pedantic just for sake of it is neither constructive nor interesting. So do you have anything useful to contribute or is that all you have to say?
In my game I have a 2nd Level Druid who multi'd over to Ranger who will be taking Drakewarden in the next session or two. I've already looked over the new Summon Beast spell available to Rangers via Tasha's and I'm curious what you all might think of that spell being used in concert or to supplement draconic gift. Mechanically speaking summoned beast doesn't change at all, just skinned to be "drake like" (land based, aquatic, or avian, draconic in appearance though not stature), though we do have a Sorcerer who could learn Dragon Breath. I think this is a "neat" possibility to flavor this character as inspired by draconic energies/magics, but haven't yet looked at the idea critically.
Not sure what to say about pros and cons. Pro you can summon a drake? Con you can't summon a swarm? Dunno, every player will haver their own list of pros and cons for any subclass. As DM it should only matter whether the subclass is going to break anything and that's a clear no for the Drakewarden. The Drake itself is solid but doesn't do anything without the Ranger using their Bonus Action and the usual bonus damage feature Ranger subclasses get at level 3 uses the Drake's Reaction.
I think I see the action economy a bit differently re: the Draconic Companion's reaction. To my reading the companion's reaction does not require the spending of the Ranger's bonus action. Rather, the only action the drake has listed, bite, requires command via bonus action. Movement and bestowing or using its reaction belong to the drake and managed by the player, but not taking the bonus action from the character, if that makes sense. So really, the companion can do a lot on its own, except bite.
I'd say I had. I would say asking clarity between whether your claim that the Drake "can't do anything" without using the Rangers bonus action vs. free use of the reaction was actually useful to the thread because despite your protestations of "never" you did in fact say the Drake was incapable of doing anything without the Ranger's bonus action when actually the only thing the Drake can't do is bite. But you for whatever reason won't recognize that and persist with the defensive and now bordering on antagonistic language (pro tip, "look ... yada yada" is an effort to try to seize an impasse and persist in your bizarre refusal to admit you misspoke as illustrated. "do you have anything useful to add" is definitely at least bordering on an origin within a place of emotional exhaustion. I said my point regarding your ambiguity and assertion of my clarity and am from here I'll let it rest. I am curious about what people may think of using the drake warden's drake in conjunction with Tasha's beast summon spell now available to rangers, but as my quote shows I already said that and I apologize for having to repeat myself.
Lol what did I just stumble upon. Chill out MidnightPlat you are getting triggered for no good reason and it all started with you assuming way too much out of a simple, factual forum post. It's all good.
As for the Drake Warden OP, definitely just let them play it. I really like sfPanzer's idea of splitting up the hours of summons to allow its use during many parts of the adventuring day. Honestly, I wouldn't play it without something like that. I wouldn't be surprised if your player has this concept of having the Drake along for the ride all of the time and making it easier to budget out Drake time will make the experience much more player friendly.
Lol what did I just stumble upon. Chill out MidnightPlat you are getting triggered for no good reason and it all started with you assuming way too much out of a simple, factual forum post. It's all good.
As for the Drake Warden OP, definitely just let them play it. I really like sfPanzer's idea of splitting up the hours of summons to allow its use during many parts of the adventuring day. Honestly, I wouldn't play it without something like that. I wouldn't be surprised if your player has this concept of having the Drake along for the ride all of the time and making it easier to budget out Drake time will make the experience much more player friendly.
I'd leave sfpanzer's clear mistatement re: action economy if you didn't belabor my response as triggered. Assertion and direct examination of extant language is far from irrational or whatever you think "triggered" means. Sfpanzer made what I guess they thought was a "clear cut" call on a class feature's action economy which as I indicate actually muddies the clarity of the UA's own explanation.
I do wonder if the Drake Companion should be revised more in line with the steel defender or beast companions in terms of greater permanence. The features of the Drake companion may be an intentional compromise or half measure between the Ranger's Beast and the Artificer's steel companion in that the Drake Companion does have features the evolve over leveling as the steel companion does, while the beast doesn't really have feature growth ... so to prevent the Drake Warden from being OP'd relative to the revised Beast Master, impermanence is introduced. I can see the logic, if it was intended, I could also see this as accidental arrival. Not sure if it's balanced either way.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The Drake itself is solid but doesn't do anything without the Ranger using their Bonus Action and the usual bonus damage feature Ranger subclasses get at level 3 uses the Drake's Reaction.
Here's sfPanzer's "clear mistatement". Let's break it down shall we.
"The Drake itself is solid but doesn't do anything without the Ranger using their bonus action" A simplification since the Drake can dodge, but this is correct. If you want your Drake to take an action besides dodge, you have to spend your bonus action.
"AND the usual bonus damage feature Ranger subclasses get at level 3 uses the Drake's Reaction." This is equating the Drake's reaction Infused Strikes to things like Colossus Slayer out of other Ranger subclasses. An apt assessment.
I agree with you the syntax of the sentence is not perfect and could lead to confusing readings. It should probably just be two separate sentences. You derailed a thread to point this out. Not cool.
The Drake itself is solid but doesn't do anything without the Ranger using their Bonus Action and the usual bonus damage feature Ranger subclasses get at level 3 uses the Drake's Reaction.
Here's sfPanzer's "clear mistatement". Let's break it down shall we.
"The Drake itself is solid but doesn't do anything without the Ranger using their bonus action" A simplification since the Drake can dodge, but this is correct. If you want your Drake to take an action besides dodge, you have to spend your bonus action.
"AND the usual bonus damage feature Ranger subclasses get at level 3 uses the Drake's Reaction." This is equating the Drake's reaction Infused Strikes to things like Colossus Slayer out of other Ranger subclasses. An apt assessment.
I agree with you the syntax of the sentence is not perfect and could lead to confusing readings. It should probably just be two separate sentences. You derailed a thread to point this out. Not cool.
When discussing rules, syntax is very important. You don't want to create more ambiguity or a false interpretation. If you saw the clear context, my objection to his interpretation was more open handed beginning with a "I believe". And technically the only think the Drake can't really do are bite and tactical movement actions. It's not as listless as SFPanzer implies. My apologies if I present a rigor to my reading of rules discussions that SFPanzer finds difficult to discuss with an open as opposed to defensive mind, and you felt the need to intervene with a an effort at belittling through lol and misapplication of "trigger" in a discursive environment.
I simply inserted my interpretation contra his, and his response was a blunt "I never..."
Thread isn't derailed, I introduced speculation on Tasha's new Summons spells in league with this subclass, reskinned for flavor. And frankly, HZ, SFPanzer and I had agreed to disagree on our rhetorical opinions of each other until you arrived with a LOL. For someone who seems to have some sort of investment in people's online rhetoric, I got to say you didn't come across very mindful at all. Anyone can take the OP, or my thinking on the Drake Warden and run from there. We used to describe online phenomena as having a long tail...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'm currently playing this class in a campaign, and we just made level 6. I haven't gotten to experience some of the higher level things yet, but what a lot of people have been saying in this forum I agree with. The length of the drake's summon time is a little odd. It seems like there has been a push by WoC to make a lot more things tied to Prof. Bonus, but this one seems like something that's a little off. Possibly, an option I could see would be a reduction to the drake's HP, while having it be a regular creature that you could summon once per long rest, but ONLY once per long rest (no spell slot to resummon). This would increase the stakes of keeping it alive, since if you loose it early in the day you are without it until your next long rest. On a opinion only level (as someone that likes to deal damage), I also partially disagree with costing the drake's reaction to apply the draconic essence. Many things seem to be pushing a unbalanced comparison between various Ranger subclasses, eg: Gloom Stalker could allow an entire extra attack, possibly dealing an extra dice of weapon damage and 1d6 of hunters mark (possibly). There are multiple classes that require BA for certain features, such as Horizon Walker, and I have no problem with it costing a BA to command the drake, but I would change Draconic Essense to be "once per turn as long as the drake is summoned" rather than the reaction. If the Drakewarden's own essense is impacted enough to be able to summon this creature, that essense should be able to channel that power on their own.
Without having reached those levels yet, I don't feel like I can adequately talk about the higher levels, but let me know what you think of this possible changes.
Pros and Cons? My player is wanting to do it.
A New DM up against the World
I would say the the biggest thing to lookout for is BA conflict. Commanding the drake means you wont be casting any BA spells or dual wielding or using crossbow expert BA attacks. Some (but not all) Players are frustrated by this.
The second issue would be if they summoned the drake too early and it "times out" before being useful. Usually not an issue but it could happen if a player expects combat when its a information waypoint. I can think of several AL adventures that could set this up.
Sorry, BA?
A New DM up against the World
Bonus action. My bad for not typing it out. Hunters mark, dual wielding, and several other spells are bonus actions. The drake (and new pets in general) take a bonus action to command.
In my game I have a 2nd Level Druid who multi'd over to Ranger who will be taking Drakewarden in the next session or two. I've already looked over the new Summon Beast spell available to Rangers via Tasha's and I'm curious what you all might think of that spell being used in concert or to supplement draconic gift. Mechanically speaking summoned beast doesn't change at all, just skinned to be "drake like" (land based, aquatic, or avian, draconic in appearance though not stature), though we do have a Sorcerer who could learn Dragon Breath. I think this is a "neat" possibility to flavor this character as inspired by draconic energies/magics, but haven't yet looked at the idea critically.
I think I see the action economy a bit differently re: the Draconic Companion's reaction. To my reading the companion's reaction does not require the spending of the Ranger's bonus action. Rather, the only action the drake has listed, bite, requires command via bonus action. Movement and bestowing or using its reaction belong to the drake and managed by the player, but not taking the bonus action from the character, if that makes sense. So really, the companion can do a lot on its own, except bite.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I apologize if you feel my attempt to establish clarity somehow offended you. I did say "I think I see the action economy a bit differently" which I can only read as a polite introduction to a differing point of view. When you write "The Drake itself is solid but doesn't do anything without the Ranger using their Bonus Action" and within the same sentence you write "the usual bonus damage feature Rangers subclasses get at level 3 uses the Drake's Reaction" you've made the latter subordinate to the prior language, meaning the reaction fits into your broad term of "do(ing) anything). That may sound pedantic but when discussing RAW even in UA I don't see how you couldn't recognize my questioning of your interpretation any thing but a fair inference. Wasn't trying to be hostile, just bouncing a point of view and open to the possibility that there was either mis-phrasing on your part or I may be missing something on the action economy. It's hard to say "you never said" when it's there in your writing.
I'll just assume my interpretation of the rules is accurate.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
When one says "I never" when they clearly did, as indicated, any rhetorical analysis calls that expression "defensive." You say never, I showed you how it's easy for your reader to misunderstand your muddied interpretation of the Drake's action economy, everything else was just what a rhetorician would call "politeness."
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'd say I had. I would say asking clarity between whether your claim that the Drake "can't do anything" without using the Rangers bonus action vs. free use of the reaction was actually useful to the thread because despite your protestations of "never" you did in fact say the Drake was incapable of doing anything without the Ranger's bonus action when actually the only thing the Drake can't do is bite. But you for whatever reason won't recognize that and persist with the defensive and now bordering on antagonistic language (pro tip, "look ... yada yada" is an effort to try to seize an impasse and persist in your bizarre refusal to admit you misspoke as illustrated. "do you have anything useful to add" is definitely at least bordering on an origin within a place of emotional exhaustion. I said my point regarding your ambiguity and assertion of my clarity and am from here I'll let it rest. I am curious about what people may think of using the drake warden's drake in conjunction with Tasha's beast summon spell now available to rangers, but as my quote shows I already said that and I apologize for having to repeat myself.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Lol what did I just stumble upon. Chill out MidnightPlat you are getting triggered for no good reason and it all started with you assuming way too much out of a simple, factual forum post. It's all good.
As for the Drake Warden OP, definitely just let them play it. I really like sfPanzer's idea of splitting up the hours of summons to allow its use during many parts of the adventuring day. Honestly, I wouldn't play it without something like that. I wouldn't be surprised if your player has this concept of having the Drake along for the ride all of the time and making it easier to budget out Drake time will make the experience much more player friendly.
I'd leave sfpanzer's clear mistatement re: action economy if you didn't belabor my response as triggered. Assertion and direct examination of extant language is far from irrational or whatever you think "triggered" means. Sfpanzer made what I guess they thought was a "clear cut" call on a class feature's action economy which as I indicate actually muddies the clarity of the UA's own explanation.
I do wonder if the Drake Companion should be revised more in line with the steel defender or beast companions in terms of greater permanence. The features of the Drake companion may be an intentional compromise or half measure between the Ranger's Beast and the Artificer's steel companion in that the Drake Companion does have features the evolve over leveling as the steel companion does, while the beast doesn't really have feature growth ... so to prevent the Drake Warden from being OP'd relative to the revised Beast Master, impermanence is introduced. I can see the logic, if it was intended, I could also see this as accidental arrival. Not sure if it's balanced either way.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Here's sfPanzer's "clear mistatement". Let's break it down shall we.
"The Drake itself is solid but doesn't do anything without the Ranger using their bonus action" A simplification since the Drake can dodge, but this is correct. If you want your Drake to take an action besides dodge, you have to spend your bonus action.
"AND the usual bonus damage feature Ranger subclasses get at level 3 uses the Drake's Reaction." This is equating the Drake's reaction Infused Strikes to things like Colossus Slayer out of other Ranger subclasses. An apt assessment.
I agree with you the syntax of the sentence is not perfect and could lead to confusing readings. It should probably just be two separate sentences. You derailed a thread to point this out. Not cool.
When discussing rules, syntax is very important. You don't want to create more ambiguity or a false interpretation. If you saw the clear context, my objection to his interpretation was more open handed beginning with a "I believe". And technically the only think the Drake can't really do are bite and tactical movement actions. It's not as listless as SFPanzer implies. My apologies if I present a rigor to my reading of rules discussions that SFPanzer finds difficult to discuss with an open as opposed to defensive mind, and you felt the need to intervene with a an effort at belittling through lol and misapplication of "trigger" in a discursive environment.
I simply inserted my interpretation contra his, and his response was a blunt "I never..."
Thread isn't derailed, I introduced speculation on Tasha's new Summons spells in league with this subclass, reskinned for flavor. And frankly, HZ, SFPanzer and I had agreed to disagree on our rhetorical opinions of each other until you arrived with a LOL. For someone who seems to have some sort of investment in people's online rhetoric, I got to say you didn't come across very mindful at all. Anyone can take the OP, or my thinking on the Drake Warden and run from there. We used to describe online phenomena as having a long tail...
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The LOL was totally unnecessary. I'm sorry for that.
I'm currently playing this class in a campaign, and we just made level 6. I haven't gotten to experience some of the higher level things yet, but what a lot of people have been saying in this forum I agree with. The length of the drake's summon time is a little odd. It seems like there has been a push by WoC to make a lot more things tied to Prof. Bonus, but this one seems like something that's a little off. Possibly, an option I could see would be a reduction to the drake's HP, while having it be a regular creature that you could summon once per long rest, but ONLY once per long rest (no spell slot to resummon). This would increase the stakes of keeping it alive, since if you loose it early in the day you are without it until your next long rest. On a opinion only level (as someone that likes to deal damage), I also partially disagree with costing the drake's reaction to apply the draconic essence. Many things seem to be pushing a unbalanced comparison between various Ranger subclasses, eg: Gloom Stalker could allow an entire extra attack, possibly dealing an extra dice of weapon damage and 1d6 of hunters mark (possibly). There are multiple classes that require BA for certain features, such as Horizon Walker, and I have no problem with it costing a BA to command the drake, but I would change Draconic Essense to be "once per turn as long as the drake is summoned" rather than the reaction. If the Drakewarden's own essense is impacted enough to be able to summon this creature, that essense should be able to channel that power on their own.
Without having reached those levels yet, I don't feel like I can adequately talk about the higher levels, but let me know what you think of this possible changes.