The beast master ranger in Dungeons & Dragons allows players to form a deep bond with a loyal animal companion, creating a powerful and unique partnership on the battlefield. This subclass emphasizes teamwork and strategic combat, as the ranger and their beast work in unison to outmaneuver and defeat enemies.
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Building an effective beast master ranger involves selecting the right equipment, spells, and companions to complement your playstyle and maximize your impact in combat. In this guide, we’ll cover essential tips and choices to create a beast master ranger that thrives both in the wild and during adventures.
Updated on November 9, 2024, by Alfredo Robelo: The release of the 2024 Player’s Handbook brought with it plenty of changes, ranger in particular coming out on top thanks to it. With so many changes to not only the class in general but also the beast master subclass, we’ve updated this article to reflect the changes, while still keeping the most relevant aspects of the 2014 version of the class.
Beast Master Highlights
The main thing to understand with beast masters is when can your animal companion attack, since simply gaining an NPC that has their own turn wouldn’t really be balanced, especially without any concentration requirement or time limit.
In essence, you can either order your animal friend to attack as a bonus action, or sacrifice one of your attacks for it to attack.
Your companion can still move and react on its own, so you still get to strategize as if you had two creatures on the battlefield. The beast master shines in parties that involve cooperation and position synergies, letting you make the most out of everyone’s mechanics, including your own.
Differences In The 2024 Player’s Handbook
The biggest change from the 2014 beast masters is that you can now command your companion to attack as a bonus action instead of an action, dramatically improving the damage this subclass does. Many of the other changes are taken straight out of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, where the 2024 ranger in its entirety took a lot of notes from.
Among the things taken from Tasha is the type of animal you can pick, letting you freely choose the creature’s appearance as long as it fits one of three stat blocks: beast of the land, sea or sky.
For players that want to use the 2014 rules and pick a beast from the published books, we have included a table for the best choices in a section below.
As far as the other features of the class go, they were all improved in some way while retaining their previous mechanics. Exceptional training lets the beast use the help or similar actions even when it attacks, while bestial fury lets the beast benefit from Hunter’s Mark with one of its attacks.
Best Primal And Ranger Companions
We recommend using the 2024 rules when playing a beast master ranger, since the class was heavily buffed. You can have your companion be whatever you want it to be cosmetically, giving you far more freedom in roleplay while still having a few diverse choices.
Primal Companion
The beast of the land is the better choice overall, dealing the most damage overall with the option of dealing even more when charging. The beast of the air is a bit niche in its use, but since it doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks, it may be more for stealthy roleplay moments rather than combat.
There isn’t much to say about the beast of the sea: it is either the best or the worst choice, depending on your surroundings. Since it has a land speed of five feet, and it can grapple enemies, it seems to be some form of octopus, but you could roleplay it as a shark and ignore the land speed.
Ranger Companions
While not as good as the primal companion, a lot of players feel fondly towards the creature stat blocks in D&D books, and the 2014 rules give them the option to use the low CR ones. Here are the best options to take with you as you adventure through the land:
|
Animal |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Blood Hawk |
With a fly speed of 60 feet, blood hawks are among the fastest companions available. Paired with their Pack Tactics ability which grants them advantage on attacks against enemies when an ally is nearby, they pose a potent and mobile threat. |
|
Fastieth |
A giant lizard of sorts, the Fastieth have a movement speed of 50 feet along with their Quickness ability, which allows them to occasionally use the Dodge action as a bonus action, making them much harder to hit. |
|
Giant Frog |
With a large hit point pool than most other options, the giant frog comes equipped with a powerful swallow attack and grappling bite attack that makes it quite formidable in a fight. Along with its jumping capability, it’s a strong contender in any party. |
|
Giant Weasel |
Although their 40 feet of movement isn’t as impressive as others on this list, they have Keen Hearing and Smell, allowing them even more avenues to track and detect enemies around them. |
|
Giant Wolf Spider |
With 40-foot movement speed, 40-foot climb speed, a poisonous bite attack and a diverse set of web senses, the giant wolf spider is a toolkit of abilities and a quick one at that. |
|
Octopus |
Only truly useful in an underwater campaign, the octopus can camouflage itself, create ink clouds, and grapple enemies. Even on land, you can throw your octopus at an enemy given their small size, making them a surprising hat-trick. |
|
Pteranodon |
Matching a fly speed with the blood hawk at 60 feet, they have a higher AC and hit point total, but gain the Flyby ability in place of Pack Tactics, allowing them not to provoke attacks of opportunity when moving in the air. |
|
Wolf |
The classic choice, a wolf balances 40 feet of movement with Keen Perception, Pack Tactics to give them advantage in combat with an ally, and the ability to knock enemies prone with their attacks. |
Best Species Options
In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, species don’t give any ability score improvements, so you are free to choose whatever you see fit. Some creatures, however, have skills that could benefit you depending on your playstyle, like gnomes and their ability to cast Speak with Animals for free.
If you want to support your companion, Aasimars have a natural healing ability, as well as being able to fly, so you can cover more ground. Now, if you want your companion to take most of the damage, then being a halfling would be ideal, since you can hide behind the creature as long as it is medium in size.
For adventures using the 2014 rules, you have quite a few great species to choose from, all with spectacular abilities beyond just giving you the much-needed Dexterity. You’ll find the 2014 options listed here:
|
Species |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Autognome |
A comical choice for a beast master, but valid nonetheless. With the ability to add a d4 to any ability check, attack roll, or saving throw equal to your proficiency bonus, they already stand out as a strong contender. But beyond that, their Armored Casing grants them 13 + your Dexterity modifier (which should be high) to their Armor Class, which will provides a solid replacement to your armor until you get something better. |
|
Elf – Mark of Shadow |
Alongside the usual benefits of being an elf, such as their brief Trance for long rests, their advantage against charm spells and immunity to sleep, Mark of Shadow grants you spells for free. This includes spells like Disguise Self and Invisibility that not only give you an edge in combat, but counts as self-targeting spells when you hit level 15. |
|
Goblin |
As a small creature, you can effectively ride any companion you like, riding them into combat or making solo travel a breeze. On top of that, goblins can Hide and Disengage as bonus actions, making them perfect alongside an animal companion to get in and out of combat freely. |
|
Half-Elf – Wood Elf Variant |
Choosing a wood elf by itself is a strong choice, but the half-elf provides more flexibility and maintains their 35-foot movement speed through the wood elf variant. This way, you can choose two skills freely to let you work better with your animal companion, although Stealth is always a great choice. |
|
Harengon |
Adding your proficiency bonus to your initiative rolls is excellent, especially when your animal companion shares your position in the combat order. With their proficiency in Perception and the amazing Rabbit Hop feature that lets you jump around without provoking opportunity attacks, you have all the tools you need to be of great help to your animal companion in a fight. |
|
Kobold |
With a small size that lets you ride your companion, having Pack Tactics makes the kobold a formidable choice. Assuming you’re always fighting alongside your companion or riding on their back, you effectively have permanent advantage. |
|
Lineage – Reborn |
Sharing a similar benefit to the autognome, the reborn can add a d6 to any ability check a number of times equal to their proficiency bonus. That, and you can select any race for them to start as, maintaining any movement speed (or fly speed) from that race. Grab a flying speed from the aarakocra or the 35-foot movement speed from the wood elf and you have a solid contender. |
|
Lineage – Hexblood |
Keeping that flying speed or movement speed from whatever race you choose to supplement the lineage’s life before becoming a hexblood, this species option also includes Disguise Self, which can be paired with your companion through the Shared Spells feature, but best of all, the hexblood gets an Eerie Token: A tool that lets them communicate with, and see things through the eyes of the creature carrying it. Give your companion a collar with the Eerie Token attached, and you have a powerful, mobile scout. |
|
Tabaxi |
Darkvision, free skills like Stealth and Perception, along with Feline Agility to keep up with your speedy companion. Tabaxis also fit the role of the ranger well, with their affinity to nature. |
Best Stat Placements
You can fight in melee with your companion if you want, but you’ll cover more ground being a ranged attacker yourself, so Dexterity should be the stat you focus on. Since the attack and damage of your companion depend on your spell attack modifier, Wisdom should be the second ability score you focus on.
Constitution is a good third, since everyone needs hit points, and from there it is largely up to you how you administer the final scores. As a ranged attacker, however, you have little to no use for Strength, so that should be your dump stat.
Best Spells For Beast Masters
Since you can command your beast to attack as a bonus action, you can be attacking twice as soon as level three, being able to attack four times by level 11. As such, beast masters have more uses for healing spells or crowd control ones that expand on things they can’t already do.
We won’t mention Hunter’s Mark, since 2024 rangers always have it prepared, becoming a core feature of the class.
|
Spell |
Level |
Effect |
|---|---|---|
|
Cure Wounds |
1 |
Restore 2D8 plus Wisdom to an ally. |
|
Summon Beast |
2 |
Summon an additional companion, needing concentration to maintain it. |
|
Silence |
2 |
No sound can be made in the location, preventing spells that have verbal components. |
|
Dispel Magic |
3 |
Remove a magical effect, needing to roll if the effect’s level is higher than 3. |
|
Revivify |
3 |
Return a creature to life (meant for creatures other than your companion). |
Best Starting Equipment
The starting equipment for rangers is perfect for beast masters, since you will likely be focusing on remaining in the backline while your beast takes the front.
If you are playing a small species like gnomes or halflings, and you want to ride your companion, consider taking the gold option from your background; a saddle for a medium creature is only 25 gold after all.
Best Feats And Backgrounds
A nice background to take for beast master rangers is scribe, even if it doesn’t fit neatly into your roleplay ideas. You get to raise your Dexterity and Wisdom and earn the skilled origin feat, which is useful for everyone. As for equipment, you should take the 50 gold pieces.
When considering general feats, sharpshooter is ideal for any long-ranged combatant, letting you take full advantage of the backline. As for feats that aid your party, chef is surprisingly good, letting you give your primal companion temporary hit points at the start of each day.
Best Multiclassing Options
A good class to multiclass into overall as rangers is druid, particularly if you want to focus more on Wisdom than Dexterity. You can use cantrips to attack instead of bows, and all that Wisdom is also pumping up the damage of your companion.
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