Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 FrogReaver Aug 21, 2015 0:32:00	I'm going to use a Hunter Ranger as my baseline comparison.   The Hunter Ranger gets 4 Hunter Specific abilities.   Level 3 - Collosus Slayer or Horde Breaker Both are good abilities but nothing too spectacular   Level 7 - Escape the Horde or Multiattack Defense These abilities are nice but not really that great or important   Level 11 - Whirlwind or Volley Good multiattack abilities.  These can be very good in the right situations   Level 15 - Evasion Very good ability but comes later     Besides these 4 abilities the BeastMaster Ranger can do everything the Hunter can do.   Let's look at the basics.  Your beast will start out at about 12 hp at level 3 and will increase in hp from there.  Even if the beast does nothing else but take it's hp in damage every day then you have created a free damage sponge of hp value 4*RangerLevel.  By max level that's 80 hp.   To put this in perspective a level 3 Barbarian with 16 con has 35 hp.  A fighter with 14 con has 28 hp.  A rogue with 12 con has 21 hp.  A wizard with 10 con has 14 hp.   In the worst case this is about 1/3 of a characters hp.   At max level a full con barbarian will have about 245 hp.  A 16 con wizard will have 142 hp.  The animal companion will have 80 hp.  This comes out to about 1/3 of characters hp.   If the beast companion can do nothing else but absorb 1/3 the damage another character would then you have a pretty decent ability.       However, from level 7 on the beast can also use the help action as a bonus action when you use the attack action to attack.     Add to this that if the beast is just knocked unconscious you may be able to use a healing spell on it before it fails all its death saving throws and it isn't nearly as hard to fully get rid of as first thought.       I'm no longer convinced that the Hunter Ranger is strictly superior to the BeastMaster.  I'm starting to think the BeastMaster is comparable enough.
#2 shintashi Aug 21, 2015 7:13:50	you must be in low magic campaigns.   Scenario 1. Beast is charmed by an enchantress and sent to attack the ranger who commands them - or the low hp wizard Scenario 2. Beast is in same level appropriate Area Effect as Ranger, dies in 1st round. Scenario 3. Beast captured by Sadist who then proceeds to Game of Thrones Scruffy like Theon Greyjoy to demoralize Ranger.   let's focus on scenario 2. I was in a battle a few months back with my ranger, a barbarian, and a bladelock. The DM opened up with Fireball, then Cone of Cold, then if i recall, another Cone of Cold. We were about level 10-12. That gives Scruffy 40-48 hit points, and suffering 100 damage, save for 50. About 3-4 levels later, we fought tiamat, and were hit twice in one round with breath weapons. Cold and Acid, in my case. Those breath weapons were 139 damage, save for half. At 17-20th level, enemy spell casters can do nasty AOEs, like Meteor Swarm, which yields 140 damage save for 70. They can also thunder wave you and Scruffy into a Prismatic wall, suffering Thunderwave damage of 9, plus 175 wall damage, save for half. At level 3, a spell caster can AOE scruffy with Shatter for 3d8 damage. On a high roll, that's 24, save for 12.   Now, in my recent low level game im playing in, the DM has been using AOE radius elemental undead (his own mad concoction) where we take about 2 dice per round, save for half from some element, such as fire, or if we are wearing metal armor, lightning, and so on. He also made the aoes overlap for damage, so if you had 2 zombies, it would be something like 4 dice. Our Monk kept going down to 0 during melee and had to be repeatedly brought back by the cleric and paladin. Pets are melee, so any kind of damage radiant or mind control radius monster, or monster than inflicts damage by being touched, is also going to do serious harm to the pet.   i wouldn't be able to argue with your baseline defense, which is good, for the beastmaster, if i didn't literally suffer so many aoe attacks in virtually every game session I played. We were always outnumbered, swarmed, or blasted. There was that one side reel where we went hunting for a purple worm to get some poison. In that scenario, you take poison damage plus bite/swallow and digestion damage. While it wasn't aoe, practically everyone without range got hit and two were swallowed. The poison damage was awful.   Basically, the DM you have a pet in, would have to be much kinder than the ones I deal with. Simply being in our presence in battle would get your pet killed. And after you got your next pet, it would die. And the next, and the next... Actually, I think this is the dynamic a lot of us concluded. In some cases, monsters might specifically target your pet. Attack animals are targeted in real life by criminals and law enforcement alike. In fantasy games, summoned creatures are targeted for destruction early on in battle to eliminate any numerical advantage. Having a wild animal might mean they get targeted because they are mistaken for a shapeshifted druid, or a druid summons. They might even be targeted because the normal versions of them are easier to kill, so the monsters will try to dispatch them quickly because they look weak and easy.
#3 Jamwes Aug 21, 2015 8:40:30	I'm a fan of the beast being a mount for a small character and would like to play one at some point. The small character gets improved speed by riding the mount, and a medium sized mount won't be hampered by being in a dungeon. If you're a ranged character, your beast can bite instead of you having to put your (x)bow away or you can just disengauge at 7th level. If you're a melee character you can use a lance at 10 feet or let the beast bite if the enemy closes to 5 feet, but that shouldn't happen often since you can hit and run with reach and increased speed. The mounted combat feat will also go a long way towards keeping the beast alive as well.   FrogReaver wrote:
#4 Jamwes Aug 21, 2015 8:57:56	shintashi wrote:
(Reply to #2) FrogReaver	shintashi wrote: