I always liked Don Coscarelli's Beastmaster from 1982, even more so than Conan the Barbarian (heresy!). As such, you can imagine how happy I was to hear about the beastmaster prestige class in Complete Warrior and my dismay when I discovered just how bad it was. Now that Pathfinder is up and running, having a go at it myself could be fun, you'll have to go light on me since this is my first time posting one however. I've never been good with balance and you guys are going to help me point out if there are some issues with things being over- or underpowered. I also had a bit of trouble with the capstone ability, any suggestions would be great.
I went with medium BaB and HD for this class because gaining a strong animal companion can be a major increase to your offensive output and I didn't feel a high BaB was needed. He does however gain some bonuses in combat if he is fighting alongside his animal companions, which I think fits the theme just fine. I also gave him a couple of smaller animal companions which might not do so great in combat but could be great scouts or utility helpers for everyday needs. Without further ado, THE BEASTMASTER.
Requirements:
Skills:
Survival 4 ranks, Handle Animal 4 ranks
Stats:
HD: d8
Medium Attack Bonus
Spell Progression: Half (divine)
Class Skills:
Climb (Str), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (nature)(Int),
Perception (Wis), Ride (Dex), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis) and Swim (Str).
Features
Level 1: Animal companion, wild empathy, speak with animals
Level 2: Aspect
Level 3: Minor animal companion
Level 4: Pack Hunting +1
Level 5: Extra animal companion
Level 6: Aspect
Level 7: Extra minor animal companion
Level 8: Pack hunting +2
Level 9: Aspect
Level 10: Animal Lord
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Beastmasters gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.
Animal Companion (Ex): A beastmaster forms a close bond with an animal companion (as the druid). This animal is a loyal companion that accompanies the beastmaster on his adventures as appropriate for its kind. This ability functions like the druid animal companion ability except that the beastmaster's effective druid level is equal to his beastmaster level +3 (this cannot exceed the beastmaster's class level).
If a beastmaster already has an animal companion from another class, his beastmaster class levels stack with class levels from all other classes that grant an animal companion. For example, a 4th level ranger/2nd level beastmaster would be treated as a 6th level druid for the purpose of increasing the statistics of his animal companion.
Wild Empathy (Ex):
A beastmaster can improve the initial attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a diplomacy check to improve the attitude of a person. The ranger rolls 12d0 and adds his beastmaster level and his Charisma bonus to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferentm while wild animals are usually unfriendly. To use wild empathy, the beastmaster must be within 30 feet of one another under normal visibility conditions. Generally, influencing an animal this way takes 1 minute, but, as with influencing peole, it might take more or less time. The beastmaster can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but he takes a -4 penalty on the check.
Speak With Animals (Su):
The beastmaster is treated as affected by the speak with animals spell at all times. This is a supernatural ability.
Aspect (Su):
At 2nd level the beastmaster gains the ability to emulate a special quality or racial bonus to a specific skill of one of his animal companions or minor animal companions within 60 ft. For example,
a level 4 ranger/3 beastmaster with a boar animal companion and a monkey minor animal companion could choose the boar's scent ability as an aspect and later change it to the monkey's racial modifier to climb as a standard action. The aspect lasts as long as the beastmaster is within 60 ft. of a living animal companion or a minor animal companion. He can choose one aspect at 2nd level and additional ones at 6th and 9th level, each requiring a standard action to activate or change.
Minor Animal Companion (Ex):
At 3rd level, a beastmaster gains a minor animal companion, chosen from the list of familiars available to a 1st level wizard. This minor animal companion gains the progression of an animal companion and is for all purposes treated as an animal companion and not a familiar. For purposes of advancing the statistics of the minor animal companion treat the beastmaster as a druid whose level is equal to the beastmaster level +3.
Pack Hunting (Ex):
Whenever the beastmaster is flanking an opponent with one of his animal companions or minor animal companions, his flanking attack bonus increases to +3. This bonus increases to +4 at level 8.
Extra Animal Companion (Ex):
At 5th level, the beastmaster gains a second animal companion. Treat the beastmaster as a druid whose level is equal to the beastmaster's class level for advancing the animal companion's statistics.
Extra minor animal companion (Ex):
At 7th level, the beastmaster gains a second animal companion. Treat the beastmaster as a druid whose level is equal to the beastmaster's class level for advancing the minor animal companion's statistics.
Animal Lord (Su):
At 10th level, the spiritual bond between the beastmaster and his companions becomes supreme. His companions natural weapons are treated as magical at all times for the purposes of bypassing damage reduction, the beastmaster and his companions gain DR 5/- and his companions gain the benefits of pack hunting.
Seeing that I have a player in one of my games that REALLY wants to play a Beastmaster type, I figured I'd give this a bump to see if anyone else had a different suggestion or any comments about the class presented here.
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My first thought was "FOUR animal companions is a bit too much."
Then I thought it out some more.
You give up some nice stuff if you go from Druid or Ranger to Beastmaster, so you should get something cool.
And just HOW overpowered is four animal companions compared to, for example, a Summoner with his Eidolon and the summoned critters he will bring to a fight? Not that different really.
Essentially he can talk to animals, and has four companions. Two are relatively weaker, and two are of advanced power to be really helpful.
I think the ONLY thing I would change is the Aspect. Instead of just requiring a Standard Action, at minimum it should require a Full Round Action, for game balance (afterall a Cleric cannot change his domain powers at all once chosen each day)- and I think I would prefer them be locked in for a full day even over a Full Round to change.
Pack Hunting- not sure... it does make sense to me, but I worry it is treading into the niche held sacred to Rogue's. I personally do not like treading on other class' sacred arenas as it can undermine another player's enjoyment by robbing him of his own moment to shine. I'd prefer some other ability for this reason alone.
My first thought was "FOUR animal companions is a bit too much."
Then I thought it out some more.
You give up some nice stuff if you go from Druid or Ranger to Beastmaster, so you should get something cool.
And just HOW overpowered is four animal companions compared to, for example, a Summoner with his Eidolon and the summoned critters he will bring to a fight? Not that different really.
Essentially he can talk to animals, and has four companions. Two are relatively weaker, and two are of advanced power to be really helpful.
I think the ONLY thing I would change is the Aspect. Instead of just requiring a Standard Action, at minimum it should require a Full Round Action, for game balance (afterall a Cleric cannot change his domain powers at all once chosen each day)- and I think I would prefer them be locked in for a full day even over a Full Round to change.
Pack Hunting- not sure... it does make sense to me, but I worry it is treading into the niche held sacred to Rogue's. I personally do not like treading on other class' sacred arenas as it can undermine another player's enjoyment by robbing him of his own moment to shine. I'd prefer some other ability for this reason alone.
Thanks for the feedback! I agree with you on changing the action cost of Aspect to full, but I'm not sure what I can replace pack hunting with. It was kinda slapped on there, but I'm open to suggestions.