I'd recommend avoiding beastmaster. It's not very good. Most folks who want to be a beastmaster want a cool wolf or something to help you kick butt. In reality you lose out by having your pet do anything unless you pick a very small subset of pets.
Also, I see you have two battleaxes. You need a feat to dual wield those if that was your plan. You can use handaxes without a feat, but the battleaxe upgrade isn't legal. For a str based ranger, I'd try to get my STR to 16. I'd also add some kind of ranged offense. Sometimes you just struggle to get into melee range or have to deal with fliers who don't come down so you can whack them. Even if you usually smash things with an axe, having a plan B for ranged work will keep you from being super bored and frustrated in certain situations.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
If you want hil to go for beastmaster, do it. No it's not the best subclass, but the game is about RPing, character building and fun. If that us what you want him to be, do it.
They way you build him is very MAD ( multi ability dependant) and indeed 2 battleaxes requireq a feat. Handaxes do not and they can be thrown as well, so can javelins or even daggers.
An idea to reduce the amount of ability scores you need to balance could be to not invest in dex that much, get str up to at least 15 and take heavily armoured at lvl 4. It comes with a +1 str bonus and will take care of any armour issues low dex gives you. This leaves you with 3 more ASI to balance out your char. Depenss on the concept you have of your character though.
thanks for the input, i was trying to get away from the "legolas" ranger or the more archetypal classes and races so thought that a dragonborn beastmaster with a pet weasel (i love wolves but once again i was trying to go for the least obvious) would be something fun to build, and honestly i can't see a ranger, even though its a dragonborn just with one weapon (the Drizzt effect) hence the axes, ill make the change and see what i would do next with the abilities
I'd recommend avoiding beastmaster. It's not very good. Most folks who want to be a beastmaster want a cool wolf or something to help you kick butt. In reality you lose out by having your pet do anything unless you pick a very small subset of pets.
Also, I see you have two battleaxes. You need a feat to dual wield those if that was your plan. You can use handaxes without a feat, but the battleaxe upgrade isn't legal. For a str based ranger, I'd try to get my STR to 16. I'd also add some kind of ranged offense. Sometimes you just struggle to get into melee range or have to deal with fliers who don't come down so you can whack them. Even if you usually smash things with an axe, having a plan B for ranged work will keep you from being super bored and frustrated in certain situations.
That's so false. Have you seen the wolf and panther? Plus, my DM is thinking about letting me have a BLACK BEAR, so just ask your DM for the stuff your allowed. The panther is cool, especially as you could re-skin it as a mountain lion or something. Look at poisonous snake and constrictor (i know it's large so do what i said above: ask DM!!!), as they tie in well as your a dragonborn.
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'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
thanks for the input, i was trying to get away from the "legolas" ranger or the more archetypal classes and races so thought that a dragonborn beastmaster with a pet weasel (i love wolves but once again i was trying to go for the least obvious) would be something fun to build, and honestly i can't see a ranger, even though its a dragonborn just with one weapon (the Drizzt effect) hence the axes, ill make the change and see what i would do next with the abilities
thanks for the input, i was trying to get away from the "legolas" ranger or the more archetypal classes and races so thought that a dragonborn beastmaster with a pet weasel (i love wolves but once again i was trying to go for the least obvious) would be something fun to build, and honestly i can't see a ranger, even though its a dragonborn just with one weapon (the Drizzt effect) hence the axes, ill make the change and see what i would do next with the abilities
thanks for the input, i was trying to get away from the "legolas" ranger or the more archetypal classes and races so thought that a dragonborn beastmaster with a pet weasel (i love wolves but once again i was trying to go for the least obvious) would be something fun to build, and honestly i can't see a ranger, even though its a dragonborn just with one weapon (the Drizzt effect) hence the axes, ill make the change and see what i would do next with the abilities
Quote from crzyhawk >> I'd recommend avoiding beastmaster. It's not very good. Most folks who want to be a beastmaster want a cool wolf or something to help you kick butt. In reality you lose out by having your pet do anything unless you pick a very small subset of pets.
Also, I see you have two battleaxes. You need a feat to dual wield those if that was your plan. You can use handaxes without a feat, but the battleaxe upgrade isn't legal. For a str based ranger, I'd try to get my STR to 16. I'd also add some kind of ranged offense. Sometimes you just struggle to get into melee range or have to deal with fliers who don't come down so you can whack them. Even if you usually smash things with an axe, having a plan B for ranged work will keep you from being super bored and frustrated in certain situations.
That's so false. Have you seen the wolf and panther? Plus, my DM is thinking about letting me have a BLACK BEAR, so just ask your DM for the stuff your allowed. The panther is cool, especially as you could re-skin it as a mountain lion or something. Look at poisonous snake and constrictor (i know it's large so do what i said above: ask DM!!!), as they tie in well as your a dragonborn.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'd recommend avoiding beastmaster. It's not very good. Most folks who want to be a beastmaster want a cool wolf or something to help you kick butt. In reality you lose out by having your pet do anything unless you pick a very small subset of pets.
Also, I see you have two battleaxes. You need a feat to dual wield those if that was your plan. You can use handaxes without a feat, but the battleaxe upgrade isn't legal. For a str based ranger, I'd try to get my STR to 16. I'd also add some kind of ranged offense. Sometimes you just struggle to get into melee range or have to deal with fliers who don't come down so you can whack them. Even if you usually smash things with an axe, having a plan B for ranged work will keep you from being super bored and frustrated in certain situations.
That's so false. Have you seen the wolf and panther? Plus, my DM is thinking about letting me have a BLACK BEAR, so just ask your DM for the stuff your allowed. The panther is cool, especially as you could re-skin it as a mountain lion or something. Look at poisonous snake and constrictor (i know it's large so do what i said above: ask DM!!!), as they tie in well as your a dragonborn.
It's not false at all. Most pets do less damage than your weapon does. The pet uses your attack in order to make it's own attack. It's generally less accurate. If your DM lets you have your black bear, it's against the rules. He can certainly allow you to do it, but most DMs will not permit that.
EDIT: Yes I have seen panthers and wolves. Panther does D6+2. A 2h ranger is going to do 2d6 or 1d12+3. A dual wield ranger is doing to do D6+3 + d6+3 as a bonus action attack. A sword and shield ranger is going to do D8+5. Even if the panther pounces, it's still weaker than a DW ranger. Also, pet attacks do not trigger hunter's mark which costs the BM even more damage. Wolf does better damage than the panther does, but still less than the ranger will do without the pet attacks. The only thing that the wolf has going for it is advantage via pack tactics. It's nearly always going to be a better idea to swing your weapon than to swing your pet.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
thats why you go any ranger subclass but beast master. For most part beast is useless. Its one of the broken things with ranger. Lol. And I play a ranger currently
I've just started playing as a ranger (still level 1) , I also was thinking about beast master for the novelty of having a cool animal companion, but my character has allot of rogue in his personality, so I've decided to be a gloomstalker and just wait until I unlock 'summon beast' or even holdout for 'summon animals'. That way I get to be the outdoor explorer/beastmaster and a deadly dark assassin, will probably multiclass into rogue eventually too.
What I'm having a hard time deciding is my fighting style, two weapon or archer? Archer sounds like the obvious choice, but I do like the idea of using zephyr strike to dart about the battlefield with two swords. (I'm a white Dragonborn, the last thing one would expect to be stealthy and work in the shadows, hmmm, "The White Shadow" sounds like a cool nickname)
Don’t listen to those that hate the beast master. Number one, it’s not all about damage. Especially for a melee ranger. Blocking, absorbing attacks, opportunity attacks, keen senses, riders in attacks, it’s all great stuff. Some of the pets are better for combat than others. The damage is great, and their to hit is often better than the ranger’s, especially if the ranger is not maxing the attack stat.
Second. Work with your DM. Either make or alter a beast that is a little reptile or drake that is 1/4 CR or less, or use another beast and reskin it as what you want. The snakes and wolf are great. The panther is really great for mowing down minions and it can climb.
Those that hate the beast master don’t understand it.
Ah yes , the Drizzt effect! Fight it please. I love two weapon fighting and it can have a place but ranger is no longer that place most times. L2-4 the earliest you will normally get 2 attacks is round 2 as your bonus action is your second attack and that will be used for hunters mark. Your bonus actions will always be split not fully available because of important bonus action spells ( hunters mark, magic weapon) or abilities ( Horizon Walker’s Planar Warrior, etc). My current preference is sword and shield and the defense fighting style.giving you a +3 total to your AC over what it would have been dual wielding.
If you go with two weapon fighting go with either the Fey Wanderer or Swarm Keeper who add damage to your strikes without eating your bonus action. Also make good use of Favored Foe.
Ah yes , the Drizzt effect! Fight it please. I love two weapon fighting and it can have a place but ranger is no longer that place most times. L2-4 the earliest you will normally get 2 attacks is round 2 as your bonus action is your second attack and that will be used for hunters mark. Your bonus actions will always be split not fully available because of important bonus action spells ( hunters mark, magic weapon) or abilities ( Horizon Walker’s Planar Warrior, etc). My current preference is sword and shield and the defense fighting style.giving you a +3 total to your AC over what it would have been dual wielding.
The Drizzt thing is a whole mess. People think he's a beast master ranger. He isn't a ranger, and he sure isn't a beats master. That "companion" is a powerful magic item. (sheesh)
Two weapon fighting is more powerful than people give it credit for. All rangers are good at if because of the fighting style and the bumps all subclasses get. Two weapon fighting kind of has strange interactions with a ranger with hunter's mark, but the benefit is the damage output WITHOUT using a spell slot, and this is even better if you take favored foe. A sword with dueling fighting style, +4 to the attack stat, and hunter's mark (a limited resource, especially for a melee ranger because of concentration) does an average of 28 damage at level 5. A two weapon fighting ranger with two short swords, the fighting style and a +4 attack stat (also zero spell slot or concentration issues) does an average of 22.5 damage. That is 5.5 less than the sword version WITH hunter's mark up, but 1.5 more without hunter's mark up. So on paper it looks better in a perfect world, but over time with concentration checks it evens out. Favored foe is AMAZING for two weapon fighter's as it circumvents the entire bonus action issue.
No if you two weapon fight and have a big boss, a big single target that will last several rounds, hunter's mark really can work well with two weapon fighting. Think of it as a "jab, jab; uppercut combo. Two weapon fighting WITH hunter's mark at level 5 does 22 average damage on turn one, so you've lost nothing. Each turn after that, with concentration maintained and the same target hit, you are now dealing and average of 33 damage! That is a two turn average of 27.5 each turn, and gets better with each additional turn after that. So you deal good damage throughout the day, and great damage against the big boss using only a 1st level spell slot.
Also, many level 3 subclass ability boost damage. So a hunter ranger two weapon fighting is with colossus slayer is doing an average of 27 damage a turn using zero resources.
If you go with two weapon fighting go with either the Fey Wanderer or Swarm Keeper who add damage to your strikes without eating your bonus action. Also make good use of Favored Foe.
Hunter and both beast masters as well! A very valid tactic with both beast masters (but especially the handbook one) is to let them auto dodge, move and be placed tactically, and be setup to get in as many opportunity attacks as possible. All require zero bonus action or action form the ranger.
Thank you ED and FRGG for outlining when and where dual wielding works with the ranger. One thing for folks to note with this - it works best with single class rangers as you start to MC, especially into spell casting classes it shifts your focus and gives you more spell slots for things like hunters mark and magic weapon.
Don’t listen to those that hate the beast master. Number one, it’s not all about damage. Especially for a melee , ranger. Blocking, absorbing attacks, opportunity attacks, keen senses, riders in attacks, it’s all great stuff. Some of the pets are better for combat than others. The damage is great, and their to hit is often better than the ranger’s, especially if the ranger is not maxing the attack stat.
Second. Work with your DM. Either make or alter a beast that is a little reptile or drake that is 1/4 CR or less, or use another beast and reskin it as what you want. The snakes and wolf are great. The panther is really great for mowing down minions and it can climb.
Those that hate the beast master don’t understand it.
No, I understand it quite well. I know that its mathematically competitive when built properly. I also know that it's full of trap options for new players who don't know how to avoid them. It's easy for a DM to ruin a BM's experience. I hate the BM because it's the "gateway" to rangering, and it's very easy to build a BM that is unfun because poor choices abound for players who don't know how to avoid them.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Don’t listen to those that hate the beast master. Number one, it’s not all about damage. Especially for a melee , ranger. Blocking, absorbing attacks, opportunity attacks, keen senses, riders in attacks, it’s all great stuff. Some of the pets are better for combat than others. The damage is great, and their to hit is often better than the ranger’s, especially if the ranger is not maxing the attack stat.
Second. Work with your DM. Either make or alter a beast that is a little reptile or drake that is 1/4 CR or less, or use another beast and reskin it as what you want. The snakes and wolf are great. The panther is really great for mowing down minions and it can climb.
Those that hate the beast master don’t understand it.
No, I understand it quite well. I know that its mathematically competitive when built properly. I also know that it's full of trap options for new players who don't know how to avoid them. It's easy for a DM to ruin a BM's experience. I hate the BM because it's the "gateway" to rangering, and it's very easy to build a BM that is unfun because poor choices abound for players who don't know how to avoid them.
All of that, and, DMs who rule harshly on them.
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https://ddb.ac/characters/19064974/jJ1C2B
i feel like im missing something, i feel like hes a beastmaster but don't know what to do next. any help?
What do you need help with? Advice on building the character or actually building it using Dndbeyond?
I'd recommend avoiding beastmaster. It's not very good. Most folks who want to be a beastmaster want a cool wolf or something to help you kick butt. In reality you lose out by having your pet do anything unless you pick a very small subset of pets.
Also, I see you have two battleaxes. You need a feat to dual wield those if that was your plan. You can use handaxes without a feat, but the battleaxe upgrade isn't legal. For a str based ranger, I'd try to get my STR to 16. I'd also add some kind of ranged offense. Sometimes you just struggle to get into melee range or have to deal with fliers who don't come down so you can whack them. Even if you usually smash things with an axe, having a plan B for ranged work will keep you from being super bored and frustrated in certain situations.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
If you want hil to go for beastmaster, do it. No it's not the best subclass, but the game is about RPing, character building and fun. If that us what you want him to be, do it.
They way you build him is very MAD ( multi ability dependant) and indeed 2 battleaxes requireq a feat. Handaxes do not and they can be thrown as well, so can javelins or even daggers.
An idea to reduce the amount of ability scores you need to balance could be to not invest in dex that much, get str up to at least 15 and take heavily armoured at lvl 4. It comes with a +1 str bonus and will take care of any armour issues low dex gives you. This leaves you with 3 more ASI to balance out your char. Depenss on the concept you have of your character though.
thanks for the input, i was trying to get away from the "legolas" ranger or the more archetypal classes and races so thought that a dragonborn beastmaster with a pet weasel (i love wolves but once again i was trying to go for the least obvious) would be something fun to build, and honestly i can't see a ranger, even though its a dragonborn just with one weapon (the Drizzt effect) hence the axes, ill make the change and see what i would do next with the abilities
That's so false. Have you seen the wolf and panther? Plus, my DM is thinking about letting me have a BLACK BEAR, so just ask your DM for the stuff your allowed. The panther is cool, especially as you could re-skin it as a mountain lion or something. Look at poisonous snake and constrictor (i know it's large so do what i said above: ask DM!!!), as they tie in well as your a dragonborn.
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
Quote from crzyhawk >>
I'd recommend avoiding beastmaster. It's not very good. Most folks who want to be a beastmaster want a cool wolf or something to help you kick butt. In reality you lose out by having your pet do anything unless you pick a very small subset of pets.
Also, I see you have two battleaxes. You need a feat to dual wield those if that was your plan. You can use handaxes without a feat, but the battleaxe upgrade isn't legal. For a str based ranger, I'd try to get my STR to 16. I'd also add some kind of ranged offense. Sometimes you just struggle to get into melee range or have to deal with fliers who don't come down so you can whack them. Even if you usually smash things with an axe, having a plan B for ranged work will keep you from being super bored and frustrated in certain situations.
That's so false. Have you seen the wolf and panther? Plus, my DM is thinking about letting me have a BLACK BEAR, so just ask your DM for the stuff your allowed. The panther is cool, especially as you could re-skin it as a mountain lion or something. Look at poisonous snake and constrictor (i know it's large so do what i said above: ask DM!!!), as they tie in well as your a dragonborn.
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
It's not false at all. Most pets do less damage than your weapon does. The pet uses your attack in order to make it's own attack. It's generally less accurate. If your DM lets you have your black bear, it's against the rules. He can certainly allow you to do it, but most DMs will not permit that.
EDIT: Yes I have seen panthers and wolves. Panther does D6+2. A 2h ranger is going to do 2d6 or 1d12+3. A dual wield ranger is doing to do D6+3 + d6+3 as a bonus action attack. A sword and shield ranger is going to do D8+5. Even if the panther pounces, it's still weaker than a DW ranger. Also, pet attacks do not trigger hunter's mark which costs the BM even more damage. Wolf does better damage than the panther does, but still less than the ranger will do without the pet attacks. The only thing that the wolf has going for it is advantage via pack tactics. It's nearly always going to be a better idea to swing your weapon than to swing your pet.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
thats why you go any ranger subclass but beast master. For most part beast is useless. Its one of the broken things with ranger. Lol. And I play a ranger currently
I've just started playing as a ranger (still level 1) , I also was thinking about beast master for the novelty of having a cool animal companion, but my character has allot of rogue in his personality, so I've decided to be a gloomstalker and just wait until I unlock 'summon beast' or even holdout for 'summon animals'. That way I get to be the outdoor explorer/beastmaster and a deadly dark assassin, will probably multiclass into rogue eventually too.
What I'm having a hard time deciding is my fighting style, two weapon or archer? Archer sounds like the obvious choice, but I do like the idea of using zephyr strike to dart about the battlefield with two swords. (I'm a white Dragonborn, the last thing one would expect to be stealthy and work in the shadows, hmmm, "The White Shadow" sounds like a cool nickname)
Don’t listen to those that hate the beast master. Number one, it’s not all about damage. Especially for a melee ranger. Blocking, absorbing attacks, opportunity attacks, keen senses, riders in attacks, it’s all great stuff. Some of the pets are better for combat than others. The damage is great, and their to hit is often better than the ranger’s, especially if the ranger is not maxing the attack stat.
Second. Work with your DM. Either make or alter a beast that is a little reptile or drake that is 1/4 CR or less, or use another beast and reskin it as what you want. The snakes and wolf are great. The panther is really great for mowing down minions and it can climb.
Those that hate the beast master don’t understand it.
Ah yes , the Drizzt effect! Fight it please. I love two weapon fighting and it can have a place but ranger is no longer that place most times. L2-4 the earliest you will normally get 2 attacks is round 2 as your bonus action is your second attack and that will be used for hunters mark. Your bonus actions will always be split not fully available because of important bonus action spells ( hunters mark, magic weapon) or abilities ( Horizon Walker’s Planar Warrior, etc). My current preference is sword and shield and the defense fighting style.giving you a +3 total to your AC over what it would have been dual wielding.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
If you go with two weapon fighting go with either the Fey Wanderer or Swarm Keeper who add damage to your strikes without eating your bonus action. Also make good use of Favored Foe.
The Drizzt thing is a whole mess. People think he's a beast master ranger. He isn't a ranger, and he sure isn't a beats master. That "companion" is a powerful magic item. (sheesh)
Two weapon fighting is more powerful than people give it credit for. All rangers are good at if because of the fighting style and the bumps all subclasses get. Two weapon fighting kind of has strange interactions with a ranger with hunter's mark, but the benefit is the damage output WITHOUT using a spell slot, and this is even better if you take favored foe. A sword with dueling fighting style, +4 to the attack stat, and hunter's mark (a limited resource, especially for a melee ranger because of concentration) does an average of 28 damage at level 5. A two weapon fighting ranger with two short swords, the fighting style and a +4 attack stat (also zero spell slot or concentration issues) does an average of 22.5 damage. That is 5.5 less than the sword version WITH hunter's mark up, but 1.5 more without hunter's mark up. So on paper it looks better in a perfect world, but over time with concentration checks it evens out. Favored foe is AMAZING for two weapon fighter's as it circumvents the entire bonus action issue.
No if you two weapon fight and have a big boss, a big single target that will last several rounds, hunter's mark really can work well with two weapon fighting. Think of it as a "jab, jab; uppercut combo. Two weapon fighting WITH hunter's mark at level 5 does 22 average damage on turn one, so you've lost nothing. Each turn after that, with concentration maintained and the same target hit, you are now dealing and average of 33 damage! That is a two turn average of 27.5 each turn, and gets better with each additional turn after that. So you deal good damage throughout the day, and great damage against the big boss using only a 1st level spell slot.
Also, many level 3 subclass ability boost damage. So a hunter ranger two weapon fighting is with colossus slayer is doing an average of 27 damage a turn using zero resources.
Hunter and both beast masters as well! A very valid tactic with both beast masters (but especially the handbook one) is to let them auto dodge, move and be placed tactically, and be setup to get in as many opportunity attacks as possible. All require zero bonus action or action form the ranger.
Thank you ED and FRGG for outlining when and where dual wielding works with the ranger. One thing for folks to note with this - it works best with single class rangers as you start to MC, especially into spell casting classes it shifts your focus and gives you more spell slots for things like hunters mark and magic weapon.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
No, I understand it quite well. I know that its mathematically competitive when built properly. I also know that it's full of trap options for new players who don't know how to avoid them. It's easy for a DM to ruin a BM's experience. I hate the BM because it's the "gateway" to rangering, and it's very easy to build a BM that is unfun because poor choices abound for players who don't know how to avoid them.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
All of that, and, DMs who rule harshly on them.