D&D 5E Ranger

[Juriel]

Actually if one choses a Giant Badger as thier companion, the attacks go up, because it inhereintly has multiattack.

That'd be nice. If it had any AC or HP for more than the first turn. That poor AC 10.

Giant Crab is a medium beast of 1/8 CR, who has AC 15 and can grapple for free with its attack. It could potentially tank two guys, one for each claw.

Giant Poisonous Snake is a medium beast of 1/4 CR, who has AC 14 and adds 3d6 poison damage to its attack.

Small Rangers could get fly from their beast, picking Wasp or Pteranodon, etc.

 

[Chriscdoa]

double post

 

[gyor]

Buy the Giant Badger some Plate Barding then.

And yeah the Giant Crab is my favourite of the possible companions, dude look that guys got crabs mawhahahaha!

 

[Juriel]

Buy the Giant Badger some Plate Barding then.

Whoooaaaa, good point. Plate barding would give him AC 18 (but cost 6k and reduce his speed to 20ft), chain barding would cost just 300 and give no penalties for AC 16.

 

[Bryk]

Very much this. It just seems like an okay (definitely not strong) class got two defining chunks split off from it.

There could be a specific Beast Master archetype, but that should be the one that buffs your beast into a goddamn tyrannosaurus of awesome.

With Animal Handling, Nature and Survival being split into their own three skills, it definitely seems like someone hates Rangers.

I disagree with the hating of Rangers, them along with Rogues and Bards I believe are the only many multiple skill classes, and the Ranger gets these options from outside of their background. Making it split into 3 makes it much easier to control and give the advantage to Rangers as they have multiple skills to select at the start versus say a Fighter/Barbarian which could perhaps only take 1. Making it so that Rangers are in fact better at all 3 of the major aspects of being a Ranger (the wisdom part at least). So not only do Rangers naturally have a higher wisdom, but they also have access to these skills.

This enforces that Rangers make the best Rangers.

 

[evilbob]

Don't know if this has been mentioned much (probably has) but one nice thing about your animal companion is that at level 7 it can use the Help action for a bonus action on your turn. This doesn't synergize well with a TWF style, but a bow or sword-and-board ranger can get advantage on one of their two attacks every round. That seems pretty big.

Also the meat shield for an archery-styled ranger is pretty nice, especially since your companion moves for no action (on your part).

Overall, I think people are selling these things a bit short, especially since you can replace your animal companion the next day if it gets killed. It's bonus HP, additional target, and many of them do a good job of inflicting status effects. Something that can trip your opponent to set you up for your melee attack is pretty nice.

 

[variant]

I blame the spell casting for not being able to have a decent pet. If they had left out all the spells, the base ranger and subclasses could have all been improved.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I get that, that's why I gave you a solution. Restrict the beast companion to a 1/8 CR companion at level 3 without proficiency to attack and damage and a 1/4 CR companion at level 11 with proficiency to attack and damage. Let the Ranger control the beast companion for free.

If I were DMing, I'd put a lot more restrictions on a non-beast companion pet. They might not decide to follow you into a dungeon and might run off in combat unless you took actions to keep it there.

Well that's fairly reasonable then. The animal companion is unusually loyal and willing to stay in the fight, while it might even take an action to keep animals that aren't animal companions from bolting. Sort of the 3e difference between a warhorse and a riding horse.

 

[Deltabeoulve]

Soo....give Barkskin to the Badger and its at AC 16 + Prof bonus. That's not bad and its got the best damage outright.

 

[variant]

Soo....give Barkskin to the Badger and its at AC 16 + Prof bonus. That's not bad and its got the best damage outright.

What does Barkskin do exactly?