Beastmaster ranger: No scaling = / = no fun

[robsenworldaccount]

Gripe: Magical weapons keep you scaled.

Animal companion dont get them.

So its dumb to take the At-Will one predatory strike

This bothers me, anyone have relevant information?

 

[Klaus]

Your attacks add +1/2 your level.

Your beast's attacks add +your level.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yeah, exactly. Beasts scale like crazy. Read it carefully. At high levels they have HUGE bonuses to everything.

All beast defenses scale at +level, so do attack bonuses. Damage doesn't scale, but beasts DO get the same attribute raises as a PC.

So for example a 20th level Beast Companion (Cat) would have +16 total to ability scores, AC 34!!! Fort 31!!! Ref 33!!! and Will 32!!! Which is WAY higher than the PC is likely to have at those levels, even counting magic items. Its attack would be (assuming a 24 dex) +27 vs AC for 1d8 + 7 damage, and there are any number of powers that can buff that (beasts are considered party members and thus can benefit from any of the buffs any other character can too).


Granted beasts probably cannot use magic weapons, but there is actually nothing in RAW which forbids beast magic item use. There are also precedents for beasts at least having a single magic item slot (mount slot items).

Overall the beast is a pretty darn strong class feature. At low levels it may not be QUITE as good as a TWF build, but even that is arguable. At high levels I would argue that while it doesn't do enormous damage, the beast is very tough and can easily provide the beast master with a lot of tactical benefits.

The MAIN downside is the potential for beast death, which will gimp your character for a while until you can take a day out to call a new beast or resurrect the old one. But considering their defenses and the fact that you can heal them fairly easily I wouldn't think they're going to die all that often except maybe at low heroic tier.

 

[Snotboy]

The Adventurer's Vault has a section called 'Companion Slot Items' specifically for ranger beast companions. None of them are direct enhancements like magic weapons, they just have added powers, such as extra hit points gained for spending a healing surge and such.

 

[Mort_Q]

AV II ... I bet we'll see some more beast and mount items.

 

[Nymrohd]

Beast scaling, at least as far as attack bonus is concerned, is problematic at heroic tier. While the +4/+5 pets match the average ranger at paragon and surpass him at epic tier, they are certainly behind the ranger in attack bonus at heroic mainly because they scale linearly while weapon attacks are somewhat frontloaded.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Beast scaling, at least as far as attack bonus is concerned, is problematic at heroic tier. While the +4/+5 pets match the average ranger at paragon and surpass him at epic tier, they are certainly behind the ranger in attack bonus at heroic mainly because they scale linearly while weapon attacks are somewhat frontloaded.

I agree. At levels 1-5 beasts certainly tend to be behind their masters in terms of to-hit. They are still usually a bit behind or maybe at parity starting in the high heroic range, but by 15th level or so they should be pretty much a solid match for most characters since they'll have +15 for level and a +5 or so for stat. Once you hit epic the beast's bonuses all around start to get pretty crazy though.

It might have been better if beasts were more front-loaded at lower levels, but it could be pretty unbalancing too. There are plenty of subtle advantages to having a beast around at low level. By the time you start to get past 15th level you don't really NEED to scrape for a lot of pluses, but having a beast that can flank and provide CA OFTEN at low levels for instance is great, even if all it ends up doing is giving someone a +2 to hit.

 

[Nymrohd]

I agree. At levels 1-5 beasts certainly tend to be behind their masters in terms of to-hit. They are still usually a bit behind or maybe at parity starting in the high heroic range, but by 15th level or so they should be pretty much a solid match for most characters since they'll have +15 for level and a +5 or so for stat. Once you hit epic the beast's bonuses all around start to get pretty crazy though.

It might have been better if beasts were more front-loaded at lower levels, but it could be pretty unbalancing too. There are plenty of subtle advantages to having a beast around at low level. By the time you start to get past 15th level you don't really NEED to scrape for a lot of pluses, but having a beast that can flank and provide CA OFTEN at low levels for instance is great, even if all it ends up doing is giving someone a +2 to hit.

I sure consider beasts helpful at heroic tier. I have an archer ranger in my group, Dex/Wis all archer powers yet using the beastmaster class feature to great effect. He rarely attacks with his hawk but the CA and the occasional opportunity attacks make up for the lack of Prime Shot and Defensive Mobility for free. Beasts get crazy at epic tier, not only because their scaling overtakes characters at that point but also because Quick Beast Command+Ultimate Understanding are an amazing combo.