Ranger Beast Master Companions

[Dr.Samurai]

Just playing around with some concepts.

Level 11 Beast Master with Stirge Companion

Turn 1
Action - Command Stirge to attack twice (Bestial Fury)
Attack 1 - Stirge uses Blood Drain (chooses not to attach) - 9 damage
Movement - Stirge uses 5ft to detach (assuming DM does not give you an option to attach or not)
Attack 2 - Stirge uses Blood Drain (attaches) - 9 damage
Attack 3 - Ranger gets to make an attack - 19.5 damage

Turn 2
Blood Drain - Stirge automatically deals 9 damage at start of turn (prof bonus is added to damage rolls, which this is)
Movement - Stirge uses 5ft to Detach
Action - Command Stirge to attack twice
(Repeat other steps, rinse and repeat)

Now, this takes 2 attacks+Attach to compete with a ranger's second Sharpshooter attack. So I'm guessing the DPR here is lower, since you have to hit and you don't have Archery, but you're also not taking a -5. It's probably not at all competitive but I thought it was interesting. Funny to think of an enemy warrior expecting to fight you and your wolf and instead you sick a giant mosquito bat on them that's sucking pints of blood out of them.

Level 11 Beast Master Ranger with Giant Frog Companion

Also relies on Bestial Fury. Use your action to command the giant frog to attack twice. First attack is Bite. If it hits a small creature, the creature is grappled and restrained. Second attack is Swallow, it makes a bite attack against a grappled creature and swallows it on a hit. You've just removed a small creature from the map, and the frog is free to keep attacking other creatures or even grapple/restrain another small creature (though it can only have 1 swallowed at a time), while the swallowed one takes 9 damage each turn (not much but it's Blinded, Restrained, and off the map).

At these levels, small creatures are scarce, but for small sized NPCs. But if you're a duergar ranger, at level 15 you can cast Enlarge and share it with your Giant Toad, making it Large. Then, if the DM allows, it should be able to Swallow medium sized creatures. I love the image of enemies laughing at your giant frog, as it stands there, with its vacant frog eyes, and then suddenly leaps 20ft and bites and swallows one of them in the blink of an eye lol.

Level 11 Beast Master Ranger with Deep Rothe Companion

Try and have the Deep Rothe trigger the extra damage from Gore. The Beast Master Ranger adds his proficiency bonus to the Beast Companion's damage rolls, and the Rothe gets two of those if it moves 20ft before the attack. So command it to attack twice:

1st Attack - Gore -11 Damage + 11 Bonus Damage (if you move 20ft before attack)
2nd Attack - Gore - 11 damage

That's 33 damage on 2 hits, 44 if the DM allows the movement to trigger the bonus damage on the second attack as well.


I wish these came online sooner and were a bit more potent, but I found them interesting so I thought I'd share.

[Sherlockpwns]

I’ve written it a few times probably, but one of the most interesting things about the OG beastmaster is it maximizes the ability to use net.

So any time I think OG beast that’s where my mind goes.

This allows you to throw a net (you still need either sharpshooter or xbow expert to not be at disadvantage… or be an og kobold) and then let your beast go to town (with advantage if you hit with the net).

The real advantage to capitalize on is unlike the primal BM this leaves your bonus action open. What use is that? No idea! Basically you need a feat, racial ability, or class ability/spell to fire off every round that does not trigger on the attack action (since you never take it).

So, add that trick to any creature combo you’d want, it comes online at 5 so a lot faster than the 11 and 15 junk.

[strangebloke]

The oldschool BM is very very very funny in that everyone complained about how weak it was when imo its both strong and interesting. You've got some good examples here, another classic one is the giant poisonous snake.

because, you see, you add poison to damage rolls. And the giant snake both has a conventional damage roll on attack and a poison damage roll on save.

so at level 11 with a +4 and bestial fury that's:

(1d4+8)*2=21
and
(3d6+4)*2=29

for 50 total damage if everything hits. Of course, it probably won't. The attack mod is +10 (pretty good, and getting advantage is relatively easy because hey the snake has blindsight!) but the saving throw is garbage. DC 11 CON? Bleh. Fortunately this is a save-for half, which still nets you an impressive ~36 or so with succeeded saves.

You don't have the restrictions similar abilities do, so something like a flying mount (giant owl) is completely kosher as well. Is 2d6+5 overpowered or even very good? No, but why would you attack with it? A very tough flying mount is worth a lot.

For additional silliness, its worth remembering that you can give barding (plate male) to your animal friend if they're strong enough, and get them a very solid AC of 22 or more by eleventh level.

You can also use the poisoner feat to extend the power of some of those natural weapons, though only on round one.

Drakewarden probably is better, but IMO the BM is actually more interesting at low levels.

[Witty Username]

I think most people were more annoyed by the beast being weird as it was less an NPC and more an automaton. And a little bit of me, who think the beast restrictions are a bit arbitrary. Like, its a 1/4 CR creature, why is the size restriction necessary? Is a horse going to snap the game in half? I know Treantmonk had a beastmaster build years back, because it did good as a martial and Giant Snake is good. I am generally of the opinion that the PHB class is janky but effective. Tasha's options are less janky, but a bit less chicanery. You could probably use both at the same table and the players would not be particularly bothered by the other.

[Dr.Samurai]

@Strangebloke - I wish you could add your prof bonus to the saving throw DCs of their abilities. I don't think that'd break anything. I didn't realize the snakes were save for half damage, that's good.

@Witty Username - Agreed. If the Beast Master could choose a horse, I would strongly consider playing one just to have a mount (without a lot of the trappings of the paladin).

So, just comparing this to our level 11 Hunter Ranger in our current game, and the damage potential is the same with a couple of caveats; our hunter ranger can do a couple of more points of damage, and the stirge and deep rothe require set up. I think Strangebloke's snake can outdamage our Hunter Ranger (assuming no resistance/immunity to poison). But after you've set up the stirge you can fire and forget and then just do Sharpshooter attacks while it deals an additional 9 points of damage each turn; the enemy has to spend an action to remove it.

The giant frog is crazier than I thought. It actually does not have a size limit on the Grapple/Restrained condition it imposes on its Bite attack. This is different than many other monsters that specifically say something like "... if the creature is Large or smaller, it is Grappled (escape DC 12) and Restrained...". So this is a fair bit of control and buff/debuff. And if the creature is Small, it can swallow it and then go grab/restrain something else. ALSO... the giant frog doesn't have an escape condition for someone it's swallowed. Most monsters say that if you deal a certain amount of damage in a turn, the monster makes a con save and regurgitates you on a fail. The giant frog, probably because it normally has so few hit points, doesn't have this wording. (And you don't have to wait until level 15 to Enlarge your frog, you can just cast the spell on your frog starting at level 3, assuming you get access to it somehow, and start swallowing medium creatures in tier 1.)

But with the Giant Frog's Bite alone, beginning at level 3 the Beast Master Ranger can grapple/restrain gargantuan enemies. Rune Knight eat your heart out.