D&D 4E Ranger: Beastmaster New Powers

[Tony Vargas]

Seems kind of sad that it takes a feat for some of these things

There's already too much of that.

 

[Garthanos]

There's already too much of that.

I definitely hear you on that one.... some of these abilities are going to be class features for the Beastmaster ranger and should have been from the beginning.

 

[Garthanos]

Offhand Commands is going to be a build choice feature or actually just a class feature that has no impact unless you are a beastmaster if you have 1 hand free you may more adeptly command your beast companion, your attacks gain a tier scaling bonus to damage of +2 +3, +4.

Inherently Endowed as you level your awesome rubs off on your beast and they gain effective inherent bonuses (equal to that of the inherent bonuses rule less 1, with d6 critical hit benefits too.) this should be available whether inherent bonuses are normally available to characters.

an Alternative to the above might be to include in treasures and enchantments charms such as magic collars and other gear which enhance your beast

 

[Tony Vargas]

Inherently Endowed

"Good night everybody!" - Yakko Warner

 

[Garthanos]

"Good night everybody!" - Yakko Warner

Rubs off was also used in the same sentence if you are going there

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

To my knowledge the only source of beast master feats is Martial Power I, and there is no "Your beast gains a +2/3/4 feat bonus to damage" feat that I see. The only damage feat I can find is Coordinated Oppurtunist which is +2 dmg for YOU on oppurtunity attacks if target is adjacent to beast.

Tangent Alert: Looking through the beast master feats I can really see some flaws in the "every race-class combo gets a feat" theory Martial Power tried to implement. The feats aren't (all) bad, but they're so specific and numerous it makes finding anything generally useful a pain in the attention span.

Truthfully, the Beast Master build is NOT at all underpowered in a basic sense. The only issue it has is the lack of access to a certain set of highly potent feats. Beyond that, the lack of the TWF's larger off-hand weapon is trivial (.5 point of damage on a hit, not a big deal). The only other lack being access to a truly world-shaking PP like Battlefield Archer.

So, you don't REALLY need to fiddle with their powers, they just need maybe 3 really nice sky blue feats and a sky blue PP. There is a misconception that, because the beast is not a combat monster, that the build is 'bad in combat', it isn't. It is basically just as effective as the other 3 ranger builds, except without some fairly small extra benny. In return you get a basically unkillable companion that can take hits for you, do OAs, set of traps while you are nice and safe at the other side of the room, carry stuff, etc. (heck, if you're a halfling there are beasts you can RIDE, beat that!). Heck, I guess a pixie ranger could ride ANY companion, hahaha.

Anyway, I have nothing against some powers that push the beast more into being an ersatz weapon, that isn't a bad idea at all, but it should be thought of more as 'color' and not so much as something needed to 'beef up' the build in any way. [MENTION=82504]Garthanos[/MENTION], the +1 hit and damage bonus you are giving is OK, it certainly won't break anything and isn't going to make the character stronger than an optimized twin striking build. I wouldn't go any further than that, except maybe to extend it to some non-at-will versions.

 

[Garthanos]

. @Garthanos, the +1 hit and damage bonus you are giving is OK, it certainly won't break anything and isn't going to make the character stronger than an optimized twin striking build. I wouldn't go any further than that, except maybe to extend it to some non-at-will versions.

You mean the bonus if they are attacking the same monster as you?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

You mean the bonus if they are attacking the same monster as you?

Right, there is really very little reason why you would NOT want that bonus. In any case most rangers are only going to have one HQ in play at a time, so they tend to focus fire. There is just not much to be gained by splitting up your attacks unless you're reduced to pinging minions with TS, which is a pretty silly thing to do in most cases (but stuff happens).

As I said before Prime Shot is really THE significant give up to get Beast Master, and only because of the feat chain associated with it.

 

[Fhtagn]

How about the balance of actual beastmaster powers compared to the non-bm ones? Do they actually see use in the hands of beastmaster rangers? From what I gather, the most sensible way of going beastmaster constitutes playing your basic twin-strike ranger, just with a beast instead of prime shot.

 

[Garthanos]

How about the balance of actual beastmaster powers compared to the non-bm ones? Do they actually see use in the hands of beastmaster rangers? From what I gather, the most sensible way of going beastmaster constitutes playing your basic twin-strike ranger, just with a beast instead of prime shot.

I am using the non-beastmaster powers as inspiration/balance points for these so that is rather the exactly the goal (if you would have taken a twin-striker ranger power instead you now take one of these).

Do you have an example build it might inspire me... about which build components need a beastmaster analog