Sacrosanct
Legend
I don't have the book in front of me, but I don't recall any feats that scale with level. So on that alone, I'd say no to the OP's version. It's just too powerful.
Beast Companion as a Feat?
graypariah
First Post
Animate Dead is a level 3 spell to summon one skeleton (with the ability to summon multiple skeletons by using a higher spell slot). Doing so is arguably an evil act and has it's own ramifications making it actually less desirable for many players than the Ranger companion. You also need 5 levels in a class that can cast that spell as opposed to 3 levels in Ranger. This is a significantly higher burden than simply taking a feat.
This is how I would do the Feat:
Animal Handling:
*You may raise and train one animal with a CR of 1/8 or less to preform one of three tasks - guard, track, or retrieve. The animal may only preform one of these functions at a time. The animal may not act in combat and is assumed to stay near it's master.
*An animal that guards will alert the party (way varies based on the animal) when anything it notices (such as with passive perception) enters within 60 feet of the party.
*An animal that tracks will allow the player to gain proficiency in survival for the purposes of tracking.
*An animal that retrieves will track and find an item that is of a type it has been trained to recognize (DM's judgement if it is reasonable for the animal to have been trained to preform this task) within 60 feet of the party.
That gives players what they want for character development (a pet that can participate in the story) without giving them a combat bonus. It does offer situational bonuses that can be pretty convenient. Perhaps not as "optimized" as people would like since it doesn't increase their damage though.
This is how I would do the Feat:
Animal Handling:
*You may raise and train one animal with a CR of 1/8 or less to preform one of three tasks - guard, track, or retrieve. The animal may only preform one of these functions at a time. The animal may not act in combat and is assumed to stay near it's master.
*An animal that guards will alert the party (way varies based on the animal) when anything it notices (such as with passive perception) enters within 60 feet of the party.
*An animal that tracks will allow the player to gain proficiency in survival for the purposes of tracking.
*An animal that retrieves will track and find an item that is of a type it has been trained to recognize (DM's judgement if it is reasonable for the animal to have been trained to preform this task) within 60 feet of the party.
That gives players what they want for character development (a pet that can participate in the story) without giving them a combat bonus. It does offer situational bonuses that can be pretty convenient. Perhaps not as "optimized" as people would like since it doesn't increase their damage though.
Sacrosanct
Legend
Also keep in mind that an ability score improvement is suppose to be interchangeable with feats. So from a mechanical perspective, if your feat grants more than a +1 bonus to hit and damage in combat on an every round frequency, then it's too powerful.
bedir than
Full Moon Storyteller
Magic Initiate does, as it grants two cantrips.
bedir than
Full Moon Storyteller
Tavern Brawler, GWM, SS, CE, the one that grants weapon proficiency
Sacrosanct
Legend
those aren't on an every round frequency though, like what an ability score improvement would do.
mellored
Legend
Healer.
Inspiring leader.
Defensive Duelist.
Resilience
Durable.
Tough.
Ritual Caster.
Any that affect a d20 roll (medium armor, lucky, shield master), effectively scale, as using them to avoid a kobold attack upgrades to avoiding a dragon attack.
Some scale by virtue of multi-attacks (sharpshooter, greatweapon master, heavy armor expertise).
In fact, only a few don't scale. Like charger, savage attacker, martial adept.
And those are rather poor feats.
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EditorBFG
Explorer
I don't use the Beastmaster archetype in my games. It is too weak to be an archetype, especially compared to the Hunter, which has features that are the only things that make Rangers playable. I've never had to disallow it, though, since no players have wanted to nerf themselves by taking it. The rottenness of the Beastmaster is the main problem this feat is meant to solve.
AaronOfBarbaria
Adventurer
But the use of a feat reprsents one more thing than what I have brought up, and it is the one I find most important: defining or enabling the character's concept in a significant way.
Anyone can get into a tavern brawl. Anyone can get into taven brawls constantly - but only someone that takes the Tavern Brawler feat is a tavern brawler. It's a huge part of who the character is as a person that they don't just get into brawls in taverns, they are the brawl in a tavern, they thrive there.
But, in my opinion, "I've got this wolf" doesn't do nearly as much to define a character. It might be a big part of how the character plays, but the fact in and of itself isn't one that defines the character, it defines the character's friend. I don't think one character should be able to take a feat that doesn't do anything to that character personally, but instead alters a nearby character - it feels like saying "yeah, sure, you can spend your ability score increase to give Joe's character a +2 to something."
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