Ranger companion damage dont scale

[AllNamesRTaken]

Hello.
Maybe this has been debated to death already but I couldnt find it.

I just tried to make a goblin beastmaster ranger and was playing around with how it would scale with leveling. I saw that most beast (b) attacks are somewhat weak if compared to the dual wielding attacks but figured it wouldnt matter too much. But then I did some simple math and noticed what a huge penalty the beast takes as it levels up as it doesnt have access to magical weapons and that most skills that improve dammage are not available to the pet.

A quick example (even with a goblin with low damage shortswords). Lets for the sake of the example level him to lvl 2x or somesuch.
Twinstrike would hit for 2d6 + weapon bonus + weapon focus + dual wield bonus = 2d6 + 6 + 3 + 1 = 2d6 + 10 (using goblin totem weapons brings it to + 16) I dont use blod + claw as they are clearly OP.

striking twice brings your total dammage with goblin totem weapons to a potential 4d6 + 32 in a round ( using shortswords ).

Using the predator attack and a wolf (prob best dammage) and flanking gives you:
2d8 + wolf str + wolf wis for flank + your wis = 2d8 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 2d8 + 24

And compared to say a dual wielded battle axe and some other ranger at will attack:

2d10 + str + weapon + focus + totem = 2d10 + 7 +6 +3 +6 = 2d10 + 22

Here its more even but still the weapon comes out ahead.

And if you look att powers doing multiple attacks where your wisdom added to the beasts attack dont factor in to the attacks the beast clearly falls way behind in dammage.

And this is with a goblin that cant even use the good weapons. And not comparing with a dual wield ranger that will out damage the beast in a heartbeat.

So ... is there some way to magically enhance the beasts dammage or some other way to make beast attacks more in line with the other attacks. Or are beast attacks mostly for RP purposes? .. like being a goblin.

Or did I just simply go wrong somewhere up here.

Intrested to hear your ideas.

 

[Baumi]

The damage is lower, but the Hitpoints from his Beast rocks and so does its defenses and attack stats (increases much faster then the PC's).

I'm not sure if the beast-powers will make up for the missing damage-boosts, but you can just use some non-beast powers for the situations where you want to do big damage. There is no reasons why you couldn't take Twin Strike yourself .. your offhand weapon will be a bit worse than that of a close combat Ranger, but usually only by one damage per [W].

So I think the beastmaster ranger looses a bit on the damage, but gains a really strong defender secondary role (and additional warrior with tons of HP simply rocks).

P.S.: A scimitar rocks for small PC's and the totem weapon-property is awesome because you even get a damage boost against medium sized enemies, so I don't think that the Goblin is at a disadvantage (besides being a non-pc Race).

 

[AllNamesRTaken]

Tnx for the reply.

Yeah the goblin totem is awsome and actually makes up for the lack of weaponry. But as scimitar is great it means you have a heavy blade in onehand and say a light in the offhand and I dont think you dont have enough feats to spec up on both?? For a dual wielding specced ranger (not beast) dual scimitars rock though it seems.

The only option to keep a decent dammage and offhand propery is the scourge... but thats just silly.

EDIT:
And is there anyway to magically enhance the pets damage that I missed?

EDIT 2:
Ooooh. Sigil of Companion adding +1, +3 or +5 (depending on tier) to BOTH you and you pets attacks damage when you are flanking with your pet.

 

[Baumi]

How about learning the Katar (Superior Weapon)? You can use it in both hands and +3/1d6/High Crit isn't bad (less damage then Scimitar but higher Proficiency bonus).

Another alternative would be the Drow Long Knife, which is the same as above but instead of the High Crit, it is a Heavy Thrown Weapon which makes it quite versatile.

Or just boost your primary weapon .. the offhand-weapon doesn't get used so much anyway (as long as you take a few beastmaster powers).

By the way, Beastmaster Powers work best with a two-handed weapon (you only hit once and has no one-handed restriction), so it is best to know up front if you focus more on traditional or beastmaster powers.

 

[Baumi]

By the way ... Welcome on Board!

 

[AllNamesRTaken]

Cheers

If I were to go 2handed I would prob. use a battle axe to start with or a broadsword for the d10. No need to go with the katar I think as it does what the shortsword already does. But the drow knife is good ( even though it feels wierd for a goblin to master and use ).

So what I think it really boils down to is d10 base dammage + pet dammage, d6 base dammage + dual wield powers or scimitar + shortsword + dual wield mostly

Hmm that wasnt all clear now was it. Hope you understood what I meant.

 

[Eldorian]

It gets worse when you add in item bonuses to damage from Iron Armbands of Power.

It took 4e one magic item book to become Christmas tree of mechanically superior magic items, just like 3e.

 

[AllNamesRTaken]

I know. But my DM soul sais NO!!! and therefore none shall use them in my adventures

Those items really messes up dps balance. Dual wield suddenly races away from other strikers. Or atleast multi-attacking powers race away from heavy hitting blows.

 

[Eric Finley]

I personally am of the opinion that your beast's attack should have the same caveats that the Monk Unarmed Strike does... it can be enchanted like any other magic weapon. Which "weapon type" it would be considered for this purpose would, IMO, depend on the specifics of the companion... bear would definitely have access to Mace and Hammer enhancements; raptor would be able to use Pick and probably Spear, wolf could use Heavy Blade, and so forth.

I'd certainly allow that for a beastmaster ranger in my own games, to keep them relevant at higher levels.

 

[Plane Sailing]

And compared to say a dual wielded battle axe and some other ranger at will attack:

2d10 + str + weapon + focus + totem = 2d10 + 7 +6 +3 +6 = 2d10 + 22

I'm not sure from your examples, but are you adding Str to the twin strike damage? Because you shouldn't! It is just [W]+ other bonuses (or 2[W] + other bonuses at epic level)

(although I agree, there does appear to be a problem with scaling of Beast companion attacks on the at-will stage. But is that partially because nothing compares well with twin strike )

Cheers