Rangers and Druids without animal companions

[Roman]

Suppose the animal companion class ability of rangers and druids was removed. What would you give them instead to compensate?

 

[Modeus]

Ooh, I worked on this problem before.

a) Ranger I will grant the skirmish ability from the Scout, some bonuses to movement rate but they have to lose the combat styles as well.
b) For druids I either let them Wild shape at 1st level or come up with something which let's them manipulate herbs ( via Survival checks ) to heal hit points, cure poisons and even manufacture poisons. If you think Wild Shape is too powerful at 1st level, take a good look at the shifter race and port some abilities over for druids.

In any case, we end up with classes with a stronger flavour. In this rules variant, "companions" like mounts, familiars and companions become optional feats instead.

This would IMHO have made a better D&D.

Regards

 

[Bront]

I like the animal companion, but I like options too. Making it something you could choose would have been cool, but an out and out feat seems a bit much.

the druid's is more powerful, so perhaps giving them a few nature domains (either use the cleric domains for things like the elements, animals, plants, etc, or create new ones for the druid) and give them an extra domain spell, maybe give them augment summoning for free to go with Summon Natures Ally, or something allong those lines.

For the ranger, you could probably replace it with a simple bonus feat or two

 

[Roman]

Ooh, I worked on this problem before.

Yes, I do not like the 'flavour' of every ranger and druid having an animal companion, so this has been bugging me...

a) Ranger I will grant the skirmish ability from the Scout, some bonuses to movement rate but they have to lose the combat styles as well.

Hmm, this is good, but it effectively makes the Scout and the Ranger pretty much the same class. Not that it is necessarily a bad thing - Scout is probably my favourite new base class.

b) For druids I either let them Wild shape at 1st level or come up with something which let's them manipulate herbs ( via Survival checks ) to heal hit points, cure poisons and even manufacture poisons. If you think Wild Shape is too powerful at 1st level, take a good look at the shifter race and port some abilities over for druids.

I especially like the latter - manipulating herbs/herbalism.

In any case, we end up with classes with a stronger flavour. In this rules variant, "companions" like mounts, familiars and companions become optional feats instead.

This would IMHO have made a better D&D.

Regards[/QUOTE]

 

[Roman]

I like the animal companion, but I like options too.

Don't get me wrong I do not dislike the idea that some rangers and druids get animal companions, but I find it annoying that all do. I guess there is no rational explanation why I find it annoying, but I simply do.

Nature domains for druids sound sensible. As for rangers, two bonus feats sound about right in power level, but I generally dislike giving more bonus feats as class features, since so many classes get them already - it just feels generic.

 

[ZuulMoG]

For rangers, drop the companion and spells, and gain Sneak Attack against favored enemies. That would give Hide and Move Silently an excuse for being on the Rangers class skill list. Limiting the number of sneak attack dice to the bonus of the favored enemy is a good way to limit this if it seems to powerful.

For druids, make Summon Nature's Ally their domain spell, so they get one free casting of it at every spell level. A druid that summons animals to them for assistance makes more sense than one who has a wolf up his butt at 15th level. Seriously, no matter how many bonuses the wolf gets off the ability list for animal companions, it still sucks. It sucks as a 1st level companion, and by the time you can get anything better, that sucks too at your new level. At least with SNA, you don't have to feed the worthless thing or provide it with magic items to aid its survival... IMC, animal companions, and sometimes even faniliars, are mostly forgotten tag-alongs that eat food better used to bribe orcs.

 

[Voadam]

druids, gain a domain, either plant, animal, one of the elementals, or other appropriate nature domain.

I think rangers and rogues should both get a barbarian like bonus to speed to make them more mobility oriented fighters, so this would be a good swap for the companion, limiting it to light armor like the combat path weapon feats.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Ranger Combat Style...

Just a thought..

I use a book called Wildscape that has a couple variant combat styles for the ranger. Perhaps have the Companion be a combat style, gaining multiple at the higher levels.

In addition, give the ranger an expanded mobility deal, perhaps instead of a flat bonus to move, the ability to move through hindering terrain at a lesser cost?
{in other words, if a square costs 10' due to underbrush or rock scree, the Ranger could still spend on 5' on it..}

My current players rangers are still at a point where I could toss this in without changing thier characters

Incidently, one of the variant combat styles is 'LoreKeeper' which grants the Ranger the Brew Potion feat {usable as if they had access to 1st level spells}. One of my players chose this one. The other player chose the 'Slayer', which grants +1D6 Sneak Attack.

I think the Druid could handle bonus SNA instead of a Companion, altho the companion makes more sense with this class.

 

[Roman]

Pretty good ideas - I like the idea of giving rangers sneak attacks, but what kind of sneak attack should they get for losing the animal companion? Rogue like sneak-attack progression seems to be too powerful to grant in exchange for losing the animal companion. Also, what conditions need to be fulfilled for the 'sneak-attack' to go into effect? For the rogue, he/she must be flanking or the opponent must be denied his/her dex. bonus, for the scout, he/she must move at least 10ft in that round (Ok, so scout's 'sneak-attack' is called a skirmish, but it is a similar idea). I suggest that ranger would only get his sneak attack when he cannot be located/seen (as in is in hiding and has not been spotted). Still, what kind of SNA progression should he have? Rogue-like or scout-like or still different?

 

[Evilhalfling]

Well ranger companions are nearly useless as they are so underpowered for the character level.
I would replace this with a minor benifit at best - 1d6 sneak or skirmish at 5th level, perhaps a 2d6 at 10th. Many rangers don't even bother as they fear they will die quickly. Animal companions are a fair amount of hassle - ie food, lodging, care; needing an extra teleport spot, resist fire, darkvision etc... skirmish is counterproductive for rangers as they loose the TWF and rapid shot benifits,

Druids - are more difficult, as these beasts can actually be useful, but druids are near the top of the food chain already I might go with a domain.