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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: 6372591" data-attributes="member: 5868"><p>That's certainly as good a choice as what I suggest; possibly better as feats are pretty valuable. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That suggests that a beastmaster is slightly better off with a non-TWF style, while the TWF is slightly better off with the Hunter style. I think that's OK -- it's a reasonable choice either way, without an option being clearly superior -- and it's now the player's choice which option comes into play rather than a choice forced by poor design.</p><p></p><p>Again, it's not just a fighting style we're comparing to -- look at the alternatives other classes offer at similar level ranges. I keep going back to <em>spiritual weapon</em>, which has more effective combat use than the animal companion right now since its duration is effectively a full encounter. Sure, it doesn't have an out of combat use unlike a companion, but then as a spell its only a tiny fraction of a class feature compared to the animal companion which is the defining class feature of one of the two ranger archetypes. In context the spell could probably use a duration reduction to, say, 1 round per spell slot level used.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The trip DC is pretty low at 11 for the wolf and mastiff -- that's a straight 50/50 roll for a STR 10 opponent. The panther's 5% tougher, and has pounce to boot. Most of the time, though, especially fighting higher level opponents, that trip won't come off. The wolf would probably be a bit more equal if its bite attack were in the 1d6+3 range rather than 2d4+2, but I don't think they wrote the beast stats with animal companions in mind!</p><p></p><p>A tweak to that might be that the beast can't use a special attack if commanded as a bonus action -- you have to use your Action to get that -- though now the rule is getting a little clunky.</p><p></p><p>Edit: Another approach might be just to provide "generic" beast stats (e.g. AC 13, HP 12, STR/DEX etc, ATK +4 @ 1d6+3) and let the player call the beast whatever he or she wants. That way you have something designed to be balanced as a bonus action ability from the start. It prevents someone from putting out a supplement down the road that has a CR 1/4 velociraptor with a 2d6 pouce attack and poisoned fangs, or something similar.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Olgar Shiverstone, post: 6372591, member: 5868"] That's certainly as good a choice as what I suggest; possibly better as feats are pretty valuable. That suggests that a beastmaster is slightly better off with a non-TWF style, while the TWF is slightly better off with the Hunter style. I think that's OK -- it's a reasonable choice either way, without an option being clearly superior -- and it's now the player's choice which option comes into play rather than a choice forced by poor design. Again, it's not just a fighting style we're comparing to -- look at the alternatives other classes offer at similar level ranges. I keep going back to [i]spiritual weapon[/i], which has more effective combat use than the animal companion right now since its duration is effectively a full encounter. Sure, it doesn't have an out of combat use unlike a companion, but then as a spell its only a tiny fraction of a class feature compared to the animal companion which is the defining class feature of one of the two ranger archetypes. In context the spell could probably use a duration reduction to, say, 1 round per spell slot level used. The trip DC is pretty low at 11 for the wolf and mastiff -- that's a straight 50/50 roll for a STR 10 opponent. The panther's 5% tougher, and has pounce to boot. Most of the time, though, especially fighting higher level opponents, that trip won't come off. The wolf would probably be a bit more equal if its bite attack were in the 1d6+3 range rather than 2d4+2, but I don't think they wrote the beast stats with animal companions in mind! A tweak to that might be that the beast can't use a special attack if commanded as a bonus action -- you have to use your Action to get that -- though now the rule is getting a little clunky. Edit: Another approach might be just to provide "generic" beast stats (e.g. AC 13, HP 12, STR/DEX etc, ATK +4 @ 1d6+3) and let the player call the beast whatever he or she wants. That way you have something designed to be balanced as a bonus action ability from the start. It prevents someone from putting out a supplement down the road that has a CR 1/4 velociraptor with a 2d6 pouce attack and poisoned fangs, or something similar. [/QUOTE]
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Beastmaster's animal companion: can it survive for 2 rounds?
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