mer.c
2016-03-10, 10:46 PM
I'm DMing for some friends, and I've made a point of looking up and tooling with they classes they're interested in playing next. One's considering a Beast Master, and another's looking at a Monk of the Four Elements. I'm hoping to make changes that are pretty easy to comprehend, thematic, and small-ish. I don't want to reimagine or rebalance the whole class/kit, just nudge it in the direction of being more fun and/or better balanced.
So, here are the problems as I understand them, and how I'm planning on addressing them. I'd love to hear what people think about them. I don't have much experience yet with 5e, so any feedback or insight would be great!
Beast Master
Problem: Lags behind a bit in utility, and also feels kind of bad when you're best off just leaving your pet to stand around because it's not worth blowing an action on.
Tweaks:
Ranger
Ranger – Beast Master
Coordinated Assault: Starting at 3rd level, when you hit a creature that is within 5’ of your beast with a melee or ranged attack, you may spend your reaction to command your beast to make one attack against the same target as an action. If you are not within 5’ of the target, your beast makes this attack with disadvantage.
Exceptional Training (changed): Starting at 7th level, your beast gains the following abilities. When your beast takes the Help, Harry, or Harrow action as a bonus action, it cannot do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
Your beast can take the Help action as a bonus action.
Your beast can Harry a creature within 5' as a bonus action. That creature has disadvantage on its next attack roll.
Your beast can Harrow a creature within 5' as a bonus action. That creature has disadvantage on its next saving throw, ability check, or ability contest (your choice).
Your beast can take the Dash, Disengage, or Dodge action as a bonus action.
Reasoning: The idea here is to boost the Ranger's damage output and utility, while also making it less punitive to use the companion. The idea of Ranger and companion working together instead of working kind of at odds with one another is really appealing to me. The new Exceptional Training gives Beast Masters a few cooldowns they can blow for nice effects, which should help them feel more punchy and awesome without, I hope, tipping them into OP territory.
Coordinated Assault: Starting at 3rd level, you gain the following abilities. You may only use one of these abilities per turn, and only once per turn.
When you hit a target with a melee or ranged attack, if that target is within 5’ of your beast, you may spend your reaction to command your beast to make one attack against the same target as a reaction. If you are not within 5’ of the target, your beast makes this attack with disadvantage.
As a bonus action, you may command your beast to take the Dash or Disengage action as a bonus action.
Primal Hunter (replaces Exceptional Training)
Starting at 7th level, creatures provoke opportunity attacks from your beast even if they take the Disengage action before leaving its reach.
When your beast makes an opportunity attack, you may spend your reaction to give it advantage on the attack roll. If you do and the attack hits, the target must make a Strength saving throw vs. DC 8 + your Proficiency modifier + your Wisdom modifier. If it fails this save, its speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn.
If you are not within 5’ of the target, your beast has disadvantage on this roll instead of advantage.
The 5' stipulations are simply because I imagine a ranged Ranger has a lot less to do with reactions than a melee ranger, so I wanted to balance the action economy aspect with some sort of disadvantage. But if people think that's going overboard, I'm not wedded to the idea.
I'd thought about different effects in place of the Sentinel-Lite ability, but I couldn't decide on anything better. Lots of pets already have knockdown effects, so that would be redundant. Maybe instead, the beast could give a penalty to attacks or something? I'm not sure.
Way of the Four Elements
Problem: Unless you meet specific AoE requirements, the damage boosts from Elemental Disciplines don't measure up to the other uses of Ki. Also, since every Avatar monk ability takes Ki, it can run out quickly at low levels.
Tweaks:
Inner Harmony: Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, your maximum Ki is increased by an amount equal to your wisdom modifier.
Rushing River Technique: Starting at 6th level, when you use an Elemental Discipline, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action.
Reasoning: Lots of people have floated the +Ki equal to Wisdom modifier idea, and I think that does a good job of helping out at low levels where the Ki is the tightest. Simple, elegant, gets the job done.
But easing the Ki economy doesn't address the fact that the kit struggles to get as much out of its kit-specific perks than out of the class's generic abilities. I don't know if this goes far enough, or if it goes too far, or somewhere in between, or both at once, or whatever. If it's not enough, the number of attacks could be upped. If it's too much, perhaps it could lose its ability score modifier to the damage. As for it being specifically "one unarmed strike as a bonus action," I just wanted to keep it consistent with the extra attack off Martial Arts.
I do note like the names for these abilities. I just made up some random mystical Wuxia sounding s*** so it would sound thematic. ;)
I have a bunch more tweaks I'm working on, including some juicy ones like a feat for maintaining dual concentration. But I'll leave it with just these for now since I feel like I'm about at the limit of what I can do other than run them in a campaign or turn them over for community scrutiny. :)
So, here are the problems as I understand them, and how I'm planning on addressing them. I'd love to hear what people think about them. I don't have much experience yet with 5e, so any feedback or insight would be great!
Beast Master
Problem: Lags behind a bit in utility, and also feels kind of bad when you're best off just leaving your pet to stand around because it's not worth blowing an action on.
Tweaks:
Ranger
Ranger – Beast Master
Coordinated Assault: Starting at 3rd level, when you hit a creature that is within 5’ of your beast with a melee or ranged attack, you may spend your reaction to command your beast to make one attack against the same target as an action. If you are not within 5’ of the target, your beast makes this attack with disadvantage.
Exceptional Training (changed): Starting at 7th level, your beast gains the following abilities. When your beast takes the Help, Harry, or Harrow action as a bonus action, it cannot do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
Your beast can take the Help action as a bonus action.
Your beast can Harry a creature within 5' as a bonus action. That creature has disadvantage on its next attack roll.
Your beast can Harrow a creature within 5' as a bonus action. That creature has disadvantage on its next saving throw, ability check, or ability contest (your choice).
Your beast can take the Dash, Disengage, or Dodge action as a bonus action.
Reasoning: The idea here is to boost the Ranger's damage output and utility, while also making it less punitive to use the companion. The idea of Ranger and companion working together instead of working kind of at odds with one another is really appealing to me. The new Exceptional Training gives Beast Masters a few cooldowns they can blow for nice effects, which should help them feel more punchy and awesome without, I hope, tipping them into OP territory.
Coordinated Assault: Starting at 3rd level, you gain the following abilities. You may only use one of these abilities per turn, and only once per turn.
When you hit a target with a melee or ranged attack, if that target is within 5’ of your beast, you may spend your reaction to command your beast to make one attack against the same target as a reaction. If you are not within 5’ of the target, your beast makes this attack with disadvantage.
As a bonus action, you may command your beast to take the Dash or Disengage action as a bonus action.
Primal Hunter (replaces Exceptional Training)
Starting at 7th level, creatures provoke opportunity attacks from your beast even if they take the Disengage action before leaving its reach.
When your beast makes an opportunity attack, you may spend your reaction to give it advantage on the attack roll. If you do and the attack hits, the target must make a Strength saving throw vs. DC 8 + your Proficiency modifier + your Wisdom modifier. If it fails this save, its speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn.
If you are not within 5’ of the target, your beast has disadvantage on this roll instead of advantage.
The 5' stipulations are simply because I imagine a ranged Ranger has a lot less to do with reactions than a melee ranger, so I wanted to balance the action economy aspect with some sort of disadvantage. But if people think that's going overboard, I'm not wedded to the idea.
I'd thought about different effects in place of the Sentinel-Lite ability, but I couldn't decide on anything better. Lots of pets already have knockdown effects, so that would be redundant. Maybe instead, the beast could give a penalty to attacks or something? I'm not sure.
Way of the Four Elements
Problem: Unless you meet specific AoE requirements, the damage boosts from Elemental Disciplines don't measure up to the other uses of Ki. Also, since every Avatar monk ability takes Ki, it can run out quickly at low levels.
Tweaks:
Inner Harmony: Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, your maximum Ki is increased by an amount equal to your wisdom modifier.
Rushing River Technique: Starting at 6th level, when you use an Elemental Discipline, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action.
Reasoning: Lots of people have floated the +Ki equal to Wisdom modifier idea, and I think that does a good job of helping out at low levels where the Ki is the tightest. Simple, elegant, gets the job done.
But easing the Ki economy doesn't address the fact that the kit struggles to get as much out of its kit-specific perks than out of the class's generic abilities. I don't know if this goes far enough, or if it goes too far, or somewhere in between, or both at once, or whatever. If it's not enough, the number of attacks could be upped. If it's too much, perhaps it could lose its ability score modifier to the damage. As for it being specifically "one unarmed strike as a bonus action," I just wanted to keep it consistent with the extra attack off Martial Arts.
I do note like the names for these abilities. I just made up some random mystical Wuxia sounding s*** so it would sound thematic. ;)
I have a bunch more tweaks I'm working on, including some juicy ones like a feat for maintaining dual concentration. But I'll leave it with just these for now since I feel like I'm about at the limit of what I can do other than run them in a campaign or turn them over for community scrutiny. :)