Animal companions and familiars are done ALL wrong in BG3.
1. Familiars don't attack. They are an extension of the mage. A mage casts touch spells through the familiar so THEY don't have to get close.
2. Animals have prof bonus.
3. Animals require action/bonus action to command based on beastmaster special abilities.
The list goes on.
In short, they redid the whole system for animals and familiars.
1. Personally I like familiars the way Larian does them. I'd rather they were like 5e P&P where they can use the Help Action to give their master Advantage, but without that Larian does them fine. Though casting Touch Spells through them, as per 5e, would be a welcome addition.
2. Completely agree!
3. Well before recent changes, Rangers were ranked as one of the worst 5e classes. And Beastmasters as their worst subclass. I mean why give up an attack to have an animal attack? The animal usually had a worst attack bonus and damage potential. A really flawed design.
