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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 7474946" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya.WARNING! RANT BELOW!!Only if you DM is a complete, total and utter moron.The BIGGEST (and pretty much the only) complaint people have about the Beastmaster is DM's that don't understand that something that is alive...tends to want to stay alive. Something that has a child, mother, or father...tends to want to protect them. Something that has feelings of loyalty and devotion...tends to want to see the person of their loyalty and devotion happy.A Beastmasters pet? Yeah, SURPRISE! It's all of those, but turned up to 11. And smarter. And more skilled. And attuned to it's master on a magical level.Any DM who says "Yeah, you can buy a trained war dog. It will fight for you and guard and stuff"...and then when the party is attacked by goblins the PC says "I tell Fido to sic 'em! Then I wade in to combat with my axe!"...and has Fido trying to kill goblins as the PC swings away? Good for that DM. That's what a trained animal does; it attacks (or whatever) until the task is finished. It doesn't run up to the bad guy, snap at him....and then sit down. Any DM who says "Yeah, you have a Beastmaster war dog. It will stand there and DO ABSOLUTELY FREAKING NOTHING, until you tell it to do something"... and then when the party is attacked by goblins the PC says "I tell Fido to sic 'em! Then I wade into combat with my axe!" ...and has Fido ATTACK ONE GOBLIN ONE TIME...AND THEN SIT THERE DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WHILE IT GETS STABBED BY A GOBLIN? That is a complete and total moron of a DM.Any DM who says "Fido? No, he's still back sitting on the porch of the Yellow Duck Inn, about 50 miles back. When you left you didn't tell him to come...perform the Move action. Even if you did, when you all ran away from the grey ooze, when you thought Fido was with you, you didn't tell me you told him to Dash, so he would have been caught and eaten by the ooze. Because he was walking and you guys were running....and you didn't tell him to Attack, so he would have just kept walking until the ooze devoured him".  What? Does that sound, I don't know...completely, totally and utterly MORONIC!?  Yeah...thought so...THAT is my problem. NOT with the Beastmaster, but by how so many so-called "DM's" out there take something that is NOT written (e.g., a war dog fights when you tell it to and doesn't stop until it's foes are dead or you tell it to stop, that would be expected; if you buy a new pair of scissors from the tradesman, you expect them to be sharp and do the job), and uses his/her brain....but the SECOND something is written saying "The Ranger uses an action to command the pet", said "DM" all of a sudden decides "Oh, I guess Beastmaster pets are just mindless automatons who interpret commands literally and will do nothing unless told to".THAT is the "problem" with Beastmaster. It's not the class. It's the DM. And the players that somehow think this makes sense and dismisses all logic and reasoning. A Beastmaster fighting goblins can point at one and say "Sic 'em Fido!", and then wade into combat. Fido should then continue, round after round, to try and kill the goblin. If another goblin attacks him during this, Fido would keep trying to kill his original target. After he does, if the other goblin is still attacking him, Fido would naturally defend himself and try and kill that goblin. Then would continue until no goblin was attacking him. Then Fido would return to the Beastmaster. Where the Beastmaster can choose another target or command Fido to do something else...and THIS would take an Action. Frak THEM. They are the ones giving Beastmaster rangers a bad rap. I'm 100% behind Jeremy on this one (something I rarely am).Ok. ...phew... I'm done. Got that out of my system. I don't think I will ever comment about Beastmasters again other than with perhaps a single word.^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

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