beast companions

[Godrednu]

I know this is probably an old question, but I am dealing with beast companions for the first time. How does their initiative work?

[allonym]

Generally, they don't have an initiative, they act on their controller's turn, and their controller takes actions in order that their companion takes actions. Is this the Beastmaster Ranger?

[vasharanpaladin]

Your beast companion, animal companion, thrall and/or any summoned monsters you may have act on YOUR turn, using YOUR actions. Which is to say, you get one each of move, minor and standard actions, which you can divide among your pets/summons as you wish.

In other words, if you picked the Beast Mastery feature in hopes of having effectively two characters, your bubble has been burst. :smallamused:

Also, I should point out that depending on the level of optimization, your beast companion may (and in fact, should) be nothing more than a ranging beacon for your Hunter's Quarry. Its attacks scale horribly, so Beast powers are ill-advised. Your best bet with it is to play a pixie archer and ride your pet falcon to get around the altitude limit, and even then the loss of Prime Shot hurts.

[Daftendirekt]

This may have been updated or changed in errata since I last played 4e, but there was a nice Ranger build that involved a feat that let you make opportunity attacks against people who attacked your beast companion. Pair that feat with the paragon path that lets you make ranged opportunity attacks. Choose something beefy for your companion, like a bear or a boar. Congrats, you now have an attack-generating meatshield!

Apologies for not providing names on the feat and path; it's been a while since I did any 4e.

[allonym]

That build no longer works, if it's the one I think it is: It used Sharpshooter (feature was: you can make opportunity attacks with a bow/crossbow) and Beast protector (feat was: enemies attacking your Beast Companion provoke OAs from you).

Both the feature and the feat have been errata'd to include text specifying an adjacent enemy.

[Daftendirekt]

That build no longer works, if it's the one I think it is: It used Sharpshooter (feature was: you can make opportunity attacks with a bow/crossbow) and Beast protector (feat was: enemies attacking your Beast Companion provoke OAs from you).

Both the feature and the feat have been errata'd to include text specifying an adjacent enemy.

Those were indeed the ones I had in mind. Curse you constant 4e errata. You take away all the nice things!