Why Beastmaster but not Pack Lord?

[Justin Sluder]

Why is the Beastmaster Ranger archetype allowed but the Pack Lord Druid archetype is banned?

[Jason Wu]

Beastmasters focus on a single animal companion.

Pack Lords gain a small army of companions.

Having PCs with multiple companions can massively slow down combat, which is a problem for a game running in a limited time slot. Which, in turn, is why PFS has strict limits on the number of permanent character companions you can field in any given combat (one).

Given the single companion PFS limitation, the Pack Lord would more or less be pointless.

-j

[RtrnofdMax]

@Jason, the text for Beastmaster definitely allows for the Ranger to divide up his available animal companion levels between animal companions. This isn't an issue in PFS with the houserule that you can only have one combat animal.

It does seem like the two archetypes are treated differently despite having the same "issue". I can only assume that it is either due to the fact that the archetypes were released in different books, or that it is another facet of the archetype that justified the banning.

[Jason Wu]

Perhaps. The Pack Lord does seems to have "running a small army of minions" built right into the archetype's flavor much more than the Beastmaster does, though.

Eh. Given the single companion restriction, even if the archetype was allowed I can't see many folks taking it.

-j

[LazarX]

RtrnofdMax wrote:

@Jason, the text for Beastmaster definitely allows for the Ranger to divide up his available animal companion levels between animal companions. This isn't an issue in PFS with the houserule that you can only have one combat animal.

While it can happen, for the most part though, PFS Beastmasters (who've I've yet to see in play) are most likely to leave all their levels in one companion in order to have a beefy co-combatant.

[dreadfury]

Beastmaster rangers like myself take the archtype to gain acess to all the critters. Raptors with favored enemy are scary ass creatures.

[Dan Simons]

Leave that raptor out of this discussion! Stop trying to inflict his siblings on other GMs... :P

Everyone move along, nothing to see here.

[dreadfury]

Dan Simons wrote:

Leave that raptor out of this discussion! Stop trying to inflict his siblings on other GMs... :P

Everyone move along, nothing to see here.

Just spreading the good word of raptorkind.

Eventually they should ban it.

[Conan the Raptor]

offers you the severed head of one of your enemies
Hello, have you considered becoming a raptor?

[Sithis of Fangwood]

I am interessssted...

[Wolfspirit]

dreadfury wrote:

Beastmaster rangers like myself take the archtype to gain acess to all the critters. Raptors with favored enemy are scary ass creatures.

Perhaps off topic and not the right place to ask, but does a Beastmaster Ranger's companion actually get the Favored Enemy Bonus? I know a Ranger that has an animal companion through Hunter's Bond would as part of that ability, but from my reading of the Animal Companion entry of the Beastmaster Archetype I couldn't find it.

Raptors with Favored Enemy are scary indeed.

[Finlanderboy]

Wolfspirit wrote:

dreadfury wrote:

Beastmaster rangers like myself take the archtype to gain acess to all the critters. Raptors with favored enemy are scary ass creatures.

Perhaps off topic and not the right place to ask, but does a Beastmaster Ranger's companion actually get the Favored Enemy Bonus? I know a Ranger that has an animal companion through Hunter's Bond would as part of that ability, but from my reading of the Animal Companion entry of the Beastmaster Archetype I couldn't find it.

Raptors with Favored Enemy are scary indeed.

Animal Companion (Ex) replaces hunters bond. Since hunters bond offers the favored enemy and animal companion does not. You are correct. The beast ,asters pet does not get favored enemy.

[dreadfury]

Oh my ill have to check for a faq that seems like an oversight. It seems as though fe doesnnot transfer to beastmaster pets. This saddens me. Oh well back to the drawing board.