Beastmaster Ranger feedback

[mighty gorge]

Hi,
One of my players wants to play beastmaster ranger, but as it is raw it's pretty weak compared to the other subclasses. So I made some changes to it to make it feel a bit stronger and hopefully be on par with the other subclasses.

The changes:
I've merged the optional and raw rules and tried to combine the best of both.
Added some spells.
Added skill training for the pets (to make them better suited for scouting for example, give the player a bit more freedom with what they wanna do with their companion)

Any and all feedback is welcome!

[lunar widget]

Tasha's Beast Master is actually not bad. Unless you're playing at an optimised table he should be fine with just the Tasha's version

[lunar widget]

The spells are alright, though probably wouldn't use most of them as a ranger (except maybe Polymorph and Sanctuary if I was using the beast like a familiar - help and run)

The Ranger's Companion is literally worse than Primal Companion - the feature from Tasha's. That's the main gripe most people have with that subclass.

Exceptional Training is neat, but you have to consider how many games actually get downtime. I'd take the original feature any day of the week in most campaigns.

Beastial Fury - same as original

Share Spells - same as original

[fresh jewel]

I'd rate this as far better than the PHB ranger but worse than the TCE ranger

Are the bonus spells intended to replace the TCE Primal Awareness bonus spells, or is this just using the PHB as a reference? Imo catnap seems a bit off theme but it's no biggie

[lunar widget]

Pretty sure Beast Master Spells are something akin to Gloom Stalker Spells

[fresh jewel]

You also have to take into account that the TCE Primal Companion also just gets the ranger's proficiency to all ability checks and saving throws out of the gate which is just better than exceptional training without any time or monetary cost

[fresh jewel]

I didn't want to assume 🙂

[lunar widget]

Yeah, I was judging the homebrew itself tho

[fresh jewel]

So was I!

[lunar widget]

That's why the first thing I said was that "The Ranger's Companion is literally worse than Primal Companion"

[fresh jewel]

The specificity was worth bringing up, so I did 🙂

[mighty gorge]

@lunar widget is correct about the spells, the bonus spells work in the same way the gloom stalker bonus spells work so the TCE bonus spells are still available on top of these if she wants to use them.

I might switch the exceptional training to just working the same way as the primal companion 🤔 and add something like a mental connection between the player and their companion (similar to find familiar)

Tbh i mainly picked catnap for the animal theme of it xD any suggestions for a 3rd lvl spell that might fit better? Fly could be a cool because she'll be using a flying companion

[lunar widget]

Conjure Animals

[mighty gorge]

That was the intention with those spells, basically give more flexibility to the playstyle

And we do have regular downtime, so it would probably be fine, but with the rest of the feedback it's honestly probably better to change it anyways

I kept the last 2 as they were because I think they're good enough the way that they are

[lunar widget]

Ok, but the main feature is still kinda garbage
Since it's most likely a frontlining animal it is gonna get hit
And it's a massive bother to go into a forest or sumn and tame an animal that you kinda want to be useful each time your companion dies

Like half the time you're gonna be a subclassless ranger

And not only that, all the training you put in is gonna get wasted

Also also I'm pretty sure it can really bog down the game having a whole side quest just for one player to be able to use their features

[mighty gorge]

That's actually a rlly good point

Might be fun the first time, but if it happens more often it'll get annoying

[fresh jewel]

@mighty gorge I can attest to this personally. As cool as it is, having actual animals, rather than the TCE approach of being technically summonable can really bring things down if they die a lot (which is quite likely)

Not saying you shouldn't do it, mind you! Just something to plan for

[lunar widget]

If you really want to keep the theme of taming animals what you could do is that once you tame the animal you bind / absorb its spirit or something and then you can summon one of the spirits you have under you once per day and with a spell slot on any subsequent summon

[mighty gorge]

Nono it's a good argument for sure

[mighty gorge]

I was thinking to maybe unlock a mission to have the "real" beast transform into a spirit form and after that it'll work like the TCE version. Just to give the player the feel of having an actual companion instead of a summon

That way you'll only have to do personal sidemission once, and I can probably build a cool mission around it that's interesting for the whole group

[lunar widget]

Well, depends on what your campaign actually is
It'd be kinda weird if there's a looming threat or something like that and the party goes on an almost completely unrelated sidequest

[mighty gorge]

The ranger will still be able to use the companion as before, so the sidequest doesn't have to have a huge priority. Doesn't have to be that big of a quest either, could be as simple as find animal X spirit and prove that you and your companion deserve this buff.
In the campaign I'm running rn they are about to finish the first miniboss and after that the group will have time for themselves, so in this campaign it wont be a problem at all to go and doe the sidequest

[lunar widget]

Well, having an actual companion is actually less of an issue if you have that
Considering when they die, which they absolutely will, they just die permanently - you're gonna be leaving a trail of corpses behind you if you actually have to go and find the animal

[mighty gorge]

Hahaha I should create a necromancer bbeg that just resurrects all of the rangers dead companions and used them against her 😂