Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Xeviat" data-source="post: 6756116" data-attributes="member: 57494">I'd support this. Your general beast master fixes are pretty close to mine. The new Mastermind Rogue actually had me go and do some math that may help you with some conceptualization.I compared a Level 3 Hunter Ranger with Colossus Slayer (+1d8 damage against wounded targets) to a Level 3 Beast Master Ranger. I had changed the "use an action to get your companion to take an action" to the Chain Warlock's "spend an attack to get your companion to use its action to attack". Comparing a Hunter Ranger using TWFing to a Beast Master Ranger using 1 attack of theirs and their companion's attack gave me a expression for the companions that many fit into (there's a few outlyers, like the giant centipede and the giant poisonous snake, who the CR calculator says is a CR 1 creature anyway ...).Then, I tested what it would be if the beast could use help on its own, just like a familiar. Help added to a Beast Master Ranger using Duelist and a shield added up to comparable damage to the Hunter Ranger using Duelist and a shield.So, basic actions would work just fine on the companion, even help. I too support giving the companion full HD; the 4E companions had more HP than players, actually, and the 3E Druid companion wasn't far behind (poor ranger companion).But the real question is this: "How would each class utilize an animal companion?"The barbarian wouldn't really need a companion for generating advantage; they have a way of generating it on their own. While I can envision a barbarian beast master, I can't think of what it would mechanically do off the top of my head.An animal companion bard would likely find their companion to be comparable to a versatile cantrip; you can command it to attack, to fetch, to hold, to guard. This would be pretty easy to balance. You'd want to let it become more independent around level 5 or 6.An animal companion druid would be something I would love to see. The land druid and the moon druid gain enough features to give up for an animal companion. Again, like the bard, they'd be comparable to cantrips, and you'd want them to become more independent at level 5 or 6, when cantrips gain power and most offensive spellcaster builds get "potent cantrip".A fighter with an animal companion would be great. Just like a ranger, giving up attacks for the animal to attack grants some versatility in attack actions, especially if your companion has riders like prone. Should be easy to balance.I'm not sure about a paladin. It seems like it would eat into their Summon Mount spell. Balancing it like the fighter or ranger would be tough, though, as the level 3 Paladin ability is a beefy encounter power, not a consistent buff that can be traded out for help actions or a bigger attack.The rogue would use an animal companion primarily as a source of advantage and a partner to let them sneak attack. They'd want more defensive options on their companion, like evasion and uncanny dodge, and maybe shared sneak attack (no one ever suspects the butterfly ...).Sorcerer, like the Wizard, could easily have a buffed familiar archetype, just like the Warlock. But also getting a permanent, buffable summon would be cool too. My friends who play Pathfinder really do love the summoner class.As for the monk, I could envision it. There's certainly space for it mechanically. Determining the fluff would be the hard part.</blockquote>

Verification