Unearthed Arcana Light, Dark, Underdark - November's Unearthed Arcana

Interesting stuff.

 

[Serpine]

give the beast death saving throws so that dropping it to zero didn't just take away a class feature, and to give the ranger a chance to get over and drop cure wounds on it.

I treat the ranger's beast the same as a PC as far instant death, 0 HP, death saves, and healing with hit dice (using the dice specified in their hit points entry). I also let Conjure Animals be cast in an alternate way that grants the existing beast its own initiative and actions instead of summoning separate fey spirit beasts, but that's still under the experimentation phase.

 

[Orlax]

I treat the ranger's beast the same as a PC as far instant death, 0 HP, death saves, and healing with hit dice (using the dice specified in their hit points entry).

Ooh yeah hit dice.. I washed to experiment with using those on a beast companion Now my question is this: as the beast master levels the hit point total of the beast goes up a decent distance from what it's hit dice could ever provide. Do you increase the number of hit dice on the pet or is it just that out has a low limited set of hit die?

 

[Kalshane]

We actually did that with a new player in my pathfinder group. We'd "interacted" with a merc a few levels back and he was still kicking around the town that acted as our base of operations (we'd arrested him rather than killing him). The new player was coming in to replace a player that was leaving for the army. The new player had no idea what to do for a back story, but sort of knew what kind of build he wanted to play and it linked up with what this old npc was for his build so we suggested this NPC from a while back be the basis for the new character coming to the party. He went from the bare amount of back story the npc had added his own flare to it and rolled into the game as a PC. He still has the mark of justice on him if I'm not mistaken.

Orik Vancaskerkin? If so I'm running the same AP currently and one of my players has already said he wants to play Orik if his character dies.

I actually really like beast master it has some fairly awesome capabilities when it has the right beast with it, and a major solution in my book is to give the beast death saving throws so that dropping it to zero didn't just take away a class feature, and to give the ranger a chance to get over and drop cure wounds on it. I find that really Alleviates the squishiness of the pet, and its a 100% RAW measure to be taken.

In a different game I'm playing in the Beast Master ranger has gotten a lot of utility out of his wolf companion between using its Scent ability and harassing ranged enemies by getting in their face, forcing them to either move and risk an AO or have Disadvantage on their attacks. Of course, we're still only 5th level, so things may change as we get more powerful.

 

[Orlax]

Orik Vancaskerkin? If so I'm running the same AP currently and one of my players has already said he wants to play Orik if his character dies.

I think orik is right. Rise of the rune lords is the campaign right? Yeah he brought him in and is running him as a major shield expert defensive fighter. He covers my thundercaller's but when I roll it into melee. It was really cool to see him come back to the party to keep that story continuity rolling well.

 

[Kalshane]

I think orik is right. Rise of the rune lords is the campaign right? Yeah he brought him in and is running him as a major shield expert defensive fighter. He covers my thundercaller's but when I roll it into melee. It was really cool to see him come back to the party to keep that story continuity rolling well.

Yup. I had a lot of fun as DM playing up Orik's "hard luck by way of his own foolish choices" nature and ended up bringing him back a few times in the course of the campaign. At this point the adventure has moved beyond where another appearance would be feasible (outside of one of our PCs dying and the player wanting to take him over) but he certainly made an impression on the campaign. I'm always disappointed when I read a campaign log where the party ended up killing him.

 

[Serpine]

as the beast master levels the hit point total of the beast goes up a decent distance from what it's hit dice could ever provide. Do you increase the number of hit dice on the pet or is it just that out has a low limited set of hit die?

I haven't dealt with a high enough beast master for it to be much of a concern yet. One approach I've considered would be to also let the ranger spend personal hit dice to heal the beast, though I'm not sure if that would make sense and how much problematic the extra drain on personal health maintenance would be.

 

[Orlax]

Yup. I had a lot of fun as DM playing up Orik's "hard luck by way of his own foolish choices" nature and ended up bringing him back a few times in the course of the campaign. At this point the adventure has moved beyond where another appearance would be feasible (outside of one of our PCs dying and the player wanting to take him over) but he certainly made an impression on the campaign. I'm always disappointed when I read a campaign log where the party ended up killing him.

Here's a fun one in that vein. We never killed erylium. We totally incapacitated her and brought her back for questioning. She lived in a glass jar on my hip and she actually ended up as my cohort for a while, but then she got banished.

 

[Orlax]

I haven't dealt with a high enough beast master for it to be much of a concern yet. One approach I've considered would be to also let the ranger spend personal hit dice to heal the beast, though I'm not sure if that would make sense and how much problematic the extra drain on personal health maintenance would be.

Mechanically it is fairly sound, though it does limit the benefit of having someone else around to take the hits (by spending your hit die on it you are effectively losing your daily hit points), but not too much to make it unsound. Thematically it can be a bit weak depending upon your table's take on Hit points and what they mean (I'll avoid diving into that rabbit hole here). I also suggest the healer feat for a beast master ranger because you can use the healer ability on your beast or on any animal you might be using speak with animal or animal friendship on (also a hint to your beast master those two spells allow you to essentially have short term beast companions that require no direction but will still help you out with stuff).

 

[Kalshane]

Here's a fun one in that vein. We never killed erylium. We totally incapacitated her and brought her back for questioning. She lived in a glass jar on my hip and she actually ended up as my cohort for a while, but then she got banished.

Nice. My party failed to kill her the first time and she fled. They fought her twice more alongside other enemies before they finally brought her down. The players used to joke that she was the leader of the gang of disgruntled villains they had allowed to escape (which was several) and that one day they would all work together to attack Sandpoint in a Legion of Doom from the Superfriends-style plot. In the last fight they encountered her, they ended up completely over-killing her because they were so desperate to not let her escape again that they focused on her despite the more serious threats in the room.

 

[Orlax]

Nice. My party failed to kill her the first time and she fled. They fought her twice more alongside other enemies before they finally brought her down. The players used to joke that she was the leader of the gang of disgruntled villains they had allowed to escape (which was several) and that one day they would all work together to attack Sandpoint in a Legion of Doom from the Superfriends-style plot. In the last fight they encountered her, they ended up completely over-killing her because they were so desperate to not let her escape again that they focused on her despite the more serious threats in the room.

Ooh man she was about to escape us too, but shoanti bolas and a monk grappling the heck out of her stopped that noise.