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Beastmaster's animal companion: can it survive for 2 rounds?
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<blockquote data-quote="Olgar Shiverstone" data-source="post: 6372162" data-attributes="member: 5868"><p>Which, sadly, just lends weight to the "Why take an animal companion when you can just buy a dog for 25 gp?" crowd, since that's the same outcome.</p><p></p><p>A archetypal class feature should provide a bit more IMO than a mechanic any other character can easily access. Insufficient playtesting of this feature is my guess.</p><p></p><p>Right now, I'm thinking an easy fix might be to change the mechanic to read: "You gain a bonus action to direct your animal companion to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage, Dodge, or Help action. On a turn where you do not direct your companion, it continues to perform the last command given until that is no longer possible, at which time it takes the Dodge action until directed otherwise." I think that preserves the action economy while making the companion a bit more useful than just another trained animal, and makes it more defensive. Of course, now the 7th level expansion needs tweaking since RAW we just usurped that ... perhaps the 7th level fix is "On any turn when you and your companion use the Attack action against the same opponent, you each gain advantage on your first attack."</p><p></p><p>Edit: After comparing to other options like TWF, <em>spiritual weapon</em> and paladin. fighter, and rogue class abilities, I've come to the conclusion that this would be balanced even allowing the attack as a bonus action at 3rd level. Text above is edited to reflect that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Olgar Shiverstone, post: 6372162, member: 5868"] Which, sadly, just lends weight to the "Why take an animal companion when you can just buy a dog for 25 gp?" crowd, since that's the same outcome. A archetypal class feature should provide a bit more IMO than a mechanic any other character can easily access. Insufficient playtesting of this feature is my guess. Right now, I'm thinking an easy fix might be to change the mechanic to read: "You gain a bonus action to direct your animal companion to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage, Dodge, or Help action. On a turn where you do not direct your companion, it continues to perform the last command given until that is no longer possible, at which time it takes the Dodge action until directed otherwise." I think that preserves the action economy while making the companion a bit more useful than just another trained animal, and makes it more defensive. Of course, now the 7th level expansion needs tweaking since RAW we just usurped that ... perhaps the 7th level fix is "On any turn when you and your companion use the Attack action against the same opponent, you each gain advantage on your first attack." Edit: After comparing to other options like TWF, [i]spiritual weapon[/i] and paladin. fighter, and rogue class abilities, I've come to the conclusion that this would be balanced even allowing the attack as a bonus action at 3rd level. Text above is edited to reflect that. [/QUOTE]
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Beastmaster's animal companion: can it survive for 2 rounds?
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