Half-Giant Gladiator w/ pet! Help me realize my character!

[KingWhipsy]

Hey all! As the title suggests, I am creating a character for an upcoming campaign in a homebrewed Norse-based world. Half-Orcs have been replaced with Half-Giants in this campaign (same stats as Half-Orc) and are seen as outcasts in a way. My idea is that my Half-Giant character was thrown into arena fighting at a somewhat young age as a means to free entertainment and it turned out he had a natural talent for combat. He fought alongside his Direwolf companion (working out stats with DM) in the arena and they both quickly became fan favorites. I imagine my character as a big brute wearing only a loincloth and wielding a two-handed weapon (basically just brute strength) while his wolf companion is more agile and on the agility side. I haven't worked out all the kinks, but that's the gist of the character.

Mechanically, I was thinking the best bet would be Barbarian/Revised Ranger but am unsure how to split the levels. We will be starting at level 10 and using point buy. The only other party member I know of is a horizon walker8/fighter2. I should also mention that me and the DM are going to drop spellcasting from the revised ranger as it doesn't fit my character and work together to buff my pet as an alternative to the spellcasting. Please give me your thoughts and ideas on how best to bring my character to life!

Thanks!

[Man_Over_Game]

Leveling-wise, it's pretty tough. Revised Ranger isn't my favorite option, as it's very front loaded (you get all the cool stuff in the first few levels) with spellcasting being one of the primary reasons to invest into it.

Barbarian is a lot simpler, though. Between Ancestral Guardians (to protect your friend), to Totem [Wolf] (to grant him advantage), there's a lot of options here.

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My recommendation is probably to just create a homebrew version of the Barbarian and skip the Ranger. Use the Revised Ranger's rules for the beasts, but have it so that you choose one of these spells to cast and maintain while you're raging, and you automatically make any Concentration Saving Throw to maintain them:

Level 3: Beast Bond
Level 6: Warding Bond
Level 9: Guardian of Nature
Level 14: Tree Stride

If possible, you can treat both yourself and your pet as casting the the spell, but spells cast from this feature can only target you or your pet (so you can cast Warding Bond on your pet or vice versa, or both of you can be affected by Tree Stride). Spells cast by your pet by this feature automatically make any Concentration Saving Throws to maintain them.

Bam, 5 minute homebrew.

[MightyDuck]

Honestly, you're best bet might be to drop revised ranger all together and talk to your DM about just having the wolf as a pet, you wouldn't have the additional features of the beastmaster ranger but it would free up your options a bit, having a trained animal companion is 100% legal and actually recommended for non-revised beastmaster rangers. If this is an option then just pick your favourite flavor of barbarian, maybe totem warrior to keep with the animal theme or storm herald for the elemental affinity that giants have in dnd, I'd just go monoclass since the barbarian's capstone is really cool.

If dropping ranger isn't an option then I'd suggest starting with either 5 or 7 levels of ranger, at least go to 5 for extra attack, then go at least 2 levels of barbarian for reckless attack or up to 3 for sublclass, then 16 levels of ranger for all the conclave features to buff your wolf and the ability score improvement, finally go 4th level barbarian for the last ability score improvement (since ranger spells are useless to you). If you only want 2 levels of barbarian then you might as well go up to 18 levels of ranger for feral sense.

[JackPhoenix]

You don't need to get a pet from class features, if your GM is willing to accomodate you already. Just befriend a regular dire wolf through Handle Animals.

[KingWhipsy]

Honestly, you're best bet might be to drop revised ranger all together and talk to your DM about just having the wolf as a pet, you wouldn't have the additional features of the beastmaster ranger but it would free up your options a bit, having a trained animal companion is 100% legal and actually recommended for non-revised beastmaster rangers. If this is an option then just pick your favourite flavor of barbarian, maybe totem warrior to keep with the animal theme or storm herald for the elemental affinity that giants have in dnd, I'd just go monoclass since the barbarian's capstone is really cool.

If dropping ranger isn't an option then I'd suggest starting with either 5 or 7 levels of ranger, at least go to 5 for extra attack, then go at least 2 levels of barbarian for reckless attack or up to 3 for sublclass, then 16 levels of ranger for all the conclave features to buff your wolf and the ability score improvement, finally go 4th level barbarian for the last ability score improvement (since ranger spells are useless to you). If you only want 2 levels of barbarian then you might as well go up to 18 levels of ranger for feral sense.

Yeah I agree, mechanically dropping ranger would be the way to go. Though I think for thematic purposes and since my companion fought with me in gladiatorial combat the DM wants there to be an investment into the pet to maintain that he is in fact strong. Cause if I went pure Barb and then had a wolf pet with just like 13 health or whatever at level 10 it wouldn't make sense that he survived so long fighting in the arena. Would it make sense to drop barb at all and just them my ranger as a brute?

[MightyDuck]

Yeah I agree, mechanically dropping ranger would be the way to go. Though I think for thematic purposes and since my companion fought with me in gladiatorial combat the DM wants there to be an investment into the pet to maintain that he is in fact strong. Cause if I went pure Barb and then had a wolf pet with just like 13 health or whatever at level 10 it wouldn't make sense that he survived so long fighting in the arena. Would it make sense to drop barb at all and just them my ranger as a brute?

Yeah, dropping barbarian is definitely an option, rangers without spells play a lot like fighters but with more freedom of movement and tracking skills so you could easily reflavor it into a brutish, primal warrior. However, be aware that, since I assume you're gonna want to be a strength based ranger, you are going to be MAD as you don't have the barbarian's unarmoured defense, so chances are you aren't gonna be optimized and lacking spells is gonna kill your versatility, it's still totally possible though.

Another option would be to go mono-barbarian and talk to your dm about having the pet scale in level with your PC, use the companion bond feature from the beastmaster as a basis for increasing the wolf's hp and stats but ignore the other features.

[Vogie]

The other way to have an animal companion is via Animal Friendship. Since you're a Gladiator concept, You could pick up Magic Initiate: Bard (for Charisma) or MI: Druid (for wisdom), which allows you to cast it once per day to keep the wolf at your side. That really opens up your build paths.

You could do:

Monk 10 with MI:D - The other unarmored defense class. Probably Kensai, Long Death, or Drunken Master
Long Death Monk 8/Revised Ranger 2- This is using Animal Friendship rather than Beastmaster, being utterly terrifying
Champion Fighter 8 / Bard 2 - Not only are you the best at fighting, you are expert at regaling them with stories of your accomplishments
Barbarian 8 / Moon Druid 2 - The only thing better than 1 Direwolf... is TWO DIREWOLVES (hint: it's you)
Barbarian 1 / Conquest Paladin 9 with MI:B - This noble gladiator shrugs off blows and supernaturally crushes enemies
Barbarian 9 / Fiend Warlock 1 with MI:B - Totem fits the best, and refluff your EBs as Spirit Javelins, stay alive with a fiendish pile of THP

[thoroughlyS]

One of the first Unearthed Arcana articles introduced the Ranger with No Spells (http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/UA3_ClassDesignVariants.pdf) which replaced the spellcasting with maneuvers and some other goodies. Using this and just taking the revised (http://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/UA_RevisedRanger.pdf) beast master you should be fine. You can easily capture the feel of a "big brute" with a STR-based ranger, but if you absolutely must be a barbarian too I recommend four or less levels so that you can get Extra Attack from ranger.

[Ventruenox]

Does the wolf have to be an actual combatant? Can it's role be to merely help you in battle?

If you were to take the Ritual Caster feat, fluff the spells as tribal secrets, the Find Familiar spell could fit the character concept and provide amazing utility. Talk with your DM. For a level 10 game, a wolf familiar is far from game breaking.

[TundraBuccaneer]

Maybe you can add some paladin in there, worg is a large wolf of cr 1/2 which is the same as a warhorse so a reasonable summon for find steed. Maybe you could be a herald or relative to Skadi or something