D&D 5E How might you fix the beastmaster's animal companion?

[I'm A Banana]

Colussus Slayer adds damage to your attacks and requires the enemy to be damage.
HordeBreaker is situational and require clumped up enemies. Similar restrictions with Giant Killer

Given how common attacking a damaged enemy or attacking more than one enemy in melee is, these limitations only make it so the features aren't triggered every round, but they do tend to be triggered in most combats.

 

[Minigiant]

Given how common attacking a damaged enemy or attacking more than one enemy in melee is, these limitations only make it so the features aren't triggered every round, but they do tend to be triggered in most combats.

Yes. But a free action beast attack is every round til they kill or seriously injure the beast.
And you get to freely choose targets.

Horde Breaker and Giamt Killer don't work every round and they restrict who you can target.

So you can longsword+longsword+short sword+bite every turn vs whoever you want.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Yes. But a free action beast attack is every round til they kill or seriously injure the beast.
And you get to freely choose targets.

Horde Breaker and Giamt Killer don't work every round and they restrict who you can target.

So you can longsword+longsword+short sword+bite every turn vs whoever you want.

Yeah, I would still want a beast companion's attacks to eat up SOME economy.

A summon usually eats up a Concentration slot (or at least a spell slot). A familiar or a mount doesn't eat up either, but these don't attack. A bonus action is a solution, but it's not a perfect one (it means that a TWF beastmaster has to choose between off-hand attacks and beast attacks...though I'm not against that fundamentally).

A companion shouldn't be attacking "for free" (though they could do other things for free, as familiars and mounts can).

 

[Klaus]

Note that if you use the DMG optional rule for Flanking, the companion is a walking source of advantage.

In addition to allowing a bonus action to command the beast, I'd allow it to sustain (to use a 4e turn of phrase) a few actions even without command. Either for free or by using the ranger's Concentration (he's keeping tabs on the companion's behaviour, and issuing quick commands as needed). Dash, Dodge, and Help, specifically. Once you command the beast to take one of these actions, the beast could keep at it until you use a bonus action to issue a new command, or until the previous command makes no sense (the beast arrives at its destination, or its target dies). A notation could also mention that, if not given any commands, the beast uses the Dodge action on its turn, and moves to stay within 30 feet of the ranger.

So, to sum up:
- Your beast companion acts on your turn, but it requires orders from you to do so.
- Unless given a command, your beast companion takes the Dodge action, and moves up to its speed to stay within 30 feet of you. If you are unconscious, the beast companion uses its action to Attack any hostile creature that comes within 10 feet of you.
- As a bonus action on your turn, you may command the beast to take different actions. You can order it to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage or Help actions. Additional commands may be possible, at the DM's discretion (for instance, ordering your beast companion to move to a certain spot and hide, or to retrieve an object you both can see).
- If you order your companion to take the Dash or Help actions, your beast companion may take these actions in subsequent turns. In order to do so, you must focus part of your attention on it, which requires your concentration.
- When you take the Attack action, you may replace one of your attacks with an attack from your beast.

 

[Zaran]

I think the DMG version of Flanking would break the game. It's too easy to get advantage without adding in Opportunity Attacks vs leaving threatened squares.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

The beast is a sentient creature. It has a mind and combat capabilities of it's own, from way before it buddied up with the PC.
At early levels, taking an action to command it to act in a certain way represents the struggle to impose the ranger's will on the beasts instincts. As time goes on and the ranger gets both more skilled and more familiar with the beast, it may only take a bonus action to do so (at say level 7).
In the meantime you could rule that the beast with its own instincts will Dodge as a default but it may decide to go it's own way - unless specifically ordered by the ranger.
Roll d6.
1-3 beast dodges
4-5 beast helps
6 beast attacks
After all, it's a companion, not a robot.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I really dislike feats that fix problems. I think if you think it's a problem house rule it.

Without the feat, making all those changes is probably overpowered, however. With the feat, you are doing more than just making it viable, you are purposely making it extra strong - fixing it and making it better, all in one. Without the feat, the only fix beastmaster really needs is prof saves same as the ranger, and I would also suggest dying rules like a PC. That makes it viable. The orders side of thing is "pure feat". Having a scaling animal companion attack at the cost of a single bonus action is "too much" without the feat investment (and no doubt why the devs didnt make it that way in the first place).

 

[Fanaelialae]

After reading this thread, here's my proposed improvement to the Beast Master:

Quick Attack
If you have a free hand with which to direct your beast (meaning one of your hands isn’t occupied and you aren’t attacking with a two-handed weapon this turn), if you do not command your beast companion to attack this turn you may use a bonus action to command a beast companion to make a Quick Attack. Quick Attack is a single attack that does not benefit from your proficiency bonus.

This is based on the proposed idea that the beast could function as an off-hand attack. Since it doesn't benefit from proficiency, it's roughly on par with an off-hand attack (at least until you get Bestial Fury, at which point you have a superior option). The reason it requires a free hand is to balance it with dual wielding. If a ranger can effectively dual wield with a greatsword and a wolf, that might be a bit strong. Admittedly, you can't use this and cast Hunter's Mark in the same turn, but you can either cast Mark first and use Quick Attack in subsequent rounds, or hope the Quick Attack hits since the damage will likely be more than the 1d6 Mark is worth.

Menagerie Trainer
Instead of gaining a CR 1/4 beast companion, you can choose two CR 1/8 beasts (no larger than medium size), or 4 CR 0 beasts (also no larger than medium size) to be your companions. You can alternately choose one CR 1/8 beast and two CR 0 beasts.

CR 1/8 beasts have a hit point maximum equal to their normal maximum or three times your ranger level, whichever is higher. They only benefit from half your proficiency bonus with regard to their attack and damage rolls.

CR 0 beasts have a hit point maximum equal to their normal maximum or two times your ranger level, whichever is higher. They only benefit from half your proficiency bonus with regard to their attack and damage rolls.

When using commands, you may only command one beast companion at a time, except for commanding them to move. When you gain the Bestial Fury feature, you can use an Attack action to command all of your companions to make one attack.

This is to address those who might want multiple companions. Arguably not as strong as a single companion, but what you give up in power you might make up in versatility.

Potent Companion
Instead of choosing a CR 1/4 beast companion, you may choose a Large size or smaller CR 1/2 or CR 1 beast. Alternately, you can choose a Large sized creature with a CR lower than 1/2, in which case it follows the rules for a CR 1/2 Potent Companion.

A CR 1/2 beast only benefits from half your proficiency bonus. It has maximum hit points equal to six times your ranger level.

A CR 1 beast does not benefit from your proficiency bonus. It has maximum hit points equal to eight times your ranger level.

Powerful Companions cannot use Quick Attack. Additionally, if your beast companion has multiattack, you cannot command it to use multiattack until you gain Extra Attack. When you do so, you do not get to make a weapon attack when commanding your beast companion to attack using multiattack. When you gain Bestial Fury, your beast companion may make one additional attack when you command it to attack.

It's tricky trying to balance a companion that can be larger than medium and higher than CR 1/4, because they often get damage enhancing abilities like multiattack. I used the Giant Poisonous Snake as a base line, since it's available to RAW Beast Masters and it has excellent stats and damage. By limiting the proficiency bonus, I brought the damage down to around what the CR 1/4s can do. Because that also brings down their AC, I granted them additional hp to help make up for it.