| #1Amaroq64Oct 18, 2014 2:42:15 | Heya. I'm playing D&D for the first time, 3.5, and I like wolves. So I wanted a class that would let me fight alongside them. (Rather than just cast from the back while they fight.) So I picked a ranger.
But rather than just get a wolf, I wanted a powerful wolf, so I planned out the first five levels of my character to get me a Dire Wolf at level 5. Here's what I've got so far:
I'm at Ranger Level 4 so far. Human ranger, so I got an extra feat at level 1.
Feats I've taken:
Level 1: Skill Focus (Handle Animal), Weapon Finesse.
Level 3: Natural Bond
Relevant skills I've taken:
Survival is at 4, and Handle Animal is at 4. (I'll push it up to 8 for level 5.)
What I'll do at Level 5:
Take a level of Beastmaster. I've read that when doing math, you're allowed to interpret it in the way that most benefits you, so it'll work like this:
Effective druid: 2 (from ranger level 4) + 3 (from Natural Bond, up to max character level (5)) + 4 more (adding on the beastmaster dip after the prior math) = Effective Druid Level 9.
Take a Dire Wolf, which gets -6 to effective druid level.
9-6 = 3. So since my effective druid level for the pet is now lower than my character level, Natural Bond will never hit the cieling after it's all said and done. (And if it did, I could do the math in the way that most favors me to push past that cieling.) So at level 5, I have a pet that a level 9 character would have.
The way it is now, I'm starting to think maybe it was a bad decision picking ranger, because if I want good animal companions, I'm going to be constantly picking up feats to improve them since they only scale halfway with ranger's levels. But I'll keep going with what I've got and try my best.
One thing I'd like to know is how exactly beastmaster works. I thought I understood its additional animal companions at first, but it turns out I didn't. Your first animal companion is at current Druid level + Beastmaster + 3. But your next animal companion is only at Beastmaster level -3???
So if I were Druid 5, Beastmaster 4, I would have two animal companions? One at Druid Level 12, and one at Druid Level 1!? I'd been going on the assumption that it would be exactly the same as my first one, just -3, but I re-read it and was really disappointed. That seems like a HUGE indescrepancy between one animal companion and the next. Even for a class that's about taking multiple animal companions, they're still going to make it so that you only have one that has any effectiveness, and the rest are just garbage?
I've been looking at feats, maybe or maybe not outside of 3.5 since our DM is leniant on where we get the feats from. I already have Natural Bond (3.5) and chose to have it applied to my main companion (when I get one). The text of it seems to suggest you can only take it once, and it only applies to one companion.
Other feats I've looked at are Boon Companion (Pathfinder) and Improved Animal Companion (3.5e). Boon Companion adds 4 druid levels (up to a cieling of your class level) to one animal companion. You can take this more than once and it just has to apply to a different animal companion each time. Improved Animal Companion seems really good. The text suggests that it simply applies globally to the Animal Companion ability, which sounds like it boosts all animal companions you have.
However, I'm not sure if it's even worth it going three additional levels into Beastmaster for an animal companion that will be at 11 druid levels lower than my other one. I had been under the assumption it would only be 3 druid levels lower, but I seem to have been mistaken. I was planning on just buffing them with the feats I mentioned here, but if there's such a huge indescrepency between my first companion and my next one, then it doesn't even seem to be worth it.
What do you guys think? Maybe I can ask the DM to let druid levels stack with additional beastmaster animals, but I don't know if he'd do that.
P.S. (I'm also considering dipping two levels into fighter after I take my one level in Beastmaster. I'd like to get Weapon Focus (Rapiers) and Improved Weapon Finesse (Rapiers) to go with my Weapon Finesse feat from before without sacrificing the feats I take every three levels for it.. So I'll be going in two-handed with a Finessable weapon and doing good damage alongside my animal companion(s). I'll also be using heal light wounds once I get it to simultaneously heal myself and my animal companion(s) if we take damage while we fight.)
I know, I'm trying to pull my character in too many different directions at once. Dipping fighter seems to be an efficient way to do that without having to sacrifice feats to one thing or the other. (Due to bonus fighter feats.)
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| #3StevenOOct 19, 2014 20:17:41 | I believe Tempest has done a good job showing you a number of your errors:
1. Beastmaster requires you have 8 ranks of Handle Animal BEFORE you could enter it. This means you need to HAVE at least five levels before you can choose to add the level of Beasmaster. Although you may have the XP required to be 5th-level you are not actual a 5th-level character until you have added a class you can legally have.
2. Natural Bond requires the Animal Companion ability before, or as, it is taken. The Ranger doesn't get the companion until Ranger4. IF you earned a feat at that time you could add Natural Bond as you'd get the companion by selecting the class.
3. I'm guessing we could argue how levels in Ranger and Beastmaster plus Natural Bond would stack. My take is that is [(ranger lvl/2) + (Beastmaster lvl +3)] + up to 3 not to exceed HD. The 'druid level' from Beastmaster in NOT treated as "beastmaster level" with the class providing an additional +3 bonus but rather has it all lumped together for the class. IF Beastmaster had an ability that said something like "Enhanced Animal Companion: Treat your effective druid level as if it were +3 higher," then you could argue for stacking Natural Bond before that extra kick but as it is the Beastmaster is just treated like a higher level Druid.
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