How broken would it be to allow the Beastmaster to have Large companions?

[CTurbo]

I can see it being an issue at level 3, but what if it was a higher level class feature?

[NaughtyTiger]

It wouldn't break anything.
It wouldn't break anything to bump to cr 1 at level 10 either.

[TundraBuccaneer]

Mike Mearles talked about it in one of the latest ranger reworkings on his happy fun hour. If memory serves me right he said that during play tests having a large companion give a big zoning advantage, it can easily block things and has a bigger chance on getting attack of opportunities. But this is all if you have a battle map so if you play in theater of mind it is less of a worry.
In my own experience, I have had a ranger with a large pet, the dm might argue that a horse sized trex can be a target for enemies to attack first. And being large makes it easier to gang up on since there is more space for allies to surround it.
I personally don't think its a huge boost because it also has drawbacks, like not fitting in some doors. Just ask the DM, and if you're the dm just tell you're player that you want to see what happens and might want to go back on it if it causes isues. Maybe do the same thing they do with goliath, so they have the flavor of large but not the area uptake.

hope this helps, have fun

[CTurbo]

I let a guy have an Owlbear as his companion a couple years ago and it worked out ok. At level 3 it was a juvenile and was only a medium size character with slightly reduced stats and became large at level 6. It was really powerful, but never felt broken.

[Mr.Spastic]

The only thing I would see as a problem is Giant Owls with CR 1/4. That is if you follow the CR rules.

The thing I would use this for getting a Riding Horse and using a lance an shield as a ranger. The only real thing would be that it would be slower than a standard mount because it wouldn't be able to take the dash every turn like a normal one. But it would get more hp and get the benefits of Mounted Combatant feat witch makes it a lot less killable.

[NaughtyTiger]

The only thing I would see as a problem is Giant Owls with CR 1/4. That is if you follow the CR rules.

The thing I would use this for getting a Riding Horse and using a lance an shield as a ranger. The only real thing would be that it would be slower than a standard mount because it wouldn't be able to take the dash every turn like a normal one. But it would get more hp and get the benefits of Mounted Combatant feat witch makes it a lot less killable.

flying mounts of any size screw up the game a bit.

[Misterwhisper]

flying mounts of any size screw up the game a bit.

No more than races that can fly.

[NaughtyTiger]

No more than races that can fly.

agreed and flying brooms in tier 1 games....

[stoutstien]

Using CR as the base for the bm pet was a big mistake from the start. Needed to be more like a mini PC build honestly to make it work

[Potato_Priest]

The draft horse and cow are how it would be broken. Both are CR 1/4, so are legal animal companions except for size. Both have +6 to hit (before animal companion bonuses) on attacks that deal quite large amounts of damage (for animal companions), which are better than any of the attacks of the medium or smaller animal companion options. The only smaller animal companion that rivals them in to-hit and damage is the flying snake, but the majority of its' damage is poison damage and therefore much less useful.

[NaughtyTiger]

The draft horse and cow are how it would be broken. Both are CR 1/4, so are legal animal companions except for size. Both have +6 to hit (before animal companion bonuses) on attacks that deal quite large amounts of damage (for animal companions), which are better than any of the attacks of the medium or smaller animal companion options. The only smaller animal companion that rivals them in to-hit and damage is the flying snake, but the majority of its' damage is poison damage and therefore much less useful.

Exactly, and if this is the worst case, then all is good.

the +6 toHit is good, but damage isn't significantly higher than his buddies (pack tactics wolf, snakes w/ nerfed poison, heck even the stirge is scarier as a companion)