The Mahout: Basic Class Information

The Mahout (over on EN5ider) is a new class for 5th Edition, a tamer of monsters, a character with a special bond with their devoted pet, whether that be a beast, an exotic aberration, a slime, or even a draconic creature. Also includes the Animalist subclass (two more subclasses, the Monstrous and Oddball appear next month), and four introductory monster tricks. By Erik Evjen and Mike Myler; illustrated by Joyce Maureira.

​

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Finally an end to the Beastmaster debate!

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Is the any magic item like pokeballs to catch monster and these to be summoned in monster duels later?

Do remember animals have got better senses than humans, and a dog smelling an intruder in the night can make a difference, or a bird traveling to the balcon of the princess to send a message or a magic item with a rune of teletransportation.

 

[Mike Myler]

Finally an end to the Beastmaster debate!

Perhaps! Erik and I are really excited about getting everything in this class working at a perfect pitch--the Advanced article for the mahout is definitely appropriately called Advanced and I'm biting off my fingernails over here waiting to see how the EN5ider crowd feels about it. Glad folks are digging the beast mahout!

Is the any magic item like pokeballs to catch monster and these to be summoned in monster duels later?

Do remember animals have got better senses than humans, and a dog smelling an intruder in the night can make a difference, or a bird traveling to the balcon of the princess to send a message or a magic item with a rune of teletransportation.

There are no pokeballs and mahouts only get the one pet--at 18th level they can train a backup pet though, and some sort of magic item (minimum rarity of rare) to have a variety of pets could be very cool but would need to have some drawbacks (other archetypes get access to a list of creatures potentially more dangerous than the average animal).

 

[Hurin70]

Finally an end to the Beastmaster debate!

What was the debate?

If it was over the name, I much prefer Beastmaster to Mahout, since Beastmaster is more generic and not so closely tied to Indian culture.

 

[Hurin70]

Nothing against Indian culture by the way, I just would prefer the name be more generic so it can fit in any setting. I wouldn't want Ninjas in a game set in ancient Rome, nor Centurions in a game set in feudal Japan.

 

[Mike Myler]

Nothing against Indian culture by the way, I just would prefer the name be more generic so it can fit in any setting. I wouldn't want Ninjas in a game set in ancient Rome, nor Centurions in a game set in feudal Japan.

I can see that but I think most things named ____master are cop-outs and that it's more enriching for everybody to include a real world analogy in game mechanics. Also they aren't as widely known as samurai, ninja, centurions, cowboys, and the like and in those cases I like to think people eventually at some point google "mahout" and learn something in so doing. Probably not all that common of an occurrence but hey--nobody's stuck sitting there with a ____master class.

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

Nothing against Indian culture by the way, I just would prefer the name be more generic so it can fit in any setting. I wouldn't want Ninjas in a game set in ancient Rome, nor Centurions in a game set in feudal Japan.

A bit of irony there in that most of the official class names are not at all generic but rather very specific to settings based on medieval Europe?

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

I can see that but I think most things named ____master are cop-outs and that it's more enriching for everybody to include a real world analogy in game mechanics. Also they aren't as widely known as samurai, ninja, centurions, cowboys, and the like and in those cases I like to think people eventually at some point google "mahout" and learn something in so doing. Probably not all that common of an occurrence but hey--nobody's stuck sitting there with a ____master class.

It's my opinion that your argument for a real world analogy works more in favor of naming a sub-class rather than a full class. Despite the grief that I gave Hurin88 I more or less agree with his position on more generic names working better for a base class.

If we were to have this base class alongside the Ranger sub-class, I think the term "Mahout" would work better for the sub-class which is focused very much on animals, similar to how real world mahouts are very specifically elephant riders. The term "Beast Master" sounds much more appropriate for what you describe in this class which extends beyond just animals and includes monsters as well (the fact that "beast" refers to a specific category of creatures notwithstanding).

And even if you believe that the term _____ Master is a cop-out, something generic like "Wrangler" could fit the bill as well.

 

[Mike Myler]

Wrangler was on the maybe list beside mahout and got passed over because it's just not as inspiring--with a choice to be a wrangler or mahout, knowing the full breadth of the definition or not, one definitely sounds more exciting/intriguing than the other and that's what pushed it to the top of the pile.