D&D 5E The Tamer: A Monster Tamer Class - Balancing Questions

[Jaiken]

Hello. I am working on a new class called the Tamer that works with and is able to control/summon only one monster. The monster will be based on a Challenge Rating to determine toughness. 10 is the highest Challenge Rating that Tamers can summon at level 20.

My question is: Is it balanced to give the class only one Monster to control and they start with 1/8 at level 1 and at level 2 they are able to temporarily increase the Challenge Rating of their Monster by one level? For example at level 2 Tamers get the ability to temporarily increase the Challenge Rating of their Monster to 1 whereas they are originally at CR 1/4.

Tamers have a 1d6 hit die and can use simple weapons and light armor, no shields.

Thanks for the help.

 

[the Jester]

There's not enough detail here to really tell, honestly.

I do think you need to be careful not to overshadow other pet subclasses such as the beastmaster and drakewarden. A CR 10 creature is pretty powerful, and I don't think that a beastmaster's pet (f'rex) is even close to that, even at level 20, though I haven't done the calculations.

The other thing is, if this class can't really do anything without its pet... it's not going to be fun to play whenever the pet is out of commission.

 

[Tonguez]

How is it different to Drakewarden or Vermin Druid? That what you wanna compare too

Also only one pet gets a bit tedious without cool effects

 

[Blue]

CR is a rating for challenge in combat, not a general rating of usefulness of a pet. One with various extra senses, movement types like flying or burrowing, being able to be rid, spell-like abilities, invisibility or incorperability - all of these can make a pet much more (or less) useful that the CR rating measures.

Basically, unless you are disallowing any use of the pet in pillars of play outside of combat, then CR rating is not an appropriate measuring tool.

If you look at the trend from WotC for the last several years for spells and companions, it's been to move away from CR and have one or more base forms that increase with level. From the Conjure spells in the PHB being replaced the Summon spells, or even the Ranger (Beastmaster) companion.

So the short answer is "no, it's not balanced", but that's more because the measurement you are using isn't balanced against all pillars of play, so it cannot give you a balanced output.

 

[MoFoCThat]

Just commenting 'cuz it sounds interesting to me. If you want to make a different subclass from the ones mentioned above, why not take a page from Jurassic World? Make the one monster the class can control a pack animal. A pack of wolves or raptors with low hp, high-ish atk could be fun without complicating the dice rolls. 2-3 animals that will die in a couple of direct hits won't overpower all enemies or overshadow other players; and once they're dead, the player can tame the same kind of animal or a different type for replayability.

 

[Jaiken]

Just commenting 'cuz it sounds interesting to me. If you want to make a different subclass from the ones mentioned above, why not take a page from Jurassic World? Make the one monster the class can control a pack animal. A pack of wolves or raptors with low hp, high-ish atk could be fun without complicating the dice rolls. 2-3 animals that will die in a couple of direct hits won't overpower all enemies or overshadow other players; and once they're dead, the player can tame the same kind of animal or a different type for replayability.

Now that sounds good. Will keep it in mind.

 

[MoFoCThat]

Now that sounds good. Will keep it in mind.

No prob! Let me know how it goes when you finish it!