Beast of the Sea: Totally Unusable

[Foxhound438]

Speed: 5 feet.

Need I say more? Most, and I'm talking about like 99% most, DnD games will be almost entirely played above water. I see what they were thinking: "gee, people in the survey said they want a beast of the sea, what do you think they had in mind?" "Well, the only sea creature I can think of is the Octopus, it must be that. Better template the move speed off of that." Except there's a ton of sea creatures like crustacians (ie, Giant Crab being what I actully wanted) that actually have a real land speed.

Regardless of what they were thinking, giving something a 5' land speed gimps it so hard that it's going to be an actual burden to the party at every turn. You would never pick this, unless the campaign was HEAVILY focused on underwater content, like how Ghosts of Saltmarsh has all those parts where you go underwater, or at least get to do something meaningful in a boat or something. Maybe you want to argue that they had to make it bad somehow to make up for its good on hit effect, except that the beast of the land gets bonus damage and a knockdown, and the beast of the sky has Flyby and can move at its full speed (60 feet, by the way) in 99% of scenarios. Even if you did want to make beast of the sea slower to balance it, going all the way to 5' is just ridiculous.

"Oh, just cast longstrider on it all the time, it'll be great"

no, I don't want to play a spell-slot-less ranger.

The only ranger that I've ever wanted to play is a crab wrangling beast master, and I've been putting it off until a good version of the ranger comes out. I would be willing to use the new action rules (bonus action to command it) on a beastmaster with a good old giant crab, but the new rules for commanding the beast are locked into having one of these pets. It's just such a dumb design choice.

/rant.

[werescythe]

Last I checked, a fish outside of water doesn't move hardly at all. So with a speed of 5ft (outside of water) and a swim speed of 60ft (twice as much as most playable characters) actually seems pretty reasonable to me.

[Unoriginal]

Speed: 5 feet.

Need I say more? Most, and I'm talking about like 99% most, DnD games will be almost entirely played above water. I see what they were thinking: "gee, people in the survey said they want a beast of the sea, what do you think they had in mind?" "Well, the only sea creature I can think of is the Octopus, it must be that. Better template the move speed off of that." Except there's a ton of sea creatures like crustacians (ie, Giant Crab being what I actully wanted) that actually have a real land speed.

Regardless of what they were thinking, giving something a 5' land speed gimps it so hard that it's going to be an actual burden to the party at every turn. You would never pick this, unless the campaign was HEAVILY focused on underwater content, like how Ghosts of Saltmarsh has all those parts where you go underwater, or at least get to do something meaningful in a boat or something. Maybe you want to argue that they had to make it bad somehow to make up for its good on hit effect, except that the beast of the land gets bonus damage and a knockdown, and the beast of the sky has Flyby and can move at its full speed (60 feet, by the way) in 99% of scenarios. Even if you did want to make beast of the sea slower to balance it, going all the way to 5' is just ridiculous.

"Oh, just cast longstrider on it all the time, it'll be great"

no, I don't want to play a spell-slot-less ranger.

The only ranger that I've ever wanted to play is a crab wrangling beast master, and I've been putting it off until a good version of the ranger comes out. I would be willing to use the new action rules (bonus action to command it) on a beastmaster with a good old giant crab, but the new rules for commanding the beast are locked into having one of these pets. It's just such a dumb design choice.

/rant.

If you want a crab when you're out of the water, you could just take the land beast option and say it's a crab, no?

[Monster Manuel]

I think the intent is that you only use the Beast of the Sea when it's useful.

"When you finish a Long Rest, you can summon a different primal beast"

So, you keep the Beast of the Land running until you get to a point when a pet octopus would be helpful, sleep for the night, and swap them. Kind of like how you can swap out a familiar for a new form by re-casting the spell, the Primal Companion is flexible.

[Unoriginal]

I think the intent is that you only use the Beast of the Sea when it's useful.

"When you finish a Long Rest, you can summon a different primal beast"

So, you keep the Beast of the Land running until you get to a point when a pet octopus would be helpful, sleep for the night, and swap them. Kind of like how you can swap out a familiar for a new form by re-casting the spell, the Primal Companion is flexible.

Or you can swap between the two statblocks and say it's the same crab.

[Greywander]

Last I checked, a fish outside of water doesn't move hardly at all. So with a speed of 5ft (outside of water) and a swim speed of 60ft (twice as much as most playable characters) actually seems pretty reasonable to me.

I think the point is that a creature that isn't a fish would have been more viable. Something that's more amphibious than something that can only live in water. OP mentioned giant crabs, for example.

I haven't looked at the new ranger stuff (honestly I haven't looked much at ranger period), but what would make sense to me would be to give all three (I'm assuming there's three, land, sea, and air?) the same walk speed, but then depending on which one you choose they also get a swim, climb, or flying speed. Alternatively, the land creature might get a burrow speed instead of a climb speed (since flying makes climbing mostly redundant). There might be some other minor differences (like the sea beast being able to breathe in water), but otherwise they'd be mostly the same.

Point is, as the OP says, there's not really much reason to have an aquatic-only beast. Most adventures take place on land, and while I don't know the exact mechanics for ranger companions, I'm assuming they can't be swapped out as freely as a familiar (and even if they can, it's still kind of a pain). It would be better to have something that excels in the water but remains viable on land. The hard part should be making a land beast appealing when you could take a flying beast instead.

[DarknessEternal]

There are two other perfectly viable options for more traditional settings.

Is it really worth anyone's time to complain that your sea monster can't do very well on land?

[Foxhound438]

I think the intent is that you only use the Beast of the Sea when it's useful.

"When you finish a Long Rest, you can summon a different primal beast"

So, you keep the Beast of the Land running until you get to a point when a pet octopus would be helpful, sleep for the night, and swap them. Kind of like how you can swap out a familiar for a new form by re-casting the spell, the Primal Companion is flexible.

Yes, you can switch it. But if you have to wait for until the next day every time you jump in the water, and then also wait the rest of that day to continue doing things on land, it's not really going to be used very much. You'd have to expect to spend the entire day underwater for it to be a good choice. And to make it worse, I feel like more often than not even when you're doing "watery" things, you wouldn't want a companion who can't move close enough to do anything if you go into an underwater cave, or even if you get into a fight on a boat.

[Unoriginal]

For what it's worth, most crabs aren't known for their swim speed.

[greenstone]

Even worse, why would you take a beast of the sea when a beast of the land with water breathing cast on it is more effective?

[Unoriginal]

Even worse, why would you take a beast of the sea when a beast of the land with water breathing cast on it is more effective?

Define "more effective". Water breathing doesn't affect movement underwater or the disadvantage to attacking underwater, right?

[Rusvul]

Sea creatures being profoundly unhelpful on land strikes me as a feature, not a bug.

Certainly, I think it could've been neat if amphibious creatures had some kind of support, but it seems like it's primarily intended to model, like... fish/octopi, wolves et al., and birds. I can imagine that being frustrating if you have your heart set on a crab rangoon ranger (or a Florida Man type with an alligator), but... that's relatively niche

[Foxhound438]

Sea creatures being profoundly unhelpful on land strikes me as a feature, not a bug.

Certainly, I think it could've been neat if amphibious creatures had some kind of support, but it seems like it's primarily intended to model, like... fish/octopi, wolves et al., and birds. I can imagine that being frustrating if you have your heart set on a crab rangoon ranger (or a Florida Man type with an alligator), but... that's relatively niche

It has the ability, Amphibious. And I feel like crocodile companion wouldn't be a rare desire either.

Even if you do just want it to be a fish for some reason, why would you want it to not be a fish that's actually useful outside of one encounter in a year of playing the game? Why not have an especially badass fish that can hop around on land all day at 20 feet a round?

[HappyDaze]

It has the ability, Amphibious. And I feel like crocodile companion wouldn't be a rare desire either.

Even if you do just want it to be a fish for some reason, why would you want it to not be a fish that's actually useful outside of one encounter in a year of playing the game? Why not have an especially badass fish that can hop around on land all day at 20 feet a round?

Why not get a fish that can fly like a hummingbird?

[Foxhound438]

Why not get a fish that can fly like a hummingbird?

Sure, but it would be pretty awkward if it couldn't swim or breath underwater. Same goes for all the crabs that have charging attacks instead of pincirs that grab.

[Luccan]

I don't quite understand the resistance to this being at least moderately useful outside of the water. I don't play many rangers, beastmasters especially, so I don't know if I can get quite as worked up. But in my own experience many aquatic games still have plenty of land-based adventuring, so needing to swap your beast out every time you want to go dig up some buried treasure or investigate an island seems needlessly restrictive. Which, to be fair, is on brand for the beastmaster, but that doesn't make it good.

[JackPhoenix]

So, what exactly stops you from using Ranger's Companion instead of the variant and getting actual giant crab if you want to have a crab?

[Yakk]

Yes, I agree, that was a screwup.

Beastmaster characters often want a persistant companion. A naval themed companion - turtle, crab, even octopus - that is usable on land, but better in water, should be what they aimed for.

Instead we get an unusable on land companion.

I guess that is what happens when they get an intern to add features to a UA article before publishing.

And just don't use it people; the point of this variant was that the baseline animal companions didn't work well. Saying "use the ones that didn't work well" isn't productive, and having that argument here is redundant.

[Unoriginal]

So can anyone tell me why having a 5ft speed on land makes the Beast of the Sea unusable?

[Democratus]

Words mean things.

For the creature to be "unusable" it would need to have errors or contradictions in the stat block that keep it from working within the rules.

Beast of the Sea does not have that problem.

"I don't like it" is very different from "unusable".

[JackPhoenix]

And just don't use it people; the point of this variant was that the baseline animal companions didn't work well. Saying "use the ones that didn't work well" isn't productive, and having that argument here is redundant.

Well, by your words, the other option is "unusable". If one option is 'unusable', the one that 'doesn't work well' is still better.

[Dork_Forge]

Yes, I agree, that was a screwup.

Beastmaster characters often want a persistant companion. A naval themed companion - turtle, crab, even octopus - that is usable on land, but better in water, should be what they aimed for.

Instead we get an unusable on land companion.

I guess that is what happens when they get an intern to add features to a UA article before publishing.

And just don't use it people; the point of this variant was that the baseline animal companions didn't work well. Saying "use the ones that didn't work well" isn't productive, and having that argument here is redundant.

They allow you to change beast type freely on long rest, this seems more like a "hey an aquatic section, I have something for this!" rather than an option you're meant to take all of the time. It gives the Beast Master versatility to approach problems that isn't packaged inside a spell for a change, that's a feature not a bug.

Edit: It's not even like you're without options, if you find the 5ft on land crippling at some point and can't change it right then and there then just cast Longstrider on the beast and have it dash up to 30 to keep up.

[Quietus]

Am I the only one who loves the idea of a backpack octopus?

[MadBear]

I honestly don't see the issue at all. It's a great option when you know you'll be spending time in water. Sure there'll be times when you think you'll need a water companion, but then you want a land beast, but the unexpected happens all the time in D&D. Heck, there are many times my Cleric doesn't have the right spell prepared for the day, because they weren't aware they'd need it.

If you're really worried, on days where you get the beast of the sea, also prepare Longstrider. Now you have a 15ft moving sea creature. If it uses it's action to dash, it's moving just fine.

[Democratus]

Am I the only one who loves the idea of a backpack octopus?

Not at all! I was thinking of having a big wagon with a tank of water that the party hauls along on adventures. An "aquatic RV", if you will.

[Unoriginal]

Am I the only one who loves the idea of a backpack octopus?

Hermit-background character with an hermit Crab backpack.

[Daracaex]

Hermit-background character with an hermit Crab backpack.

Hermit-background Warforged who has been chosen as a hermit crab's shell?

[Greywander]

I don't really have a horse in this race, since I've never really been interested in playing a ranger (although this might be in part due its reputation as a weaker class), but after thinking about it a bit more, here's how I would have probably done it:

You have one default creature with a 30 foot walking speed. You then have a series of customization options, sort of like feats or invocations, that you can slap on. Some of these customizations just make the creature stronger, faster, or tougher, but others add animal-themed abilities. One might give a swim speed and underwater breathing, another might give spiderclimbing and the web-related abilities, another might allow them to spit poison, or give them tentacles that grapple on a hit, etc. Once you have the options that mimic the type of creature you have in mind, then you can focus on the options that just make them stronger.

Maybe I should write this up as an actual homebrew. I'd have to do some research into rangers first, though.

[Corsair14]

If you are the DM, then give it whatever speed you want. Book rules are strictly suggestions on how to run the game

[TigerT20]

Sorry, I'm still wondering why an amphibious/semi-amphibious animal like a crab, crocodile, octopus, giant axolotl etc is considered a more niche companion than... a literal fish