D&D 5E UA Ranger Actual Play Report

[iserith]

Hm, do you think it would help if the beast simply went on the same turn as the master?

Possibly. As I recall, the PHB beast master companion shares actions with the ranger, so it's less things to manage or resolve per combat round than the UA ranger. That alone is going to contribute to taking up a larger portion of the spotlight. It's not the end of the world, but I'm sensitive to spotlight and I noticed it.

Yeah, the beastmaster is still positioning two characters and taking more actions, but since he's doing it all at once, it's not much worse than a caster trying to puzzle out what spell to cast and where to target it, is it?

I don't have that experience with spellcasters at my table. People are ready to GO when their turn is called. The puzzling happens off-turn.

 

[Helldritch]

I don't have that experience with spellcasters at my table. People are ready to GO when their turn is called. The puzzling happens off-turn.

In my it does not happen very often. We have a rule that if you don't know what to do when your turn comes up, your character goes into the dodge action. Since no one wants to be told what to do, they are usually ready when it is their turn.

Back to the topic.
All characters were 8th level. Were they really that equivalent to each other? DPR and HP conservation wise that is.
Were there any issue with initiative?

From your description, it must have been quite a session. Kudo on that

 

[iserith]

Back to the topic.
All characters were 8th level. Were they really that equivalent to each other? DPR and HP conservation wise that is.
Were there any issue with initiative?

I don't calculate DPR or hit point conservation because I don't think equivalency in these things matters. What matters to me is whether each class was able to contribute to the goals of play - both the overall goals of fun and good story and the character/party goals - more or less equally and I found that to be true (the slight gripe on spotlight for beast ranger notwithstanding). If I had to guess, the damage output was about even, but there are many factors that contributed to that which are scenario-specific. Hit point conservation was about the same - every PC died without a round or two of the others. (It was a TPK.)

I want to say that the rangers generally had the best initiatives most of the time. I rolled awful (like really awful) on initiative for my monsters all night.

As an aside, this was the first session where I heard someone be really happy with their choice of the berserker path. It was exceedingly useful.

From your description, it must have been quite a session. Kudo on that

Thanks, it was pretty epic.

 

[pukunui]

Awesome stuff, [MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION]! I love actual play reports. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Istbor]

Hmm, did the player mention why they were very happy with the Berserker path? I ask since, I have always been a defender of that path regardless of the 'sub-optimal' or heavy cost associated with it.

On another note, I can totally see a change in how long the spotlight would shine on the Ranger an his companion, that is not something I thought about until you brought it up.

 

[Blue]

Oh, I should note on Animal Companion, I have some mixed feelings with regard to spotlight time. As compared to the PHB beast master, I felt like the UA beast ranger got a larger share of the screen time due to what are essentially "two" sets of actions per combat round. I don't think it impacted the game experience very much as I'm experienced at managing spotlight time, but it was definitely noticeable and could be an issue with certain groups and DMs. I think on the whole I do prefer the PHB beast master in this regard, which I've played and for which I have DMed a few times.

My assumption (which may not be correct) is that the options for the Beast are fairly streamlined so most of the wall clock time spent is adjudicating rolls. With the ranger also not as a spell-heavy I was estimating they, like other weapon classes, probably are on the lighter end of time-per-turn. Putting these together I was _estimating_ that ranger + beast would around the same time per turn as a full caster (who has more options). But I have no play experience yet to see if that is correct.

What is your take?

 

[Yunru]

Static bonus. Is extra dice a thing in the UA article?

Nope, just a personal thing. +2 becomes 1d4, +4 1d8.

 

[Lord Twig]

Great information from an actual play test! But I do have a couple comments.

Regarding the animal companion getting additional spotlight time. The only difference between the Revised Ranger and the PHB Ranger in play time is that the companion has a different initiative and Coordinated Attack. They both need to be moved separately, take damage separately and they both attack separately. The PHB Ranger can attack once and his companion can attack once. The Revised Ranger can attack once and his companion can attack twice (using its reaction). When it comes to spotlight, that's the only difference between the two. So if they went on the same initiative I think it would clear up the majority of the difference, but honestly I would rather the companion kept its own initiative and remove the extra attack.

The second comment is that the Barbarian would also have advantage on initiative rolls by 8th level, although I would assume that the Rangers had a higher Dex bonus.

Edit: Oh! And my players are horrible about being ready for their turn when it comes around. They decide what they are going to do when their turn comes up. Therefore casters take quite a bit more time than strait fighter types.

 

[famousringo]

Possibly. As I recall, the PHB beast master companion shares actions with the ranger, so it's less things to manage or resolve per combat round than the UA ranger. That alone is going to contribute to taking up a larger portion of the spotlight. It's not the end of the world, but I'm sensitive to spotlight and I noticed it.

I don't see much of a difference in actions, actually.

Both versions the beast gets to move for free.

Old BM gets 1 bonus action plus up to 3 attacks, plus 2 reactions = 6 things to do.

New BM gets 1 bonus action, 1 attack, 1 beast attack or whirlwind, plus 2 reactions = 5 things to do.

The difference is that the beast's reaction gets used more reliably than it used to and it can whirlwind, but it loses that additional attack at 11. Beast maybe gets a bonus action now, but I don't think that gets used outside of panthers, and any DM that didn't let an old BM panther Pounce was just being a jerk.

 

[transtemporal]

Oh, I should note on Animal Companion, I have some mixed feelings with regard to spotlight time. As compared to the PHB beast master, I felt like the UA beast ranger got a larger share of the screen time due to what are essentially "two" sets of actions per combat round. I don't think it impacted the game experience very much as I'm experienced at managing spotlight time, but it was definitely noticeable and could be an issue with certain groups and DMs. I think on the whole I do prefer the PHB beast master in this regard, which I've played and for which I have DMed a few times.

I agree for tough pet classes in general. The PC basically gets two sets of actions. On the other hand, it's not too dissimilar to a Conjure spell so maybe its ok.