Best Feats for Beast Master Ranger 5e
by Prince Phantom
In the early days of 5e, the Beastmaster was commonly referred to as the worst subclass of the worst class. While it did definitely have some problems, I’d say people underrated it heavily. No one who gets all the amazing spells that a Ranger gets can possibly be as bad as something like a Four Elements Monk. Now with the release of Tasha’s, the Beastmaster finds itself in a very healthy position in terms of balance, and honestly an even better one in terms of flavor.
Now our beast just requires our bonus action to command, and it is significantly stronger than anything a CR 1/4 beast could provide (besides poison harvesting and a few other niche uses). Beastmaster isn’t the best Ranger subclass, but it’s definitely in the upper tier, so let’s see what feats can elevate it even higher. We’re looking for synergies with our animal companion and generically good Ranger feats.
Best Feats for Beast Master Ranger 5e
Sharpshooter/Great Weapon Master (ASAP): Because our beast requires our bonus action every turn, we can refrain from taking the bonus action attack feats normally also taken with these two. We definitely still want one of these though depending on if you want to play at range or melee, as the damage increase is so significant that you will struggle to make a real impact in combat if you don’t take them.
Alert (Lv 4):You going first in combat is great, but you AND your beast going first is amazing. Since the beast shares our initiative, this feat boost us both, and being able to strategically place two entities on the map and set up your strategy is amazing. The beast of the land particularly loves this because of its charge feature. It deals extra damage if it moves 20ft towards its enemy before attacking, which is easy to do at the start of combat when no one has moved, but quite difficult once things get mixed up.
Fey Touched (Lv 4): Both Misty Step and Silvery Barbs fill holes in our spell list, the bump to our Wisdom is great since the beast’s attacks are based on our Wisdom, and when we reach 15th level, we can take both us and our beast when we Misty Step thanks to Share Spells.
Gunner (Lv 4):Okay, I know some tables don’t allow firearms, but hear me out. If we are small sized, we can definitely ride the beast of the land as a mount. I firmly believe that playing a ranged character is optimal for this subclass as focusing on our Dexterity does so much more for us than focusing on our Strength. But, being at range while mounted means our beast can’t attack our enemies. If we do go into melee, we will have disadvantage on our attacks. Gunner solves this problem, increases our Dexterity, and gives us access to the most damaging ranged weapons in the game. This is how you become a cowboy in D&D and I love it so much.
War Caster (Lv 8): Protecting our concentration becomes more and more important the closer to the action we want to be, and the Ranger spell list is filled with amazing concentration options, from Entangle right at 1st level to even summoning spells at higher spell levels so we can throw a whole menagerie of death at our enemies.
Mounted Combatant (Lv 8): Obviously this is only for small races that want to ride the beast of the land, but for those who do, I think this is worth consideration. Getting to choose if an attack targets us or our beast means we can share our hp more effectively and giving our beast semi-evasion is great, though we probably won’t get advantage from this feat very often as our opponent would have to be small or tiny. If you really want to get advantage from riding your mount, you could also consider playing a Volo’s Kobold to get Pack Tactics, giving you advantage on all of your attacks as long as your beast is also within 5ft of the enemy, which they will be if you are riding them.
Gift of the Metallic Dragon (Lv 12): We don’t have a great use for our reaction most turns, and we can use this to help our beast with its somewhat low AC. At 15th level, we can double the effectiveness of that Cure Wounds by casting it on ourselves and healing our beast for the same amount. Still don’t cast Cure Wounds in combat though. It’s a bad spell, but even a bad spell is alright when it’s free.
Tough/Lucky (Lv 16): A couple of generically good defensive feats for our last few picks. No real synergies here, these are just good at keeping us alive and helping with our saving throws.
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