It might not be the most optimized, but if you went with a halfling wis variant and took a land beast, you could become a sudo ‘princess Mononoke’ with a shillelagh riding your beast into battle, you could even do custome lineage, take small size +2 wis and be a mounted combatant. Again not so much about optimization as being a forest knight that can get around.
Favored foe is perfect for beastmaster, it doesn't take your bonus action, it doesn't cost a spell slot, and in between combats you can concentrate on non combat spells.
but summon beast is better, but ofc if you are out of spells slots then its a possibility, but we usualy homebrew favored enemy that you get +2dmg against them..
Regarding swiftquiver: you can give up a regular attack to have your beast attack, as per the Primal Companion feature. You make 3 attacks, the beast makes 2. Not perfect, but not a total clash.
@@davidpitts5522 "once you have the extra attack feature you can make one weapon attack yourself when you command the beast to take the attack action" We're discussing Swift Quiver, so you will have extra attack. You make 3 attacks (one from commanding the beast as an action, 2 from Swiftquiver as a bonus), the beast makes 2.
"You can also sacrifice one of your attacks when you take the attack action to command the beast to take the attack action" is the Tasha's wording, but both amount to the same thing.
Favoured foe doesn’t take up a bonus action, I think part the intent of it was to support dedicated Two weapon fighting builds. Fey wanderer in particular
It also doesn't take a spell slot, can be cast a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, sure you can't move it in combat the same way as hunters mark but you also don't have to worry about concentrating on hunter's mark outside of combat when you could be using things like fog cloud or pass without trace, and on top of all that you're going to want to be using your BA for you pet attacks so this is another benefit to damage sort of "outside" the normal action economy. I think it's pretty awesome all things considered even if the number of uses you can get doesn't feel super great.
As far as Favored Foe is concerned, I believe it is excellent for Horizon Walkers specifically. They want to use Planar Warrior every turn, and Favored Foe costs no action economy, you just gotta land a hit. So, it ends up being a replacement Hunter's Mark that doesn't cost a spell slot.
Favored for is actually great for any built that has a regular use for its bonus action that isn’t hunter’s mark. Hand crossbow with crossbow expert and sharpshooter. Polearm master/greatweapon master. *shudders* Two-weapon fighter. Horizon walker. Monster Hunter. I find that with most of these builds, sacrificing the bonus action attack isn’t worth the extra damage from hunter’s mark unless you can spend 3+ rounds attacking the same creature, which is rarely the case. Favored foe takes no action to apply. Yes, it takes your concentration, but you don’t need to waste a summon beast or conjure animals on smaller fights. Favored foe gives you an option for those smaller fights without consuming spell slots. It’s not fantastic, but it is an improvement over favored enemy.
Except it's piss damage once per turn. I realize they had to make it weaker than hunters mark but it could be 1d6 every time you hit a target until it's dead prof times per day. So hunter's mark is this thing you use in mob encounters and your favored FOE is when you're fighting the big bad evil FOE and you can shoot him dead. Instead we got a sprinkle of damage that doesn't compete with 75% of the level 1 features in the game
You can give up ONE of your attacks to let your companion attack or use your bonus action so with swift quiver you can attack 3 time and your beast can attack
Beast Master "Your beast will follow your commands the best it can" In English if you order your beast to kill someone, they wont stop after hitting them once, they will keep attacking until the enemy is dead. Meaning on turn 2 the beast will attack and you keep action Not in some coo coo land where beast is brain dead hits enemy once looks at you and thinks "did I good kill?" In our games this has not been "op" in any means. There are way stronger things at lvl 3 like Wizard casting hold person and using divination dice or Bard casting hold person lowering the DC by 1d6 to make it success ... Then all melee gets advantage and free crits if they hit ;) that is way more strong and with "ready action" you can easily pull this off unless DM is focusing you "I ready action to cast Hold person to the enemy after he moves unless he attacks me. works unless legendary resistance.
About Swift Quiver: Tasha's states "You can also sacrifice one of your attacks when you take the Attack action to command the beast to take the Attack action. " Therefore if you used your second attack for your companion, couldn't Swift Quiver still be viable?
You know, a lot of people have been mentioning this and I think I may have missed the boat on that little gem :). Going to have to crunch the numbers and possibly talk about it next episode...
Because I know you’re a consummate perfectionist, “Shillelagh” is pronounced ‘Shill-Lay-Lee’ or "Shill-Lay-Lay," not ‘Shill-Luh-Lee.’ Even still, I love the time and effort you put into your videos, keep them coming!!!
I think a wisdom focused beastmaster using cantrips like thorn whip as their main source of damage for themselves (and to get enemies in a better position for a beast charge attack) could be fun and actually have some use for favored foe. It doesn't require any action or bonus action on your part and doesn't specify weapon attack, which means it would be straight up better than Hunter's Mark starting at level 6 and you won't need multiple turns of bonus actions to set up. Summon spells are definitely still going to be even better once you've got them but favored foe could be a good backup, especially since the material components for summons are pretty expensive for early levels. Maybe a small dip into arcana or death cleric for decent ranged attack cantrip options using wisdom. Or even 2 levels in stars druid for a bunch of free guiding bolts that also work with favored foe since they're attack rolls. Anyway, loving the channel! Glad I stumbled upon it.
I agree. I think it is better to think of the Beastmaster more are a spellcaster subclass than other Rangers. Druidic Warrior Fighting Style or a one level dip into Druid or Nature Cleric. Beast of the Sky gets flyby. Works pretty good. With Tasha's you really need to change one's entire concept of what a Ranger means.
This is how i'd run a beastmaster as well ability score wise. Solves the low attack of beast/summon by simply going all wisdom. Aside from using a druid attack cantrip, the tweaks i would do would be: 1. taking fey touched as my feat at level 1 and getting dissonant whispers. This is where i'd burn my level 1 spell slots on. you, the beast and summon all surround the high priority target then it provokes alot of opportunity attacks when it runs away. 2. Take 2 levels of fighter for action surge so you can dissonant + summon on round 1 as early as level 7. 3. take warcaster at later levels so you can turn your opportunity attack from dissonant whispers into another spell. plus improve your concentration to boot. 4. I personally see no benefit from going past level 15-16 (share spells, 4th level spells) so with 2 fighter already, i'd squeeze in 2-3 levels of something else: either some spell levels in cleric/druid or getting a fighter subclass + asi.
So, this what we did at my table to really try to fix the beast Master: we left it alone for the most part, except for one thing, it attacks your target as a reaction, as long as you're target is within range. That and at third level you can either expend a spell slot, or take a point of exhaustion, to resurrect it if it goes down. Everything else is the same. No multi-attacks, same hit points, etc. the next thing we're testing is whether or not it's viable to let the companion have an ASI whenever you take one from ranger, given that you already add bonuses to their attacks and damage and all that, as well as how low their hit points are, mostly we've found whenever we're given that opportunity, so far the best way to effectively add anything to the companion is to add to its Constitution.
I'm almost shocked about happiness you're really doing a beast master post Tasha's vid! I really appreciate it. Beginning a new campaign on friday so I'll make a pure beast master, finally! I almost went for a Druid cirlce of wildfire. Cheers Colby.
Summon Fey's darkness does not give your pets disadvantage! The enemy is blinded as well, giving advantage and disadvantage, cancelling out :) Blind fighting/ devil's sight could combo nicely but the timing may be a little awkward
So many good fixes for Favored Foe, 1: straight up treat it as the Hunters Mark spell, meaning you can move it. 2: allow it to either scale like Sneak Attack or allow it to be upcast. 3: after a certain level it no longer requires concentration. Have played several rangers with this change and it feels very good
Personally a big fan of the new primal companion. It doesn’t have to attack. You could, say, as a rogue with a 3 level dip in BM Ranger, use you flying companion to grant you sneak attack & then have it fly away (uses flyby so no Attack of opportunity). If you really want to make the sneak attack hit, have it take the help action for advantage and then make your sneak attack. Elven accuracy for triple advantage & you just upped your crit chance dramatically.
17:54 I think it is not a big deal because you can use swift quiver and substitute one of your attacks for the companions attack action (which are two at that level). So a rangers turn at level 17 with swift quiver active would look like this: Attack Action -> Ranger 1 attack, Companion 2 attacks Bonus Action -> Ranger 2 attacks That’s certainly more attacks than a ranger without companion does. I didn’t do the math on it with sharpshooter. For example what’s better, doing all attacks on your own or giving one away for two of the beast. But I guess it’s about the same and therefore beastmaster seems pretty viable to me.
You know, a lot of people have been mentioning this and I think I may have missed the boat on that little gem :). Going to have to crunch the numbers and possibly talk about it next episode...
I kept meaning to watch the original Beast a Master build when I eventually binged all your vids lol, so I was happy to watch this update! Even if they didn’t “fix” every feature, I’m glad people may have more fun with the subclass’s offensive power now 😃. Thank you for making such in-depth videos, they have been very good!
I'm trying to put my head together for all this. Primal Companion lets you decide to use one of your main action attacks over your bonus action if you so wish. At Level 11, your Companion can do two attacks with one command. So assuming you can cast 5th level spells... Realistically you could, on turn 1: Swift Quiver Companion Attack x2 Ranged Attack Turn 2: Companion Attack x2 Ranged Attack Double Ranged Attack Alternatively with Summon Beast/Fey/Elemental- Turn one: Summon a friend Bonus command companion to hit twice Free command friend to also hit twice Turn two: You Multiattack Your companion multiattacks Your friend multiattacks Of course the double pets plan is better than swift quiver. I just wanted to note that its possible to use it in a build. Burning an attack also opens up two weapon fighting as well, so being a certain panther having drow is something one could do. Finally, while maybe not for beastmaster, Shillelagh Ranger would be fun with polearm master, especially with dueling style as mentioned.
You know, a few others have mentioned still being able to work in Swift Quiver in this way, and I may have missed the boat :). Going to have to crunch the numbers to compare Ranger attack x3 + Companion attack x2 vs. Ranger attack x2 + Companion attack x2 + Summoned Fey attack x2. My hunch is, like you say, that the latter still comes out on top, but at the very least it should be closer...
I am curious how you could optimize around the beast taking 4 attacks at 11, leaving your character with 1 attack. Perhaps you are kobold riding your beast throwing a net with your attack, restraining the enemy? Sort of a reversal of your giant frog. Another great video, thank you!
About the Animate Objects point you brought up: you can't animate a +1 ammunition or dagger because the spell description pretty clearly states that you animate "up to ten nonmagical objects".
My ranger build is Gloomstalker 5, Echo Knight 3. And I can take 9 attacks in the first round (6 for me, 2 for my echo, 1 for my summoned beast, then action surge). Super bursty but I can destroy a big baddie right off the bat, or handle all the trash. Plus if I am in darkness, I'm invisible and get those attacks with advantage (elven accuracy), and fish for alot of crits. Check it out!
It seems like Colby usually prefers sustained damage. But I agree. Very fun tho, gloom stalker and action surge any day of the week. My character needed to kill a dragon so many builds were less useful.
They limited the beast master update because of the snakes that are choices The flying snake and giant poisonous snake both have 18 dexterity. Their AC is high, they have blind sight, and the proficiency bonus to their damage is great. The giant snake benefits twice per hit since their poison is separated by a saving throw, and even though the save is low it’s still half damage.
The problem with the changes with Tasha’s was that these changes should have been ADDED to the Ranger, not REPLACE features of the Ranger. What the Ranger lost was much of the flavor of the class. And the “beasts” options for the Ranger that Tasha’s introduced AREN’T EVEN BEASTS. They’re Fey or spirits in the shape of beasts. Rangers can’t even have real beasts anymore.
46:01 another thing you could do is put it on yourself. So you could do things like protection which gives them disadvantage to hit you, but they have it as well hitting you because you are heavily obscured. Get sight, and now you got advantage as well
Please help! So my dm last night in the middle of a one shot decided I couldn't make 2 attacks and use the bonus action to command my primal companion to attack. I didn't want to argue. He reads it as I use my action to command my primal beast to do an attack or I can use my bonus action to get it to use its action to do something utility like open a door fetch something but crucially not attack. Am I reading Tashas wrong? I thought I could attack , attack, bonus action primal beast to attack. Your's sincerely a struggling level 5 beastmaster
@@haphazrds250 You are correct, but only if it is a primal companion. I think he is confusing it with the training feature base beast masters get later on, which is useless on a primal.
We had a chat and I think its sorted now, ive got my primal beast attacking on my bonus action once again though he thinks its a bit over powered. Thanks for reply
Worth noting that animate objects can be cast only on NON MAGICAL objects. You cannot animate +1 ammunition or daggers. The best you could do is animate silver or adamantine objects to bypass resistance on certain undead, fey, fiends, elementals, and constructs. Another rules snafu: if the tricksy fey drops a 5 ft cube of darkness on a creature, it doesn’t have disadvantage on its attack rolls against that creature. The disadvantage from not being able to see its target is canceled out with the advantage it gains from the target not being able to see its attacker. If you have persistent disadvantage for some reason or an enemy has persistent advantage, darkness and fog cloud are great ways to even the playing field by resetting everything to flat rolls (unless someone has blindsight)
Real quick: Favored Foe doesn't use your bonus action, it's a special action you can use to activate whenever you hit a creature, dealing the extra damage when you hit. It's okay, but I honestly wouldn't use it unless I spent my spell slots already and I can't cast Hunter's Mark on an important enemy.
@@jirimaly6019 yeah, it's baby's first Hunter's Mark. I only use it if I want quick damade and don't want to expend a spell slot for it, but really only works well at low levels for the most part
But that’s kind of what it’s for. It’s made so if your out of spell slots your Ranger can still keep up the damage again all targets. Revised Ranger Favored Enemy is great, but it’s terrible if your favored enemy is Giant and your party get teleported to Avernus. The only way to make it affective is if the DM tells the Ranger basically the entire campaign.
Darkness from fey does not give you disadvantage. You don't see them, give disadvantage, but, they have blind conditions which give you advantage. So it's even. So it can be used to force the booming blade damage (for your blade singer build of course)
personally I think commanding your beast should spend your reaction because you still spend something but you don't clash with your economy and can still be a real ranger
And yet they nerf an already bottom teir class. As if if they let favored foe 1d6 per hit until an enemy dies prof times a day and reaction to let pur beast hit ranger would somehow climb the ranks of S teir choices for best class ??? I'm just glad my dm is pro homebrew cuz holy faack
Not sure if its been mentioned, but one thing I really enjoy, is that Barbarians finally have something to concentrate on. They have the highest con saves typically, and cant concentrate on SPELLS. but this isn't a spell. so multiclassing these two can be pretty fun.
Maybe a little treat for beastmaster could be to get that they get the Find Familiar and Find (Greater) Steed spells (but just as fey?) and to access to higher CR beasts (maybe add monstruosities as things progress).
You can still use swift quiver. With primal companion you can use bonus action for it to attack OR sacrifice one of your attacks within attack action for them to use. So if you have two attacks at 17th level you can attack once, use your companion attack, then quick quiver bonus action
Honestly I'm really digging the normal beastmaster for 1 aspect only: The fact that you can tailor your pet to your mission or environment you want. Assassination -> centipede (can shake hand and centipede hidden into your shirt can bite them and paralyze them), scout (owl obviously), dmg (giant poisonous snake), advantage bot (giant frog) and my favorite skill monkey (tressym which has an insane 11 int so they can use help action on every single skill you want to perform or do some of their own, they also understand common!)
Favored Foe works well with the new Beastmaster since it doesn't use bonus action to add the extra damage, which is nice now that bonus actions are for the companion. It also means you can take other first level spells instead of Hunter's Mark. Better for the Wise Ranger Build. There is also the extra damage/to hit bonus at level 20.
@@DnDDeepDive Yea, I'm not saying it is perfect. Still I think it is better than say the Monk Capstone. Every single monk build would be improved by taking one level of Ranger at 20 instead of their capstone. It basically doubles available first level spells, which can now be used for something other than Hunter's Mark. It does scale, not well, but eventual it becomes a d8 and does not use a bonus action to set up. I wish it worked on every attack, the limitation to once per round doesn't make sense. It is a good multi-class feature, especially for monks and wild shape druids. I think Tasha's changes how we should think about Ranger's. They become much better multi-class dips and mixes. I still see very little reason to continue with Ranger past level 14. Maybe even 11 with the Beastmaster build. Switching to Moon Druid or Nature Cleric make a lot of sense to me at that point. Druidic warrior allows a Wis based melee build that would benefit Beast Master as well. It would be a different build then the half-archer you designed, but with greater first level options spell wise. It might even be worth an early dip into a Wis based Spellcaster.
@@brettmajeske3525 druidic warrior doesn't just allow a wis melee build with shilelagh but you can even do a wis ranged build (magic stone) or the way i went full fledged ranger caster.
Love the video! To be totally honest though I still VASTLY prefer they UA Revised Ranger Beast Conclave. Your companion is suddenly its own character that leveled along with you. It's so awesome. And the fact that you can pick a beast 1/2CR and below you have a wide variety to choose to make it as thematic as you want.
Jeremy Crawford mentioned the balance issues they had is there is to much of a diversity of companions to allow these buffs. For example the issue with giving Beast Master companions a bonus action to attack was some have multi attack.
I was focusing on a build similar to this, using my first ever character i made! He was a champion who adopted an owlbear cub and it grew up to be a monster. Now i can bring it all back! I am however go with a melee build to go with that in your face guerilla fighter kinda style
I think the thing to keep in mind, though I understand this is all about optimization, is that it's about choice. If everything fell into place and you could just do everything you wanted to in a turn, it would be the same thing every turn. "Here is my macro of commands" would be boring. Maybe sometimes you use swift quiver and get off some extra ranged attacks, maybe one turn it might be better if your companion does some extra attacks while you are doing something else.
on favored foe - beastmaster generally is not attacking an enemy more than once per round because you are probably giving up a bonus action and later an attack for your beast, so hunter's mark is actually kind of "wasted" being cast by a beast master, compared to favored foe. The lowered damage is kind of annoying, I think they could have started at 1d6 and ended at 1d10, but its still useful as is. But this lets you conserve your actual spells for other non-combat or situational uses. Another point though, is that there is no reason you can't take BOTH favored foe and hunter's mark. Rangers don't get much back on a short rest, so having the 2-3 extra favored foes as backup damage between long rests is handy, especially when you don't know what you might eventually be getting in to. You also don't have to declare it until you hit an enemy, you might find yourself shooting a spell caster and hit them or crit them, and realize you really want that extra 1d4/1d6/1d8 damage to multiply, especially for breaking concentration checks.
But the best companions do scale with your level? You add your proficiency modifyer to its AC, attack and damage rolls, and its hit points are four times your level (or their own).
One thing I would have emphasized - you're not just doing great DPR, you're also helping control the battlefield because you have a companion in melee doing OAs and keeping the enemy from just walking to your backline etc. And unlike many other archer builds you're granting the rogue sneak attack. And if it dies you just take a minute and get another one.
Try calculating this build and compare it with your build: Human 1st level fighter, GW FS, stats 16/13/14/9/16/9, prof. in CON saves and heavy armour. Grab greatsword and continue as beastmaster ranger. fighting style defensive for AC 19. ASI: 1) GWM 2) STR 3) WIS 4) WIS 5) Sentinel. Tactics: Charge with beast of the land, possibly knock enemy prone, engage enemy and attack with GWM -5/+10 (if he has high AC and wasn't knocked prone, use ordinary attacks without -5/+10). Add any spells you want to. This build allows sustainable advantage source for your GWM attacks, sentinel on top also can improve DMG. On higher levels, you can use guardian of nature to get bonus DMG for ranger, bonus HPs for beast and advantage for both. Enemies around your beast will also move slower - great spell for shared spells. I also recommend background from Ravnica, which gives you haste spell - when you cast it throuch shared spells, both you and your beast both can do another attack - this means 3x companion attack for 1d8+1d6+8 and also with advantage (prone enemy) 3x 2d6+14 (+magic weapon) from ranger + 1d8 favoured foe. AC of you and your beast will be 21 (+magic items), sentinel on top, speed of ranger 70 ft, speed of companion 80 ft.
Another good episode. As for a character build, I would love to see something along the lines of classic ninja. Thinking it would revolve around gloomstalker/way of shadow monk. Ranger gets blindfighting fight style so fogcloud/darkness advantage is an option. Loving the idea of a mobile bat familiar being the target of darkness spell to make your darkness go where you want it (mega mobility for shadow monk teleports etc.) Gloomstalker help a bit with monk damage but probably not enough for my liking. Thoughts? If there were a way to get shadowblade would be amazing but another dip seems excessive.
I had one of these in my campaign pre tasha and it was really great in some circumstances. It didn't blend well with the light cleric and devotion pally though. Some builds tend to be party dependent.
This is why (in response to why every recommendation is always Variant Human or Custom Lineage) at my table I Just let all races get 1 free feat, and just remove Variant human/Custom Lineage so everyone gets that extra bit of customization and I just adjust my encounters a bit to work with the extra bit of power.
I think I would take 'Gunner' instead of 'Piercer'.. Most Archers fear being near melee combatants, this would enable you to be completely effective if caught in the thick of battle
I plan on being a goblin who rides a boar. I will use druidic warrior to get access to Shillelagh, using a club, shield and medium armor, then focus mainly on wisdom.
I'd still like to see an Arcane Trickster optimized! Probably have it optimized to where they're good at both maintaining stealth and being the party support. Kind of a jack-of-all-trades and master of none that can deal out reliable burst damage on a whim. I use Find Familiar with my Arcane Trickster to maintain advantage on almost all of my attacks while also boasting eight skill proficiencies of eighteen out of the gate at first level with three of those skills having expertise (always ending on Stealth, Sleight of Hand, PErception, Investigation, and either Insight or Thieves' Tools depending on my position in the party). I feel I've done a great job myself optimizing damage and roleplay but I'd love to see what you come up with. Oh, and I've been meaning to say something about the "Conjure" Spells. Why do people assume the DM chooses the animals when the spell itself states that "you choose from the following list" emphasizing the player and not the DM? It's a spell conjuring fey spirits in the form of animals so it shouldn't have any real restrictions other than the list itself unless I'm missing something?
I think this is a good explanation as to why... rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/71346/how-do-you-determine-which-beast-appears-during-the-conjure-animals-spell#:~:text=Rules%20as%20Intended%3A%20the%20DM,spellcaster%20chooses%20the%20creature%20conjured.
@@DnDDeepDive Thank you, brother. I've always wondered that since the Sage Advice located on the D&D Website doesn't appear (at least that I've seen) to mention that 'Conjure Animals' specifically means the DM chooses. I appreciate the knowledge and link.
Ok as some of many different options I considered in order to make a shadow warrior I eventually settled on Echo knight arcane trickster combo. The idea is start as custom elf to get a 17 dex. Take 1st feat as either elven accuracy with +1 dex to 18 or magic initiate wiz. (Probably better with elven) First class fighter w/blindfight 2nd fighter 3rd echo knight 4th echo knight magic initiate - Booming Blade, green flame, find familiar Lvl 5 through 20 rogue/arcane trickster Lvl 7 spells cantrips your choice, Fog cloud others 1st level spells your choice 2nd level spells darkness, mirror image others your choice. At lvl 8 take mobility Level 12 war caster Concept. You live in darkness/full concealment. Doing so means all your attacks within these Fog clouds/darknesses afford you full advantage and impose disadvantage on your enemies. You get sneak attack on every attack you make. You attack and move away from your enemy (without triggering a opportunity attack courtesy mobile) and can hide with your bonus movement. Move your echo next to (or near to with 10 ft. if you wish to entice him to move see below) an opponent , likewise you move to an opponent completely hidden unable to be attacked. If the opponent you move next to moves you hit him with a reaction sneak attack (ultimately booming bladed when you get the feat). The echo either takes a hit or is another opportunity to get a second sneak attack (albeit without booming blade) The idea is to get 2 sneaks per round( hopefully most of them from your weapon/booming blade empowered via warcaster) on a regular basis between you or your echos opportunities with elven accuracy helping to land a sneak crit every third round or so. It should be a regular thing that creatures won't know you are there and will likely be drawn to the echo giving you opportunity attack. 2 sneaks per round so very powerful.
Forgot one thing fog cloud is a sure thing but has a static area of effect. Onc e you get Darkness. It should be cast on your familiar bat with 60' blindsight and it should be readily commanded to move in a fashion to reveal the creature so that your party can ready actions "once the darkness lifts". Immediately after the reveal, the darkness bat moves back to cover the creatures in darkness (if you wish) but minimally ensuring you are under darkness at all times. This approach might also reveal the echo to encourage enemies to engage the one and only thing they can see, namely your echo. If they move to the echo should mean you've got your second sneak attack complete with booming blade (via warcaster)
Although I couldn't get to a build with shadow monk that satisfied me, this build has a very ninja feel with use of darkness and trickery/deception to get a second sneak/booming blade per round. If things go sideways and the party needs to retreat, take minor illusion to give the distracting sounds in the dark to allow party a clean get away.
About the wisdom based ranger.. First of all, I know it's kind of a long post but.. I mean, this is a 1hour and 6 miutes video soo com on.. I don't think I am the only one to be blamed here^^. Anyway, I was thinking to make a similar build with the Feywanderer. Both of these two subclasses rely on companions to work and can benefit by maxing out their wisdom early on. I mean they can't probably compete with the sharpshooter +10 DMG but I think they maight be fun. Said that, in my opinion this is possible only by getting shillelag. You can take shillelag with the "magic adept feat". Doing this also allows you to know one more ranger spell (Maybe, Absorb element, entangle..). Instead of the Druidic Warrior fighting style you may choose duelist as fighting stile for +2 dmg wielding a club with a shield. The weapon will be magical early on and will use wisdom for dmg and to hit rolls. You can max out your wisdom instead of dex at forth level this way. Maxing out wisdom grant this character a higher chance to hit with his summonings and with the companion. Also being in melee with your summonigs helps you get advantage by flanking. Now, since you don't use dex too much you can focus on constitution making you more tanky and better able to sustain concentration checks. Cap dex out at 14 is an idea manily for the +2 AC to a medium armor. your AC could be 15(Half plate) +2(Shield) +2(Dex)=19. Your summonings are kind of weak so a good idea may be to cast (and probably up cast) on them aid. Anotherone may be to take the fey touched feat and select Heroism as a 1st level enchantment spell to have 5 teporary hit point every round. Another option is getting the crusher feat. Since the club cause bludgening dmg you can move your enemy 5 feet once when you hit. This is important because it lets you and your beast disengage, go back 15 ft and charge back your enemy getting the +1d6 to the dmg and a chance to knock him prone against your maximised spell DC. Sadly rangers spells don't benefit that much from a high spell DC. Other than entangle (maybe ensaring strike?) I guess and some of your companions abilities. In my opinion this is more important for the feywanderer's combo with the summoned fey's Charm (Feywanderer's 4Mirthful Fey's charm+ Fey wanderer 7th level beguiling twist).. But that maybe material for another post.
Who says it has to be ranger spells that you use with that wisdom? You can take the feytouched feat and spam dissonant whispers (works awesomely if you have alot of melee attackers on the board). You can also dip into druid or cleric and pick good low level spells to be upcasted such as hold person then give your pets advantage and auto crits.
@@TheRobversion1 Hi Rob! Well, the idea behind base this character based on wisdom is to have synergies with your summoned pets attack and damage rolls, which work in the same way for you when you use shilelleag. Not to mention other spells that base your higher DC.. So yeah! I thought heroism to boost the pet HP but dissonant wispers is for sure a good pick! Multiclassing this character could be grate but my only fear is this might slow down the hit point progression of the pet which are based only on ranger levels. In any case I would love to multiclass this character with a with a druid or a nature cleric (I mean.. heavy armor and shield at frist level! and Hold person? I mean it s hard to leave it behind) Nice ! Good idea man!
@@Ali40L as far as lower hp, think of it this way if you are casting control stuff (dissonant whispers, hold person, etc) the enemy isnt hurting your pets thus minimizing the need for a lack of hp (plus they enemy dies faster, less threats to.hurt your pets).
i wish they made all those ranger maneuvers (ensnaring strike, zephyr strike, hail of thorns) work like booming blade or even better just get rid of the concentration part. they're some of my favourite ranger features but are pretty much never used, cause none of them are worth a spell slot AND your concentration.
Currently toying with the idea of a Strength-based, "houndsman" fighter/ranger or barbarian/ranger. Fighting with big armored dogs, not sure what to use as a primary weapon for both flavor, and stats though.
I'm late to the party here, so I don't know if the Animate Objects situation was subsequently clarified. That said, I've heard the idea of using Animate Objects on a bundle of +1 Daggers (or Swords) a few times now - but it's clearly not RAW. The spell very explicitly says, "nonmagical objects."
I see a lot of people comparing Favored Foe with Hunter's Mark, but the fact that it doesn't waste your spell slots or use your bonus action makes it a bit better. Maybe in early levels FF is worse than the spells, but after a while it starts getting good. Maybe if they started it at 1d6 and forgot about hunter's mark? maybe? or just... give us hunter's mark and give it special features? The fact that they never thought about making it a core feature of the ranger in 2014 will always feel weird for me.
Hmm a spore beast master would be cool. You could flavor your companion as a vessel for your spores so it comes out looking like some sort of undead beast. Though I’ve been thinking of a Ranger spore Druid multiclass because I was thinking of how to make a spore Druid more melee focused. I had the idea of using a swarm keeper ranger because I thought it fit flavor wise and you could make the spores of the Druid and swarm of the ranger the same thing.
spore druid beastmaster is definitely competitive as i've played it already before as a summoner/controller type. melee would be tough. tbh when i played it i just usually used symbiotic entity for temp hp pre-combat and wouldn't rely on it as a dmg boost. a more melee druid would be a moon druid. swarmkeeper works well with stars druid as a forced movement + wall of fire/moon beam caster type.
If you take the druidic warrior fighting style, you can take the shileilegh cantrip and make wisdom your highest ability score. Then your primal companion's bonuses also scale with your highest ability score. It is all melee, but it should be very respectable damage and multiclass with other wisdom based classes well.
It's worth considering. I'd hate missing out on 3 attacks + Sharpshooter damage from Crossbow Expert+Sharpshooter though. Polearm Master could give you the three attacks with a Quarterstaff, but Great Weapon Master wouldn't work as the Quarterstaff isn't Heavy...
i personally would go range and pick up mold earth (for the one-hit kills vs. medium or smaller enemies) and thorn whip instead for some control as well. but yes, i play wis beastmaster too.
Any ideas for flavoring the Primal companion? My ranger is a scholar, he studies fossils, so his primal companions are extinct animals (a dimorphodon/gryphonfly for the B.o.t. Sky, a sea scorpion for the B.o.t. Sea, but can't think of one for the land.)
Would it be worth it to forego the last 4 ranger levels and somewhere in the early levels multiclass into some figher subclass? To give up the 5th level spells and get that extra action surge attack + 3rd level subclass feature + 4th level ability score improvement or feat (would not be lost from the 20th ranger level ability score improvement). Also thank you so much for this video 👍I'm using the beast master for my first character ever and at currently level 6 your video made me notice that hunters mark could lagging behind in damage so I could just add another beast to my pack with summon beast. However summon beast needs an action instead of bonus action, so would you say you'd need to anticipate when a fight is likely to happen and cast it before that, or is it still worth more than if you had your first turn be a normal attack with hunters mark regardless?
As I read the magic ammunition rule, the magic disappears after the first attack, hit or miss. Why not take a beast of the sky? It has flyby and thus can give you advantage on one attack, just like the owl familiar. You don't have the Beastmaster on either of your math displays.
The Dungeon Dudes suggest sacrificing one of your two attacks to allow the pet to attack four times per round rather than two off of just the bonus action. Has this been taken into account for damage as well? Also I have fun calculating cr's for monsters and such and found that at level three the new pet of the sea, land, or air is actually a cr1 monster at the beginning even for air which has less damage, technically.
This doesn't work by RAW. Even if you use both an attack and a bonus action for beast attacks the beast still only has one action, which means only two attacks. Better off just keeping your attack action for yourself and having the beast attack with bonus action.
@@ryanbrodeur5105 The 4 attacks from the pet is suggested at Level 11+. Early on, the pet can attack once from the bonus action and once more if the ranger sacrifices one of two attacks at level 5+, when taking the attack action. So at level 11, the ranger could make 1 attack, then command the pet to make an attack action with it's 2nd attack and then use the bonus action to command another attack, resulting in 4 attacks from the pet. Since the pet's attacks rank up with the Ranger, that is a lot of potential damage.
Hey man thanks! I asked for this video way back before the beast master 1.0. You do a great job responding to the community. Have you considered a Mandalorian type character based around an artificer artillerist? Great middle ground between single target damage and area effect.
I'm thankful that Tasha's cauldron of everything gave the rangers especially beast master alot of love and care. Hopefully it will help with my new ranger build that I've been trying to do for so long
@@Agreus-WolfsbaneYT True, but the same would apply to Hunter's Mark. Sometimes I think Rangers get trapped in the Legolas mindset, but some of the Tasha's options change that dynamic. 12 levels of Beastmaster/8 Circle of the Moon or Shepard becomes much stronger. And Favored Foe can be used in Wild Shape. Take one level of monk for the better AC flip the Wis and Dex priorities and it is a whole new ball game.
@@brettmajeske3525 yes but perhaps that's what I think is the issue with the dicodamy of the game. Everyone seems to be more focused on min maxing damage and being a powerful build that they lose sight that by multi classing your taking away a good classes abilities. I can understand the legolas qulevhe but I've seen more of the Aragorn becuaee legolas is more of a ranger/ fighter
@@Agreus-WolfsbaneYT I would argue Aragorn is more of a multiclass build(fighter/cleric) , but I can see your point. I think the new options are better, but every Ranger build is improved by at least a one level dip in Cleric or Druid. Even if only at level 20. Heck, for some builds a one level Monk dip is better than the Ranger capstone. Now there are many classes for which multiclassing makes no sense, but I can not think of a single reason for 20 levels of Ranger over a one or two level dip in a Wis based spellcaster. At least the Paladin Capstone offers a reason not to dip into Divine Sorcerer or Bladelock. Rangers get a +3 to damage. As soon as they get 5th level spells it is time to move on.
Favored for doesn't use a bonus action so as a beast master it might be better than hunters mark to keep your beast attacking. You do lose out on a little bit of damage but beast master using bonus action makes hunter's mark clunky.
The Swarmkeeper is my favorite ranger right now. Most of my characters are not that fond of animals so I reskinned the swarm for a misty fog that solidifies into a flying cloud at higher levels. My ranger now looks like a herald of Apollo raining arrows at heretics.
Did you crunch the numbers for a ranger with the favored foe feature who uses it on the same turn as other bonus action concentration spells? Example: lvl 5 ranger with extra attack. Archery fighting style. Uses bonus action to concentrate on the spell hail of thorns. Takes attack action, uses first attack and hits and activates hail of thorns ending concentration. Takes follow up attack, hits and activates favored foe feature. It may also be worth noting that the new favored foe feature requires only a “hit with an attack roll” and not a weapon like hunters mark. Also, small race beastmaster like a goblin, gnome, or halfling on the back of a “beast of the land” and is wisdom based seems awesome. Pick Druidic Warrior as fighting style, and choose primal savagery as a cantrip. Your SAD with your spells and beast. Your beast can run up, hit a creature possibly probing them, and you can primal savagery it with advantage while using favored foe. Level 11 seems like a major spike for almost no resources since your cantrip outpaces your own extra attack. Goblin riding a wolf/warg seems awesome
@@DnDDeepDive I’m new to the channel, subscribed yesterday and have been enjoying your content. Do you plan to do multi class videos? A mounted build that utilizes the sentinel feat would probably be great, especially on a class like a rogue or paladin that can make the most out of their reaction and dissuade would be attackers from targeting the mound.
@@DnDDeepDive Custom lineage-small race: your w/e you want flavor wise. pick darkvision, will help simplify things when you and your beast can see in similar situations when attacking. 15+2 wisdom. 8 intelligence and charisma. 15 constitution, resilient constitution later for more Hp and concentration proficiency. 14 dex. Good for medium armor and getting you past level 1 offensively. 10 strength, you’re probably gonna swim or climb eventually. feat- fey touched. Free misty step once per day, most rangers do t have access to teleportation. 1st level enchantment spell, dissonant whispers. level 2 pick up Druidic warrior. Primal savagery first pick for cantrip to have a decent and scaling wisdom based attack. level 3 get your beast, choose land beast, enjoy riding up and snaking someone for possible 1d6+1d8+4 at this level, and a chance to prone the target to give your savagery advantage. Note that new favored foe does not specify weapon attacks, so your attack cantrip can enjoy the extra die. level 4, get warcaster to improve your concentration saves. You may also now ride up to a creature, deal your beast damage as a bonus action. If the target is forced prone, cast dissonant whispers for the chance you AND your beast to make opportunity attacks at advantage as it crawls away at half speed. Your primal savagery may be used for opportunity attacks because of warcaster feat. Great damage, and scales decently for the rest of your ranger career.
The whole use 1 hit concentration spell-break-favored foe idea was great. Especially if you're just at 2 attacks (early). Though yeah once you can do 3+ (gloomstalker, fighter multiclass) hunter's mark pulls ahead most of the time. I like searing smite upcasted for the 1 hit concentration spell though so it can remain viable even at 3+ attacks. I'd switch the order with searing smite though. like favored foe-break-upcast searing smite.
Your average is consuming spellslot, so what how many combats do you get out of it? There is no real good use of shared spells at the 15th level, especially when the ranger has no really good buff spells.
Favored Foe is meant to be used by 2 different types of Ranger. The first is the Two Weapon Fighting Ranger. That requires your bonus action to attack. So, having to juggle Hunter's Mark with TWF is a pain. The second is a Ranger of the following three subclasses: Horizon Walker, Monster Slayer, and Beast Master (excluding pre level 7 old beast master). Those 3 subclasses have their bonus action occupied by a subclass feature. The Monster Slayer technically can use the Slayer's Prey bonus Action feature once and the feature remains on the target. You can designate new targets but every time you do, it costs a bonus action. This is identical to Hunter's Mark. So, while it doesn't preclude Hunter's Mark, juggling the bonus actions of the Monster Slayer and Hunter's Mark reduces dpr just like two weapon fighting does. Long story short, Favored Foe works better than Hunter's Mark for those 3 subclasses.
while the above is true, for the non-beastmaster, using those bonus action abilities + favored foe become inferior once you get extra attack. the gap widens if you factor burst attack options like action surge, crusher+brace, etc. the abilities of those 2 classes are really redundant with hunter's mark and shouldn't be used as long as you have spell slots or only for subsequent rounds. personally, i only find myself using favored foe on the beastmaster and the swarmkeeper (since they tend to be multiclassed casters more often than martials)
@@TheRobversion1 You might be right about certain multiclass combinations and Favored Foe (FF). That is something you have to plan right from the start of your character. Excluding those multiclass optimizations, though, it's better to go FF with Horizon Walker and Monster Slayer. Favored Foe increases to 1d6 at level 6. At Ranger lvl 6, FF + Slayer's Prey is 1d6 + 1d6 same as Hunter's Mark. And Slayer's Prey duration is until you finish your next short or long rest and you can just reactivate it without expending spell slots. Hunter's Mark is 1 hour and costs a spell slot. In addition, you don't lose out on damage with FF or SP if you miss one of your 2 attacks. Both those features work on the first time you hit on your turn. If you miss with Hunter's mark, you lose the 1d6 damage. Same with Planar Warrior - works on first time you hit. For Horizon Walker, it's FF + Planar Warrior which is 1d6 + 1d8 at lvl 6. FF also increases to 1d8 at 14th level and Horizon Walker's Planar Warrior increases to 2d8 at lvl 11. Your damage gets turned into force damage with Planar Warrior too, avoiding the possibility of resistance. Truthfully that is rare since you should have a magic weapon. But Barbarians are a thing.
@@fortunatus1 While those are true, again most rangers wont go vanilla for optimization. Multiclass will happen. Even if you go straight class the moment you pick up feats (polearm master, crossbow expert), hunter mark becomes superior again by round 2. Not saying favored foe doesnt have their uses but as your attacks go up (and it should since you're a martial not using booming blade) its value and the value of ms/hw abilities depreciate. I do agree though in an unoptimized no feats straight class, favored foe does indeed work with those abilities better than hunters mark. Its just that that is a very low bar and in an optimization discussion, sounds like a very far fetched build.
@@TheRobversion1 They don't have to go vanilla. I never said no feats. But if the subclasses are using the features, then they're dropping certain build options by default. No polearm master. No crossbow expert. Brace and riposte require melee weapons and will likely be ignored as well. For optimizing these subclasses while using the BA features, you're almost certainly going archery / longbow / Sharpshooter. EDIT: And possibly taking a few levels of fighter for action surge. Battle Master is a possibility too but with different maneuvers tho it might be better to go a different route. But why would you play those subclasses and then ignore the features? You're better off playing a different subclass altogether.
@@fortunatus1 Yeah and see thats where my point comes in, once you get action surge, use maneuvers, martial adept for the times you are using them those hw/ms + ff becomes suboptimal again. Even if i wanted to play a straight archer type with no multiclass and just feats, i pick up quick toss and we're back to hunter's mark as the superior option by round 2. Anyway you dice it really, as long as you try to increase dmg (which is usually by adding more attacks), hunter's mark comes ahead. This is also why those 2 subclasses are at the bottom of the ranger subclasses (along with hunter though i'd put hunter ahead of those 2 as they can add dmg without costing actions). I guess you could say what i'm trying to say is its not optimal to play those subclasses and use those abilities. Much like the soul knife trying to use psychic blades. They are better off not using those abilities and players are better off picking a better ranger subclass if they want to. Its not really a knock on favored foe as its still useful to have in your backpocket for a variety of situations: 1. Playing a caster type like a beastmaster or swarmkeeper 2. You wanted to use a different bonus action concen option for some other reason like upcasted searing smite/hail of thorns/lightning arrow/zephyr strike and wanted to have a dmg boost option still for your 2nd attack. 3. You've run out of 1st level spell slots
Another fix for a non-summoned animal companion or the Drake warden. Allow them to take companion fighter sidekick levels, not super broken but gives them a little something in addition to their base abilities from the class.
This makes me think of amassing a beastial army. How would you optimize a pokemon master character? Not just being able to summon the most and best beasts for a short time, but also having the most around consistently. Familiar, Companion, Find Steed... I would be delighted if you would cover us in animals. Thank you!
I'd like to see you optimize a Psionic themed character. Which class(es) would you go with? Divination Wizard seems like a no-brainer but there are so many more new Psionic themed subclasses now. Not sure which would be the most effective/powerful.
I would love to see an Adventures League legal character that is the master of thrown weapons. I have long pictured a Halfling or Gnome build like the Columbian from Desperade slinging knives/dagger with deadly precision.
@@DnDDeepDive It seems at first glance, to get the best out of them you would need to use darts since daggers do not get the benifit from sniper or the ranged weapon style if you could fit it in along with the new thrown weapon style.
I wonder if Zephyr strike would apply with spell share. Would that mean the ranger and primal companion would both not provoke opportunity attacks, I wonder.
If you did this build is melee, wouldn't you have advantage on every attack assuming you're table uses flanking rules (which in my experience, everyone does)
Can you do a video of the difference in dps between dual-wielding and two-handed dps? Does dual-wielding work better with certain classes? How can you make dual-wielding viable if it’s not?
They scaled the primal beast attack to your spell attack but also gave the fighting style that gives Druid cantrips BUT hunter's mark only triggers on weapon attacks
@@TheRobversion1 I wasn't talking about a specific build. It was more that the new feature doesn't work well with the ranger's most iconic spell at lower levels
