doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
That does seem to be the more common (though not exclusive) play experience.
It really makes me wonder how a house rule that all "recharge on short rest" abilities are multiplied by three and recharge on a long rest instead would work. Has anyone actually played with something like that? I'm sure it would be a bit uneven, but the disparity between long rest and short rest classes is probably my biggest complaint about 5e at this point.
I think making Short Rests shorter, or simply being freer with them, is a better solution. If Warlocks at 5th level have 6 3rd level slots, and more At-Will abilities than most, they’ll just past the normal power level, and be able to do stuff like use all their slots for the day in one fight, and still be pretty effective in the other fights of the day.
We're already got summoners. We already have polymorph. We've already got people who can cast wish. If that power isn't enough to cover a decent 2nd melee combatant then I can't conceive of the power levels you want.
Exactly. Include some spells for the Beast Master, scale the pet HP better*, give the pet proficiency in all saves, and it’s good to go. It doesn’t need to put out PC level damage to be viable, it just needs to put out some damage, and be able to stay alive. if the Ranger can then choose to use spells to boost the pet rather than do other stuff, or spend an Action to heal the pet without a spell slot, or spend a level 2 slot to revive the pet, etc, it gets more effective without the character as a whole being more powerful than other characters.
Hell, even letting the Ranger cast spells that target “self” on the pet within 100ft would help. That fireball is less scary if the ranger can use a reaction to cast Absorb Elements on the pet.
*Gaining more hit points with levels doesn’t increase the pet’s power level, it just keeps it the same. For this reason, all pets should gain an HD every time their Master gains a level, regardless of class. No one else has to lose power when they multiclass. HP and damage scale together, therefor not gaining more HP with a level is a loss of power.