Beastmaster Ranger up

[Rechan]

Martial Power Excerpts: Beastmaster Ranger

 

[Rechan]

Beast Mastery: You gain a beast companion, chosen from one of these categories: bear, boar, cat, lizard, raptor, serpent, spider, or wolf.

I wonder if "Raptor" is the dino kind, or the bird kind.

My instinct says dino, but then since dinosaurs have been renamed "Behemoths", I want to say no.

A beast companion’s species doesn’t affect its game statistics, which are based on its category and level.

I'll bet that the difference between beast stats are going to look similar to the Bag of Tricks; the stats are pretty similar, but each "beast" has an additional quality. The wolf may have a "knock foe prone", while the spider has an ongoing 5 poison attack, etc.

And under those loose definitions of the difference between beasts, I'm going to also suspect you could reskin them. If the spider only has a climb speed and a poison attack, then you could likely reskin it as a snake.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I wonder if "Raptor" is the dino kind, or the bird kind.

My instinct says dino, but then since dinosaurs have been renamed "Behemoths", I want to say no.

I'm almost positive they mean "predatory bird," since otherwise they've left birds off the list completely.

 

[Glyfair]

I wonder if "Raptor" is the dino kind, or the bird kind.

My instinct says dino, but then since dinosaurs have been renamed "Behemoths", I want to say no.

I feel the dinosaur "raptor" would be the lizard category.

 

[RefinedBean]

A velociraptor (or however that freakin' word is spelled) would be a bit much, in my opinion.

There's nothing aquatic, no shark, guess you'd just have to reskin one of 'em. I wonder how similar they'll be, or just like the bag of tricks?

I'm a big fan of the damage. Wonder if we're going to see a lot more of that?

ummon
[A]lly
[T]rap

Hrm...

 

[I'm A Banana]

I really like the concept, and Predator Strike looks nice.

I'm kind of turned off by the other two powers, but I think that's because they're all about strategic minis-nudging, which is quite boring for me. I wonder if they're going to have other beastmastery ranger powers, or if I'll need to go with the other ranger build powers if I don't particularly want to nudge pieces of plastic all over the place.

It's really cool that they're allowing beasts to do damage like weapons, and using their own attack bonus (I wonder if it'll be something like a "proficiency bonus.")

Mildly optimistic. I want to see more powers in the vein of Predator Strike. I hope that the "beast types" can support some more unorthodox choices rather easily, but I don't think that'll be a problem.

But if the powers are variations on minis-nudging, it's going to be a lost opportunity for me.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Only one animal companion? When I think of a beastmaster, I think of the classic movie - The Beastmaster. He had two ferrets, a tiger, and a hawk (or eagle or something). Minor cosmetic changes were made in later movies, such as making the tiger a lion. But I digress.

I hope they have a paragon path in there that represents this archetype. I know, I know, it's all about the Balance. Still, there's something to be said about archetypes.

 

[Rechan]

Only one animal companion?

Except in rare instances, it was only the big cat that did any fighting.

The ferrets were just a Thievery check with range, and the bird was just hands and eyes with range. They were the equivalent of familiars, instead of real animal companions.

So one could easily treat them as the equivalent of Cantrips (like the wizard).

 

[Hammerhead]

One or two horrible B movies does not an archetype make.

 

[Frostmarrow]

One or two horrible B movies does not an archetype make.

I think Marc Singer did! Let's have a vote.