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<blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 7477006" data-attributes="member: 2525">I agree that's how a lot of people play it and it makes sense that people would be drawn to that. My point was more about how I think the designers were thinking about it, and how the class is built in terms of what's most effective. The rule for replacing your companion is, &quot;If the beast dies, you can obtain a new companion by spending 8 hours magically bonding with a beast that isn’t hostile to you and that meets the requirements.&quot; The Ranger starts with Speak with Animals and Animal Friendship on their spell list as first level spells, and they get locate animals as a second level spell. You can also better track animals at first level. This set of abilities tells me the intent was for the animal companions to be more disposable.&nbsp; It was anticipated you'd use them, and locate more as the need arose, on a fairly regular basis. In fact I think the intent was you would have many animal friends along with you, and only one at a time would be designated your companion. As you mention, it hasn't worked out that way very often in actual play. But I suspect it was what the designers thought would happen. And, if played that way, I think the class becomes more powerful. The companion was supposed to protect you, and their hit points are essentially added to yours as a sort of buffer or temporary hit points, and it's mobility was supposed to be sort of temporary mobility for your abilities.. Instead it's become you as the protector of your companion, which can sometimes be more of a burden than a boon. If the companion were a summoned spirit animal that simply re-appeared after a long rest if it died, I bet it would play dramatically differently. Even though, in essence, it can already be almost played that way if you don't bond to the companion.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mistwell, post: 7477006, member: 2525"] I agree that's how a lot of people play it and it makes sense that people would be drawn to that. My point was more about how I think the designers were thinking about it, and how the class is built in terms of what's most effective. The rule for replacing your companion is, "If the beast dies, you can obtain a new companion by spending 8 hours magically bonding with a beast that isn’t hostile to you and that meets the requirements." The Ranger starts with Speak with Animals and Animal Friendship on their spell list as first level spells, and they get locate animals as a second level spell. You can also better track animals at first level. This set of abilities tells me the intent was for the animal companions to be more disposable. It was anticipated you'd use them, and locate more as the need arose, on a fairly regular basis. In fact I think the intent was you would have many animal friends along with you, and only one at a time would be designated your companion. As you mention, it hasn't worked out that way very often in actual play. But I suspect it was what the designers thought would happen. And, if played that way, I think the class becomes more powerful. The companion was supposed to protect you, and their hit points are essentially added to yours as a sort of buffer or temporary hit points, and it's mobility was supposed to be sort of temporary mobility for your abilities.. Instead it's become you as the protector of your companion, which can sometimes be more of a burden than a boon. If the companion were a summoned spirit animal that simply re-appeared after a long rest if it died, I bet it would play dramatically differently. Even though, in essence, it can already be almost played that way if you don't bond to the companion. [/QUOTE]

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