Odd character idea: Ranger halfling with snake

[Belac93]

So, this idea just came to me.

You play a halfling ranger, stout if you want flavour, or ghostwise for creepiness. Get high strength.

At level 2, take two-weapon fighting or dueling.

At level 3, become a beastmaster, take a giant poisonous snake, spend your turns commanding it to attack with it's 10 foot reach, using your weapons when it comes in reach.

Now, for level 4, you have 2 options. If you went two-weapon-fighting, take dual wielder and fight with 2 lances. I like this option, because by level 5 you are getting the same amount of attacks as a normal ranger, plus your companion also gets to attack.

The other one is to have a shield. Take mounted combatant, and enjoy being a very hard to kill duo.

[Professor Gnoll]

Snakes!

One of the real benefits of the snake companion is that you can harvest its venom every day to apply to your weapons, for a nice damage boost. I believe someone posted a guide to using that very concept a while ago.

[Naanomi]

There is some ambiguity about whether or not a beastmaster can use offhanded weapon attacks (technically can't...); as you don't take an attack action, you command your beast and get to make an attack because of it.

Either way, halflings (or gnomes) riding weird things are fun characters... giant spiders, snakes, crabs...

[Specter]

I'd go for shield and rapier. Pumping STR makes Halfling's main stat goes almost to waste, and you get +2 to AC. For Mounted Combatant and directing attacks to the snake to you, that's major.

Besides, with the snake attacking, your damage will be pretty good regardless of a bonus attack.

[Belac93]

I'd go for shield and rapier. Pumping STR makes Halfling's main stat goes almost to waste, and you get +2 to AC. For Mounted Combatant and directing attacks to the snake to you, that's major.

Besides, with the snake attacking, your damage will be pretty good regardless of a bonus attack.

It was mainly because with with a lance, you can both attack from 10 feet away. Whip would work, but its low damage.

[MaxWilson]

So, this idea just came to me.

You play a halfling ranger, stout if you want flavour, or ghostwise for creepiness. Get high strength.

At level 2, take two-weapon fighting or dueling.

At level 3, become a beastmaster, take a giant poisonous snake, spend your turns commanding it to attack with it's 10 foot reach, using your weapons when it comes in reach.

Now, for level 4, you have 2 options. If you went two-weapon-fighting, take dual wielder and fight with 2 lances. I like this option, because by level 5 you are getting the same amount of attacks as a normal ranger, plus your companion also gets to attack.

The other one is to have a shield. Take mounted combatant, and enjoy being a very hard to kill duo.

Consider taking a flying snake instead. Same AC, same HP after Beastmaster bonuses, high mobility (60' flight and Flyby), and similar total damage after considering saving throws and Beastmaster bonuses.

Also, leverage your snake's Blindsight using your ability to cast Fog Cloud. Try to beg or trade for a daily Mage Armor for your snake from the party wizard. An AC 19-23 snake with, say, 30-40 HP is really hard to kill when you're attacking at disadvantage from the Fog Cloud.

Alternately, you can use your Ranger attack to throw a net, and then have your flying snake do its flyby at advantage, without costing yourself a spell slot. Works best if you are a Sharpshooter build to avoid disadvantage on your net attack.


BTW I find ghostwise halflings very flavorful, at least as flavorful as stout. But then, I'm a fan of Athasian halflings that look like this:

http://www.lomion.de/cmm/img/halfrene.gif

Although, the old-school halfling art isn't bad either:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-6sRNHnWnqs/TTPWVa-Wo5I/AAAAAAAABTI/Lukp8HV9zdY/s1600/halflings.jpg

[djreynolds]

What could be cool, is if you snake could coil itself on your spear or polearm. And when you hit, it can hit as well. It could share in your feats.