Pet Master ideas

[Naanomi]

A player in my group (a younger player without much interest in optimization beyond 'not sucking') is enjoying his Beastmaster ranger; but is interested in furthering the concept. He is planning on getting a familiar, probably through 3 levels in Warlock. So, my questions:

1) Not that I will change his mind, but do you think 12 HP the Companion is giving up for the Warlock dip is worth the extra pet?
2) Not that any are terribly impressive, but which of the Warlock Pact of the Chain familiars is most formidable for a purely combat perspective?
3) Given one can get all the pet class features at 15/3; might it be worthwhile to get two levels of Fighter to get Action Surge... and thus have more pet actions (giving up 8 more HP on the Companion and 5th level ranger spells)?

[archaeo]

Your Ranger will almost certainly be happier spending a feat to get the find familiar spell if that's the only reason he wants to dip Warlock. A few Warlock levels will be strong, certainly, and the special familiars you get via the pact are a step above normal familiars, but I'm not sure it will jive well with Ranger, especially without a bit of care. The regular familiar also won't conflict with his Ranger pet.

Instead, just have him take Magic Initiate, giving him two good Wizard cantrips along with the familiar; there are a few excellent options for a Ranger. Or, if he has Wis or Int 13 (and he does because he's a Ranger), take Ritual Caster, which is probably the stronger choice, although I'm not sure that the Wizard ritual list is the strongest use of this feat for Ranger.

He'll also be able to later learn to cast Conjure Animals at level 9 and Conjure Woodland Beings at 14 for even more pet action.

[Naanomi]

Your Ranger will almost certainly be happier spending a feat to get the find familiar spell if that's the only reason he wants to dip Warlock. A few Warlock levels will be strong, certainly, and the special familiars you get via the pact are a step above normal familiars, but I'm not sure it will jive well with Ranger, especially without a bit of care. The regular familiar also won't conflict with his Ranger pet.
I said the same thing, but he likes the idea of giving up both his attacks each round to have his two pets attack; and himself focused on supporting them rather than attacking himself.

[archaeo]

I said the same thing, but he likes the idea of giving up both his attacks each round to have his two pets attack; and himself focused on supporting them rather than attacking himself.

Hm, well, as long as he realizes that the dip will cost him a feat unless he does Ranger 16 / Warlock 4, while Ranger 17/Warlock 3 will net him a 5th level spell slot. This will give him plenty of pet action, but he'll probably want to choose the sprite as his pact familiar, as it'll be extremely fragile at high level. Multiclass at Ranger 4 or 8, maybe?

A dip into Warlock is at least always a good opportunity for roleplaying, unless you want to handwave this pact. Archfey would be more thematically appropriate with Ranger, but Great Old One probably gives you a better power.

He should also remember that Warlock abilities are keyed off of Charisma, but he'll probably be wanting a bunch of buff spells for his pets that won't worry much about said Charisma. Armor of Agathys, Blade Ward, and Hex will all be totally awesome spells for this Rangerlock to learn.

Oh, and by the rules, he must have Charisma 13 to multiclass to Warlock.

[Naanomi]

This is a build that does not have stellar needs for stats (13+ DEX, 13 WIS, 13 CHA; as much DEX and CON as you can muster)... so lets look at some feats that might help; apart from the kind of things that are useful for everyone.

~Mounted Combat: for a small character when riding his Companion
~Defensive Duelist: if you have Mounted Combat, helps really keep that pet alive
~Sentinel: punish people for attacking your pets instead of you
~Sharpshooter: throwing nets on people is a good way to help your pets in combat

Also, the Protection fighting style is nice; and if he happens to pick up a second one with the Fighter dip then Defense or (if net throwing seems viable) Archery?

[numerek]

ideas:

6 level bard could get you find familiar and find steed. plus some skill expertise since your not attacking that might be nice, I don't think you can inspire your companion but find steed has at least 6 int so I don't see why not there.

3 level druid become an animal yourself, since you don't plan on attacking you can pick the one that gives best utility or survivability.

2 fighter as mentioned action surge for more animal action, healing surge more survivability, another fighting style, 9 more levels gets extra attack(3)

5 levels paladin for find steed/ one more level gives all your pets that you can fit around you saving throw bonus, this also takes care of extra attack and gets another fighting style, plus more buff spells and it gets the rangers 15th level ability at 5th level also find steed doesn't have the 1/4 CR restriction bless spell

3 ranger fighting style, beast, one nice thing is only the hit points are ranger level dependent, the attack, damage and ac bonus are character level.

2 rouge cunning action so you can do something during your turn, also skill expertise.

3 warlock as mentioned for improved familiar(I think imp is most powerful), there is also a pact of chain invocation, at will speak with animals, at will silent image could give the appearance of another creature.

Also any of the full casters will give you access to other conjuration spells but find familiar and find steed seem like the long term ones, that doesn't rely on dead bodies.
haste would also be good for more animal action. heroes' feast could give them sum much needed hit points

so ranger 3/paladin 6/warlock 3/druid 3/fighter 2/rouge 2/? 1
For fighting styles you could pick up defense/protection/archery?
The ? 1 can go to one of the level 3 classes for another feat, or to fighter/rogue/paladin to pick up a class ability.
Feats (can choose 3 with human variant, most stats don't matter for this build great build if rolled low stats and dm made you keep them, may need to drop a class or two if your stats are really low)
Mounted Combatant, shield mastery, mage slayer, sentinel, polearm master, either sniper, war caster

Main idea would be get more triggers for your reaction, get more uses for your bonus action, improve ranged attack for when your animals can't engage, improve out of combat utility, provide some benefit while you are standing around commanding your animals.
Obviously not very powerful but as many people have said with bounded accuracy you will never be completely useless. you will have some cantrips to fall back on if need be. I think this build could be extremely fun to play and who else gets to multi class 6 times.
as far as stats with point buy you need 13 str, 13 dex, 13 wis, 13 cha costs 20 points and that is without racial modifiers so you have 7 points plus racial bonuses to play around with after that, if you give up feats you could actually get a stat to 20 with this build.

You don't have to go that extreme either
11 ranger/6 paladin/3 warlock still gets you the animals and you could swap a paladin level for a ranger or warlock level for another ability score increase.

[rlc]

Ugh, there needs to be a max number of classes you can take when multicasting.