Is it just me, or does the Echo Knight seem a lot like an improved Beast Master Ranger? One of the main benefits of the BM Ranger is the ability of the beast companion to be a source of flanking/opportunity attacks and creating better positioning for the Ranger. By changing the beast companion to what is basically a cantrip level but subclass specific phantom, Matt Mercer effectively made a large part of the beast companion's purpose obsolete. It doesn't matter if the Echo gets destroyed with one swipe or with one spell, b/c the Echo Knight just creates a new one next round. The Echo also improves the information gathering ability of the Echo Knight, which was one of the core reasons to get a small non-combat beasty. Now that is also largely obsolete. The only main benefit that the BM Ranger now has over the Echo Knight are the Ranger spells.
It seems to me that Mercer managed to take the weaknesses of the beast companion and wave that away by playing up the disposability of the Echo in his design of that subclass.
At this point, any fixes to the Beast Companion from WotC will have to compete with the Echo Knight in terms of utility, exploration, and combat assist-ability.
Not really, no. Echoes can't flank, whether they can benefit from feats like Sentinel (i.e. ignoring Disengage), Polearm Master, or Mobile is left unclear (i.e. up to the DM, meaning whether your class sucks or shines depends on the campaign). What's also unclear is whether you can use the regular Echo Knight features while in Echo Avatar (e.g. the teleportation). Per the designer, you can't, but I don't think the description says either way. Unleash Incarnation is limited, while Coordinated Attack isn't (although until you reach that limit the former is strictly better). Echo doesn't have anything remotely on par with Storm of Claws and Fangs.
Biggest flaw of the Beastmaster Ranger is that it's a Ranger subclass. Fix Ranger, and you're 75% of the way to fixing Beastmaster.
Is it just me, or does the Echo Knight seem a lot like an improved Beast Master Ranger? One of the main benefits of the BM Ranger is the ability of the beast companion to be a source of flanking/opportunity attacks and creating better positioning for the Ranger. By changing the beast companion to what is basically a cantrip level but subclass specific phantom, Matt Mercer effectively made a large part of the beast companion's purpose obsolete. It doesn't matter if the Echo gets destroyed with one swipe or with one spell, b/c the Echo Knight just creates a new one next round. The Echo also improves the information gathering ability of the Echo Knight, which was one of the core reasons to get a small non-combat beasty. Now that is also largely obsolete. The only main benefit that the BM Ranger now has over the Echo Knight are the Ranger spells.
It seems to me that Mercer managed to take the weaknesses of the beast companion and wave that away by playing up the disposability of the Echo in his design of that subclass.
At this point, any fixes to the Beast Companion from WotC will have to compete with the Echo Knight in terms of utility, exploration, and combat assist-ability.
Not really, no. Echoes can't flank, whether they can benefit from feats like Sentinel (i.e. ignoring Disengage), Polearm Master, or Mobile is left unclear (i.e. up to the DM, meaning whether your class sucks or shines depends on the campaign). What's also unclear is whether you can use the regular Echo Knight features while in Echo Avatar (e.g. the teleportation). Per the designer, you can't, but I don't think the description says either way. Unleash Incarnation is limited, while Coordinated Attack isn't (although until you reach that limit the former is strictly better). Echo doesn't have anything remotely on par with Storm of Claws and Fangs.
Biggest flaw of the Beastmaster Ranger is that it's a Ranger subclass. Fix Ranger, and you're 75% of the way to fixing Beastmaster.
To clarify, I think are you referring to the version of Beastmaster Ranger released as Unearthed Arcana? The "Revised Ranger", correct?