Thoughts on Swarmkeeper?

[sayaijin]

I haven't seen a thread dedicated to discussing the Swarmkeeper Ranger from Tasha's. Most conversations have been about the optional ranger features and extra spells.

I realize the extra damage on Swarmkeeper is pretty lackluster, but pushing opponents is always a great option to have.

Also, since the spirits can be any tiny creature (as evidenced by the creatures in the roll table), you can flavor them as swarms of faerie dragons or velociraptors, or what have you.

[Silpharon]

I believe it's the only ranger subclass that gets effects from all attack types, not just weapon attacks. It would make a good Wisdom-based class. Get Druidic Warrior as the fighting style, or multiclass, or get magic initiate...

I like the Swarmkeeper 3 for multiclassing into other builds. The "move me 5 feet" is awesome for avoiding opportunity attacks.

I'm general, very solid subclass. Sits in line with Gloomstalker and Horizon Walker.

I also like the spells they added to Ranger in general. Revivify at 9 is great.

[Kane0]

Its pretty neat. More spells are always welcome, the forced/free movement (you or your opponent) offers great mobility options, the damage bonus doesnt use a reaction or resource so its never useless, bonus action flight that doesnt need concentration is nothing to be scoffed at and the cap is an excellent get out of jail free card.

Its overall a very solid subclass, no breakpoint feels underwhelming to me

[Silpharon]

Some fun multiclass ideas:

Stars Druid, the guiding bolts and archery attacks would work with the swarm

Astral Self or Sun Soul Monk, wisdom based attacks that would work well as the standard attack.

Some builds (all wisdom based attacks):

Swarmkeeper 17/Stars Druid 2/Peace Cleric 1
Grab Shillelagh and Magic Stone cantrips from Druid.
Emboldening Bond and either Chalice or Archer form. Extra attack with Shillelagh or Magic Stone.

Swarmkeeper 17/Astral Self 3
Attack with arms at extra range, then use bonus action to attack again every turn

Swarmkeeper 17/Sun Soul 3
Attack at range, and occasionally spend ki to get two more attacks as a bonus action

Favored Foe sadly works better for these cases than Hunter's Mark (since these aren't weapon attacks).

[ImproperJustice]

I really haven’t had the time to sit down and fully work out the theme, but when I saw the subclass all I could think of was using it to create my own D&D version of Squirrel Girl or a crazy cat lady.

Mixxing the class with Shepherd Druid for the latter and Monk for the former.

Goal is to work up to figuring out how to drown your opponent in Squirrel Spirits.

[Vulryn]

I found the Swarmkeeper quite interesting. It makes me want to play a str ranger with a reach polearm. Together with the 5ft move from the swarm, polearmmaster and sentinel, its difficult for enemies to touch you in Melee. Again, a little mad.

Maybe with a quarterstaff and shillelagh from the druidic warrior fighting style...?

Edit: I think going full wisdom with quarterstaff+shield is nice. Starting as vhuman with sentinel and a 16 in wisdom, Picking druidic warrior as your fighting style (shillelagh+create bonfire), and you can roast all those of ill-will in rightous fire without them being able to leave. Bonus points if your swarm consists of pixies/sprites riding stag/rhino beetles.

[sayaijin]

Very cool ideas! I was thinking going TWF since the swarm and Favored Foe both offer damage boosts. You just need to connect, so attacking with your bonus action seemed like a great way to make sure you do hit.

Sentinel and reach + pushing them away has a lot of potential.

Also, I hadn't noticed that the swarm works with any attack, not just weapon attacks.

[Hael]

Strong flavorful subclass. Maybe not quite as strong as the Gloomstalker, but the next best thing.

Has lots of options and is overall well designed with lots of potential synergies. Will bring a lot of control to the battlefield. It wants to be paired with classes that can lay down persistent effects.

IMo one of the few well thought out classes in Tashas. I really want to play one!

[Naanomi]

Be a dwarf, sport a bee beard, run a meadery

[Avigor]

An easily overlooked aspect: it is possible (not optimal, but possible) to combine this with the Piercer feat to use that feat while wielding a different damage type weapon. Same applies to Dao Genie Warlock and the Crusher feat, potentially allowing one character to use all 3 feats (again not optimal, but possible).

My one regret is that the Swarm feature specifies that you must hit with an attack (admittedly it doesn't specify _weapon_ but it does specify attack), not just allowing it to trigger when you deal damage with an action such as the Infestation cantrip (also admittedly some DM's may opt for Rule of Cool and allow you to combine those for funsies but still; yes, part of me wants to play a Lord of the Flies who combines Infestation via Druidic Warrior and some sort of RoC'd Eldritch Initiate feat for Cloak of Flies, too bad poison sucks so hard in many cases and it makes you MAD because of the Swarmkeeper saves being keyed off of Wisdom while that EI is Charisma-based).