Beast Master Extended Features
| Level | Features | Spells | Maneuvers Known | Bond Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd | Beastmaster Magic, Basic Bond | druidcraft, beast bond | 2 | 2 |
| 5th | — | beast sense, enlarge/reduce | 2 | 3 |
| 7th | Veil-Piercing Claws, Strong Bond | — | 4 | 4 |
| 9th | — | feign death, haste | 4 | 5 |
| 11th | Bestial Fury, Exceptional Bond | — | 6 | 6 |
| 13th | — | death ward, dominate beast | 6 | 7 |
| 15th | Spell Sharing, Transcendent Bond | — | 8 | 8 |
| 17th | — | awaken, commune with nature | 8 | 9 |
| 19th | — | — | 8 | 10 |
Beast Master Extended
The Beast Master Extended is a re-tooling of the D&D 5e PHB Ranger subclass, inspired & heavily influenced by the UA Revised Ranger and Dael Kingsmill's Beast Master Redux. In modifying and expanding the changes these made to the original subclass, my goal is to offer a Beast Master with new options and steadier progression -- in both mechanical and role-playing aspects of the Ranger's relationship with their companion.
Ranger's Companion
At 3rd level, you learn to use your knowledge and kinship with the natural world to create a powerful bond with a creature. Your chosen beast must have a CR lower than your Ranger level. How you go about obtainting your companion is up to you and your DM, but afterward your animal companion joins your service and gains all the benefits of your Companion’s Bond ability. You can have only one animal companion at a time. The creature uses its ordinary stat block except for the following:
- Add your proficiency modifier to its attack rolls and any saving throws and skills in which it is proficient, in place of its own.
- Its hit point maximum at this level is equal to its ordinary hit point maximum OR four times your ranger level, whichever is higher.
- The beast does not have Multiattack.
As you level, your companion will grow alongside you. In addition to rolling your own hit point increases when leveling, roll increases for your animal companion using the hit dice listed on the creature’s ordinary stat block. When you gain ability score improvements at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th levels, your animal companion may increase any one of its physical ability scores by 1.
Becoming Beast Friends
Raise it, best it...if all else fails, just ply it with treats and ear skritches until it loves you. It's up to you!
Beast Master Magic
Starting at 3rd level, you learn an additional spell when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown in the Beast Master Spells table. The spell counts as a Ranger spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of Ranger spells you know.
Veil-Piercing Claws
Starting at 7th level, your animal companion has seen enough combat with you -- especially magical combat -- to have a basic grasp of how to fight creatures beyond what it had previously encountered in the natural world. While the beast and its physical features remain mundane, its attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Bestial Fury
Starting at 11th level, your animal companion now fights with a ferocity it would normally reserve for defending a member of its own family. When you command your beast companion to take the Attack action, the beast can make two attacks, or it can take the Multiattack action if it has that action.
Spell Sharing
Starting at 15th level, you and your animal companion operate so much as one entity that your self-targeted magic bleeds between you over short distances. When you cast a spell targeting yourself, you can also choose to affect your companion with the spell at no additional spell slot cost if the beast is within 30 feet of you.
Companion’s Bond
The beast obeys your commands as best it can with the skills it possesses. In combat the beast acts during your turn to follow any commands you give it, and may move up to its full movement for free as part of fulfilling a command. You may spend your bonus action and the beast’s reaction to verbally command the beast to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage, Dodge or, if appropriate, Hide or Help action; or, to spend Bond Points to perform a Bond Maneuver (unless cost otherwise specified by the Maneuver.) Once your beast has begun following a command, it will continue to pursue that course of action until instructed otherwise. For example, if you have commanded your beast companion to attack a specific target, it will continue attacking that target each turn thereafter without the necessity of you using your action to command it. You will, however, need to command it to target a new enemy if the one it was targeting falls.
If you are incapacitated or absent, your companion acts autonomously according to the Bond level you have attained together. If the beast has a reaction available, it will make attacks of opportunity as a creature normally would. When using your Natural Explorer feature, you and your animal companion can both move stealthily at a normal pace.
If your animal companion is ever slain and you are unable to bring it back via magical means (such as revivify, resurrection, or true resurrection) the magical bond you share allows you to return it to life - albeit at great cost. With a captured wild creature of the same species as your slain companion and 8 hours spent in a trance-like state, you call forth your companion’s spirit and use your magic to house it in the captured beast's body. The spirit of the captured creature ceases to exist, and the transfer is traumatic for your companion -- they return to life in the new body at one Bond level lower than the level they had attained before death, and must train intensively with you to regain the lost kinship (see Retraining Your Companion.) Additionally, you sacrifice a part of your life force -- roll 1d10 + your Constitution modifier and subtract this total from your maximum Hit Points, and remove one Hit Die from your pool. This effect lasts until you have helped your companion regain your former Bond Level. You can return an animal companion to life in this manner even if you do not possess any part of its body. If you use this ability to return a former animal companion to life using the body of a current animal companion… well, that's fucked up, and you should feel bad.
Bond Maneuvers
Beginning at 3rd level, the time and training spent with your beast is represented by a pool of Bond Points equal to half your ranger level rounded up. These points replenish after a short or long rest. Upon attaining each Bond Level, your beast gains access to the Maneuvers on that Bond Level's Maneuver list, and can memorize 2 additional Maneuvers from that Level and those below. These can also be exchanged for another Maneuver with an investment of training time (see the Retraining Your Companion section for details.) If a maneuvre that can be extended is interrupted, its cost must be paid again to resume the maneuver. Your DM has final say on whether a Bond Maneuver is available to your specific beast or against a specific enemy.
Bond Levels
Basic Bond
Starting at 3rd level, your animal companion submits to you and obeys your commands; however, it does not necessarily respect or trust you yet, and as such is not considered fully tamed. You may need to lead the beast while traveling with it, or tie it at night to keep it from running away. Should you fall unconscious, it is not yet loyal enough to attempt to protect you -- it will fight for its own life, but only to the point necessary to disengage from combat and flee. Your companion may be trained to perform Bond Maneuvers from the Basic Bond Maneuvers list, and has the capacity to remember 2 Maneuvers total.
Strong Bond
Starting at 7th level, your animal companion is beginning to respect and trust you, and it is considered tamed. It obeys your commands, and does not need to be contained or restrained in order to stay by your side, even when you are asleep, incapacitated or unconscious. Should you fall unconscious, it is now loyal enough to be protective of you, but only to a point -- it will defend you, but it will not give its life to save you. Your companion may now be trained to perform Bond Maneuvers from the Strong Bond Maneuvers list, and has the capacity to remember 4 Maneuvers total.
Exceptional Bond
Starting at 11th level, your animal companion now respects and trusts you fully, and not only obeys your commands but may begin to act on its own (when not already acting on a command from you) in order to help, please or impress you. It now sees you as it would a member of its own pack, flock, herd, etc., and as such should you fall unconscious, it will fight more fiercely to protect you -- up to and including giving its life to save yours. Your companion may now be trained to perform Bond Maneuvers from the Exceptional Bond Maneuvers list, and has the capacity to remember 6 Maneuvers total.
Transcendent Bond
Starting at 15th level, your animal companion becomes nearly an extension of yourself -- you harbor a deep love and respect for each other, would die to protect the other, and operate almost more as a unit than as separate creatures. You communicate on such a near-telepathic level that you no longer need to issue it verbal commands as long as it can see you -- your body language is enough for it to read your intent and act accordingly. Should you fall unconscious, once per day your companion may use an action to draw on its devotion to you, licking your wounds or comforting you as best it can, and returning you to consciousness with 1 Hit Point. Your companion may now be trained to perform Bond Maneuvers from the Transcendent Bond Maneuvers list, and has the capacity to remember 8 Maneuvers total.
Bond Maneuver Save DC
Retraining your Companion
Several scenarios could necessitate retraining an animal companion: starting from square one with a new companion after the first beast's death or dismissal, the loss of a Bond Level upon bringing a slain companion back via the previously described ritual, or even merely wanting to exchange one already-trained Bond Maneuver for another.
In all of the aforementioned scenarios, as long as enough time is dedicated to the endeavor (as seen in the Retraining Time table) either all at once or broken up over many in-game days, common sense and your DM's discretion are the only rules to determine what activities with your animal companion constitute training.
Retraining a Maneuver is a simple matter of repeated practice, but retraining a Bond Level is more complex and therefore more open to interpretation.
A Note to DMs: RP over Rules
It's by design that I've left certain aspects of this subclass mechanically vague; namely, the obtaining, training and retraining of the chosen beast companion. First and foremost, I think that the more freedom a player and a DM have in working out the context and specifics of choosing, taming, training & retraining a companion, the better chance there is that the player will organically develop an attachment to the beast that goes beyond its mechanical usefulness. Does your Triton player want to attempt to tame a shark to accompany her underwater? Let them give it a try. Do they want to steal a giant crocodile egg from its nest and attempt to hatch it themselves? Their success can depend on how well they research the species and their ingenuity in caring for the egg. Did your player mistreat his beast, forget it and leave it behind, or otherwise betray its loyalty to him? Perhaps impose a consequence like the loss of a Bond level until the player finds a way to earn back the animal's trust in-character. Did your player distinguish themselves with a particularly inspired use of a Maneuver or a good RP moment? Perhaps reward it with a new ability or bonus to their companion. Try to say "Yes, and..." or "Yes, but..." instead of "No," remember Rule Zero, and have fun!
Bond Level Retraining Examples
-
Retrain Basic Bond. Spend 6 hours one-on-one with the beast, speaking softly to it and tossing food closer and closer until it feels safe enough to eat from your hand.
-
Retrain Strong Bond. Spend 12 hours hunting alone with the beast, sharing your kills equally with it and protecting each other from threats until it begins to trust you and know it can rely on you, and you on it.
-
Retrain Exceptional Bond. Spend 24 hours living among the beast's pack, flock, herd or kind in general; sleep where they sleep, eat what they eat, share in their hunts and social behaviours, even help protect their home should the need arise. Be as loyal as a member of its own family, and earn its loyalty in return.
-
Retrain Transcendent Bond. Spend 48 hours in silent seclusion with the beast, focusing only on each other, learning and memorizing the other's presence, body language, smallest sounds, and barely-perceptible reactions. Use this knowledge to practice Maneuvers nonverbally, until you can communicate, move and fight in tandem as fluidly as one entity acting alone.
Retraining Time
| Bond Level | Retrain a Level | Retrain a Maneuver |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Bond | 6 hours | 2 hours |
| Strong Bond | 12 hours | 4 hours |
| Exceptional Bond | 24 hours | 6 hours |
| Transcendent Bond | 48 hours | 8 hours |
BOND I
Basic Maneuvers
Ankle Biter
1 Bond Point
Your animal companion harries an enemy creature at close range, obstructing its movement by making itself a nuisance. After marking a target by hitting it with a weapon attack, use your bonus action and your beast's reaction to command your beast to enter melee range and snap at the target's means of locomotion. This causes the target to make any attack rolls with disadvantage, and move as if affected by difficult terrain. You may spend your beast's reaction to continue this maneuvre on subsequent turns, but the maneuver ends if your animal companion takes damage from the target.
Call of the Wild
1 Bond Point
Your animal companion gets dangerously close to an enemy target before releasing a deafening animalistic noise. After marking a target by hitting it with a weapon attack, use your bonus action and your beast's reaction to command your beast to enter melee range and deafen the target with a cry. The target must make a CON saving throw or take 1d6 thunder damage and be deafened for that many rounds.
Fetch
1 Bond Point
You've taught your companion the oldest trick there is. Using your bonus action and your beast's reaction, you command your beast to carry an item, weighing no more than is reasonable, from one place to another. It may retrieve the item during movement, but the total distance travelled must not exceed the beast’s movement speed. You may spend your beast’s reaction to continue this maneuver on subsequent turns.
Instinctive Coordination
1 Bond Point
You and your beast gang up on an enemy to throw them off balance and leave them in the dirt. You may use your bonus action and your beast’s reaction to coordinate an attack against a target creature. When you hit a creature of size Large or smaller with an attack, your beast enters melee range and strikes them simultaneously. The creature must succeed on a STR saving throw or be knocked prone.
Threat Display
1 Bond Point
Your animal companion taps into their bestial ferocity to intimidate a foe.Using your bonus action and your beast’s reaction, you command your companion to move within 10ft of an enemy creature and frighten them. The target must make a WIS saving throw or become frightened of your animal companion until the end of your next turn. If a target succeeds on their save, they cannot be frightened by your animal companion for 24 hours.
Play Dead
1 Bond Point
You've trained your beast to take a fall. When your animal companion takes damage, you can use your and your beast’s reactions to have your companion play dead. So long as your beast doesn’t move before the end of your next turn, the first attack it makes is made with advantage. You can use your bonus action to extend the duration of your beast's fake demise.
Ravage
1 Bond Point
Your animal companion rips into an enemy with teeth or claws, aiming to cause trauma and bleeding. After marking a target by hitting it with a weapon attack, use your bonus action and your beast's reaction to command your beast to enter melee range and ravage the target. On a successful hit, the target must make a CON save or take 1d4 + your beast's STR modifier per round for 1d6 rounds. If the target has an intelligence score greater than 6, on subsequent turns they may attempt to stop the bleeding by spending their action to make a new save. On a success, the bleed damage ends.
Tag Team
1 Bond Point
Your animal companion and yourself have learned to work as a duo, attacking in tandem to give each other openings. While your beast companion is within melee range of a creature, you may use your bonus action and your beast’s reaction. You command your beast to draw the target’s full attention for a time, conveying advantage on your next attack against that creature this round.
BOND II
Strong Maneuvers
Death Grip
2 Bond Points
Your animal companion latches onto an enemy creature within melee range and does everything within its power to hold them in place. You may use your bonus action and your beast’s reaction to have your beast attempt to grapple a creature of size Large or smaller. Your beast makes a STR check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. If your beast’s check succeeds, the target is considered grappled and takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage. You may spend your beast’s action to continue this manoeuvre on subsequent turns if the target hasn't broken free. The target takes an additional 1d6 bludgeoning damage every turn they remain grappled.
Disarming Strike
2 Bond Points
Your animal companion snatches at an enemy’s item attempting to knock or pull it from their grip. After hitting a creature with an attack, you may use your bonus action and your beast’s reaction to command your companion to target an item that enemy is holding. The target creature must make a STR saving throw. On a failed save the creature is disarmed of the object and you may spend an additional Bond Point to have your beast retain hold of the item, and/or move the item elsewhere using Fetch.
Go for the Bits
2 Bond Points
Your animal companion makes a targeted attack on an enemy's nether regions, if it has any, sacrificing lasting damage for momentary incapacitation. After marking a target by hitting a creature with a weapon attack, you may use your bonus action and your beast's reaction to command your beast companion to attempt to temporarily disable the target. The creature makes a DEX saving throw and on a failure is knocked prone and incapacitated for 1d4 rounds, rolling on the ground in pain. Any creature wearing heavy armor and/or lacking accessible genitalia is unaffected.
Predatory Ambush
2 Bond Points
Your companion moves unnoticed around the battlefield waiting for your signal to attack. After you hit a creature with a weapon attack, if your animal is hidden, you may use your bonus action and your beast’s reaction to command your beast to make an opportunistic strike against the same target. Your beast has advantage on its attack roll and, on a hit, adds 3d6 sneak attack damage to its damage roll.
Territorial Defense
2 Bond Points
Your animal companion weaves through the battlefield around you, staying close and lashing out at any unfriendly creature that approaches. Using your bonus action and your beast’s reaction, you command your companion to keep guard in a 20ft radius zone around you. Until the beginning of your next turn your animal companion will protect that zone, allowing it to make unlimited attacks of oppportunity against enemies passing through the area. You may spend your bonus action and your beast’s action to continue this maneuvre on subsequent turns.
Trample
2 Bond Points
Your animal companion rushes to defend you against attackers. After taking damage from an enemy creature you may use yours and your beast’s reactions, signaling your companion to charge at your attacker. So long as the target is within movement range of your beast, a size equal to or smaller than that of your beast, and your beast runs at least 20ft straight towards them, the target is pushed 5ft. The target must make a DEX saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is successfully knocked prone, your companion may also make a single standard attack against the creature with its natural weapon.
BOND III
Exceptional Maneuvers
Go for the Eyes
3 Bond Points
Your animal companion makes a targeted attack on an enemy’s eyes, sacrificing damage for lasting impact. After marking a target by hitting a creature with a weapon attack, you may use your bonus action and your beast’s reaction to command your beast companion to attempt to blind the target. The creature makes a CON saving throw and on a failure is blinded for 1 Round. If the target has fewer than 100 hit points when it fails the save, it is blinded permanently.
Lick Wounds
3 Bond Points
You and your companion know when to pull back from the fray, catch your breath and regroup. After using your action to disengage, you may use your bonus action and your beast’s reaction to disengage as well. Your beast may move up to its movement speed, then both you and your beast companion may spend up to two hit dice each, both of you regaining hit points equal to the combined total.
Stampede
3 Bond Points
Your companion hurtles through the battlefield, unable to be stopped. When using your bonus action to have your animal companion Dash, you may also use your beast's reaction to command your companion to form a one beast stampede. For the Dash portion of its movement, any creatures in your beast’s path must make a DEX saving throw or take 1d6 bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. Your companion does not trigger attacks of opportunity while stampeding in this way.
Tandem Guard
3 Bond Points
You and your beast companion assume a tight formation, watching each other’s backs and increasing each other's defences. If you are within your beast’s movement range, you may use your bonus action and your beast’s reaction, moving your beast to within 5ft of you. Until the beginning of your next turn all attacks against you or your animal companion are made at disadvantage. You may spend your bonus action and your beast’s action to continue this maneuvre on subsequent turns.
Lesser Wild Mount
3 Bond Points
Your beast has grown in strength and discipline under your guidance and can carry you in combat as a mount for a short time. When within 5ft of your companion you may use your bonus action and your beast’s reaction; using 5ft of movement, you mount your companion and the beast will carry you bareback for a number of rounds equal to its CON modifier. For every additional round after this that you remain mounted, your beast will take a level of exhaustion. During this time, you gain the benefit of your beast’s movement speed, advantage on melee attacks against any creature of Medium size or smaller, and your ranged attacks ignore half cover. You may dismount as a bonus action.
BOND IV
Transcendent Maneuvers
Ancestral Memory
4 Bond Points
Your animal companion draws on the ancestral memories of its species to protect you from harm and deter your attackers. After taking damage from an enemy in melee range, you may use your reaction and your beast's reaction to cause your beast to summon the spirits of their ancestors. You are ringed in spectral forms of members of your beast's species to a distance of 15ft for a number of rounds equal to 1d6 + your Wisdom modifier. Any enemy's speed is halved in the area, and when the creature enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a WIS save. On a failed save, the creature takes 3d8 psychic damage; on a success, the creature takes half as much damage.
Go for the Throat
4 Bond Points
Your animal companion makes a targeted attack on an enemy's weakest point, making a reckless attack for a chance at dealing massive damage. After marking a target by hitting a creature with a weapon attack, you may use your bonus action and your beast's reaction to command your beast companion to attempt to tear the target's throat out. Your beast makes this attack at disadvantage, but if it hits, it is automatically a critical hit. Additionally, if the target has fewer than 30 hit points after taking this damage, it must make a CON save or instantly be reduced to zero hit points and begin bleeding out.
Greater Wild Mount
4 Bond Points
Your beast has grown even further in strength and discipline under your guidance and can carry you as a mount indefinitely for the day, both in and out of combat. When within 5ft of your companion you may use your bonus action and your beast’s reaction; using 5ft of movement, you mount your companion and the beast will carry you bareback until you dismount, are unseated, or either of you is incapacitated or falls unconscious. During this time, you gain the benefit of your beast’s movement speed, advantage on melee attacks against any creature of Medium size or smaller, and your ranged attacks ignore three-quarters cover. You may dismount as a bonus action.
Shake it Off
4 Bond Points
Your animal companion makes an attack against you, attempting to break any mind-affecting conditions magically imposed on you by an enemy. After being magically affected by the Charmed, Frightened, Incapacitated, Paralyzed, Stunned or Unconscious conditions (i.e. from a Sleep spell, etc.) you may use yours and your beast's reactions to have your beast companion attack you at advantage with its natural weapon. On a hit, roll d20 + the damage dealt to you by your beast, and if this number exceeds the Spell Save DC of the spell's caster, the condition ends.
Stealing: a DM's
Sincerest Form
of Flattery
I developed this Frankenstein-esque mashup of the UA Revised Ranger Beast Conclave, Dael Kingsmill's Beast Master Redux, and my own additions because I have a Beastmaster Ranger player in the game I DM who just hit level 3.
She's an excited first time D&D player, and I want her to be able to play a subclass that feels useful, feels powerful, and presents lots of opportunities for flavorful choices and fun RP.
If she enjoys playing it, that's all I need — but I hope it's useful for other people too!
Cover Art: Luke Mancini
This is my first public homebrew attempt, so please feel free to leave me feedback if you have constructive critiques or suggestions! Also, you can check out my website if, for some reason, you want to see my art — I'm even open for commissions sometimes! Thanks ~Cryptide
Credits & Thanks
Credit to the Wizards of the Coast team for regularly reimagining their product and making UA content for us picky bastards who can't play a class without customizing something!
A big thank you to Dael Kingsmill for both her YouTube D&D thoughts and the great homebrew documents based on them, go watch her stuff and throw money at her on Patreon!
My Terrible Rules for Animal Companions
Art Credits
Huntmaster by Luke Mancini
Fitz and Nighteyes by Michelle Tolo
The Hunters by Ollie Cuthbertson
Half Elf with Lynx by Aurore Folny
Special Thanks
Thanks to my brainstorming buddies Asa, Christina and Scott for the help fleshing out ideas (and especially to Asa for putting up with me not shutting up about rangers for well over a week, you're a champ <3)