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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 7475242" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya.Changes nothing. At all.I'm not arguing that what you pointed out isn't true. I said, in the quote of mine you posted: ... the SECOND something is written saying "The Ranger uses an action to command the pet".That was the entire point. That a DM who reads that "must command...Action" line in the PHB and doesn't apply the same standard to every other animal in the entire D&D universe, is being a moron. I mean, when the PC's are in a goblin cave and the goblins ambush them. The goblins first send in their 3 worgs, then they shoot arrows, then next round move in to melee. Three goblins don't "hold back so they can command the worgs". The worgs are trained to attack intruders and the worgs, presumably, "like" the goblins (to some degree anyway). Or when the PC's move out of the way when walking down the street to make room for a half-dozen mounted knights of the realm...the PC's don't hear the knights shouting "Move" or kicking/squeezing their heels every 10 seconds to keep the horses moving.Why? Because animals behave as they should behave...except when a well trained one is told not to behave as it naturally would. This simple fact is lost to the so-called DM's I was talking about. It is bad DM'ing (and totally unfair) to apply different standards to the same thing based on who or what is working with it. To me, it's the same as if a DM said "Everyone make a Strength check to hold on. DC 12, except for the Barbarian...yours is 12 but at Disadvantage; use your Rage to remove that". That would make no sense and be unfair. "Ok Presto, you can cast your spell as your pet mastiff attacks the orc coming at you. Longstrider the Beastmaster? Your pet mastiff just lays there and get's attacked because you lost your action this round...oh, right, it gets attacked with Advantage because it's prone. You haven't told it to get up since arriving two days ago". <-- NO SENSE.If you can't see why I'm saying that DM's interpreting "must use his action to command" to mean "must use his action to command the animal every 10 seconds or it stops doing everything and ignores all surrounding environmental factors even if this kills it or lets the beastmaster die", then so be it. I would bet dimes to dollars that there are tens of thousands of DM's out there who have no problem with the Beastmaster because they run the pet as being AT LEAST as smart as a well-trained animal. If your DM is running it as a mindless automaton...well, as I said, it's not a problem with the class; it's a problem with your DM.As for "But it's IN the RULES!"...D&D has one overriding rule. It's called "The DM". In 5e, much like in BECMI or 1e (and to a slightly lesser extent, 2e), the smooth running of a game session REQUIRES that the DM be an active "rule" in the sense that he/she must use their own brainpower to think about the situation and apply any rule appropriately. ^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

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