doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
So this weekend my friend ran a level 10 “1-shot” in his homebrew setting loosely inspired by Exandria.
I played a Forest Gnome Beast Master Ranger using Primal Companion with a musket, the Gunner feat, Skulker, and level 1 bonus feat of Squat Nimbleness. We rolled stats so I had a 30 Dex, 14 Str, 16 con, 16 Wis. rolled hot dice had me at 100hp, rather than the static 84. We each had 3 magic items, and I grabbed +1 Half Plate, corpse slayer musket, and a homebrew mithral longsword (2d6 extra crit damage, finesse). I was not a weak character, by any means.
I chose the beast of the land, flavored as a giant Fox. My DM has lore that the giant foxes of the forest I’m from have the ability to make themselves and a bonded companion nearly invisible (pass without trace, targeting only the two).
So every possible advantage, basically. The fox still almost died twice, and made maybe 3 attacks. Useful as a mount, because it’s independent but does what I want, has good saves, and can take the Dodge action without me commanding it. Sometimes it’s useful to have it attack in place of one of my attacks, especially from level 11 on, since it then can do 2 attacks for one of mine, but that still doesn’t allow me to give any other commands using one of my attacks.
And I can’t heal it, other than taking healing spells which my only reason to take is for the beast. I also am not any better at healing it between fights than I am at healing anyone else. And I still have to wait until a long rest to get him back if he falls. And it has no self-heal.
Like why not just model it after the damn steel defender for the artificer? And if not that, give it more HP or easier action economy than the steel defender.
If I ever play a BM Ranger from low level in a real campaign, I will either use the revised Ranger, or work out a homebrew version that mirrors the Battlesmith artificer.
I played a Forest Gnome Beast Master Ranger using Primal Companion with a musket, the Gunner feat, Skulker, and level 1 bonus feat of Squat Nimbleness. We rolled stats so I had a 30 Dex, 14 Str, 16 con, 16 Wis. rolled hot dice had me at 100hp, rather than the static 84. We each had 3 magic items, and I grabbed +1 Half Plate, corpse slayer musket, and a homebrew mithral longsword (2d6 extra crit damage, finesse). I was not a weak character, by any means.
I chose the beast of the land, flavored as a giant Fox. My DM has lore that the giant foxes of the forest I’m from have the ability to make themselves and a bonded companion nearly invisible (pass without trace, targeting only the two).
So every possible advantage, basically. The fox still almost died twice, and made maybe 3 attacks. Useful as a mount, because it’s independent but does what I want, has good saves, and can take the Dodge action without me commanding it. Sometimes it’s useful to have it attack in place of one of my attacks, especially from level 11 on, since it then can do 2 attacks for one of mine, but that still doesn’t allow me to give any other commands using one of my attacks.
And I can’t heal it, other than taking healing spells which my only reason to take is for the beast. I also am not any better at healing it between fights than I am at healing anyone else. And I still have to wait until a long rest to get him back if he falls. And it has no self-heal.
Like why not just model it after the damn steel defender for the artificer? And if not that, give it more HP or easier action economy than the steel defender.
If I ever play a BM Ranger from low level in a real campaign, I will either use the revised Ranger, or work out a homebrew version that mirrors the Battlesmith artificer.