D&D 5E Beastmaster's animal companion: can it survive for 2 rounds?
It's fine. I (probably naively so) assume that the classes are fairly balanced in hthe fact that martial characters can use their features more regularly where as casters are more resource based.
I did find it interesting, and I guess it's a tangent, that you see subclass features as above class features in the "power hierarchy". For me subclasses are the flavour thrown in
I did find it interesting, and I guess it's a tangent, that you see subclass features as above class features in the "power hierarchy". For me subclasses are the flavour thrown in
BASHMAN
Basic Action Games
There is another important issue regarding the Animal Companion. A GM on here dismissed concerns of an animal companion's fragileness out of hand by saying "the monsters will focus on attacking other things". Okay. Does the monster's breath weapon carve out a nice bubble to not hit the Ranger's adjacent Animal Companion? Does the enemy wizard's fireball also likewise spare the poor pet. I'm assuming the answer is "no".
If the answer is no, AoE almost AUTOMATICALLY kills Animal Companions. A level 5 Animal Companion (let's say a wolf) has 20 HP and +2 Dexterity Save. A level 5 wizard's Fireball does 8d6 Dmg (average of 28 damage). The save DC will probably be at least 14. So the pet has a less than 50% chance of not being incinerated by it. And if the wizard's damage roll is high, even MAKING the save it could die, or be a few HP away from death.
It's also bad for a character concept having "disposable pets". Imagine the ranger's story: "I have my loyal wolf named Whisper. He's been my truest friend since childhood when I grew up among the people of the high steppes. In my background, he played a vital and important role on our previous adventures for years. But he died on my first adventure where I was a playable character. So I replaced him with Skippy the wolf. He died the next day. So I replaced him with Toby the mastiff. Wolves just wouldn't bond with me anymore for some reason. Toby bit the dust a few days later. That's when I got the next Mastiff. I didn't bother naming it this time. The kennel owner began offering a discount. Unfortunately the mastiff died, too. So now, I'm trying to lure an animal towards our camp so I can have another disposable companion for tomorrow's foray into a dungeon..." This is D&D, not Knights of the Dinner Table!
The pets SHOULD NOT BE DISPOSABLE. It wrecks character concept. It's your animal companion. By RAW, you replace them all the time (and you'll have to based on their durability)... why bother even naming them?
The pet should be durable, and not easily replaced. It should be an important part of your character.
If the answer is no, AoE almost AUTOMATICALLY kills Animal Companions. A level 5 Animal Companion (let's say a wolf) has 20 HP and +2 Dexterity Save. A level 5 wizard's Fireball does 8d6 Dmg (average of 28 damage). The save DC will probably be at least 14. So the pet has a less than 50% chance of not being incinerated by it. And if the wizard's damage roll is high, even MAKING the save it could die, or be a few HP away from death.
It's also bad for a character concept having "disposable pets". Imagine the ranger's story: "I have my loyal wolf named Whisper. He's been my truest friend since childhood when I grew up among the people of the high steppes. In my background, he played a vital and important role on our previous adventures for years. But he died on my first adventure where I was a playable character. So I replaced him with Skippy the wolf. He died the next day. So I replaced him with Toby the mastiff. Wolves just wouldn't bond with me anymore for some reason. Toby bit the dust a few days later. That's when I got the next Mastiff. I didn't bother naming it this time. The kennel owner began offering a discount. Unfortunately the mastiff died, too. So now, I'm trying to lure an animal towards our camp so I can have another disposable companion for tomorrow's foray into a dungeon..." This is D&D, not Knights of the Dinner Table!
The pets SHOULD NOT BE DISPOSABLE. It wrecks character concept. It's your animal companion. By RAW, you replace them all the time (and you'll have to based on their durability)... why bother even naming them?
The pet should be durable, and not easily replaced. It should be an important part of your character.
Savage Wombat
Hero
This is why 3.5 had animal companions and familiars with Improved Evasion. The simpler 5e rules don't cover that.
Giltonio_Santos
Hero
More HPs would solve that easily. Stronger against AoE, stronger against the hill giant.
Juriel
First Post
Beast only adds proficiency bonus to saves and skills it is proficient in.
And beasts aren't proficient in basically ANY saves, it seems.
Gargoyle
Adventurer
I touched on this, but you really did a good job of explaining why durability is important from the player's point of view, and you're right about AoE being a problem. Definitely something I'm fixing with house rules...just too bad I have to. Probably I'll give them improved evasion on top of allowing rangers to raise them and allowing them to take half their damage.
SilverfireSage
Explorer
So which edition would you want to revert back to to replace this feature? Pathfinder? Well that's no good, a ranger's animal companion is actually worse in Pathfinder than it is in 5E. At 5th level, the Ranger's animal companion will be the equivalent of level 2, as they get Druid -3. That means it has 3 hit die at a d8, giving them about 19 hit points. So just a tad bit worse, if you wanted to give them toughness as a feat that would give them just a tiny bit more. They wont have evasion at that level either, meaning they'll die just as fast. They'll also have no bonus to armor class, whereas a 5E one will have a +3 from the proficiency bonus, giving them a 16 compared to the Pathfinder version's 12. And in 5E, that 16 is far more impressive, equivalent to someone in chain mail! So to be quite honest I'm not sure what you're complaining about here. It's a wolf, it's always going to be less powerful than the characters. I ran an adventure for a ranger in Pathfinder at level 10 where their wolf died immediately from an attack with 39 hp (again, less than an equivalent 5E but whatever). Know what it died from? A well placed Fireball that it failed its save on.
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