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Gerion
2010-03-21, 02:32 PM
Hi,
we are making new Characters for Expedition to Castle Ravenloft.
One of the players wants to play A Ranger/Beastmaster.

The Ranger halfs its level for his effective Druid level.

The Beastmaster stacks his level+3 with any class that grants an Animal Companion so a ranger6/beastmaster1 would have an effective Druid level of 5 ((6+4)/2). Is this correct?

and what would be the effective drudi level of an ranger6/druid2/beastmaster1 ?

Coidzor
2010-03-21, 02:42 PM
Ranger6+Druid2+Beastmaster1 = 6/2 + 2 + (1+3) = 3 +2+4 = 9 for purposes of animal companion. Since beastmaster and ranger are being added on to Druid, there's no question of order of operations or anything like that with the division. The ranger stuff gets halved and then added on to the druid stuff and the beastmaster stuff gets added onto the druid stuff.

The Ranger6+Beastmaster1 is either 5 ((6+4)/2) or 7 (6/2 + 4), depending upon how the order of operations is supposed to go. Does it just make one count as a higher level Class X for purposes of animal companion or does it just add X to the effective level that animal companions read? I favor the interpretation that the ranger levels are halved and then the b eastmaster stuff gets added on top of whatever is already there, but I don't know what the RAW on the situation is.

Gerion
2010-03-21, 03:02 PM
it reads (i hope its ok to post it) "The beastmaster gains the service of a loyal animal companion. Treat the bm as a druid whos level is equal to the bms level+3.
If the beastmaster already has an animal companion from another class, her bm class levels stack with all other classes that grant an animal companion."

(its shortend, left out the examples as they only concerns Druids)

Grumman
2010-03-21, 03:07 PM
Since Beastmaster alone is sufficient to give you an animal companion, there's no question: Beastmaster levels count in full. Otherwise a Ranger 5 / Beastmaster 10 would give you a worse animal companion than a Warrior 5 / Beastmaster 10, which is just silly.

PinkysBrain
2010-03-21, 03:08 PM
The Beastmaster stacks his level+3 with any class that grants an Animal Companion so a ranger6/beastmaster1 would have an effective Druid level of 5 ((6+4)/2). Is this correct?
Any reasonable DM would simply let your druid level be 6/2 + 4.

Voice of Reason
2010-03-21, 03:14 PM
Since Beastmaster alone is sufficient to give you an animal companion, there's no question: Beastmaster levels count in full. Otherwise a Ranger 5 / Beastmaster 10 would give you a worse animal companion than a Warrior 5 / Beastmaster 10, which is just silly.

This is the correct interpretation. The beastmaster levels grant progression as a druid+3; add the ranger levels separately afterwards.

John Campbell
2010-03-21, 03:19 PM
You halve the Ranger levels and only the Ranger levels. A Ranger 6/Beastmaster 1's effective level for animal companion purposes is (6/2) + (1+3), or 7.

Ranger 6/Druid 2/Beastmaster 1 is (6/2) + (2) + (1+3), or 9.

Gerion
2010-03-22, 01:42 PM
Any reasonable DM would simply let your druid level be 6/2 + 4.

Thanks, for I'm the DM ^^ its just he's our local powergamer and a modul like ravenloft is better suited for not so strong chars, also RAW was a little obscure imo.


Thank you all for the input. He gets his full bm level+3

PinkysBrain
2010-03-22, 02:44 PM
Thanks, for I'm the DM ^^ its just he's our local powergamer
Well, it's his main class feature ... it really needs the bonus HD to stay alive.

BTW, unless he picks a dire animal the will saves on his companion will be quite poor ... and it still has to make fear/horror/madness checks.