D&D 5E Comparison of Ranger Pets

[thethain]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KeTdmnBN6Nex1wTY__WTFGCruqEEcd-9o149t0dGA3E/edit?usp=sharing

I made a google sheet with some info for comparing potential Ranger Animal Companions. Let me know if your favorite is missing or other mistakes.
They are sorted by CR/Alphabetically.







I just included screenshot with the post because I don't know if there's a way to embed a google sheet here.

 

[Xeviat]

Love it, thanks! I personally feel that the Giant Poisonous Snake is too good for it's CR. What was your criteria to mark the one's green that you did (not the heat maps, but the beasts themselves)?

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

Good job, fairly useful.

However, I have two comments:
1) I'm not sure if the Barding column is needed or even if it is it is accurate. Why couldn't I put Barding on a velociraptor or a giant rat? It's entirely a DM call.

2) I feel that the HP (and secondarily Con) of the creatures should be considered. Some of the tanker creatures seem lack luster to that of the more high damage pets until you factor in that many of them have more health. If you are using the revised ranger rules this only gets to be more an important factor as you can increase the animals Con score and they gain more hit dice, and even if you are only using the PHB ranger, some having that extra base hit die is mportant for short rest healing, as the main problem with the PHB version isn't damage, but pet survivability.

 

[thethain]

Love it, thanks! I personally feel that the Giant Poisonous Snake is too good for it's CR. What was your criteria to mark the one's green that you did (not the heat maps, but the beasts themselves)?

The green ones are just my personal favorites. If you look hover over their black triangle, I give some brief thoughts about each of them. I can't give a mathematical formula, they just have something that I like: Giant snake has lots of damage, flying snake has no save, Deep Rothe has highest non-poison damage, panther has a great combo of stealth, perception, attacks.

 

[thethain]

Good job, fairly useful.

However, I have two comments:
1) I'm not sure if the Barding column is needed or even if it is it is accurate. Why couldn't I put Barding on a velociraptor or a giant rat? It's entirely a DM call.

2) I feel that the HP (and secondarily Con) of the creatures should be considered. Some of the tanker creatures seem lack luster to that of the more high damage pets until you factor in that many of them have more health. If you are using the revised ranger rules this only gets to be more an important factor as you can increase the animals Con score and they gain more hit dice, and even if you are only using the PHB ranger, some having that extra base hit die is mportant for short rest healing, as the main problem with the PHB version isn't damage, but pet survivability.

1. If you look at the comment for barding. I did specify that it was a DM judgement call. However, putting barding on a velociraptor would almost certainly be breaking the rules for any non-light armor. Barding doesn't give specifics for sizing, it always weighs 2x normal weight and costs 4x. Meaning getting plate armor for your velociraptor will weigh 130 lbs so the velociraptors 45 lb carry capacity probably will prevent its use. I just wanted to have the likelihood of using barding listed by its AC as it is a very relevant ability. DM always has final say.

2. This list is designed for use with the PHB Ranger. The revised Ranger has entirely different statistics (and is limited to only about 4-5 choices). I will add hit dice, but HP for even the highest Base HP creature is usually negated by ranger level 4.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

1. If you look at the comment for barding. I did specify that it was a DM judgement call. However, putting barding on a velociraptor would almost certainly be breaking the rules for any non-light armor. Barding doesn't give specifics for sizing, it always weighs 2x normal weight and costs 4x. Meaning getting plate armor for your velociraptor will weigh 130 lbs so the velociraptors 45 lb carry capacity probably will prevent its use. I just wanted to have the likelihood of using barding listed by its AC as it is a very relevant ability. DM always has final say.

Ah. This is true I suppose. A fair point.

2. This list is designed for use with the PHB Ranger. The revised Ranger has entirely different statistics (and is limited to only about 4-5 choices). I will add hit dice, but HP for even the highest Base HP creature is usually negated by ranger level 4.

It isn't about the HP of the creature itself, but the amount of dice the creature has to heal itself on short rests. One or two extra d8s doesn't sound like a lot, but in actual play it can make or break whether little Fluffy survives entirely without wasting all the ranger's or cleric's healing spells. The biggest boon of the revised ranger isn't the action economy of their pet, but the fact that they gain extra hit dice to heal themselves with and the ranger can bring them back to life easily, as without them pets after level 10 basically just die to AOE attacks like fireball or breath weapons. Even a single blow from an ogre makes another attack/AOE lethal without short rest dice to help keep your pet at full HP.