

If I ever play a BM Ranger from low level in a real campaign, I will either use the revised Ranger, or work out a homebrew version that mirrors the Battlesmith artificer. Like why not just model it after the damn steel defender for the artificer? And if not that, give it more HP or easier action economy than the steel defender. And I still have to wait until a long rest to get him back if he falls. I also am not any better at healing it between fights than I am at healing anyone else. Sometimes it’s useful to have it attack in place of one of my attacks, especially from level 11 on, since it then can do 2 attacks for one of mine, but that still doesn’t allow me to give any other commands using one of my attacks.Īnd I can’t heal it, other than taking healing spells which my only reason to take is for the beast. Useful as a mount, because it’s independent but does what I want, has good saves, and can take the Dodge action without me commanding it. The fox still almost died twice, and made maybe 3 attacks. My DM has lore that the giant foxes of the forest I’m from have the ability to make themselves and a bonded companion nearly invisible (pass without trace, targeting only the two). I chose the beast of the land, flavored as a giant Fox. I was not a weak character, by any means. We each had 3 magic items, and I grabbed +1 Half Plate, corpse slayer musket, and a homebrew mithral longsword (2d6 extra crit damage, finesse). rolled hot dice had me at 100hp, rather than the static 84. We rolled stats so I had a 30 Dex, 14 Str, 16 con, 16 Wis. I played a Forest Gnome Beast Master Ranger using Primal Companion with a musket, the Gunner feat, Skulker, and level 1 bonus feat of Squat Nimbleness. So this weekend my friend ran a level 10 “1-shot” in his homebrew setting loosely inspired by Exandria.
