Possible error in Ranger's Incredible Companion feat

[Pramxnim]

After reading the playtest rulebook, I noticed an inconsistency when it comes to Class Feats that grant an animal companion.

So far, there are 4 feat chains that grant an animal companion (A.C.) and improve it. The Ranger's feat chain is the odd one out, if we look at the comparison below:

- p.83, the Druid's Full-Grown Companion level 4 feat grants the A.C. 1 action on your turn if the Druid didn't command it during that turn.

- p.110, the Paladin's Imposing Destrier level 10 feat grants the same bonus to its mount.

- p.279, the Cavalier archetype's Impressive Steed level 10 feat again grants the same bonus to its mount.

- Finally, p.116, the Ranger's Incredible Companion feat is a level 12 feat, even though it does the same main thing as the Paladin and Cavalier's feats (give your A.C. the nimble or savage designation). Not only that, it doesn't even give the 1 action when not commanded to the A.C.

My question to the designers is: Is it intentional to make the Ranger's A.C. weaker than other classes that share the same feature? Other than the feat at level 12, the Ranger's A.C. feat chain progression is the same as the Paladin and Cavalier (feats at levels 1, 6, 10, 14).

I believe there's an error here, and the correct text for the Ranger feat Incredible Companion should put it at level 10 and grant the Ranger's A.C. 1 action on turns where the Ranger doesn't command it.

[Pinkius]

Pramxnim wrote:

My question to the designers is: Is it intentional to make the Ranger's A.C. weaker than other classes that share the same feature? Other than the feat at level 12, the Ranger's A.C. feat chain progression is the same as the Paladin and Cavalier (feats at levels 1, 6, 10, 14).

I believe there's an error here, and the correct text for the Ranger feat Incredible Companion should put it at level 10 and grant the Ranger's A.C. 1 action on turns where the Ranger doesn't command it.

I would also like to hear this, I took the cavalier archetype because the ranger companion is so bad, same amount of feats. But now I have to worry about an order, and that's not flavor I would necessarily want to deal with outside of the playtest.

[PossibleCabbage]

Check the update document. On Page 12-13 of the 1.5 update it says:

Quote:

In Full-Grown Companion, at the end, add this Special entry: “Special If you have the Hunt Target action, your animal companion will assault your target even without your orders. During an encounter, even if you don’t use the Command an Animal action, your animal companion can still use 1 action that round on your turn to Stride towards or Strike one of your hunted targets.”

So the ranger gets "your AC gets one action" conditionally at level 6, 2 levels after the druid, but before those other options.

[Pramxnim]

I wrote this thread 3 months ago, well before Update 1.5 came out. The update managed to address some of my concerns, and I'm happy about it. There's still the AC and attack bonus scaling problem, but I have faith that those issues will be addressed in the final release, if not in the playtest.