Beastmaster Questions

[tstewt1921]

Hey all,

It's been a bit since I posted a questions. However, I was looking back over the Beastmaster from CAdv and had a couple questions with it.

1."As a beastmaster gains class levels, her animal companion gains Hit Dice and other special abilities just as a druid's animal companion does. Use the beastmaster's class level + 3 to determine the animal companion's special abilities. If a beastmaster already has an animal companion from another class, her beastmaster class levels stack with class levels from all other classes that grant an animal companion. For example, a 5th-level druid/2nd-level beastmaster would be treated as a 10th-level druid for the purpose of improving the statistics of her animal companion (and which alternative animal companions she could select)."

So if I was to go ranger, who doesn't get their animal companion until 4, does it stack as it would above where ranger replaces druid or would it consider it as 5th level ranger/5th level druid?

2. "Other class levels in classes that offer an animal companion don't stack for the purpose of determining the power of a beastmaster's additional animal companions, nor do they allow her to choose additional animal companions from the alternative lists."

For the extra animal companions, do they not get the bonuses that the other animals would get if I keep leveling up or do they stay at the level they come in Beast master level -3, -6, -9 with no way to advance?

3. I know of the way of making this work where your mount is the beastmaster pet and stacking to make a monster pet, however is there a way of doing it with multiple pets and making each of them decent combat wise?

4. If 3 is possible, what are some combination of animals/monsters you would take, I know there are feats that let you choose alternative creatures?

Thanks for any help!

[DEMON]

Hey all,

It's been a bit since I posted a questions. However, I was looking back over the Beastmaster from CAdv and had a couple questions with it.

1."As a beastmaster gains class levels, her animal companion gains Hit Dice and other special abilities just as a druid's animal companion does. Use the beastmaster's class level + 3 to determine the animal companion's special abilities. If a beastmaster already has an animal companion from another class, her beastmaster class levels stack with class levels from all other classes that grant an animal companion. For example, a 5th-level druid/2nd-level beastmaster would be treated as a 10th-level druid for the purpose of improving the statistics of her animal companion (and which alternative animal companions she could select)."

So if I was to go ranger, who doesn't get their animal companion until 4, does it stack as it would above where ranger replaces druid or would it consider it as 5th level ranger/5th level druid?

2. "Other class levels in classes that offer an animal companion don't stack for the purpose of determining the power of a beastmaster's additional animal companions, nor do they allow her to choose additional animal companions from the alternative lists."

For the extra animal companions, do they not get the bonuses that the other animals would get if I keep leveling up or do they stay at the level they come in Beast master level -3, -6, -9 with no way to advance?

3. I know of the way of making this work where your mount is the beastmaster pet and stacking to make a monster pet, however is there a way of doing it with multiple pets and making each of them decent combat wise?

4. If 3 is possible, what are some combination of animals/monsters you would take, I know there are feats that let you choose alternative creatures?

Thanks for any help!

1. Ranger 5 / Beastmaster 5
2. Bmr level -3/6/9, advancing by your Bmr level. You can also advance them via the Natural Bond feat (ask you DM if this feat would only apply to 1 animal companion, or all of them)
3. I was about to suggest Arcane Heirophant's Companion Familiar, but that explicitly allows you to keep 1 animal companion, so presumably you'd lose the other ones.
4. No Beastmaster specific ones (feats that allow different ACs), but there are some options for different ACs in general. I like Cooshee from Elf Ranger 4 sub level.

[RatElemental]

1."As a beastmaster gains class levels, her animal companion gains Hit Dice and other special abilities just as a druid's animal companion does. Use the beastmaster's class level + 3 to determine the animal companion's special abilities. If a beastmaster already has an animal companion from another class, her beastmaster class levels stack with class levels from all other classes that grant an animal companion. For example, a 5th-level druid/2nd-level beastmaster would be treated as a 10th-level druid for the purpose of improving the statistics of her animal companion (and which alternative animal companions she could select)."

So if I was to go ranger, who doesn't get their animal companion until 4, does it stack as it would above where ranger replaces druid or would it consider it as 5th level ranger/5th level druid?

I don't know if I fully understand this question, but you'll probably be entering beastmaster at level 6 anyway so no problem with rangers getting their companion at 4. But you should consider it as whatever ranger level you are, plus whatever beastmaster level you are for calculating your companion's effective druid level. In other words, start with your ranger level, divide that in half, add beastmaster levels, then add 3.

2. "Other class levels in classes that offer an animal companion don't stack for the purpose of determining the power of a beastmaster's additional animal companions, nor do they allow her to choose additional animal companions from the alternative lists."

For the extra animal companions, do they not get the bonuses that the other animals would get if I keep leveling up or do they stay at the level they come in Beast master level -3, -6, -9 with no way to advance?

They continue leveling up with you, as long as you keep leveling in the beastmaster class.

3. I know of the way of making this work where your mount is the beastmaster pet and stacking to make a monster pet, however is there a way of doing it with multiple pets and making each of them decent combat wise?

I can't say off the top of my head if there are any tricks to this, but the extra companions should be able to contribute via flanking, scouting, retrieving items the party otherwise can't reach and providing distractions in non combat situations with the perform trick.

4. If 3 is possible, what are some combination of animals/monsters you would take, I know there are feats that let you choose alternative creatures?

Thanks for any help!

I think (going with just the animals present in the srd page on druids) I would go with the biggest baddest thing I could for my first companion, likely a dinosaur of some type, then a dire ape, a dire bat, and a dire rat.

The bat can scout things from the air, while the rat can fit into the crevices and such of a building to do the same indoors. The ape would be great at retrieving items and getting the drop on and grappling casters.