Help with Ranger Beastmaster

[ILM]

I'm having some difficulty with some rules. For the purposes of these questions, assume the character is a Human Ranger 5/ Beastmaster 4 without Natural Bond and a Wild Cohort.

1) Does he get an extra companion from Beastmaster 1, or does it just augment his existing companion?
2) In his case, do Beastmaster levels add to his ranger level or his effective druid level for the purposes of his animal companion?

If a beastmaster already has an animal companion from another class, her beastmaster levels stack with class levels from all other classes that grant an animal companion.
So what's the effective druid level of a Ranger 5/ Beastmaster 4? 9 (5/2+4+3)? 7 ((5+4)/2+3)? 6 ((5+4+3)/2)?
3) Would Natural Bond apply to a Wild Cohort as well?
Please note that for the moment I'm trying to determine what the RAW standing is on these.

[Pilo]

1) No, you don't get an aditionnal compagnon.

2) Yes: A ranger 5, beast master 4 will have an effective level for the animal compagnon of 5/2 + 4 = 6.

3) No:
From wild cohort : Special: Druids and rangers who take the wild cohort feat gain an animal cohort in addition to their animal companion. Although the two abilities are similar, they follow different sets of rules and must be tracked separately.
From Natural bond : bonuses that your animal companion receives

[ILM]

Well, that's lame.

Ok then. Aside from Druids, whose flavor definitely does NOT go with the character I've planned, are there any other ways (in 3.5e) to get a full-progression animal companion?

[Pilo]

Leadership with a half-elf fighter (for the low-light vision) and high charisma score.

Wild cohort is based on your character level and not your druid level for animal compagnon.

At low level, animal compagnons are powerful but, they aren't at high level, their progression is not good enough to match the difficulties of new chalenges (around character level 12 or so).

[Urpriest]

1) No, you don't get an aditionnal compagnon.

2) Yes: A ranger 5, beast master 4 will have an effective level for the animal compagnon of 5/2 + 4 = 6.

3) No:
From wild cohort : Special: Druids and rangers who take the wild cohort feat gain an animal cohort in addition to their animal companion. Although the two abilities are similar, they follow different sets of rules and must be tracked separately.
From Natural bond : bonuses that your animal companion receives

Correction: On 2) you forgot the +3 from Beastmaster. That gives you 5/2+4+3=9, equal to your character level.

[ILM]

Correction: On 2) you forgot the +3 from Beastmaster. That gives you 5/2+4+3=9, equal to your character level.
So whatever the base class is, Beastmaster levels count as full druid levels? Cause the text says "her beastmaster levels stack with class levels from all other classes that grant an animal companion." That seems to me like it means that a Ranger 5/ Beastmaster 4 is considered a Ranger 12 (i.e. Druid 6) for the purposes of his animal companion...

[Urpriest]

So whatever the base class is, Beastmaster levels count as full druid levels? Cause the text says "her beastmaster levels stack with class levels from all other classes that grant an animal companion." That seems to me like it means that a Ranger 5/ Beastmaster 4 is considered a Ranger 12 (i.e. Druid 6) for the purposes of his animal companion...

Eh, it's ambiguous. Remember that all the Ranger levels are doing is treating you as a Druid of 1/2 your level. So really you first turn your Ranger level into 1/2 Druid level, then do the stacking.

If you just looked at that paragraph alone you'd think that even a Druid would lose the +3, which is contradicted by the example in the next sentence.

[ILM]

If you just looked at that paragraph alone you'd think that even a Druid would lose the +3, which is contradicted by the example in the next sentence.
Well no; Beastmaster X counts as Druid X+3, so Druid 5/ Beastmaster 2 counts as Druid 5+(2+3)=10.

Curse WotC's lazy editing! :smallannoyed:

[ILM]

Now that I think of it, it kind of makes no sense. If BM levels merely stack with previous class levels, a Ranger 5/ BM 4 would count as a Ranger 12, or Druid 6 - which is worse than a character with no prior companion (e.g. a Fighter 5 (with shenanigans to get Handle Animal on his class list)/ BM 4 would have the companion of a Druid 7...)


Another question then: given the choice between a Dire Wolf and a Wolf with advanced HD, which would you pick? The Dire Wolf has more brute power, but you get to pick the feats for the advanced Wolf...

Also, the animal companion is "completely typical for its kind," which I guess rules out inherited templates. Are acquired templates OK? Are there any other solid improvements one can apply to an animal companion?

[Vladislav]

Another question then: given the choice between a Dire Wolf and a Wolf with advanced HD, which would you pick? The Dire Wolf has more brute power, but you get to pick the feats for the advanced Wolf... A Dire Wolf has Str 25. A regular Wolf advanced twice has, what, 15!? Shouldn't the choice be obvious? What two feats can the Wolf possibly take to overcome a 10-point difference in Str?

[ILM]

Distracting Attack? Constant/ Dutiful Guardian? Mage Slayer? Power Attack/ Leap Attack/ Improved Bull Rush/ Shock Trooper? Adaptable/ Vexing Flanker? And that not even going into VoP cheese.

I don't know, I'm just asking here.

Also, an advanced wolf has far better AC than a dire wolf plus evasion and devotion (even multiattack if high enough). So yeah, you're pretty much 4 behind a Dire Wolf for your attack bonus and damage, and you're medium instead of large (important for tripping) but you win in AC, feats, abilities and skills.

[Urpriest]

The feats aren't amazingly important. Remember that if you're a 9th level character you can probably find a Psion to use Psychic Reformation, so you can switch the pre-set feats around to more optimal ones.

[ILM]

Mwell not really, since we don't do psionics; I guess DCFS is an option but it seems pushing it a bit for an animal companion...

[Crasical]

The Aerenal Beastmaster feat can net you another +3 to your virtual druid level, provided you're okay with picking Baboons as your main animal companion. It's enough to make up for playing a Ranger instead of a Druid if you go straight into the PRC.

It also means that if you take both Aerenal Beastmaster and Natural bond on a Ranger 5/Beastmaster 1, you count as a level 12 druid at level 6, giving your baboon buddy 8 extra HD and natural armor and 4 extra points of strength.

If you give the baboon some masterwork studded leather, a masterwork buckler, and assume a median roll on each HD, the Baboon has 45 HP, 25 AC. If your DM lets you choose your animal companion's feats, he should just qualify for the Shock Trooper chain, letting him charge for full at +12 to hit, 1d6+12 damage.

[Diovid]

Go something like Ranger 6 / Beastmaster 1 / x 10, where x is a full animal companion progressing prestige class (such as animal lord, wild plains outrider, halfling outrider, lion of talisid). Take the natural bond feat. At level 17 you end up with an effective druid level of: (6/2) + 4 + 10 + 3 = 20.

Are you sure you want to play as a human? There are some interesting options otherwise.

Kobold: Take the 4th ranger sub level (count as 1/2 druid +3 for the Dire Weasel).
Gnome: Take the 4th ranger sub level (count as 1/2 druid +3 for burrowing animals).
Halfling: Can take the Brixashulty as a 1st level companion instead of 4th (combines nicely with wild plains outrider and halfling outrider).

[INoKnowNames]

Anyone care if I piggyback this thread, since I wanted to ask about an X-Beastmaster for a bit? Seems like it might be better to ask than to open a new thread.

[Doorhandle]

Play pathfinder, get boon companion. DONE! (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/boon-companion)

[ILM]

Anyone care if I piggyback this thread, since I wanted to ask about an X-Beastmaster for a bit? Seems like it might be better to ask than to open a new thread.
Be my guest!

[INoKnowNames]

Be my guest!

Thanks.

I wanted to make a character somewhat like this for a while, actually. It'd most likely have Ranger as a Base, but I was also considering Druid, too, since it's a bit stronger and starts with a companion.

I should stop beating around the bush: I wanted to create a Pokemon Trainer in D&D 3.5. Beastmaster for 4 companions, Wild Cohort for a 5th, and either Dragon Leadership (though since it's a cohort rather than a companion, that might be out), or some other option for a 6th. If I gestalt this character, it would be with a Wizard for certain, making the 6th easily a Familiar.

The biggest hurtle is the Pokeball aspect. Moving around with 6 incredibly powerful monsters ranging in various sizes would probably attract a lot of attention. Summoning them 1 at a time as needed would be cool, as would the nova moment when all 6 are brought out at once to deal with a threat (although since I wanted to have them each with different purposes, some might be a bit more vunerable than others, and would be harder to use in combat). I was hoping there would be spells or magic items for this sort of thing, though I can't recall any at the moment for the life of me.

Any suggestions?

[Diovid]

Animal Lord (complete adventurer) lets you summon creatures based on your totem animal.

Beastheart Adept (dungeonscape) lets you have Abberations and Magical Beasts as companions. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20070209a&page=4

All around the Druid is probably the most effective class for this sort of thing. Animal Companion + Buffing spells + Summoning spells + turning into a beast yourself = win.

[Vladislav]

I suggest asking a caster to craft a continuous item of Rope Trick. Have your animal companions chill inside the rope trick most of the time, summon them when needed.

[INoKnowNames]

I suggest asking a caster to craft a continuous item of Rope Trick. Have your animal companions chill inside the rope trick most of the time, summon them when needed.

If the Rope Trick can be moved from it's initial position then I can see why it is so awesome. Curl the rope into a ball shape and just pull it when needed, and let them chill otherwise until it's time to eat or such.

Hm... (Druid or Ranger) / Beast Heart Adept / Animal Lord..... sounds cool....

[ILM]

Are there any solid items that would boost the performance of your animal allies? I'm thinking less items worn by the animals themselves and more items used and worn by the beastmaster. Wasn't there something, for instance, that effectively gave you Inspire Courage +1?