Hunter VS Beast Master

[Malus]

Sell me on either.

I do not use stealth cheese.

Thanks for feed back.

[jonnin]

Hunter gives you colossus slayer which is an extra damage die per turn. Beast gives you a pet who is extra hit points and an attack, but they almost always miss whereas your attacks should land more often. But a pet also puts enemy in threatened for rogue backstabs.

you said no cheese but pet gives you a cheese using vampire weapons (gnoll blue drop) to heal the party by playing whak-a-pet.

The pet is much more flexible. The hunter is higher dps most of the time. Both are solid.

you can scout with pets, start fights with them, set off traps/bombs/ etc, and so on. They can be resummoned to heal them after setting off a bomb. Just the ability to pull enemy back and start fights is pretty powerful.

[Jon Snow]

Beast Master will allow you to summon, at will, the ugliest little fuzzy wuzzy wolf you've likely ever seen. Clearly, the best choice is Beast Master. Mind you, animal companions and familiars miss more often than not. But you can also summon a bear with a roar that has a chance of goading enemies to face it. A spider too, if you are either playing a Drow or wish for a rather over powered spider with at will web and both the best armor class and hit points of any companion. The spiders hit points are so large that the difference between it and the bear is something like thirteen points, if I remember correctly. Its hilariously imbalanced.

Or you could pick hunter and not have a loyal companion you would totally not tell to suicide traps. After all, who else are you going to trust? The gith? The pale elf that tries immediately backstab you upon first meet? The evil cleric with a resting scowl and a desire for sacrificing children to snakes. Or maybe the demon lover? The arrogant college brat? No, its always best to have a best friend who will never judge your every move, at least not with mechanical modifiers that show up on screen.

[Jon Snow]

On a side note, I would really like for them to make the companion permanent and not despawn when resting, rather just refresh their hit points like the rest of the party. It would be nice to have this for familiars as well.

[DaMeme]

Having reached level 4 with both Beast Master and Hunter, I'd define them as follows:

Beast Master has a great deal more flexibility as the pet can always be resummoned so use it to Scout, trigger traps, HP sink, etc. The Large Spider can Web anything ever turn, and then you can set it on fire in a variety of different ways. Beast Master is enjoyable, but a lot of micromanaging.

Hunter is a DPS monster. Go two weapon fighting, colossus slayer, and use Hunters Mark + Jump. You can carry the team in all combats as Jump lasts for 10 rounds and you'll be so friggin mobile, it's silly. You'll be doing Weapon Damage + Str + 1d6 Piercing from Hunters Mark + 1d8 from Colossus Slayer, twice per turn. If you use the Flail that heals 1d6 when it damages, you'll be well nigh unstoppable. Also, go Ranger Knight for Heavy Armor and Wasteland Fire Résistance as that really helps your tanking.

Overall, I have enjoyed Hunter more as jumping around the battlefield is just silly fun to me. :)

[Marcos_DS]

Well for hunter: Colosssus Slayer is only once per turn, so basically all things equal you get extra 1d8 damage/turn (if target is damaged, but thats mostly a given on 2nd attack).

With hunter you get a companion which can be resummoned however much you want. It only deals damage about every other turn unless you flank, use bless etc. to improve its chances. But its a free damage sponge, distraction, helps you explore or takes trap damage etc. Also, there are some pretty decent procs on hit, like prone cnance for wolf. Or unique abilities like web at will (!!!) for the spider. Pretty awesome for a ranged ranger, or if you want to divide&conquer, or web&burn.

[ArialnaSong]

Also, due to how the System handles Summoned Creatures (which the Beast Master's Pet counts as), you can 'call on it', to try to get the newly summoned entity to roll another perception check, if your whole party has already failed it...

I've got nothing to say that others haven't said already... so I just decided to mention this 'Gimmick'...

[Aldain]

Beast Master is less innately powerful, but currently can spawn a Giant Spider which is insanely overpowered compared to the other pets. The other pets aren't really worth mentioning, they are more an extra check out of combat and an extra action/target at best in combat (except for the aforementioned spider with its 32 HP and 13 AC).

Hunter is more the "I want to hit things harder" class by my reckoning, though there is also an option to hit enemies who are close to each other. Really it is the "Boring but practical" option for Ranger not gonna lie.

So in terms of meta most people will recommend Hunter, but Beast Master can pair well with a Warlock bringing your action total for the party up and making squishy targets for the enemies.

[ArialnaSong]

Considering 'tankier' pets... it is the Giant Spider... or Bear...

Can't discredit the Fluffy Teddy Bear, it's a good way to keep people from getting to you, by having it in the way...

[teksuo]

i prefer hunter since you lose any use of familiar if you pick animal companion. FeelsBad.

rather have the juicy bow hits and still be able to mess with familiar

[Eckoh]

instead of making a new topic of the same thing i am diggin this up.

I am leaning heavy tword hunter mainly due to BM causing issues with the pets and NPCs chasing them around when tryiong to talk to them. Also their ability to hit is terrible