When I did play this subclass it was more fun on the RP side of things meanwhile in fights I was just a pseudo-Pokemon trainer. I did go variant human to get Level 1 spells ( Shocking grasp, Find familiar, and thorn whip ). In fights I would pretty much first turn use the Stirge ( think fat mosquito ) to latch onto an enemy while Arty ( my character ) took the dodge action. Turn two use the familiar, an owl in this case, to use the flyby shocking grasp. I called it the shock and suck combo. Fun times lol
Lvl 11 Giant poisonous snake with a two weapon fighting ranger using no spell slots would be doing about 40 damage a round vs 17AC. No feats, no spells. just using attack action bonus action attack with 2 snake attacks. It’s better than people think , it just feels bad because you have to “give up an attack”. You also didn’t take into account a lot of good spells for the capstone feature. Absorb elements goes a long way to keep your companion alive if you’re both caught in an elemental area of effect spell, it also boosts both of your melee damages. Zephyr strike would work on both of you. Guardian of nature would work incredibly well too. Any time you potentially heal yourself with a cure wounds, hitpoints go to the companion. Ensnaring strike, hail of thorns, and lightning arrow could boost damage by quite a large amount too. It’s an open and almost unlimited version of what everyone wants find steed to be able to do with spell effect duplication. Also I think you may have missed out on some “errata” which are officially changed and printed materials. There are changes to the beast master specifically.
That is only IF the target fails all of its DC 11 CON saves vs. the snake's poison - which is incredibly unlikely at level 11. Most monsters have CON as their highest or second highest stat and many have upwards of 20 at that tier of play. So, at best, you should add the potential poison damage to every 4th attack that hit when mathing out the snake's damage.
Nr4747 The snakes poison is half damage on a save. Even passed save is respectable damage. Giant poisonous snake Bite: 1d4+4+proficiency Bite poison save: 3d6+proficiency, half on DC 11 CON save. Level 11 proficiency is 4. Avg bite is 10.5 damage Avg poison on bite is 14.5 on fail, 7 on a pass. Snakes avg 17.5 damage damage on a hit with a passed save is still substantial. Poison resistance and a passed save bring this down 14 damage. Still substantial, this is comparable damage to a raging barbarians damage without feats.
It’d be considered more unique if the newer subclasses didn’t allow you to straight up add your proficiency bonus to damage rolls. Proficiency scaling is very rare in 5e (even rarer in the phb), and this class, allows players to lean away from the physical stats and focus more on the rp stats, or in the case of rolling bad stats, this subclass still allows the character to function. In the case of good stats and using beastmaster, it gives you another opportunity attack, an even larger boost to your exploration & travel skills, potentially tracking people by scent, flanking (if you’re using it), bonus action advantage on your first attack. It can move stealthily at a normal pace with you, so the scouting group of ranger & animal companion can be 5 minutes ahead of everybody else. It doesn’t have much synergy with the typical ranger spells, but it does have a list of ranger spells that it functions extremely well with. It’s not the best, and it probably needs to be changed in future editions, but that doesn’t mean that this isn’t functional.
Currently playing a beast master hunter. And it’s quite underwhelming from level 1-3 to say the least. Once you get your pet, you can really do a lot with RP. I’m coming from growing up as a Beast Master in WoW. And I was really attached to my pet lol. So, I took the RP seriously and it made it interesting to have that pet aspect. I had a panther, and also bought a farm dog, so I was nice having all the extra perception! The panther can be quite good at level 3. Especially if you have melee party members. Landing the pounce attack enables melee to wail on a prone enemy. It also has a certain sneaky element to it which is cool. It’s ability to climb is also very nice. My favorite part of my panther, so far, was we were surrounded by elven archers in towers that were worn down, and had thick vegetation on the sides. One of my part members went down on all fours, and my panther ran towards him, jumped off his back onto the tower wall so he didn’t have to climb as much, and made it to the top in one turn. He proceeded to clear the top of the tower.
I (Jamison) have not personally played the subclass as I DM 99% of the time, but I have DMed several players playing the subclass, watched MANY sessions of others playing/DMing the subclass, and read extensively on the community's general feedback of the subclass. Ranger is very often seen as overshadowed or overlooked mechanically in 5e which is one reason that a revised ranger was made (and I strongly encourage looking into it). In the end, D&D is about having fun. You don't have to always min/max or play the "best" class or subclass. Play what you want and make it your own! Thanks for watching!
You get can get a free mount that's of 1/4 cr or less, if you just wanna do something stupid pick giant fly and go wild .Honestly any beast that's one size category larger than you and using mounted combatant makes this subclass really good. giant owl for flying(good damage too), constrictor snake for restraining stuff, elk for surprisingly good damage (plus knocked prone), deep rothe is you want a spell casting muskox who's got a 3d6 charge. That's not to mention all the really cool stuff when you're a small pc, panther is a great option if you wanna get spicy with the no extra attack, wolf spider is great utility with good damage, giant frog if you wanna terrorize goblins (slap jump on him and let the good times roll, the extra jump distance doesn't cost movement)
Can't wait to play a goblin who rides into town on a giant wolf spider. Sadly the beast companion cannot obtain feats. If I ran a campaign I would allow it so long as I agreed what they could get. (for example, I would allow Tough, Mobile, maybe sentinel, or maybe linguist however they can only read the language unless it's like a parrot or raven) It has to be within reason or logical. I think it'd be logical cause it has to consider giving up a +2 in exchange for a feature (which most beast companions are limited or are only useful in selective scenarios). Oh, and I would definitely allow Skilled but with only skill checks.
Great I was waiting for this so long so I can fully explain this class to one of my players. I am a new DM btw. Also I wanted to ask how would you improve this class?
Glad we could help! I think the revised version is a step in the right direction. It adds extra ability score increases among other things. Here’s a link to the PDF: media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/UA_RevisedRanger.pdf We will probably go over this sometime in the future with our thoughts. Thanks for watching!
Ah ok. I actually thought about improving the beast he is able to use as a companion, for example, that the CR of the beast he wants to use a companion can be the maximum of half his level and that he needs to find that beast. Otherwise I thought the ranger was fairly useful. But thx for the advice.
@@mjduncan3567 You could... but CR>1 you will not find *medium* or smaller beasts. You will encounter only Large and Huge, so you have another problem in there. The Revised is much better in that
I say that you can have a beast up to CR (insert Druid Wild Shape Table) OR you can have a number of beasts as long as their CR does not exceed the value on the table. They work as a pack, so when the pack attacks they all make attack rolls, all get adv. together, etc. I find that its more fun to have, say, a dire wolf, hawk, pair of black bears, that sort of thing
Your rating system feels a bit off in terms of combat effectiveness. You gave the Zealot, one of the strongest barbarian subclasses, a 3/5 and gave the beastmaster, a subclass that has a ton of problems (which you mentioned) a 2,5. Honestly, I think the Zealot is a 4/5 at least and the Beastmaster, sadly, is a 2/5 at best.
Couple thoughts. Comparing subclasses between classes isn’t exactly accurate as the ratings are meant to be how the subclass improves the specific class functions. Also, there is some factoring into the limits of abilities. For example, the Zealot Barbarian has strong abilities (when they are available), but since they are almost all tied to a condition (once per day/rage) or dying (which usually doesn’t happen often for barbarians with the most HP in the game), they become moot majority of the time. We factor that into the score as well. So, if 80% of the time you have only 1 ability functioning, it isn’t super helpful. Hope that makes sense :) thanks for watching!
@@URGE Fair enough. I don't agree that a Barbarian's rage is "moot" in combat "80% of the time", though. Yes, at very low levels, you will sometimes run out of rages, but those problems disappear quite quickly. A rage lasts for 10 rounds unless you stop attacking (even long range against 3/4 cover counts because the attack doesn't need to hit), fall unconscious and/or don't take damage for a full "round" of turns. Basically, if you aren't charmed, paralyzed etc., you WILL get 10 turns out of 1 rage, which is longer than the majority of combats. Once you get to 4 rages/day at 6th level, you are very likely to have 1 rage available per (relevant) combat. Sure, you might not pop one for a very short "mop up" fight against stragglers, but that's about it.
Unfortunately, this subclass isnt the best mechanically. If you have a friendly DM, try googling the Revised Ranger and Beast Master. It is better than the original release and definitely a better take on the class :) thanks for watching!
Had a DM let me just do the hunter subclass and the beastmaster together and it was amazing.
When I did play this subclass it was more fun on the RP side of things meanwhile in fights I was just a pseudo-Pokemon trainer. I did go variant human to get Level 1 spells ( Shocking grasp, Find familiar, and thorn whip ). In fights I would pretty much first turn use the Stirge ( think fat mosquito ) to latch onto an enemy while Arty ( my character ) took the dodge action. Turn two use the familiar, an owl in this case, to use the flyby shocking grasp. I called it the shock and suck combo. Fun times lol
Lvl 11
Giant poisonous snake with a two weapon fighting ranger using no spell slots would be doing about 40 damage a round vs 17AC. No feats, no spells. just using attack action bonus action attack with 2 snake attacks.
It’s better than people think , it just feels bad because you have to “give up an attack”.
You also didn’t take into account a lot of good spells for the capstone feature. Absorb elements goes a long way to keep your companion alive if you’re both caught in an elemental area of effect spell, it also boosts both of your melee damages. Zephyr strike would work on both of you. Guardian of nature would work incredibly well too. Any time you potentially heal yourself with a cure wounds, hitpoints go to the companion. Ensnaring strike, hail of thorns, and lightning arrow could boost damage by quite a large amount too. It’s an open and almost unlimited version of what everyone wants find steed to be able to do with spell effect duplication.
Also I think you may have missed out on some “errata” which are officially changed and printed materials. There are changes to the beast master specifically.
That is only IF the target fails all of its DC 11 CON saves vs. the snake's poison - which is incredibly unlikely at level 11. Most monsters have CON as their highest or second highest stat and many have upwards of 20 at that tier of play. So, at best, you should add the potential poison damage to every 4th attack that hit when mathing out the snake's damage.
Nr4747
The snakes poison is half damage on a save. Even passed save is respectable damage.
Giant poisonous snake
Bite: 1d4+4+proficiency
Bite poison save: 3d6+proficiency, half on DC 11 CON save.
Level 11 proficiency is 4.
Avg bite is 10.5 damage
Avg poison on bite is 14.5 on fail, 7 on a pass.
Snakes avg 17.5 damage damage on a hit with a passed save is still substantial.
Poison resistance and a passed save bring this down 14 damage. Still substantial, this is comparable damage to a raging barbarians damage without feats.
It’d be considered more unique if the newer subclasses didn’t allow you to straight up add your proficiency bonus to damage rolls. Proficiency scaling is very rare in 5e (even rarer in the phb), and this class, allows players to lean away from the physical stats and focus more on the rp stats, or in the case of rolling bad stats, this subclass still allows the character to function. In the case of good stats and using beastmaster, it gives you another opportunity attack, an even larger boost to your exploration & travel skills, potentially tracking people by scent, flanking (if you’re using it), bonus action advantage on your first attack. It can move stealthily at a normal pace with you, so the scouting group of ranger & animal companion can be 5 minutes ahead of everybody else. It doesn’t have much synergy with the typical ranger spells, but it does have a list of ranger spells that it functions extremely well with. It’s not the best, and it probably needs to be changed in future editions, but that doesn’t mean that this isn’t functional.
Currently playing a beast master hunter. And it’s quite underwhelming from level 1-3 to say the least. Once you get your pet, you can really do a lot with RP. I’m coming from growing up as a Beast Master in WoW. And I was really attached to my pet lol. So, I took the RP seriously and it made it interesting to have that pet aspect. I had a panther, and also bought a farm dog, so I was nice having all the extra perception! The panther can be quite good at level 3. Especially if you have melee party members. Landing the pounce attack enables melee to wail on a prone enemy. It also has a certain sneaky element to it which is cool. It’s ability to climb is also very nice. My favorite part of my panther, so far, was we were surrounded by elven archers in towers that were worn down, and had thick vegetation on the sides. One of my part members went down on all fours, and my panther ran towards him, jumped off his back onto the tower wall so he didn’t have to climb as much, and made it to the top in one turn. He proceeded to clear the top of the tower.
Are you guys doing laundry?
I could see just multiclassing just 3 levels into Ranger to get the basic abilities
Have you guys ever played with the subclass?
I (Jamison) have not personally played the subclass as I DM 99% of the time, but I have DMed several players playing the subclass, watched MANY sessions of others playing/DMing the subclass, and read extensively on the community's general feedback of the subclass. Ranger is very often seen as overshadowed or overlooked mechanically in 5e which is one reason that a revised ranger was made (and I strongly encourage looking into it). In the end, D&D is about having fun. You don't have to always min/max or play the "best" class or subclass. Play what you want and make it your own! Thanks for watching!
You get can get a free mount that's of 1/4 cr or less, if you just wanna do something stupid pick giant fly and go wild .Honestly any beast that's one size category larger than you and using mounted combatant makes this subclass really good. giant owl for flying(good damage too), constrictor snake for restraining stuff, elk for surprisingly good damage (plus knocked prone), deep rothe is you want a spell casting muskox who's got a 3d6 charge. That's not to mention all the really cool stuff when you're a small pc, panther is a great option if you wanna get spicy with the no extra attack, wolf spider is great utility with good damage, giant frog if you wanna terrorize goblins (slap jump on him and let the good times roll, the extra jump distance doesn't cost movement)
Are you guys considering re-recording this video with the variant Ranger in mind?
I wanna play a beast master hunter now. My first D&D character was a human fighter because I wanted to be as plain and vanilla as possible.
Enjoying your vids, thank you. My only critique is that non combat does not equal role play.
Can't wait to play a goblin who rides into town on a giant wolf spider. Sadly the beast companion cannot obtain feats. If I ran a campaign I would allow it so long as I agreed what they could get. (for example, I would allow Tough, Mobile, maybe sentinel, or maybe linguist however they can only read the language unless it's like a parrot or raven) It has to be within reason or logical. I think it'd be logical cause it has to consider giving up a +2 in exchange for a feature (which most beast companions are limited or are only useful in selective scenarios). Oh, and I would definitely allow Skilled but with only skill checks.
Great I was waiting for this so long so I can fully explain this class to one of my players. I am a new DM btw.
Also I wanted to ask how would you improve this class?
Glad we could help! I think the revised version is a step in the right direction. It adds extra ability score increases among other things. Here’s a link to the PDF: media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/UA_RevisedRanger.pdf We will probably go over this sometime in the future with our thoughts. Thanks for watching!
I agree
As DM I suggest to every single player that wants to play Ranger that they use the revised version
Ah ok. I actually thought about improving the beast he is able to use as a companion, for example, that the CR of the beast he wants to use a companion can be the maximum of half his level and that he needs to find that beast. Otherwise I thought the ranger was fairly useful.
But thx for the advice.
@@mjduncan3567 You could... but CR>1 you will not find *medium* or smaller beasts. You will encounter only Large and Huge, so you have another problem in there. The Revised is much better in that
I say that you can have a beast up to CR (insert Druid Wild Shape Table) OR you can have a number of beasts as long as their CR does not exceed the value on the table. They work as a pack, so when the pack attacks they all make attack rolls, all get adv. together, etc. I find that its more fun to have, say, a dire wolf, hawk, pair of black bears, that sort of thing
What about you take a giant frog? That thing has some cool features
You would think some one would make an mmorpg game that works on dnd. Where people can build quest mods and put then in the game...
Your rating system feels a bit off in terms of combat effectiveness. You gave the Zealot, one of the strongest barbarian subclasses, a 3/5 and gave the beastmaster, a subclass that has a ton of problems (which you mentioned) a 2,5. Honestly, I think the Zealot is a 4/5 at least and the Beastmaster, sadly, is a 2/5 at best.
Couple thoughts. Comparing subclasses between classes isn’t exactly accurate as the ratings are meant to be how the subclass improves the specific class functions. Also, there is some factoring into the limits of abilities. For example, the Zealot Barbarian has strong abilities (when they are available), but since they are almost all tied to a condition (once per day/rage) or dying (which usually doesn’t happen often for barbarians with the most HP in the game), they become moot majority of the time. We factor that into the score as well. So, if 80% of the time you have only 1 ability functioning, it isn’t super helpful. Hope that makes sense :) thanks for watching!
@@URGE Fair enough. I don't agree that a Barbarian's rage is "moot" in combat "80% of the time", though. Yes, at very low levels, you will sometimes run out of rages, but those problems disappear quite quickly. A rage lasts for 10 rounds unless you stop attacking (even long range against 3/4 cover counts because the attack doesn't need to hit), fall unconscious and/or don't take damage for a full "round" of turns. Basically, if you aren't charmed, paralyzed etc., you WILL get 10 turns out of 1 rage, which is longer than the majority of combats. Once you get to 4 rages/day at 6th level, you are very likely to have 1 rage available per (relevant) combat. Sure, you might not pop one for a very short "mop up" fight against stragglers, but that's about it.
still prefer arcanum beastmasters...1 new pet every 3 levels
Was not impressed with this class... Until i saw the vid about the Tasha options...
Well this is depressing
Unfortunately, this subclass isnt the best mechanically. If you have a friendly DM, try googling the Revised Ranger and Beast Master. It is better than the original release and definitely a better take on the class :) thanks for watching!
Wow this sub seams not worth playing