On my 2nd playthrough, went Ranger, got to Level 3, went Beast Master and here are the companion options:
Level 1 Bear - 19 HP/ 11AC / 2 abilities: 1 attack for 1d8+0 and a Taunt
Level 1 Boar - 11HP / 11AC / 2 abilities: 1 attack for 1d6+1 and a Charge 1d6+1 with Prone chance
Level 1 Raven - 1 HP / 12AC / 2 abilities: 1 attack for 1d6+1 and a 1d4+1 with Blind chance
Level 1 Giant Spider 32 HP / 14AC/ 2 abilities: 1 attack for 1d8+3 with a Poison chance and an Enweb (no damage) ranged attack
Level 1 Wolf - 11HP/ 13 AC / 1 ability: 1 attack with 2d4 with a Prone chance.
None of the Companions have bonuses to hit BTW (they should have +2). Ok, so obviously the Spider is just much better than any other option as it has the best HP, AC and Damage by a lot and I'm just going to assume it's overtuned and that's not the intention. The Raven looks very undertuned because at 1HP it's not much better than the Find Familiar raven since it still gets one shot by anything. I think what the goal here is to have each beast be good in a different situation depending on what you need (Tank, DPS, Mobility, CC, etc) so that you use them at different times. Personally, I think the 5e implementation is better where you actually choose a companion animal. I would rebalance all of these to be more powerful (like the Spider) then force players to lock into a choice so that it really feels like they are your adventuring buddy (if possible let them have a name, spot at camp, etc). If they die you cast the spell and they come back. The implementation as it stands (again, apart from the overtuned Spider) just doesn't feel particularly interesting compared to the D&D implementation.
