Beast Master themed subclasses for Romanian Ranger
By Dargon Black
These brews are compatible with PHB Ranger but not Revised Ranger (2016).
Levels at which features are gained are adapted for my personal homebrew however, they are balanced enough to work PHB Ranger as well. Enjoy.
Full link to Romanian Ranger is located at: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LNh-YK60RB8UZXdYmDa
Beast Master
(ver 1 for Romanian Ranger)
Animal Companion
At 3rd level you can expend 8 hours of work and the expenditure of a level 1 spell slot, you can create a magical bond with a beast that is no larger than Medium and that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower.
Add your proficiency bonus to the beast’s AC, attack rolls, and damage rolls, as well as to any saving throws and skills it is proficient in. Its hit point maximum equals its normal maximum or seven times your ranger level, whichever is higher.
The companion obeys your commands as best it can. It rolls for initiative like any other creature, but you determine its actions, decisions, attitudes, and so on. If you are incapacitated or absent, your companion acts on its own. Your animal companion has abilities and game statistics determined in part by your level.
Like any creature, the beast can spend Hit Dice during a short rest. If you are incapacitated or absent, the beast acts on its own, focusing on protecting you and itself. It never requires your command to use its reaction, such as when making an opportunity attack. If you don't issue a command, the beast takes the Dodge action.
Whenever you gain the Ability Score Improvement class feature, your companion’s abilities also improve. Your companion can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or it can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, your companion can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature unless its description specifies otherwise.
Additionaly, as a reaction to your animal companion being reduced to 0 hit points or takes damage while at 0 hit points, you can expand 1 spell slot to heal it for 1d6 per spell slot level + your wisdom modifier. You must be within 120 feet of your animal companion to activate and resolve this effect.
Animal Empathy
Upon obtaining this feature you gain an innate ability to communicate with beasts, and they recognize you as a kindred spirit.
Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas to a beast as an action, and can read its basic mood and intent. You learn its emotional state, whether it is affected by magic of any sort, its short-term needs (such as food or safety), and actions you can take (if any) to persuade it to not attack.
You cannot use this ability against a creature that you have attacked within the past 10 minutes.
Coordinated Attack
Beginning at 6th level, you and your animal companion form a more potent fighting team. When your animal companion uses the Attack action and you can see it ,then ,you can use your reaction to make a weapon attack against the creature your animal companion is attacking.
Storm of Claws and Fangs
At 10th level, your companion can use its action to make a melee attack against each creature of its choice within 5 feet of it, with a separate attack roll for each target. In addition, the beast's attacks are now considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Bestial Wrath
At 14th level, whenever an attacker that your companion can see hits it or you with an attack, it can use its reaction to make the Attack action against it.
Beast Master
(ver 2 for Romanian Ranger)
Primal Magic
You gain the Spare the Dying cantrip. For you this cantrip has a range of 120 feet, but can only target your animal companion.
If you gain this cantrip from a different source, you can chose to cast it as a Ranger cantrip for it's improved effects instead of as normal (where normal is defined based on the feature that gave you access to this cantrip).
Ranger's Companion
Choose a beast that is no larger than Medium and that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower. Add your proficiency bonus to the beast’s AC, attack rolls, and damage rolls, as well as to any saving throws and skills it is proficient in. Its hit point maximum equals is seven times your ranger level.
The beast obeys your commands as best as it can. It takes its turn on your initiative, though it doesn’t take an action unless you command it to. On your turn, you can verbally command the beast where to move (no action required by you). You can use your action to verbally command it to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage, Dodge, or Help action. Once you have the Extra Attack feature, you can make one attack yourself and you can command the beast to take an Attack action.
While traveling through your favored terrain with only the beast, you can move stealthily at a normal pace. If the beast dies, you can obtain another one by spending 8 hours magically bonding with another beast that isn’t hostile to you, either the same type of beast as before or a different one.
Like any creature, the beast can spend Hit Dice during a short rest. If you are incapacitated or absent, the beast acts on its own, focusing on protecting you and itself. It never requires your command to use its reaction, such as when making an opportunity attack. If you don't issue a command, the beast takes the Dodge action.
Whenever you gain the Ability Score Improvement class feature, your companion’s abilities also improve. Your companion can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or it can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, your companion can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature unless its description specifies otherwise.
Additionaly, as a reaction to your animal companion being reduced to 0 hit points or takes damage while at 0 hit points, you can expand 1 spell slot to heal it for 1d6 per spell slot level + your wisdom modifier. You must be within 120 feet of your animal companion to activate and resolve this effect.
Exceptional Training
Beginning at 6th level, you can use a bonus action to command the beast to take the Dash, Disengage, or Help action on its turn. In addition, the beast's attacks are now considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Bestial Fury
Starting at 10th level, when you command your beast companion to take the Attack action, the beast can make two attacks, or it can take the Multi-attack action if it has that action.
Primal Bond
Beginning at 14th level, when you cast a spell targeting yourself, you can also affect your beast companion with the spell if the beast is within 120 feet of you.
Beast Master Options
Rating Explained:
Choices marked with E are excellent. It’s hard to go wrong with one of these buddies.
Choices marked with G are good. Maybe not top-tier, but you’ll do well with this choice.
Choices marked with S are situational. It could be good in the right situation, but probably not good. I removed all beasts with a rating lower than Purple from this list.
The following segment is part of an analysis of official material and UA content.
List of Beasts:
Best non combat pets
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Cat - It’s trained in perception and stealth, has keen smell, and can climb fairly fast. Don’t expect much from it on the combat front, though.
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Owl - Less accurate than the hawk, but you’re not taking these companions because they’re combat monsters. It has keen sight and hearing, darkvision, and flyby. The owl is pretty much your best option for a scouting creature in the Player’s Handbook.
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Raven - Ravens are the only beasts right now with mimicry. That’s the reason to have one.
Best of the worst combat pets
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Giant Rats, they honestly don’t offer that much. They have darkvision, pack tactics, and keen smell, but they’re not good trackers and not good fighters.
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Any beast that is not on this list, is not worth your time.
Challenge ⅛
We’re starting to get somewhere decent, but these companions tend to get outclassed by the ¼ CR beasts.
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Mastiff; G Ratting - The mastiff isn’t exactly bad, it’s just that a wolf does what it does but better. If a wolf is off the table, though, you could do worse than having a companion that can knock enemies prone, along with keen hearing and smell. Plus it’s a dog, and some people like dogs.
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Mule; S Ratting - Mules are beasts of burden with sure-footed. They’re also about as close to a horse as you’re going to get, since the horses found in the Player’s Handbook are all size large.
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Poisonous Snake; G Ratting - A Poisonous snake can potentially do a lot of damage, but it all depends on its poison bite. It also has blindsight and a swim speed, so there’s some utility there.
Uncommon pets (dm approval required)
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Blood Hawk; G Ratting - Their attack is a little weak, but they do have keen sight and pack tactics. They’re is the best bird companion that you can get at the moment. Not the best flying animal companion, though, since they lack flyby.
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Flying Snake; G Ratting - It’s a snake, but it can fly! What’s interesting about this beast is that the venom delivered by its bite affects foes with no Constitution save allowed. So it’s better than most of the other poisoners, but still not good against foes that resist poison, since its damage is pitiful without its poison. Flyby and 10-foot blindsense round out the package.
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Giant Crab; E Ratting - Giant Crabs are amphibious and they can grapple up to two foes at once. This can be pretty effective in making dodgy foes stay put. They also have one of the highest AC values of any beast companion along with 30 ft. of blindsight, so that’s a big plus.
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Giant Weasel; S Ratting - They can be half-decent scouts, but their combat stats aren’t really good compared to some of the other companions.
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Pony; S Ratting - The only horse companion you can get. It’s speed is terrible, but it rolls two damage dice for its attacks, if that is something you’re looking for.
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Stirge; G Ratting - It’s a horrid mosquito monster, but if you want one, you can take it. If it hits with an attack, it attaches to the foe it hit and starts automatically dealing damage. The enemy can dislodge it with an action, which means it spent its action not doing anything dangerous.
Challenge ¼
You’re probably going to end up choosing one of these three beasts. Among other things, each of them can knock foes prone on failed a strength saves. This can help melee allies as it will grant them advantage, although ranged allies will face disadvantage.
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Boar; G Ratting - Of the three ¼ beasts in the Player’s Handbook, the Boar is the toughest. It’s the only beast so far with the relentless trait, though the trait is tied to a 7 hit point threshold. It also needs to charge to make the most of its tusk attacks.
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Panther; E Ratting - Probably the most powerful beast companion, combat-wise. This is because it’s the only beast companion right now which gets pounce. It’s sort of situational, but can be pretty deadly in the right circumstances. They also have keen smell.
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Wolf; E Ratting - Wolves are all about advantage. They have pack attack, keen hearing and smell, and every bite attack they make has a chance of knocking an enemy prone, which means advantage for other allies in melee. While the panther is more likely to deal more damage in a single round, wolves have more overall utility.
Uncommon pets (dm approval required)
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Giant Badger; E Ratting - Giant Badgers are the only beast companions thus far that can make a multiattack as one of their actions. This is pretty awesome, as you might suspect, since this means you get 3 attacks at level 5, and 5 attacks at level 11. As far as a pure combat monster, a giant badger is as dangerous as it gets.
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Giant Centipede; E Ratting - The most powerful small companion, without a doubt. Its poison can paralyze foes it drops to 0 hp instead of killing them, which makes giant centipedes a good choice if you’re the kind of Ranger who prefers taking his quarry alive. They also have a decent climb speed and 30-foot blindsight, which is pretty cool.
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Giant Frog; G Ratting - These beasts can eat small enemies, which is vaguely disturbing. Other than that, they can grapple and restrain foes, which makes them a more controlling kind of companion. They’re also fairly mobile, as they have both the amphibious and standing leap.
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Giant Poisonous Snake; E Ratting - If you’re a snake fan, it’s either this or the flying snake. The poison damage only occurs on a failed Constitution save, but it’s pretty decent without the poison damage, so the snake is still an effective combatant even when faced with poison-resistant or -immune enemies. They even have a 10-foot reach for this attack, a benefit that no other beast companion gets. Giant poisonous snakes also have 10-foot blindsight and a swim speed, though those are more bonuses than the main selling point.
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Giant Wolf Spider; E Ratting - Like giant centipedes, Giant Wolf Spiders have a toxic bite that can paralyze foes instead of killing them. Said poison is less potent, but in return these spiders have spider climb, websense, and web walker. You’re choosing between power or mobility here, though do note that it is harder to hide a medium spider than it is to hide a small centipede. They have 10-foot blindsight, darkvision, and a +7 Stealth bonus too.
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Pteranodon; E Ratting - I’m gonna go ahead and call this the best beast companion. First point of order, its a freakin’ dinosaur, and those are always cool. Second, its a medium creature that flies. Enjoy being a halfling archer who rains death from above! And if that doesn’t appeal to you, the Pteranodon has flyby, which means it’s pretty effective at striking enemies and then retreating before they can do anything about it.
Glossary of Beast Abilities
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Amphibious: Amphibious beasts can survive on water and on land, making them versatile if water hazards are an issue you have to deal with (like in a nautical campaign).
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Beast of Burden: Beasts of burden are considered 1 size category larger when determining their carrying capacity. So they can carry a lot of stuff like a beast of… you get the idea.
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Blindsight: Beasts with blindsight don’t need light to perceive their surroundings. Any darkness, magical or not, isn’t going to impede their perception at all.
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Blood Frenzy: These beasts gain advantage on melee attack rolls against foes who have taken damage. Generally reserved for quippers and sharks.
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Burrow: Beasts with a burrow speed can move through the earth. This tends to be slow going at best, though.
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Charge: Beasts with charge deal extra damage if they move at least 20 feet before they make an attack during their turn. The attack also forces the enemy to make a strength saving throw or fall prone.
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Climb: Creatures with a climb speed don’t need to make ability checks to climb.
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Darkvision: This is the same sense that elves and dwarves get in the basic rules.
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Echolocation: Beasts with echolocation use sound waves to feel out their surrounding. Thus, their senses can be impaired if they become deafened.
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Fly: Beasts with a fly speed can move in three dimensions. This can be incredibly useful as you might expect, though beasts who can fly also tend to not be as physically powerful as their more terrestrial counterparts.
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Flyby: Beasts with flyby don’t provoke opportunity attacks when they move by flying. This makes them excellent skirmishers who can attack a foe and then fly out of melee range before they can get hurt.
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Grapple: Some beasts can initiate a grapple as part of their attacks. Rules for grappling can be found in chapter 9 of the basic rules.
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Hold Breath: These creatures can survive in water/out of water (depending on if they’re water breathing or not) for an extended period of time. Not quite as good as amphibious.
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Illumination: These beasts can shed bright light in a 10-foot radius, which becomes dim light for another 10-foot radius. This light can’t be turned off.
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Ink Cloud: The beast can generate a cloud of ink that obscures the area its in. So far, this ability can only be used underwater. It also can only be used once per short or long rest.
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Keen Hearing: This ability grants beasts advantage on Wisdom (perception) checks to hear. Listening to detect hard-to-find enemies or environmental anomalies can be useful.
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Keen Sight: Beasts with keen sight have advantage on Wisdom (perception) checks to see things. Probably the least useful of the Keen sense abilities, but still good overall.
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Keen Smell: These beasts have advantage on Wisdom (perception) checks to smell things. This makes them pretty good trackers and good at pinpointing hidden or invisible enemies.
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Mimicry: Beasts with mimicry can mimic sounds that they’ve heard. If a foe succeeds on an insight check, though, then they know that said sounds aren’t the real deal.
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Multiattack: Beasts with multiattack can make multiple attacks as one action. This means they can deal a lot of damage pretty fast, as you might expect.
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Pack Tactics: Beasts with this ability get advantage on melee attacks against enemies next to one of their allies. As such, they tend to work best if you have a melee-heavy party or you prefer using blades to bows.
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Poison: Some beasts, such as snakes or spiders, can deal extra poison damage when they hit with their attacks. Generally, the enemy has to fail a constitution save or else they resist the poison, which means that they don’t take the extra damage. There are some enemies, like constructs, elementals, or the undead, who are either resistant or immune to poison damage.
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Pounce: If a beast with the pounce attack moves 20 feet before they attack, then the attack can knock a foe prone if said foe fails a strength save. The pouncing beast then gets to make an extra attack as a bonus action. Obviously, beasts with this ability are pretty powerful combatants, though the strength save doesn’t really scale.
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Relentless: Beasts with this trait can survive blows that might otherwise kill them. If the damage is under a threshold (say, 7 hit points) and would reduce the beast to 0 hit points, then the beast is reduced to 1 hit point instead. Unlike other beast abilities, the beast has to take a short or long rest before using this ability again.
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Spider Climb: Beasts with spider climb can climb on walls and ceiling without having to make an ability check of any kind. So it’s basically climb +.
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Standing Leap: Some beasts can jump really well without needing a running start.
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Sure-Footed: Sure-footed beasts have advantage on strength and dexterity saving throws against being knocked prone.
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Swallow: Some beasts can swallow smaller creatures whole. Swallowed creatures are blinded, restrained, and take automatic acid damage every turn.
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Swim: Creatures with a swim speed can move in the water without needing to make an ability check. They also tend to be have either the amphibious or water breathing traits.
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Underwater Camouflage: Beasts with this ability gain advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made underwater.
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Water Breathing: This beast can only live in the water. If it leaves the water, it will die. Generally not good.
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Websense: Generally a spider-only ability, websense allows beasts to detect the location of creatures on a web they’re in contact with.
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Web Walker: Another spider ability that allows them to walk on webs while ignoring any movement penalties they would otherwise take.
Variant Creature Types
Beast of the Air
Small beast, Neutral
- Armor Class 13
- Hit Points equal to the beast's Constitution modifier + your Wisdom modifier + five times your ranger level (the beast has a number of Hit Dice [d6s] equal to your ranger level)
- Speed 10 ft., fly 60 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 6(-2) 16(+3) 13(+1) 8(-1) 14(+2) 11(+0)
- Saving Throws Dex +5, Con +3, Wis +4
- Skills Perception +4, Stealth +5
- Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 14
- Languages understands the languages you speak
Actions
Shred. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6 + 3 slashing damage.
General Ability Description
Flyby. The beast doesn't provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach.
Primal Rebirth. If the beast has died within the last hour, you can use your action to touch it and expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher. The beast returns to life after 1 minute with all its hit points restored.
Ready Companion. As a bonus action, you can command the beast to make its shred attack or to Hide.
Beast of the Earth
Medium beast, Neutral
- Armor Class 12
- Hit Points equal to the beast's Constitution modifier + your Wisdom modifier + five times your ranger level (the beast has a number of Hit Dice [d8s] equal to your ranger level)
- Speed 40 ft., climb or swim 40 ft. (your choice when you bond with the beast)
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14(+2) 14(+2) 15(+2) 8(-1) 14(+2) 11(+0)
- Saving Throws Dex +4, Con +4, Wis +4
- Skills Perception +4, Stealth +4
- Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 14
- Languages understands the languages you speak
Actions
Maul. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6 + 2 slashing damage.
General Ability Description
Charge. If the beast moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a maul attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 1d6 slashing damage. The DC equals your spell save DC. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a Strength saving throw against your spell save DC or be knocked prone.
Primal Rebirth. If the beast has died within the last hour, you can use your action to touch it and expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher. The beast returns to life after 1 minute with all its hit points restored.
Ready Companion. As a bonus action, you can command the beast to make its shred attack or to Hide.
The following segment is homebrewn content.
Animal Companion Features
In Place of an Ability Score Improvement you may select one of the features from this list bellow.
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Primeval Awareness: Your animal companion can focus its awareness through the interconnections of nature to determine if any of your favored enemies lurk nearby. By spending 1 uninterrupted minute in concentration (as if it were concentrating on a spell), it can sense whether any of your favored enemies are present within 5 miles of it. This feature reveals which of your favored enemies are present, their numbers, and the creatures’ general direction and distance (in miles) from it.
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Beast's Defense: While your companion can see you, it has advantage on all saving throws.
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Barrage of Claws and Fangs: Your companion can use its action to make a melee attack against each creature of its choice within 5 feet of it, with a separate attack roll for each target.
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Superior Beast's Defense: Whenever an attacker that your companion can see hits it with an attack, it can use its reaction to halve the attack’s damage against it.
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Feral Senses: Your animal companion gains preternatural senses that helps it fight creatures it can't see. When your animal companion attacks a creature it can't see, it's inability to see it doesn't impose disadvantage on any of it's attack rolls against it. The animal companion is also aware of the location of any invisible creature within 30 feet of you, provided that the creature isn't hidden from you and you aren't blinded or deafened.
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Land's Stride Moving through non-magical difficult terrain costs your animal companion no extra movement. It can also pass through non-magical plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard.