Beast Master ranger in to fighter

[bink101]

I'm going to play adventures league dnd next week. I want to play a Gladiator ranger that has a wolf I'm using two short swords and a whip for my Gladiator weapon. ranger beast master is week so I had two ideas one was to go 3 levels ranger then 1 in to rouge rest as ranger then play a goblin to get the lvl 2 ability that rogue has this works fine. My 2nd idea is to go fighter and beast master ranger I don't no how many levels of fighter or what race would work for this. Or another multiclass that helps the ranger beast master feel stronger without hurting the wolf's health to much

[CTurbo]

Can you use the UA Revised Beastmaster Ranger?

If so, 5 levels of Fighter for extra attack would stack with the Ranger's 5th level Coordinated Attack feature giving you and your Wolf 2 attacks per round each. It's actually pretty strong. You'd still want mostly Ranger levels though after that to power up your Wolf as much as possible.

Another idea would be to use a small character and take the Mounted Combat feat and ride the Wolf. Not being able to be targeted would really help out the Wolf's squishiness. I have an idea to do this but I'd take 6 levels of Paladin for the Aura of Protection so my Wolf would always get the Aura bonus.

[Vexacia]

Multiclassing Beast Master is a great way to ensure your pet dies even more easily than if you'd stayed monoclassed. Your Beast Master pet scales with Ranger levels, not character levels.

Your playstyle is probably going to be having the pet just sit around and be a 5x5 living terrain wall until level 5, then after level 5 substituting one attack for a pet attack. you should still get to use your TWF bonus action attack after doing so - not 100% sure on the rules here so I'd double check it. if you can beast command+TWF, then it's probably playable. if you can't, then it's probably not a viable playstyle.


Can you use the UA Revised Beastmaster Ranger?

If so, 5 levels of Fighter for extra attack would stack with the Ranger's 5th level Coordinated Attack feature giving you and your Wolf 2 attacks per round each. It's actually pretty strong. You'd still want mostly Ranger levels though after that to power up your Wolf as much as possible.

you can't use UA in Adventurer's League, period

and absurd gimmicks and other stupid shenanigans like this are part of why Revised Ranger is a joke that non-AL DMs should still reject

[bink101]

Can you use the UA Revised Beastmaster Ranger?

If so, 5 levels of Fighter for extra attack would stack with the Ranger's 5th level Coordinated Attack feature giving you and your Wolf 2 attacks per round each. It's actually pretty strong. You'd still want mostly Ranger levels though after that to power up your Wolf as much as possible.

Another idea would be to use a small character and take the Mounted Combat feat and ride the Wolf. Not being able to be targeted would really help out the Wolf's squishiness. I have an idea to do this but I'd take 6 levels of Paladin for the Aura of Protection so my Wolf would always get the Aura bonus.

UA RANGER can't be used in adventures league

[bink101]

Multiclassing Beast Master is a great way to ensure your pet dies even more easily than if you'd stayed monoclassed. Your Beast Master pet scales with Ranger levels, not character levels.

Your playstyle is probably going to be having the pet just sit around and be a 5x5 living terrain wall until level 5, then after level 5 substituting one attack for a pet attack. you should still get to use your TWF bonus action attack after doing so - not 100% sure on the rules here so I'd double check it. if you can beast command+TWF, then it's probably playable. if you can't, then it's probably not a viable playstyle.

I looked in to it. The way it is worded it does not work

[Vexacia]

I looked in to it. The way it is worded it does not work

unfortunate! man, Beast Master really is the crown champion of poor design, isn't it?

[ChildofLuthic]

unfortunate! man, Beast Master really is the crown champion of poor design, isn't it?

Seriously dude. Honestly, if I wanted to play a Beastmaster, I would probably just go Rogue (scout) and take Magic Initiate (find familiar), or maybe just refluff a paladin and his steed. Feel bad for people that are really into that archetype.

[Citan]

I'm going to play adventures league dnd next week. I want to play a Gladiator ranger that has a wolf I'm using two short swords and a whip for my Gladiator weapon. ranger beast master is week so I had two ideas one was to go 3 levels ranger then 1 in to rouge rest as ranger then play a goblin to get the lvl 2 ability that rogue has this works fine. My 2nd idea is to go fighter and beast master ranger I don't no how many levels of fighter or what race would work for this. Or another multiclass that helps the ranger beast master feel stronger without hurting the wolf's health to much
Hi!
First things first...


unfortunate! man, Beast Master really is the crown champion of poor design, isn't it?

Seriously dude. Honestly, if I wanted to play a Beastmaster, I would probably just go Rogue (scout) and take Magic Initiate (find familiar), or maybe just refluff a paladin and his steed. Feel bad for people that are really into that archetype.
Stop speaking of things you clearly don't understand would you? :)

You may find the way it's played is clunky, and it's perfectly acceptable, but that does not mean it's mechanically weak. As a matter of fact, when you pair it with Ranger's own abilities it becomes stronger with every level.

Back to OP.
Honestly, if you play in a large enough group, you could be fine with a pure Beastmaster, you'd just need to be careful enough with your pet until levels 6-7.

If you really want to give it a survivability boost, the best way(s) to do that are...
1-level dip in Cleric: the best Domains are Life, Grave and Nature.
- Life: obvious reasons: Goodberry and Healing Spirit: first good for everyone, second can be used to keep your beast fresh every turn in the direst fights (actually, Healing Spirit is a good tactic in the first place, but it does use your concentration. Life bonus heal makes it really worthwhile).
- Grave: mainly for Spare the Dying as bonus action (good for everyone).
- Nature: rather for you really, grabbing Shillelagh or Thorns Whip depending on taste, or maybe a utility like Mold Earth.

I'd really go with Life Cleric. That way you make the most of your heals, which is important because you are still a half-caster. You also get hands on Bless, Shield of Faith and Sanctuary which are always good to have in any party.

Magic Initiate feat: Sorcerer/Wizard
You can grab Booming Blade if you like melee for later (when commanding beast to do anything else than Attack) but it's really not mandatory.
The main thing is actually Mage Armor, which should amount to something like ~+2 AC bonus on your pet.

3 levels in Divine Soul Sorcerer: one starting level, then the two others after Ranger 3 or 5.
Idea here is to pick Extend and one among Twin/Subtle/Quicken to pair with the exact following spells: Mage Armor, Aid, then whatever you like the most between Shield of Faith, Invisibility, Enhance Ability, Enlarge, Dragon Breath (DM dependent? Probably since RAW list of what you can command seems inclusive. I don't see any reasonable DM refusing you that though).
This is very interesting at mid-level since you get starting Concentration proficiency (important for you), small yet significant boosts for you and pet for little cost (Extending spells before long rest, or twinning a big buff).
It does mean you'll wait a long time to get Multiattack. And if you pick Twin, then there is little incentive to wait up for Share Spells abilities (there are great "self" spells you'd be missing out, but there are enough other spells to use anyways).

3 levels in Shepherd/Moon/Land Druid: it's honestly mostly a boon for yourself rather than for pet ^^: it means that you can learn Ranger exclusive while getting access to all great spells (Healing Words, Pass Without Trace, Healing Spirit) AND rituals (Beast Sense, Speak With Animals) in addition to getting a very fluffy ability (Wild Shape -> true tag team with your beast for scouting/traveling) and as with previous options a big early boost in spell slot.
Moon is mostly if you like the idea of expanded forms or getting in/out of shape as bonus action, but it's not to be seen as a combat ability (too limited shapes). Shepherd could actually be better thanks to the small THP boost (still nice at low level) and advantage on STR checks, but only if you think you would really use it.
Otherwise, Land: pick some extra spells (Coast is nice immediately for you and hilarious at level 20 with Share Spells, Desert nice for Blur) AND get even more slots thanks to 1/long rest recovery (it's small, but hey, its still nice).

Now, for the long run (aiming at character level 20)...
Grassland Druid 5 / Ranger 15: that's the easiest to work, allows you to learn mostly Ranger exclusive spells on Ranger side, and right at the end you get "auto-twinned" Longstrider/Haste/Healing Words/Invisibility/etc...
I'd go Druid 1-2 > Ranger 8 ASAP then finish however you want.

Tempest Cleric 5 / Ranger 15: this is nearly as easy, and provides other synergies: AOE nova (maximized Lightning arrow), heavy armor, but more importantly...
Twinned Spirit Guardians: how is that for a capstone? :)

Divine Soul Sorcerer 5 / Ranger 15: the best of both worlds: auto-twinned Extended Aid/Fly/Invisibility/Haste/Longstrider/Spirit Guardians, but does mean half-dumping WIS to get high enough CHA.


TL;DR: for easy boost in survivability, pick Life Cleric and/or Magic Initiate feat. It's a minimal delay in Ranger progression.
If you are okay aiming for the long run and want a great balance and versatility, Divine Soul Sorcerer 1-3-5 is the best multiclass with Extend and Subtle as my personal recommendations.

[NaughtyTiger]

Stop speaking of things you clearly don't understand would you? :)


While nothing you said was wrong, it certainly didn't refute the positions of the 2 guys you quoted.


The main thing is actually Mage Armor, which should amount to something like ~+2 AC bonus on your pet.
yes. this is sooo valuable. it gives the beast real AC. you don't need to cast it yourself, nearly every wizard/sorc should be able to spare a level 1 slot.


in addition to Citan's post
3 levels in cleric gives Aid and warding bond. those add HP and resilience to you pet that i have found really helpful in play.

[Citan]

While nothing you said was wrong, it certainly didn't refute the positions of the 2 guys you quoted.


yes. this is sooo valuable. it gives the beast real AC. you don't need to cast it yourself, nearly every wizard/sorc should be able to spare a level 1 slot.


in addition to Citan's post
3 levels in cleric gives Aid and warding bond. those add HP and resilience to you pet that i have found really helpful in play.
Well, they strongly imply that Beastmaster is flawed mechanically. It's absolutely not. It just plays differently at low level from higher level, similarly to Monks for example.

It's perfectly playable as a pure class, everything I put above is simply an alternative that requires less brain input every day at the cost of some progression delay for the minimal solution, or actually build a character that ends as "more powerful than single-class" at some levels and in some aspects, like for many (every?) other classes.

Simply, as with Ranger in general, many people just stop their brain after reading the class's sheet. That is a serious problem with Ranger because half the awesomeness at least comes from the spells, and there are many that synergize more or less with some archetypes. For Beastmaster it's even worse because you have to try and imagine the combinations while taking into account the possible beasts's capabilities too.

For Beastmaster, obviously all self-buffs become much better once you get Shared Spells but that is sadly (and for good reason, doubly sadly) too far away for most people to get it.
And the frustration some may feel at the way they made the animal react "without own will" is completely legitimate. I don't mind myself understand people may (well, I don't "really" mind I accepted it once I understood the mechanical power but it did surprise me at first read especially considering that familiars get their own turn).
I also get the frustration some may feel at the fact it's made as more or less an expendable/interchangeable beast, or rather there is no special boon to keep one special over a long time, neither malus for letting one die.
(At least me I'm a bit puzzled and annoying by this, because I actually like the idea to develop a true bond).

But if you really analyse the mechanics, all fluff and "master&beast" relationship aside...
- You get an extra target for the party (and you particularly): that's cruel, but that's also very true: every attack made on beast is one not made at you. So you may view the beast as a (more or less, depending on whether it's just downed or died) replenishable source of extra HP.
- You get extra skills and mobility in general: a beast with climbing can easily set up a rope, a flying creature too (and can scout or deliver objects/messages quickly).
- With Beast Sense, although it does use a slot if you don't pick Ritual Caster, you can scout through your beast: and since you can change beasts, every time you come into a new environment, you can pick the most common, perfectly innocent-looking animal so your companion won't even often need to be specially stealthy (this could actually look suspicious ^^). Worst case, it gets killed (for security -wolf-, for food -herbivore-), most usually, no suspicion arisen.
That's where Hide in Plain Sight shines.
- You get an attack with potential rider on it: several beasts among the ones allowed get a prone effect on attack, other beasts may have other interesting effects (memory failing me here so not sure ^^).
- At level 11, you get the equivalent of Fighter's Improved Extra Attack, except it's easier to split it (if you want and if you're in melee. Of course for ranged people you don't care^^).
- And at level 15, you get a decent boost with Shared Spells, especially with Zephyr's Strike and Ensnaring Strike... But sadly the selection is limited, so making the most of it requires multiclassing or, more simply, an ally that could lend a charged Ring of Spell Storing. :)

And if you wanno go "optimizing", be a small character so you can be carried by most creatures you may befriend.
And if you really wanna push it, with the completely powercreep overthetop Ravnica's extra spell mechanic, you could pick Simic (Enlarge/Reduce), Selesnia (Warding Bond) or Boros (Aid) to get interesting spells to buff companion with while avoiding multiclassing.

[NaughtyTiger]

Well, they strongly imply that Beastmaster is flawed mechanically.
oh, there are huge holes in it. The errata, however, fixed the 2 biggest ones.

The fact that it still takes a full adventuring day to replace it (hunt a suitable beast in the dungeon, 8hours to bond, 8 hours rest), is costly. To be out the entire archetype for 24 hour period is brutal.
the other is you lose bonus action attack opportunities with a strict read of PHB (rare in practice though)

i agree with many of your comments, but:


every attack made on beast is one not made at you.
attack yes, action, no. the beast is very suseptible to AoE effects and without saves or HP to counter them.


- You get an attack with potential rider on it: several beasts among the ones allowed get a prone effect on attack, other beasts may have other interesting effects (memory failing me here so not sure ^^).
unfortunately, the DC for beast effects is fixed at low (con and str DC at 12) which means they fall off quickly as you level.


- And at level 15
as you pointed out, few rangers make it that far. Exceptionally rude since bards and paladins get that at level 6/5.

Without multiclassing, it is the weakest of all class/archetypes.
With the team helping (warding bond, aid, mage armor) it is on par with the standalone builds.

[Citan]

oh, there are huge holes in it. The errata, however, fixed the 2 biggest ones.

The fact that it still takes a full adventuring day to replace it (hunt a suitable beast in the dungeon, 8hours to bond, 8 hours rest), is costly. To be out the entire archetype for 24 hour period is brutal.
the other is you lose bonus action attack opportunities with a strict read of PHB (rare in practice though)

i agree with many of your comments, but:


attack yes, action, no. the beast is very suseptible to AoE effects and without saves or HP to counter them.


unfortunately, the DC for beast effects is fixed at low (con and str DC at 12) which means they fall off quickly as you level.


as you pointed out, few rangers make it that far. Exceptionally rude since bards and paladins get that at level 6/5.

Without multiclassing, it is the weakest of all class/archetypes.
With the team helping (warding bond, aid, mage armor) it is on par with the standalone builds.
1. Agreed, AOE can take it out, but rarely outright kill it. Chances are you can save it in time. :)

2. Yeah, it was a minor annoyance to me that you could not add your proficiency bonus *also* to their DC. But hey, it's still a free attempt (free because you're still dealing regular damage, and no resource is consumed contrarily to, say, an Open Hand Monk). :)

3. It is not the same at all, because it's...
a) Not the same "beast"
b) Neither the same "scope".
C) Neither the same chassis.

you could argue that Paladin 5 (or Lore Bard 6) gets the better option, but there is, to start, the fact that you get a regular beast:
- no upgrade offense, defense, skills, or HP: picking the classic Warhorse example, you get a large beast which is nice, but, plz bear with me ignoring that Ranger cannot get Large or 1/2 beast as companion... 19 HP instead of 30 (yeah, 30 HP -4*Ranger level- may be small, but it's still better than 19). 11 AC instead of 13-14 (Wolf or Panther or Dire Crab or whatever ). +6 to attack compared to +7 for a Wolf, damage average +10 compared to average 10.
- no special utility: Ranger can get beasts with climbing speed, swimming speed, burrowing speed, skills he's not proficient into, and he can use them as mediators to befriend other animals.
And it's worse as you progress: Paladin's horse is still the same basic horse. Why do you think they put Greater Steed? :)

It's not the same scope either:
Paladin gets only a few self-spells, and only spells that target "only him" affect his pet.
So for classic spells in his repertoire like Bless or Aid, you end up as "wasting" part of the spell or make the benefit of Find Steed irrelevant.
Only Oaths that get Haste will really appreciate it, or Paladins using smite spells with a lenient DM (since unless I'm mistaken "twinned smite spells" has been rejected by 'official ruling').

Compared to Ranger's "when you cast a spell targeting yourself" (but no mention of ONLY yourself): this makes very little difference as far as single-class are concerned, since most Ranger buffs are "self" or "single target non upscalable" in the first place. With multiclass? free upcast or otherwise impossible (for a Ranger) extension for Invisibility, Fly, Aid, Healing Words, Dragon Breath and any other worthwhile buff/utility you may like.

Also, a point you seem to have put aside: for Paladins/Bards, you need to be currently mounting the beast. Ranger just needs to be within 30 feet. That may be irrelevant in some cases, while that may be a big advantage in others: typical example, party has been on the defensive, Ranger has been using Healing Spirit, he'd like to heal pet and another ally who are both down: move Healing Spirit over ally, move within 30 feet of pets and cast Cure Wounds on yourself. :)
Another example: you'd like to help a friend flee but he's of limited speed: tell him to mount your pet, cast Zephyr's Strike on you (so pet affected), order pet to Dash as a bonus action.
Those are certainly examples that are situational in many dimensions, but things more or less similar to that happen in any campaign. :)

Finally, it's not the same chassis AT ALL.
- Paladin's buffs are mostly concentrations. In addition to that, he really wants to keep some slots for smiting. So self-buffing is really a hard choice. Ranger has no such quarry: not only is it mostly same efficiency without specific spells, most of its buffs/healing spells are non-concentration (Longstrider, Absorb Elements, Cure Wounds, Freedom of Movement), with Hunter's Mark being irrelevant and Ensnaring Strike following the same ruling as smite spells.

- As for Bard: he could grab the best buffs available, so technically he's the one that could set up the biggest cheeses the earliest: like "Twin" Circle of Power or Spirit Guardians while mounted then unmounting and let the beast go free (a DM could say that the "twin" effect breaks if you unmount but that would be 100% houserule).
But it's still a measly beast: unless he would invest much on it (Warding Bond + Aid as a minimum), it will be a creature that can be one-shot by any enemy faced at that level with high chance of success.
Of course with the arrival of Find Greater Steed things are better, simply pick up everybody's choice (aka Pegasus) to get something with decent HP and enough speed to evade things (which would kinda void the Spirit Guardians combo though ^^). Barring that though, it's still just a beast: with 12 AC, it could be put off in just one round, and Mage Armor won't be that much help either (14 AC).
And overall, it means you'll have to spend a good chunk of resources each day just to have a beast that can survive one or two rounds (and Warding Bond could be an option but force you to get close to threat too).
At the time, the same Ranger's Wolf (that one or another... Just picked the emblematic one in my eyes) has 17 AC (or 19 with a Magic Initiate feat or help from a friend), 40 HP (sadly low no argue on that but high AC helps -critical will still have chance of one/two-shotting though-), +8 on hit, and next level gets Multiattack.

Summary?
1. Find Steed is mostly never better than Beastmaster's pet except for Paladins getting Haste.
2. Find Greater Steed is only better than Beastmaster's pet on...
- A Bard, and a special Bard at that who completely built around twinning potent spells (like, a Valor Bard having Pegasus keep in the back and maintain a Circle of Power for casters while himself envelops friendly melee with it).
- Or on a Paladin that can get Haste (Vengeance and another one).
(Yeah, I thought of Crown Paladin that gets Spirit Guardians, but since creatures's can't suffer twice the same spell effect "twinning it" while mounting is useless, and if you make horse act independantly with Find Steed it's 100% sure dead in one turn, with Find Greater Steed it's a decent sacrifice since it will probably take a few attacks for you (and slow enemies) but it basically means you are casting a new steed -and using up your most powerful slot for quite some time- every day).
For everything else, Beastmaster's pet is completely competitive without even the need for multiclassing.

NOTE: I did not take the Mounted Combatant feat into account in my initial reflexion. That does make up for the lack of AC and HP while you are mounting the beast, but at the same time it increases the heat on you: I think only a Paladin with previous Resilient: Constitution feat could afford to use the "redirection" regularly. :)
And it sadly does not change anything to the beast survivability should you make it act as a full-blown ally.

[NaughtyTiger]

....
Summary?
1. Find Steed is mostly never better than Beastmaster's pet except for Paladins getting Haste.
2. Find Greater Steed is only better than Beastmaster's pet on...


First line of my post is: I agree with you on everything except X.
Then you argue with me for agreeing with you about HP and +toHit (you do that every time) ...

The rest of your entire post is spent on comparing Beastmaster share spells vs paladin's. Your analysis is reasonable where applicable
levels 5-14 - paladin share spells is better
levels 15-20 - ranger share spells is better
levels 6-15 - bard share spells is better ( but bards are cheesy and annoying so it isn't fair to include them)

Another small detail, you keep saying the paladin's mount is a "beast". Explicitly not, it is fey, fiend, or celestial.
The beastmaster pet companion is a beast. Animal friendship is a 1st level spell.

Pet companion has an int of 4. Minor illusion is a cantrip.

In 3 years, never made it to level 15 with anything, so i will take your word for it...

[Citan]

First line of my post is: I agree with you on everything except X.
Then you argue with me for agreeing with you about HP and +toHit (you do that every time) ...

The rest of your entire post is spent on comparing Beastmaster share spells vs paladin's. Your analysis is reasonable where applicable
levels 5-14 - paladin share spells is better
levels 15-20 - ranger share spells is better
levels 6-15 - bard share spells is better ( but bards are cheesy and annoying so it isn't fair to include them)

Another small detail, you keep saying the paladin's mount is a "beast". Explicitly not, it is fey, fiend, or celestial.
The beastmaster pet companion is a beast. Animal friendship is a 1st level spell.

Pet companion has an int of 4. Minor illusion is a cantrip.

In 3 years, never made it to level 15 with anything, so i will take your word for it...
What difference does it make between beast and fey/celestial (honest question, I never considered the thing so I may very well miss important bits)?

Beside that: you are the one that started bringing up comparison between Share Spell and Find Steed.
I didn't "argue with you about agreeing with me" at all. I just used AC and HP as some, among others, points of reference for comparison.
I made my argument about the "mount" from Find Steed *NOT* being superior to Ranger's beast, by far even, except for specific builds.
I made my argument about the "mount" from Find Greater Steed *not* being superior to Ranger beast unless/until you spent additional resources on it to make it more resilient or cheese up interesting things around spells that should normally be "untwinnable".

I'm still waiting for counterpoints.
(Your line about Pet having INT of 4 -although that is beast dependant- was probably one, but I didn't get it. Same with Minor Illusion. You'll have to detail a bit plz. ^^)

(Yeah, sorry, Animal Friendship is not a counterpoint. Just being friendly with an animal is a far different story from having an animal that is ready to blindly follow orders and "consciously" risk life for you).

[NaughtyTiger]

What difference does it make between beast and fey/celestial (honest question, I never considered the thing so I may very well miss important bits)?

Beside that: you are the one that started bringing up comparison between Share Spell and Find Steed.
I didn't "argue with you about agreeing with me" at all. I just used AC and HP as some, among others, points of reference for comparison.
I made my argument about the "mount" from Find Steed *NOT* being superior to Ranger's beast, by far even, except for specific builds.
I made my argument about the "mount" from Find Greater Steed *not* being superior to Ranger beast unless/until you spent additional resources on it to make it more resilient or cheese up interesting things around spells that should normally be "untwinnable".

I'm still waiting for counterpoints.
(Your line about Pet having INT of 4 -although that is beast dependant- was probably one, but I didn't get it. Same with Minor Illusion. You'll have to detail a bit plz. ^^)

(Yeah, sorry, Animal Friendship is not a counterpoint. Just being friendly with an animal is a far different story from having an animal that is ready to blindly follow orders and "consciously" risk life for you).

ah. i was not clear about the celestial fey fiend thing. animal friendship charms beasts including pet companions. this spell does not affect found steeds. (evil druid pissed off the ranger in sunless citadel)
beast will have to spend it's action to bypass minor illusion (if it can). found steeds are a hair smarter: you get tell them (telepathically) it's and illusion and they will understand (cuz they understand your language)

as far as the rest of it goes, you made all that up.
i didn't bring up find steed, you did in post 12
i pointed out that share spells doesn't come online until level 15, and you created a long post about how it is soo much better than find steed's version because the spell list.
and again, i pointed out that share spells doesn't come online until level 15.

people who don't play beastmaster, complain about it.
people who play it, defend it by ignoring its problems
beastmaster is great fun to play, but it is flawed.

[Hecuba]

Summary? 1. Find Steed is mostly never better than Beastmaster's pet except for Paladins getting Haste.
2. Find Greater Steed is only better than Beastmaster's pet on...

Yes, but the catch is that it's a spell for a paladin or bard vs a subclass for a ranger.

And the opportunity cost is so much greater, with the payoff heavily delayed to late game.

And the downside of the pet dying and time needed to fix it are both far more prohibitive.

And basic non-attack pet interactions always at least compete for bonus actions, which is problematic for a ranger in particular (need your pet to dodge? No swift quiver/hail of thorns/lightning arrow for you this round).



people who don't play beastmaster, complain about it.
people who play it, defend it by ignoring its problems
beastmaster is great fun to play, but it is flawed.

This. It's not unplayable, but the level of caution they put into avoiding action economy issues by having the pet not be independent was clearly overkill. The pet is so much of the character that you honestly need to make it almost as hard to kill as the PC proper, and that just isn't what they did. I've run it a couple times where I wanted the pet to be the overt focus, but when I just want my magical bowman hunter to have hound, I go bard and grab a paladin mount.

[Finney]

I'm going to play adventures league dnd next week. I want to play a Gladiator ranger that has a wolf I'm using two short swords and a whip for my Gladiator weapon. ranger beast master is week so I had two ideas one was to go 3 levels ranger then 1 in to rouge rest as ranger then play a goblin to get the lvl 2 ability that rogue has this works fine. My 2nd idea is to go fighter and beast master ranger I don't no how many levels of fighter or what race would work for this. Or another multiclass that helps the ranger beast master feel stronger without hurting the wolf's health to much

If you go goblin, you can skip rogue entirely because of their Nimble Escape feature. Assuming, of course, the rogue dip was to get disengage.

You might be able to solve your pet durability issues by taking the Mounted Combatant feat with your first ASI at level 4. If you go goblin (small sized), you can mount your pet as long as it's medium or larger. The Mounted Combatant feat then lets you do the following:


You have advantage on melee attack rolls against any unmounted creature that is smaller than your mount.

You can force an attack targeted at your mount to target you instead.


If your mount is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.

[Teaguethebean]

Just so everyone who is picking apart UA revised ranger because of wierd gimmicks remember the class is made without multi classing in mind that has been stated as how all UA is made