Ranger - Beast Master

[Sai]

Are the companions suppose to be awful?
90% of the time they get stuck on something, I don't notice until its too late, and said companion is not capable of getting into combat with my party & I lol.
Then of course the sheer lack of stats early on, they all get 1-2 shotted by even a Goblin.

Are the companions for Ranger just suppose to be awful until way later? Or is there some method to not make them awful in the early game? Or am I just unfortunately playing a really weak class?

[AsianGirlLover]

Originally posted by Airatome:

Originally posted by AsianGirlLover:

Hunter Ranger multiclassed with Battlemaster Fighter is perfection. Feels amazing on a dex build.

I have a Goliath Battlemaster Two Weapon Fighting specialist I got to play with for a while but never considered multiclassing it into anything like Hunter. Seemed like a downgrade considering I'd have to give up all the ASI/Feat allotments and additional extra attacks the Fighter has.

Being able to empty several Manuevers into a flurry of attacks IS pretty darn fulfilling.

True, but that’s what Gale’s for: Haste for days

[Verde]

WotR handled Animal Companions much better, you could even ride them. BG3's Animal Companions are a joke, both mechanically and balance-wise.

[jofu]

Originally posted by echoes222:

stuck on something? Never ever had this problem. Played beast master both in EA and full release.

Well, they don't get stuck for good, they just get 'interested' in some objects on their path. I could always move/jump away from them, the problem is usually the walk you have to take to catch up with the rest of the team.

[Veganleader1]

Originally posted by Helifax:

Originally posted by Veganleader1:

I played a beastmaster ranger on my last run through early access, made it to level 5 and cleared everything but the hag and the Githyanki War Patrol. The summons were basically trash. The ranger itself did well but the pets just had low usability because they had both low health pools paired with practically no armor. I almost never summoned my pets because they died in the first round or 2 of combat. By the end I had all but forgotten I was playing a BM ranger because I never used them and when I did the value was almost non-existent.

I know they get stronger as the game progresses, and they can be buffed as well, but they were just so weak at that level that it was a waste of spells to do so. At that time it was maybe just an early distraction to get some small amount of leverage, but I ended up not using them, and stealth sniping with Astarion a lot.

I just noticed a similar trend looking at the animal forms for the Druid while leveling up Halsin for the first time, 1 straight to 9. The animal wild shapes all look super weak as well. The bear which is supposed to be tanky has a default AC of like 12 or 13 at level 9. You have to apply barkskin to impove it, I was finding, and it still paled in comparison to my 23 AC monk or 21 AC Shadowheart or 21 AC Lae'zel, or 19/20 AC Astarion. It could have gotten a little higher with some gear trading, but imagine how much lower the less tanky wild shape forms would fare.

A true Beast Master Ranger summons their companions BEFORE the fight ;) and positions them for maximum effect (all of them can be crouched/hidden btw). It requires a certain type of play (I think of it as a "rogue" class - from the shadows. And use any tool to keep the enemy far away from the actual ranger - traps, poison, blindness, throw-back arrows etc).
It;s a different type of class, as in half your dps and abilities are WITH your summoned animals vs any other class that can output dmg on their own. I found it harder to learn to play it but once I did.. oh boy :D (also invisibility potions/scrolls/abilities help it a lot, but it depends how you play it).
As for the sharpshooter skill - it is toggle-able - there are moments you don't want it enabled (that extra 10 dmg is worthless if my chance to hit is 45%) It's a skill that you can enable/disable on demand - from passives button in the menu bar. So use it when it makes sense to use it ;)

I actually finished the game 1st time around using this exact class. (I can't remember what I played in EA :)) )

I'm not sure if your post is supposed to be a direct commentary on mine but I somehow feel the desire to respond.

Of course you summon your animal friends before the fight, as the summon skill only works that way. Of course you preposition them and strategically move them around for maximum benefit. I explained that I only played with them through level 5 on EA and at that time they were just super weak. Prepositioning and strategizing goes right out the window the second your summoned friend gets 1 shotted every fight due to no AC or HP. Now depending on your team makeup, maybe there are a couple buffs that might help keep them alive, but to what effect? And at what expense of spell slots?

The rest of your post goes off into directions I never discussed such as the use of the Sharpshooter feat, so I figure you are just recounting your experience to the thread. The point of my post was mostly just to express how absurdly weak the summons were early game and how they didn't fit in at all with my early gameplay, which involved a lot of stealth sniping. As atrocious as they were before the first power boost, I expected more from when they finally leveled up, yet at level 5 my actual character was still 90% of the benefit in the pairing. Spiders with web would be useful sometimes, and the raven with flight and blind came in handy. But the bear 'tank' was getting 1-2 shotted. What is the point of goad with that low of stats?

I think it's an interesting note that the pets were doing 50% of your damage later on.
All things considered, there are a lot of classes that do lower value early in the game. I just thought that the BM pets were so fragile early on that it just didn't seem balanced considering the mechanics of the fights, and not that I simply wasn't engaging with them well.

[Lily]

For low and even later on it depends on what beast you bring, some are tankier than others some are better at different things. The best at low levels is the Spider with its infinite use of web which can slow enemies or even entangle them. In a tactician run this is fantastic since range >>>>>>>>>>>>>> melee, but this is especially true in tactician. So having an infinite source of crowd control as powerful as web is useful for much of the game.

Later on once we get to level 5 the others start to pick up more with the bear able to disarm foes with honey paws. The Wolf can knock enemies prone and the raven can blind.

Why the Beast master sucks in Normal 5e is because in order to have your beast attack you need to sacrifice your own attacks for that to happen. This isn't the case in BG3 as they have their own action economy and it doesn't eat into yours.

I haven't done a full playthrough of a Beastmaster just yet, I played it in early access and I've played it up to level 5, so I don't know how well it holds up at level 12. But From the abilities I've seen it should still be pretty strong.

[Joshjoshajosh]

The problem is Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, which BG3 is based on. Hunter pets are weak and die easily, it's miserable wanting an animal bond in 5e, so they added this frequent resurrection mechanic to BG3, but it's still based on the terrible 5e premise. They need to be MUCH tankier.

[LordOfTheBread]

Worst class / subclass in the game. Ordering yopuir beast around take your action, there are better way to play ranger like dual-class with bard for ewxample.

[Humpenstilzchen]

I enjoy playing ranger beastmaster tbh. The bear for example can be very useful as a distraction or to disarm enemies which can be useful.

I had a good laugh when I disarmed marcus. Not that this is a hard fight but it still helped making it even easier.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3063872550
Blinding enemies with the raven can also be useful.

Sure it might not be the strognest class but I wouldn´t go as far as claiming it is the worst class/subclass in the game.

[GrimgarWolf]

Beastmaster is a really fun archetype, especially now that most minions don't scare NPCs (patch 3?). Unfortunately they're cumbersome because they get stuck on terrain semi-regularly. Also their accuracy when it comes to physical attacks.

I'd probably just stick to the Spider early game and the Raven late game. Constantly spamming Web means you're attacking with advantage against enwebbed targets. Late game Raven automatically drops clouds of Darkness when it lands after Fly (find the ring that makes you immune to blind so you can shoot into the cloud).

Stick to ranged attacks and abuse Spike Growth. Use Hunter's Mark for the extra damage from you and your pet if you don't need it.

You're never gonna be as good as bonking as a Fighter but controlling the battlefield is fun in its own right.

[GrimgarWolf]

Originally posted by Humpenstilzchen:

I enjoy playing ranger beastmaster tbh. The bear for example can be very useful as a distraction or to disarm enemies which can be useful.

Forgot to mention the Bear. Shout out to Honey Paws for always disarming as long as the initial hit connects. Very strong ability for the mid game.