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D&D 6th edition - What do you want to see?
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<blockquote data-quote="doctorbadwolf" data-source="post: 7792873" data-attributes="member: 6704184"><p>The pet cannot survive exploration without the DM going out of their way, past about level 10.</p><p></p><p>It is underpowered.</p><p></p><p>And if they didn’t intend for it to be a combat pet, they’d have indicated that in a way that you don’t have to study the system math or lose a few pets to figure out. They knew that it would be taken into combat, and failed to make it able to survive that.</p><p></p><p>Even if we accept that a beast companion that can’t contribute significantly to damage is doing its job by providing advantage, like a strictly worse [on every axis] familiar, it has to either survive being in a combat zone, or be easy to get back, to do that job.</p><p></p><p>Literally all it absolutely needs is better HP scaling to not be strictly underpowered, but it can get its own attack and absolutely not be overpowered.</p><p></p><p>Edit: and even if we accept your position that the real problem is that they designed it with a different goal than what fans of the concept want out of it, that doesn’t indicate in any way that a total rewrite is needed to fix that problem. It can be more powerful without being overpowered. Balance in 5e isn’t a finely tuned matter of slim margins. It’s pretty robust. </p><p></p><p>And even then, they could fix the subclass without errata by simply introducing new spells, and maybe a feat that strengthens familiars, beast companions, and conjured creatures. </p><p></p><p>More likely than your “total rewrite with no BM archetype” theory in a hypothetical 5e would be a BM that uses mechanics more similar to the Battlesmiths iron defender, or a spell that the archetype gets for free and gets a boosted version of, like the chain warlock, but for “Find Animal Companion”.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="doctorbadwolf, post: 7792873, member: 6704184"] The pet cannot survive exploration without the DM going out of their way, past about level 10. It is underpowered. And if they didn’t intend for it to be a combat pet, they’d have indicated that in a way that you don’t have to study the system math or lose a few pets to figure out. They knew that it would be taken into combat, and failed to make it able to survive that. Even if we accept that a beast companion that can’t contribute significantly to damage is doing its job by providing advantage, like a strictly worse [on every axis] familiar, it has to either survive being in a combat zone, or be easy to get back, to do that job. Literally all it absolutely needs is better HP scaling to not be strictly underpowered, but it can get its own attack and absolutely not be overpowered. Edit: and even if we accept your position that the real problem is that they designed it with a different goal than what fans of the concept want out of it, that doesn’t indicate in any way that a total rewrite is needed to fix that problem. It can be more powerful without being overpowered. Balance in 5e isn’t a finely tuned matter of slim margins. It’s pretty robust. And even then, they could fix the subclass without errata by simply introducing new spells, and maybe a feat that strengthens familiars, beast companions, and conjured creatures. More likely than your “total rewrite with no BM archetype” theory in a hypothetical 5e would be a BM that uses mechanics more similar to the Battlesmiths iron defender, or a spell that the archetype gets for free and gets a boosted version of, like the chain warlock, but for “Find Animal Companion”. [/QUOTE]
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