Druid Animal Companion Circle

MostlyHarmless42 · Jun 20, 2019

A lot of good suggested here. The simplest solution is to perhaps just swap out the current beastmaster rules or use the last revised ranger version and just give them relevant abilities at equivalent druid levels. They arent that far off in levels that it would totally unbalance things. I dont think the druid needs any bonus spells from the archetype as it really does have all the animal stuff on their spell list already.

Giving the share spells option to replace or add to a higher level ranger ability would be somethi g yo consider as well. Somewhere between 8th level and 15th level is probably the range you'd consider for it, either 10th ot 14th is probably most appropriate, albeit it I could possibly see it at 5th level if needed to replace some sort of "multi/extra attack feature if needed".

Xeviat · Jun 20, 2019

Are you saying rebuild the Ranger by subbing in Druid things rather than try to build a Druid subclass?

doctorbadwolf · Jun 20, 2019

What about spending Wild Shape to summon the Beast?

MostlyHarmless42 · Jun 21, 2019

Xeviat said:
Are you saying rebuild the Ranger by subbing in Druid things rather than try to build a Druid subclass?

The opposite. Take the druid class and give the player the beastmaster ranger subclass. Give them the abilities according to whatever level they are as if they were a ranger, just shift them around to appropriate druid levels and iron out any issues that pop up. Personally I suggest the revised ranger version myself. You might consider giving them share spells in place of the fifth level ability if you use the revised version kor alternatively add "or when the druid casts a canteip" to it as it's more likely a druid will use spells than a ranger.

Xeviat · Jun 23, 2019

MostlyHarmless42 said:
The opposite. Take the druid class and give the player the beastmaster ranger subclass. Give them the abilities according to whatever level they are as if they were a ranger, just shift them around to appropriate druid levels and iron out any issues that pop up. Personally I suggest the revised ranger version myself. You might consider giving them share spells in place of the fifth level ability if you use the revised version kor alternatively add "or when the druid casts a canteip" to it as it's more likely a druid will use spells than a ranger.

My concern is that this is basically giving the druid an extra attack at 3rd level for no action, though that attacking creature can be hurt. No other cost feels like it's not quite enough. Though, in play, a player may end up spending a considerable amount of resources keeping their pet up, so it might balance itself.

MostlyHarmless42 · Jun 23, 2019

Xeviat said:
My concern is that this is basically giving the druid an extra attack at 3rd level for no action, though that attacking creature can be hurt. No other cost feels like it's not quite enough. Though, in play, a player may end up spending a considerable amount of resources keeping their pet up, so it might balance itself.

It is indeed a potent class feature, but there are numerous balancing factors to consider. I've ran a game with a revised beastmaster, and while her damage was certainly respectable, I found it not uncommon that she or the party cleric/paladin would often end up spending a few spell slots to heal her pet between combats. Its health is decent but if I really wished to kill it I could have easily and had no qualms about doing so because she could bring it back with a ritual. Even so, I often found them loath to let it actually drop because in large part it ended up becoming almost another party member of sorts that I and the ranger took turns roleplaying as appropriate. Related note: I had her pet act on her turn to keep her from feeling like she took too much time at the table in combat, but you can rule as you wish.

As for the druid? They've less health/ ac, no fighting style, and lesser weapon proficiencies than a ranger, so at best we're talking a d8 weapon. I'd wager their damage to be no worse in theory that any barbarian/fighter/ranger with heavy weapons or a bow/crossbow with appropriate feats, and even if feats arent allowed, give them a magic weapon that deals extra damage dice and if fear the druid will fall behind without their spells to make up.

And even if you just use the players handbook beastmaster, its problem has never been damage, it's that the pet dies past 6th level too easily because monsters start dropping random fireballs and it has not enough short rest healing dice between combatsto keep it alive. THAT was the real buff from the revised ranger pet.