BeastMaster

The Beast Master

In the center of the ring lies an immense cage. No one can see what’s inside, save for the monstrous growls that echo from within. A single wood-elf walks up, her eyes focused and determined. With a flick of her wrist the whip in her hand cracks like a viper, breaking the lock on the cage.

The people look on in anticipation, and then horror as the cage door is thrown to the ground as a massive bulette crashes out of the cave, it’s roar shaking the air around it. Like thunder the whip cracks again, drawing the monstrosities attention.

The beast circled around the ring, the wood-elf circling as well, her eyes never leaving the bulettes. There is a collective cry from the audience as the monster charged the wood-elf, dwarfing her in size with it’s teeth bared.

Then the beast stops. The wood-elf’s hand rests lightly on the bulette, whispering and speaking to it softly. The wood-elf leaps up, standing on the creature’s back as it starts to trot around the ring, perfectly tamed.

And there was much applause.

Class Features

As a beastmaster you gain the following features

HIT POINTS

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• Hit Dice: 1d8 per beastmaster level.
• Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
• Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per beastmaster level after 1st.

Proficiencies

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• Armor: Light armor
• Weapons: Simple weapons, Whips
• Tools: Alchemist's Supplies
• Saving Throws: Dexterity, Wisdom
• Skills: Choose three skills from Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Deception, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Perception, Preformance, and Survival.

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• Leather armor
• A whip
• Any simple weapon
• An Explorer’s pack or Entertainer's Pack

Whip Specialist

To others, a whip is just a tool that's hard to handle properly. But you've mastered the finesse of the coiled whip, and can utilize it passed it's intended use. All whips you use gain 1d4+ (½ your class level rounded) damage when using whips. At 4th level you gain 2d4 damage, at 8th level you gain 2d6 damage, and at 12th level you gain 3d6 damage.

Spellcasting

At 1st level you gain the ability to cast spells. The Beast Master table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

You prepare the list of spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the beast master spell list. When you do so, choose a number of spells equal to your Wisdom modifier + your beast master level (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

Friend of the Beasts

You are good with animals, sometimes better than you are with people. At 2nd level you learn the spell Speak with Animals. At 4th, 6th, and 8th level, you also learn to communicate with Monstrosities, Aberrations, and Oozes (you pick which one you learn when you level up). Also at 4th level, Speak with Animals can be cast At-Will.

If you are have the Tamer Subclass, Add Dragons and Fey to creatures that you can chose to communicate with.

Path of the Beast Master

At 3rd level, you chose to further your skills with animals and animal handling, choosing the Tamer or the Chimeramancer path. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 5th, 7th, 11th, and 15th level.

Beast Master Companion

At 3rd level, you forge a powerful bond with a creature and keep it as your companion. With 8 hours of work and the expenditure of 50 gp worth of rare herbs and fine food, you call forth an animal from the wilderness to serve as your faithful companion.

You may chose any Medium creature of Beast, Monstrosity, Aberration, or Ooze type, at 1 CR or lower. However, your DM might pick one for you from the surrounding area. It loses Multi-Attack if it has it, and gains the benefit of Companion’s Bond. You can only have 1 Companion at a time.

If your companion is ever slain, the magical bond you share allows you to return it to life. With 8 hours of work and the expenditure of 25 gp worth of rare herbs and fine food, you call forth your companion’s spirit and use your magic to create a new body for it. You can return an companion to life in this manner even if you do not possess any part of its body.

If you use this ability to return a former companion to life while you have a current companion, your current companion leaves you and is replaced by the restored companion.

Companion’s Bond

Your companion gains a variety of benefits while it is linked to you.

The companion obeys your commands as best it can. It rolls for initiative like any other creature, but you determine its actions, decisions, attitudes, and so on. If you are incapacitated or absent, your companion acts on its own.

Your companion has abilities and game statistics determined in part by your level. Your companion uses your proficiency bonus rather than its own. In addition to the areas where it normally uses its proficiency bonus, a companion also adds its proficiency bonus to its AC and to its damage rolls.

Your companion gains proficiency in two skills of your choice. It also becomes proficient with all saving throws.

For each level you gain after 3rd, your companion gains an additional hit die and increases its hit points accordingly.

Whenever you gain the Ability Score Improvement class feature, your companion’s abilities also improve. Your companion can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or it can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, your companion can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature unless its description specifies otherwise.

Your companion shares your alignment, and has a personality trait and a flaw that you can roll for or select from the tables below. Your companion shares your ideal, and its bond is always, “The beastmaster who travels with me is a beloved companion for whom I would gladly give my life.”

Arcane Creature Casting

At 9th level, you and your companion share the same arcane abilities. On your companion’s turn, you may have them cast any spell you know as an action, expending that spell slot from your use. All saves are made with your stats and modifiers.

Oversoul

At 13th level, your companion is the true aspect of your weapon. Once per long rest, you can have your companion turn into an ethereal form and enter your weapon of choice. That weapon does additional damage equal to the strongest attack your companion has, with a ghostly afterimage of them performing the attack upon hitting an enemy. This lasts for up to 4 hours, afterwards your companion returns to it’s normal state.

If you have more than 1 companion, you may make an Arcana roll with the Difficulty Rating being your level +5 for every creature you add after the first.

Alpha Instinct

At 16th level, you have the primal aura that demands obedience. Once a day you can command your force and attempt to dominate a Beast, Monstrosity, Aberration, or Ooze within visual range. Creature must make a Constitution save versus your level in Beast Master + Wisdom on their turn. If you are damaged before their turn you lose control of the spell. Creatures with full health have advantage against dominate, creatures below half health have disadvantage.

Creatures dominated by you are under your control, but at the end of their turns and whenever they take damage they can make a Constitution save to brake the dominate. Once broken they are immune to charm and dominate. If the creature is still under the effect of your dominate once the combat is over, they will turn neutral to you and leave. They are immune to charm and dominate for the rest of the day.

If you have the Tamer Subclass, Add Dragons and Fey to creatures that can be dominated.

Command Colossus

At 20th level, you call upon the strength of the mightiest of beasts. With an arcane shout you summon a Beast, Monstrosity, Aberration, or Ooze on this plane of existence of Large or Greater with a CR of 12 or lower. You do not choose what appears, the DM decides based on what is in the area. Creature appears on your next turn. Creature must be something within 10 miles of you, and not actively hostile towards you. You can communicate with this creature telepathically, and it follows your commands to the best of it’s abilities. You may use this ability once a week, and requires an action.

If you are a Tamer Subclass, Add Dragons and Fey to creatures that can be summoned.

Command Colossus acts similarly to Dominate Monster, in which you can control said creature for up to 1 hour.
However, it does not require Concentration. and after the hour is up, the creature returns from which it came.

Subclass: Tamer

Tamers take beast companions and focus their efforts on expanding the potential behind them. Beast Masters who take this path tend to have a personal zoo of exotic creatures at their fingertips, bending even the most wily and fierce of creatures to their will.

Exotic Handler

At 3rd level, your knowledge of wild and dangerous beasts is expanded. You may now have the option to Tame creatures rather than summon them for your Beast Master Companion. In addition to Beast, Monstrosity, Aberration, and Ooze creatures, you may also learn to tame or summon Dragon and Fey creatures at CR 1 and below. At 8th level you can Tame creatures of CR 2, and at 16th level you can tame creatures of CR 3.

Taming a creature requires an action for 3 turns. You must make an Animal Handling roll against the creature's Constitution. Upon three successes, the creature is friendly to you and takes up a companion slot. If you do not have enough companion slots open, you must send away one of your current companions. You may use taming once a day.

You cannot take other actions during your turn other than movement while attempting to tame a creature. If you are damaged while attempting to tame a creature, you must make a concentration check. On a fail, the link is broken and the creature returns to being hostile. If a creature is above half health, it has advantage against taming.

Commanding Training

At 5th level, you have trained with your companion to get the most out of their performance. Your companions can add ½ of your Animal Handling skill rounded down to their damage rolls. At 10th level, they can add your total Animal Handling skill to their damage rolls.

Menagerie

At 7th level, you are able to juggle the chaos of multiple exotic beasts. You can have two companions bound to you at a single time, provided their combined CR does not exceed your limit. At 13th level, you can have up to three companions bound to you at once.

Situational Magic

The Beast Master Class has two seperate Spell Lists that they can access, depending on which Path they choose.

While it is possible to learn certain spells outside of your class, you cannot use both Spell Lists at the same time.

Commanding Mastery

At 11th level, on any of your turns when your beast companion doesn't attack, you can use a bonus action to command the beast to take the Dash, Disengage, Dodge, or Help action on its turn.

Wild Fury

At 15th level, you can send your companions into a furious state, causing them to attack with ferocity. At the beginning of the round, make a check, which is your level in Beast Master + Wisdom modifier. On success, you can have a number of attacks equal to your Wisdom modifier, divided among your companions as you see fit. On a fail, you make the basic number of attacks.

You may use this feat a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier per long rest.

Subclass: Chimeramancer

They called you mad. They called you unholy. That said that you were the real monster. Well, they didn't know what a real monster was. But you would be happy to show them.

As a Chimeramancer, you collect and stitch together bits and pieces of other creatures together to create the ultimate monster.

Create Chimera

At 3rd level, you are able to cobble together a living creature out of monster parts. Beast, Monstrosity, Aberration, and Ooze creatures are within your realm of parts to harvest and use. Creatures or beings outside of these require a both a DC to harvest as well as use in the making of the monster.

You also get a variant Bag of Holding that is specifically meant to keep Monster Parts or perishable items in a preserved state. It can hold 500 lbs of matter, and functions like a regular Bag of Holding otherwise.

To create a creature, it requires a Body, a Brain, and a Heart, plus 1 augmentation. At 8th Level, you are able to add 2 augmentations. At 16th Level you are able to add 4 augmentations.

The Body determines the Strength and Dexterity of the creature, as well as its AC and any basic attacks it knows. Body of a Black Bear would have the similar Claw and Bite attacks, Body of an Eagle would have Talon attacks and could Fly, Body of a Darkmantle would have Crush as well as Blindsight.

The Brain determines the Intelligence and Wisdom of the creature, as well as any innate abilities or magics. Brain of a Baboon would grant Pack Tactics, Brain of a Grick would have Stone-Camouflage, and the Brain of a Merrow would have Amphibious.

The Heart determines the Constitution and Charisma of the creature, as well as vitality of the creature. The heart gives the standard hit dice of the creature it was taken from, plus it’s constitution modifier for HP.

Augmentations are modifications to specific locations on a monster’s body. Examples would be changing a bear’s claws into drake claws, or changing eagle wings for bat wings. In order to change something, you have to have something to take away. So if you want a creature to have wings, you must replace their current wings or remove their forearms.

Augmentations also serve as a means of Ability Score Increases. For every augment the Chimera gains 2 AP to be used however you wish, however the score cannot exceed 20.

Creating and Caring for Your Chimera

Creating a Chimera requires the parts, a lab or workshop to construct the beast, and the appropriate amount of resources in gold including salves, herbs, ashes, and bones. Regard the chart below for how much resources you need to create a creature. At 3rd Level, you can use creature parts under CR 2. At 8th level you can use creature parts of CR 4, and at 16th level you can use creature parts of CR 6.

Monster Assembly

Part CR	Cost
0	25 gp, herbs
1/8	50 gp, drop of venom
1/4	75 gp, cobwebs
1/2	100 gp, spider legs
1	200 gp, drop of healing potion
2	500 gp, vial of holy water
3	1000 gp, a flawless gem

Beyond the basics

After CR 3 it is at the DM's descretion how much parts cost. It is possible to harvest and use creature parts of CR 7 and higher, however to utilize them for making a chimera requires a DC which is the 8 + 2x the CR part versus your Intelligence.

A damaged Chimera can be healed through magical means, however torn parts or damaged sections require attention and care. Failure to do maintenance on a chimera will result in the body falling apart.

Once a chimera falls to 0 hit points, it cannot be revived or resurrected, and will need to be replaced. Parts cannot be salvaged.

Necrowrithe

At 5th level, the twisted sense of Necromancy is made common to you. As an action you can have a weapon attack deal an additional 1d8 necrotic damage, or use a reaction on a friendly companion’s turn to allow them to do an additional 1d8 necrotic damage.

At 10th level you deal 2d8, at 15th level you deal 3d8. You can use this ability up to 3 times per short or long rest.

Build-a-Better Bug-Bear

At 7th level, you are able to add parts to monsters where there weren’t parts before. At the cost of an Augmentation slot, you can add a part to an existing chimera, or when the chimera is being built.

This includes but is not limited to, giving a lion a pair of wings, putting spider legs onto a shark, giving a goat a second parrot head, and putting tentacles on a mimic.

Reinforced Flesh

At 11th level, your stitches are twice as secure. Once per week, should your chimera fall in battle, you have a chance to revive it.

If you can get to the chimera within 1 minute of its HP hitting 0, you can make a Animal Handling check versus 8 + your Level in BeastMaster. On a success the chimera is restored to 1 hit point.

Sewing Life

At 15th level, you transcend all notions of limit. In addition to Beast, Monstrosity, Aberration, and Ooze creatures, you also can harvest and utilize parts from Fey, Plant, Undead, Dragon, and Humanoid creatures for use of your chimera.

Version 1.4 - BeastMaster Class

Version 1.4 - 1/02/18

• Made Augmentation Adjustments

Version 1.3 - 9/20/17

• Changed Intelligence for Wisdom

Version 1.2 - 9/17/17

• Balanced 'Whip Specialist'
• Wording for Tamer details adjusted.
• Spellcasting moved to 1st Level

Version 1.1 - 9/15/17

• Added Hit Die, Basic Stats, and starting equipment

Version 1.0 - 9/15/17

Added

• Base Class: BeastMaster
• Subclass: Tamer
• Subclass Chimeramancer

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Hey everyone! Drayle88 here, and I just want to say a huge shoutout to the Critical Role Fan Club on Facebook for helping me out with this class.

If not for the constant feedback and support, I probably would have given up ages ago. So thank you!

Also special thanks to my DM, for being awesome and getting me back into the hobbie! I can't wait to return the favor in my upcoming setting!

Roll high and roll often my dudes!