Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Questions about the Ranger

Started a Ranger after my Wizard. Chose Beast Master as my Archetype, in 5e the original Beast Master was absolute junk and needed a rework. Just wondering if they took the updated one where the Summoned companion levels with you and becomes stronger. Does anyone know?

I like Hunter more. No clumsy pet for me. I don't think this class is finished though.

They definitely used a better version than the base 5e material. I am pretty sure they based most the ranger stuff off the unearthed arcana revision Ranger. I have used several of the beast summons and they all seem useful in their own way. They wont take a TON of hits, but they all do ok damage, and have their special skills that can help alot.

My personal favorite right now is the bear, at level 3 he has 19 HP (pretty decent), does ok damage, but can taunt enemies, so he will soak 2-3 hits before he dies, which is 2-3 hits my party did not take, which in this game is amazing. The Hunter will likely be better damage, but I like the utility and flavor the beast class has.

Since we don't have later levels, we don't know how well they will scale later, but at low/medium levels looks like they will be ok.

The Beastmaster seems to have some inconsistencies in the pet usefulness. For example the Spider companion has 32hp - all the other pets (wolf bear etc) have 12hp. Since you cannot recast the pets in combat and 12hp goes down quickly you're kind of obligated to use the spider - which also has a MASSIVE (like more than 1 screen) leap range and poison.

so true. The spider was my ONLY used pet the entire playthru. In combat. She dished good dmg, tanked a lot more than the others, had the biggest jump you could want, and could "cast web" every turn. OP compared to the weakling wolf, bear and boar. And the 1 HP Raven that was as strong as a familiar.

My suggestion: a Ranger beastmaster should have a pet that can grow in power. In the beginning, the spider shouldn't be so strong, but at level 4 it's weird that the wolf still has 11 HP, and the Raven 1 HP. It's also boring to have a pet as a beastmaster, and not have it grow properly. Even if in a nerfed way... (my experience is with DnD 2/3/4E, so I wouldn't know about Unearthed Arcana Ranger, but I guess everyone who knows about it thinks it's a better version).

Yeah they moved the UA Beast Master to D&D Beyond as full archetype (replacing the previous version I'm pretty sure). I do hope it increases in HP and such as we level, and it would provide more usefulness.

Can we also acknowledge how god damn awesome the bear looks. So many of the creatures in this game look amazing and even as someone with limited D&D experience, seeing them come to life is amazing. Same goes for the ranger pets. The bear is so FUZZY

I'm in the beginning of my ranger/beastmaster playthrough and at the moment it feels pretty good. The pets looks amazing (Especially the bear !) and they are really pleasant to control. I think that they should grow stronger in some way, and at the moment they don't feel all equilibrate (the spider is amazing and the 1 hp crow is underwhelming.).

Yes, I think we can't really know how it will turn out seeing how those pets are all over the place.

I, personally, think that Hunter has easy upper hand because that extra 1d8 passive with no strings attached is just too good and at level 5 they also get 1 more attack, which is big considering Sharpshooter feat and even without that. Though in Larian games burying AI under a mountain of pets was always a good tactic (though depended on you replacing them asap in-combat), so who knows.

As a whole, I expect that Ranger will be different down the road too, for example they did scrap the whole favored enemy/terrain thing, so I imagine instead of greater favored enemy at 6 Rangers will get something else too.

The boar tho. Keep him back and funnel your enemies toward him (real easy in the goblin camp), and let him loose. Knock down as many enemies as the game can animate lol.

The raven tho. Fly in, gouge their eyes, and fly out. ALL PARTY ATTACKS GET ADVANTAGE.

I decided to try out an urchin Ranger after a few Wizard playthroughs, I want to see how they do for a trap / locks character.

I've never been a fan of pets and summons.

Wa

Was that supposed to read "Urban Ranger" or is your Ranger walking the streets with a tin cup and picking pockets?

Lol I thought it said urchin.The one that gets rogue skill proficiencies added.