New Ranger path: Beastmaster
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2023 4:47 pm
The Beastmaster forges a stronger bond with his animal companion and animals in general, at the expense of his own fighting prowess.
- The Beastmaster lose dualwielding feats and Dual wield defense bonus.
- Gains animal companion and bonus language: animal at level 2 instead 4 and 6 respectively
- Can -guard his animal companion (only works on animal companion and other player characters)
- The Beastmasters Animal Companion gains 1 bonus HD (level) at Ranger level 4, 8, 12, 20 and 28
- Gains SF: Animal Empathy at level 10 and ESF: Animal Empathy at 25
- Gains Call of the Wild at 21
Why this path?
This opens a third way to play a deep ranger beside dualwielding and archery. The animal companion, though situationally useful, is not something you can build a concept around with the normal and archery path. This path lets a Ranger trade APR for a somewhat stronger companion and the ability to make better use of it through -guard. This will in particular make the other choices of animal companions beside Bear and Dire Wolf more viable than they are today, without having to do an entire rework as I previously suggested.
I am no balance guru, so I don't know if the additional HD's are too strong, weak, or just fine.
- The Beastmaster lose dualwielding feats and Dual wield defense bonus.
- Gains animal companion and bonus language: animal at level 2 instead 4 and 6 respectively
- Can -guard his animal companion (only works on animal companion and other player characters)
- The Beastmasters Animal Companion gains 1 bonus HD (level) at Ranger level 4, 8, 12, 20 and 28
- Gains SF: Animal Empathy at level 10 and ESF: Animal Empathy at 25
- Gains Call of the Wild at 21
Why this path?
This opens a third way to play a deep ranger beside dualwielding and archery. The animal companion, though situationally useful, is not something you can build a concept around with the normal and archery path. This path lets a Ranger trade APR for a somewhat stronger companion and the ability to make better use of it through -guard. This will in particular make the other choices of animal companions beside Bear and Dire Wolf more viable than they are today, without having to do an entire rework as I previously suggested.
I am no balance guru, so I don't know if the additional HD's are too strong, weak, or just fine.