Chaosmancer
Legend
Thought about increasing the Con more, but I figured if I was actually playing that character, I wouldn't bother too much. Getting the increased wisdom for better scouting fits more with what I would use the hawk for. It was a point I was debating a lot though.
The spells themselves are pretty much direct fixes to the problems that have been reported about the PHB Beastmaster.
At the cost of one spell and your concentration slot you can actually act on the same turn your companion does. A beastmaster will either find this neccessary (so they can feel like a complete character) or too high of cost and never take it. Additionally, lasting single minute means they will need to redo it every battle. This comes at the cost of Hail of Arrows or Hunter's Mark, and if we compare to the Hunter just in terms of damage, it is kind of ridiculous. Compare to the Wizard's Familiar for utility and it is also egregious.
It is a "fix" to the complaint that hurts them more than the problem itself, even with me acknowledging that PHB Beastmasters can attack twice by 5th level, unlike Revised Beastmasters.
I moved this here because it is the improved version of the Command beast spell, and it sure does a lot. Jumps a beasts Hp up to 160 (if using PHB), gives it a +3 to all attacks, increases its AC by a total of 7 points (Giving your average beast an AC of 26) and it is hasted... which other than the AC and bonus to Dex saves is kind of worthless since it doesn't have it's own actions to take. I guess the idea is that you command it to attack and it will attack twice instead of once, plus increasing a speed from "faster than most of the party" to "really faster than most of the party". Looking like a big 4d4+22 from the Wolf which is poor damage at 17th level.
Other than being hasted is doesn't help any saves though, which might hurt a lot. It's powerful, but worth it? I'm not sure when compared to whatever tricks the 17th level ranger has gathered up. Best used to make a big tank to soak attacks from enemies, since dodging with that kind of AC makes you really hard to hit.
Back to 1st level... A spell to give a squishy target 4 hp is not going to get chosen, especially since the ranger can't get many spells and can never forget a spell they learned to learn a different spell. This will never be worth it when compared to Cure Wounds, Hunter's Mark, or Fog Cloud.
Interestingly, the 2nd level one is far more useful than the 4th level one in most circumstances. As a ranger, if I took that spell, I would hold back a 2nd level slot constantly for that usage, and then I would have no need for the 4th level slot. Also, any healing spell can do the same thing as long as the beast has not failed their death saves.
But again, Ranger spellcasting is highly limited, and this takes the place of spells that the ranger might otherwise use. And, in the face of the Revised Ranger ability to simply perform a ritual to resummon the spirit of their companion, why would I accept these instead of that? I am assuming as well that their is some sort of material component cost, since all spells which reverse death have a material cost to them.
A second level spell that will get cast... almost never. You have the choice between giving +1 to hit and damage to one of your weakest damage dealers, increasing the AC by 2 which might be worth it, but a second level slot is a lot for that, or increasing their DCs, by 3 or more.
So, the DC one is likely the most powerful effect, but your companion needs to have a DC ability to begin with, and it needs to be worth the increase. Increasing the spider's DC so that it is more likely to deal an extra 2d6 of poison isn't really worth it, and unless you've cast the spell twice, your spider's hp and AC are kind of low for it to be scuttling into melee range.
By the way, at this point, let us look at what you may get. Take you standard wolf companion. Using your rules and assumptions, a 5th level ranger is going to cast a 1st and 2nd level spell to make sure their companion can attack seperate from them and that their 20 hp, 16 AC wolf has a save DC of 14 Str to avoid being proned.
Meanwhile, at my table, using the revised ranger the Beastmaster is casting no spells, gets their companion attacking seperately and has a wolf with 22 hp, 16 AC, and a DC 12 save with a potential for any of those being a point or two higher from the ability score improvement. Also, despite the PHB ranger getting two attacks, the Revised Ranger has the Wolf making an attack on it's turn and as a reaction on your turn. Very similiar game state, and they have lost no spell selections or spell slots.
At the time you get this, you are looking at a CR 2 creature, and since it is limited to beasts in the native area... most of what you are going to find is actually likely to be CR 1. An improvement over what you have, sure, but this cost you permanently knowing this 3rd level spell instead of something else like Conjure Animals, which can bring a CR 2 creature to the battle that is not native to the area, and can fight in addition to what you are doing and does not replace your current companion. Or, it can create a large crowd of lower CR creatures to provide aid in a variety of other ways.
Also, I have to wonder, if a DM offered this spell, they are clearly fine with the Ranger getting a CR 2 or higher companion at higher levels, because that is the entire point of that spell... why would they not then rule with the vague language of the PHB rules on replacing your companion that you can bond with a higher CR creature? Then, you get the benefit of this spell, without losing out on other options. And if the DM doesn't want you to have a higher CR companion... they simply won't offer this spell. It seems relatively pointless to me.
The additional points are nice, but I note that is the exact same number of points that you would get going with the Revised Ranger up to level 13 when you get this spell. It is also a spell you will only cast once, which again hurts the ranger to take a spell that they can't switch out that they will only use one time.
And other than the ability points, the only ability this has is the exact same as the level 2 Beast Sense spell, only permanent. Which, that is nice sure, but by this point you've got plenty of other ways to scout, or have been using Beast Sense for the past 10 levels, and it isn't going to actually help you out all that much.
I know you are offering these as alternatives to the Revised Ranger, and I get that UA stuff tends to be better... but what I mostly see in your spells is an attempt to do the exact same things the Revised Beastmaster does, only do it worse because it costs spells known and spell slots along with concentration slots to maintain. Maybe I'm the wrong guy to review these, but I just don't see why I would ask someone to go this route instead of using the UA.
The only reason I would have liked it to see print (and I doubt this is the same reason [MENTION=12731]CapnZapp[/MENTION] has) is that I would have liked a more official place to turn to. I have the Revised Ranger in my binder full of optional material and when a player is making their ranger character I'm going to have to stop them from looking at the PHB and dismissing it by letting them know that somewhere in my ratty binder is a better solution.
A printed book might have gotten tossed into the pile of books people can look at, and then I wouldn't have to direct them, they would see it themselves. It is a minor annoyance, but it is an annoyance all the same.
