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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 8072738" data-attributes="member: 6777737">You could use the last Revised Ranger (not sure of the date but there were two or three of them). It's more powerful than other classes, but I don't think it's that bad. Or you could use the Battlesmith Artificer's Steel Defender rules instead of the animal companion rules, though you would need to reflavor things a bit (i.e., spend an action to heal 2d6 hit points, spend 1 minute to restore it to life, etc.). A new player might find that wonky. I'd probably encourage that player to just play an Artificer.In general, I would try to steer the player away from the Beast Master subclass. The problems run pretty deep:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The companion consumes the PC's actions to take actions, which let's you substitute dealing 1d8+5 damage to deal 1d8+5 damage. This is a bit silly because you could just buy a freaking dog and it doesn't have that drawback. Even at the lower attack and damage, it's better because it doesn't cost the player's action. That's to say nothing of comparing it to summoned creatures which don't require anything beyond concentration to control.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The companion has no special protection from death. There's no easy way to heal or resurrect it. There's no way to get a new one except to go out into the wilderness and find a new one. It doesn't work like Find Familiar or Find Steed... even though there's no good reason for that. Many DMs will just kill an animal companion -- on accident or without reservation -- and then the PC has no benefit from their subclass until they can spend the time to find a new one. That might be several game sessions.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">You still have the problem that animals can't climb ladders. The world is much more traversable by humanoids than by animals. Rather, the adventure will only ever lead to where humanoids can go simply out of necessity. However, it can easily lead where an animal can't go.</li> </ol>There's nothing saying your players can't have fun with the Beast Master as written, but there are a lot of ways that Beast Master doesn't feel very fun.</blockquote>

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