The beastmaster ranger is one of those classes in D&D 5e that has been proclaimed underpowered and that is generally avoided. For giving up significant, attack, defense, and damage capabilities from Hunter, the ranger gets an animal companion. The problem is that the animal companion doesn't scale very well, and the ranger has to give up his own action to command the animal companion to do anything useful.
I understand the philosophy behind the way this class was built. The action economy doesn't easily accommodate having two character with a full set of actions without becoming overpowered. However, having two creatures share an action economy is also a big problem, because it just isn't effective, especially with the underpowered stats of the animal companion. Compare this against the druid wildshape, for example, where the animal and character stats effectively stack, and you can see why this combination is underwhelming.
Had the design focused on limiting either the action economy or the stats, I think this combination would be better. Having a heavy hitter that can go into combat at your beckon call instead of you would be effective. Having a lightly-statted animal companion that can have full actions also seems effective, although in a different way. However, combining the two earned it the label of underpowered.
One suggested fix, which I think closely matches the intent without disrupting the balance totally is making controlling the animal companion's action a bonus action for the ranger. This still nerfs the action economy of the ranger slightly while giving the animal companion logical action in battle like attacking each round. Even with its understated stats this makes it effective. Keep in mind that a bonus action is pretty powerful for a ranger, allowing for things like effective use of Hunter's Mark.
The other problem is that the base stats of a CR 1/4 animal just are ridiculous, even with the ranger stat bumps, at higher levels. A suggested fix for this is to increase the CR per wildshape of the animal companion. This allows the ranger to pick up more effective animal companions at higher levels. Generally, this does not impact HP in any meaningful way. In does give slight bumps in AC, attack damage, and saves required to keep an animal companion from dying in one shot.
So let's run the numbers. A normal bow ranger using Hunter gets Colossus Slayer for an additional 1d8 damage per turn and Hunter's Mark for an additional 1d6. These both kick in the 3rd to 7th level range. In exchange for this, the old ranger got to lose his turn for a CR 1/4 attack. For the wolf, a popular choice, this is a 2d4+4 attack + possible (but unlikely) trip. So in this case, we lose 1d8 longbow plus DEX plus 1d6 plus 1d8 for 2d4+4. We are outmatched by the hunter, especially since encounters rarely last longer than 3 to 5 rounds, AND our wolf is easily in one shot danger (level 3 at 12 hp to level 7 at 28 hp). If you substitute the bonus action control in these same levels, we now are giving up our Hunter's Mark 1d6 for 2d4+4. Of course, this 2d4+4 is quite a bit less effective, since the wolf is still in one shot danger, but we are at an even trade.
One minor issue with this is that the level 7 Beastermaster class ability is useless. My suggestion is to replace it with the ability to swap places (per teleport) with your animal companion as a bonus action once per long rest, so long as the character and animal companion are no more than 30 ft apart.
Time will tell if WoTC will fix this class or give us a better alternative. In the meantime, though, I think we can bring it back to life with these simple changes.
I understand the philosophy behind the way this class was built. The action economy doesn't easily accommodate having two character with a full set of actions without becoming overpowered. However, having two creatures share an action economy is also a big problem, because it just isn't effective, especially with the underpowered stats of the animal companion. Compare this against the druid wildshape, for example, where the animal and character stats effectively stack, and you can see why this combination is underwhelming.
Had the design focused on limiting either the action economy or the stats, I think this combination would be better. Having a heavy hitter that can go into combat at your beckon call instead of you would be effective. Having a lightly-statted animal companion that can have full actions also seems effective, although in a different way. However, combining the two earned it the label of underpowered.
One suggested fix, which I think closely matches the intent without disrupting the balance totally is making controlling the animal companion's action a bonus action for the ranger. This still nerfs the action economy of the ranger slightly while giving the animal companion logical action in battle like attacking each round. Even with its understated stats this makes it effective. Keep in mind that a bonus action is pretty powerful for a ranger, allowing for things like effective use of Hunter's Mark.
The other problem is that the base stats of a CR 1/4 animal just are ridiculous, even with the ranger stat bumps, at higher levels. A suggested fix for this is to increase the CR per wildshape of the animal companion. This allows the ranger to pick up more effective animal companions at higher levels. Generally, this does not impact HP in any meaningful way. In does give slight bumps in AC, attack damage, and saves required to keep an animal companion from dying in one shot.
So let's run the numbers. A normal bow ranger using Hunter gets Colossus Slayer for an additional 1d8 damage per turn and Hunter's Mark for an additional 1d6. These both kick in the 3rd to 7th level range. In exchange for this, the old ranger got to lose his turn for a CR 1/4 attack. For the wolf, a popular choice, this is a 2d4+4 attack + possible (but unlikely) trip. So in this case, we lose 1d8 longbow plus DEX plus 1d6 plus 1d8 for 2d4+4. We are outmatched by the hunter, especially since encounters rarely last longer than 3 to 5 rounds, AND our wolf is easily in one shot danger (level 3 at 12 hp to level 7 at 28 hp). If you substitute the bonus action control in these same levels, we now are giving up our Hunter's Mark 1d6 for 2d4+4. Of course, this 2d4+4 is quite a bit less effective, since the wolf is still in one shot danger, but we are at an even trade.
One minor issue with this is that the level 7 Beastermaster class ability is useless. My suggestion is to replace it with the ability to swap places (per teleport) with your animal companion as a bonus action once per long rest, so long as the character and animal companion are no more than 30 ft apart.
Time will tell if WoTC will fix this class or give us a better alternative. In the meantime, though, I think we can bring it back to life with these simple changes.
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