A beastmaster feels more at home among the animals of nature than fellow sentient beings. Over time, these wanderers befriend a wide variety of animals, from mighty dire lions to tiny weasels. Eventually, one such animal becomes their bonded companion.
Requirements
In order to get the Beast Bond Paragon Path, you must have:
- Training in Animal Handling
- Companion Combat Passive. See Companions.
- RP elements to support why your character chooses this Paragon Path (to prevent abuse / minmaxing)
Beast Bond Paragon Path: You and your chosen beast companion have a special bond that strengthens your companion’s might in combat.
Rules Augmentations
Damage
- Beast basic attack damage is formulated using the base damage of a Greatsword or dual-wielded Longswords. They gain +1 material modifier at level 5, and +2 material modifier at level 10.
- Tier abilities and combat passives chosen by the character may affect their beast. If so, the Tier ability or passive must include “requires Beast Companion”. They are unusable if your Beast Companion dies or is out of range.
Actions in Combat
- Beasts share Major actions with their master. Commanding a Beast to take a Major action requires a Major action from their master -- so only one of them can attack per round.
- Beasts can use a Minor action when their master does -- so they can move at the same time, or if the master forgeos moving, the beast can still move.
- The master and beast share one initiative roll and their turns happen simultaneously.
Riding the Beast
- A master can ride their beast without a saddle if the beast is of the appropriate size.
Stats for the Beast
- The beast gains a bonus to its Dexterity, Strength, Knowledge, and Stamina equal to half of its owner’s stat modifier
- The beast gains training in two skills related to Dexterity, Strength, Knowledge, or Stamina
- The master can give their beast additional hit points by sacrificing hit points from their total health pool, 5 hit points at a time -- so the master can lose 15 hit points from their maximum hit point total, and add 15 hit points to their beast’s maximum hit point total
Misc.
- Commanding your beast is done with verbal or nonverbal signals, not telepathy. If your beast is out of line-of-sight or left to its own devices, it can’t receive commands from its master, and will act on instinct or training. DM discretion helps decide what this entails.
- Beast Bond’s range is about one mile. Beast Bond, tier abilities marked “requires Beast Companion”, and everything else that come with this Paragon Path ceases to function if your beast is not in range.
- This Paragon Path is mostly balanced because, despite the additional hit pool the beast has, certain attacks can hit multiple targets (beast and master).