The thing about Beastmaster is that it has none of the downsides that the other options have. Animal companions have strong synergy with their master's Strikes, which Druids are not so great at. Rangers Strike better, but their animal companions scale slower; Champions are limited to mounts, and a Summoner's Eidolon is mechanically very different from an animal companion. So, the Beastmaster archetype allows you to slap a companion with Druid scaling onto any martial, which is a good investment of class feats and an amazing use for a free archetype.
Also, when the Animal Companion matures, it can take an action each turn even if you don't command it. Granted, it can only stride or strike, but considering the beastmaster companion has equal progression to the Druid companion, it has comparable HP,AC, and damage to a martial, so it's like being permanently quickened ,and getting to ignore map on the extra action, and provide flanking from 2 different spots. I have a barbarian in my group who, even though he can't command an animal while raging, still gets to be such a menace with his giant scorpion helping soak an additional 100 hp worth of damage, as well as dishing damage out themselves.
Best part about "familiarity" is that it now qualifies for Monastic Weaponry. I haven't really seen anyone talk about the changes to Monastic Weaponry.
Nobody talks about Beastmaster's twin sister: Cavalier! This archetype gets you a free mount that scales with your HP and AC, two 40 foot strides for 1 action, and some awesome bonuses with their Support Benefits. Level 4's Cavalier's Charge feat improves action economy by giving you 2 strides and a strike (With the rare +1 circumstance bonus to hit!) for two actions. Bonus: You can end anywhere within your movement range! Alternatively, the Level 4 Impressive Mount feat gives your mount a free Stride or Strike every turn you don't Command it. It's a permanent Haste at level 4 with 40 feet of movement! Also, by taking the Quick Mount Skill feat; you wrap up the archetype's take-2 requirement and save yourself a class feat before moving onto another archetype. Great archetype all around!
Beastmaster has a huge change in PC2. Before the remaster, the mature animal companion and other feats on that chain applied to just one of your companions. Now they apply to all of them at the same time and you even get to pick different options like making one nimble and another savage.
Beastmaster is incredibly good in a Free Archetype game. For the cost of a few archetype feats, you get a great damage sponge to throw around the battlefield.
Beastmaster had a ton of changes in the book right before PC2, Howl of the Wild. I can't remember the exacts but it gave the BM a few new feats that are apparently pretty nice. Great archetype, and as callous as it may sound, the extra HP on the map can do.. a lot of wonders for party survival.
Beastmaster is still one of the strongest archetypes. An extra body is never a bad thing, and the support benefit is amazing. Plus it increases your actions per turn. 1 action to get 2 for your companion, or at level 4, it gets a single action even without commanding it. With the free archetype rule? Its probably the most reliable archetype in the game.
Beastmaster is extremely valuable in a Free Archetype game because it lets a couple classes essentially double up on subclasses and subsequent feats. Druids at my table often choose Beastmaster because they can spend their Druid feats on other Orders. There’s something so cool about seeing two bears (player, AC) tag team an enemy.
Its too good imo. It puts an extra toon on the board. Whether you take the tank bear, or the striker animals, you’re getting insane mileage out of the dedication feat alone. It’s the only FA I’ve considered banning
@@Iceblade269 Maybe at first level it’s a bit strong. But you have to take the feats to build it up or else the animal quickly falls off. And if my players want to spend their FA feats on it, I’m fine with that. Even the feat providing multiple animals is fine because you can’t have more than one out at a time. Versatility is key to both success and fun in PF2. The game is designed to hold an AC. And if you get more than one in the group you can always adjust as necessary. Also, unlike say a familiar or other pet, which I typically avoid going after at all, an Animal Companion gets no special love if it’s actually attacking an opponent. If it’s just playing passively and providing a support benefit, I tend to lay off with the exception of things like AoE. But if that Companion is actually attacking a creature I spare no mercy. And while it can be said that’s the point (wasting a creature’s turn, flanking, etc), and technically it’s done its job, the same can be said about any summoned creature. Additionally, a little more than halfway through the game Strength-built Companions fall off a very steep cliff rather quickly. To stay viable a player has to ultimately switch to a Dexterity-based animal companion. Even then it can be an uphill battle. That’s actually a pet peeve of mine so I’ve made a couple adjustments (both to Animal Companions and to Wild Shape) so my players can “share the bear” from start to finish. Obviously I encourage you to run your game however you want. But taking away a player’s fun toys should always happen only after careful consideration. For me, after 5 years of running this game exhaustively, I can say I don’t find the Animal Companion in general, or even Beastmaster on a Free Archetype, to be overpowered. What’s one more toon when I can always bring out The Dip. I even love how outstandingly good Beastmaster is for a Ranger if the player is sneaky enough (or has read up online, lol) and takes an AC with a Ranger feat and then builds it up via Free Archetype. Going that route the Ranger not only gets to build their Companion/s at the same rate as a Druid, it still lets the player add the Ranger’s Hunter’s Edge/Hunt Prey benefits to their buddy/buddies as well. Very cool and the kind of hidden gem I love in this system.
Marshal got a great buff. 15ft guaranteed aura for your stance helps with guaranteeing that you get your flanking ally in it in just about every case whether one of you has reach or the monster you're flanking is large. It's also an easy DC to enter your stance now instead of a standard DC, so it's basically like you got an untyped +2 bonus to enter the stance. Sucks to not be able to crit succeed for 20ft, but the new easy DC is more than worth the trade off.
I was disappointed that certain archetypes like Talisman Dabbler and Scroll Trickster still don't work in Free Archetype games. They don't have enough feats that you can take 3 of them in a row. Couldn't they just have done what a buch of other archetypes like Blessed One do and pointed some class or skill feats that counted a Archetype feats?
Oh, it counts for flanking. However, if you follow the rules as written, you only have a few commands. Attack, support, etc. ‘flank’ isn’t one of them. So rules as written, YOU’d have to move into flank, because your companion will always move to the closest square to attack. I could be reading the rules wrong, and most GMs I know let you move your companion freely.
@PsiPrimeProductions1 Ah, that explains it. I just presume the companion is trained to move to flanking position for attack actions, because that's totally what you'd train a companion to do.
Not that you were at our table, but my (Pre-remaster) Champion in Quest for the Frozen Flame used Beastmaster rather than the champion feats for a companion, as a note about your gaming group.
On Mauler while the effect is nice I struggle to see any Advanced Weapons I would really want to spend a feat on to give a Martial character. Broadspear adds Sweep to a polearm; not sure that is worth the cost of a feat? Archer on the other hand can be great for Casters to give them extra options for that third attach.
With the change to the Disarm Action I really like Bastion for getting Disarming Block at Level 4. Wrestler is now in the core book and is also a top pick. Champion Dedication is way better now (also it gives training in two skills not one). Not having to spend a Feat at Level 14 to keep up with armour proficiency is really good for games that go to higher levels. Not sure I would ever take Sentinel now; getting Armour Specialism is nice but I think there are better options. On the odd wording about Expert Proficiency this is to stop Monks getting a boost to AC due to their Unarmoured Defence starting at Expert. Scout Dedication also got better. Not sure it has enough options overall but maybe as a late game option.
@@PsiPrimeProductions1Remaster Armor Proficiency now scales to expert on 13. So the Champion route for heavy armor Expert would be worse than a general feat. They had to change how it progressed.
@@PsiPrimeProductions1 I know but given you get to pick your attributes I can not think of a character I would want to build that both needs armour and could not put a few points into Cha. Sure it is a reason for the Archetype to exist but it would never make a Top 5 List for me.
Admittedly, I have less play experience so maybe I'm missing something, but why don't more people talk about Mighty Bulwark in Sentinel (and coming on Guardian) more? Not only does it increase the numerical bonus from Bulwark to a 4 (and "every +1 matters in PF2"), but it also means that it applies to ALL Reflex saves, so now it works against Trip and Disarm, and other non-damage-causing Reflex saves, which seems like it could be pretty significant, and might be the reason why Champions don't get it (leaves something for Sentinel and Guardian). Don't get me wrong; the Champion archetype is still solid on its own. I just think that this is another significant difference between Champion and Sentinel, and one that seems to get overlooked a lot.
Beastmaster is my absolute *LEAST* favourite archetype. Unlike all other archetypes, it doesn't provide features that other classes get but at later levels, it offers the same features at _earlier_ levels, with better availability and bonus abilities, _and_ offers more of them. A Beastmaster Wizard's animal companion scales faster than a Ranger's, the Wizard can have more companions than the Ranger, and the Wizard gets more feats and focus spells to enhance it than the Ranger does. I think that's messed up.
I wish Duelist got changes. Namely akin to the advanced weapons. It feels like the only what to make a Two-Hand (not two-handed) build is to go fighter. It would’ve been great if the archetype gave you Dual-Handed Assault at lvl 8. The only way to get this is fighter lvl 4, or lvl 8 with the archetype
@@PsiPrimeProductions1 Okay I misspoke Two-Hand as in the trait. So Katanas, Bastard swords. Basically you can either fight two handed or keep a hand free for manuevers
The thing about Beastmaster is that it has none of the downsides that the other options have. Animal companions have strong synergy with their master's Strikes, which Druids are not so great at. Rangers Strike better, but their animal companions scale slower; Champions are limited to mounts, and a Summoner's Eidolon is mechanically very different from an animal companion.
So, the Beastmaster archetype allows you to slap a companion with Druid scaling onto any martial, which is a good investment of class feats and an amazing use for a free archetype.
Also, when the Animal Companion matures, it can take an action each turn even if you don't command it. Granted, it can only stride or strike, but considering the beastmaster companion has equal progression to the Druid companion, it has comparable HP,AC, and damage to a martial, so it's like being permanently quickened ,and getting to ignore map on the extra action, and provide flanking from 2 different spots.
I have a barbarian in my group who, even though he can't command an animal while raging, still gets to be such a menace with his giant scorpion helping soak an additional 100 hp worth of damage, as well as dishing damage out themselves.
Best part about "familiarity" is that it now qualifies for Monastic Weaponry. I haven't really seen anyone talk about the changes to Monastic Weaponry.
Nobody talks about Beastmaster's twin sister: Cavalier! This archetype gets you a free mount that scales with your HP and AC, two 40 foot strides for 1 action, and some awesome bonuses with their Support Benefits.
Level 4's Cavalier's Charge feat improves action economy by giving you 2 strides and a strike (With the rare +1 circumstance bonus to hit!) for two actions. Bonus: You can end anywhere within your movement range!
Alternatively, the Level 4 Impressive Mount feat gives your mount a free Stride or Strike every turn you don't Command it. It's a permanent Haste at level 4 with 40 feet of movement!
Also, by taking the Quick Mount Skill feat; you wrap up the archetype's take-2 requirement and save yourself a class feat before moving onto another archetype. Great archetype all around!
Cavalier looks amazing, but I think a lot of people shy away from it for campaign-suitability reasons. Hard to bring your horse into the dungeon!
@@link090909 that’s why you play a halfling with a riding badger.
Beastmaster has a huge change in PC2. Before the remaster, the mature animal companion and other feats on that chain applied to just one of your companions. Now they apply to all of them at the same time and you even get to pick different options like making one nimble and another savage.
Beastmaster is incredibly good in a Free Archetype game. For the cost of a few archetype feats, you get a great damage sponge to throw around the battlefield.
you can do a lot more with it, but just the baseline is "blocker that can threaten and tank hits"
Not sure if I'm emotionally ready to refer to my beloved animal companion as a 'damage sponge.'
Beastmaster had a ton of changes in the book right before PC2, Howl of the Wild. I can't remember the exacts but it gave the BM a few new feats that are apparently pretty nice. Great archetype, and as callous as it may sound, the extra HP on the map can do.. a lot of wonders for party survival.
Beastmaster is still one of the strongest archetypes. An extra body is never a bad thing, and the support benefit is amazing. Plus it increases your actions per turn. 1 action to get 2 for your companion, or at level 4, it gets a single action even without commanding it.
With the free archetype rule? Its probably the most reliable archetype in the game.
Beastmaster is extremely valuable in a Free Archetype game because it lets a couple classes essentially double up on subclasses and subsequent feats. Druids at my table often choose Beastmaster because they can spend their Druid feats on other Orders. There’s something so cool about seeing two bears (player, AC) tag team an enemy.
Its too good imo. It puts an extra toon on the board. Whether you take the tank bear, or the striker animals, you’re getting insane mileage out of the dedication feat alone.
It’s the only FA I’ve considered banning
@@Iceblade269 Maybe at first level it’s a bit strong. But you have to take the feats to build it up or else the animal quickly falls off. And if my players want to spend their FA feats on it, I’m fine with that. Even the feat providing multiple animals is fine because you can’t have more than one out at a time. Versatility is key to both success and fun in PF2. The game is designed to hold an AC. And if you get more than one in the group you can always adjust as necessary. Also, unlike say a familiar or other pet, which I typically avoid going after at all, an Animal Companion gets no special love if it’s actually attacking an opponent. If it’s just playing passively and providing a support benefit, I tend to lay off with the exception of things like AoE. But if that Companion is actually attacking a creature I spare no mercy. And while it can be said that’s the point (wasting a creature’s turn, flanking, etc), and technically it’s done its job, the same can be said about any summoned creature.
Additionally, a little more than halfway through the game Strength-built Companions fall off a very steep cliff rather quickly. To stay viable a player has to ultimately switch to a Dexterity-based animal companion. Even then it can be an uphill battle. That’s actually a pet peeve of mine so I’ve made a couple adjustments (both to Animal Companions and to Wild Shape) so my players can “share the bear” from start to finish.
Obviously I encourage you to run your game however you want. But taking away a player’s fun toys should always happen only after careful consideration. For me, after 5 years of running this game exhaustively, I can say I don’t find the Animal Companion in general, or even Beastmaster on a Free Archetype, to be overpowered. What’s one more toon when I can always bring out The Dip.
I even love how outstandingly good Beastmaster is for a Ranger if the player is sneaky enough (or has read up online, lol) and takes an AC with a Ranger feat and then builds it up via Free Archetype. Going that route the Ranger not only gets to build their Companion/s at the same rate as a Druid, it still lets the player add the Ranger’s Hunter’s Edge/Hunt Prey benefits to their buddy/buddies as well. Very cool and the kind of hidden gem I love in this system.
Marshal got a great buff. 15ft guaranteed aura for your stance helps with guaranteeing that you get your flanking ally in it in just about every case whether one of you has reach or the monster you're flanking is large. It's also an easy DC to enter your stance now instead of a standard DC, so it's basically like you got an untyped +2 bonus to enter the stance. Sucks to not be able to crit succeed for 20ft, but the new easy DC is more than worth the trade off.
I was disappointed that certain archetypes like Talisman Dabbler and Scroll Trickster still don't work in Free Archetype games. They don't have enough feats that you can take 3 of them in a row. Couldn't they just have done what a buch of other archetypes like Blessed One do and pointed some class or skill feats that counted a Archetype feats?
The big changes for the Beastmaster actually came in the form of over a dozen brand new feats in Howl of the Wild, not PC2.
Wait! Why wouldn't an animal companion count for flanking? I've always gmed that way. Did something about the flanking rules change with the remaster?
Oh, it counts for flanking. However, if you follow the rules as written, you only have a few commands. Attack, support, etc. ‘flank’ isn’t one of them. So rules as written, YOU’d have to move into flank, because your companion will always move to the closest square to attack. I could be reading the rules wrong, and most GMs I know let you move your companion freely.
@PsiPrimeProductions1 Ah, that explains it. I just presume the companion is trained to move to flanking position for attack actions, because that's totally what you'd train a companion to do.
Not that you were at our table, but my (Pre-remaster) Champion in Quest for the Frozen Flame used Beastmaster rather than the champion feats for a companion, as a note about your gaming group.
On Mauler while the effect is nice I struggle to see any Advanced Weapons I would really want to spend a feat on to give a Martial character. Broadspear adds Sweep to a polearm; not sure that is worth the cost of a feat?
Archer on the other hand can be great for Casters to give them extra options for that third attach.
I mean, maybe you just want a character with a dope spear? Not every decision has to be optimal. Allowing more character variation is also good.
ooo perfect timing, I just sat down to a snack before bed and was looking for something to watch.
With the change to the Disarm Action I really like Bastion for getting Disarming Block at Level 4. Wrestler is now in the core book and is also a top pick.
Champion Dedication is way better now (also it gives training in two skills not one). Not having to spend a Feat at Level 14 to keep up with armour proficiency is really good for games that go to higher levels. Not sure I would ever take Sentinel now; getting Armour Specialism is nice but I think there are better options.
On the odd wording about Expert Proficiency this is to stop Monks getting a boost to AC due to their Unarmoured Defence starting at Expert.
Scout Dedication also got better. Not sure it has enough options overall but maybe as a late game option.
Remember, Sentinel doesn't have the requirements. So you can get it even with -1 charisma.
@@PsiPrimeProductions1Remaster Armor Proficiency now scales to expert on 13.
So the Champion route for heavy armor Expert would be worse than a general feat.
They had to change how it progressed.
@@PsiPrimeProductions1 I know but given you get to pick your attributes I can not think of a character I would want to build that both needs armour and could not put a few points into Cha. Sure it is a reason for the Archetype to exist but it would never make a Top 5 List for me.
Admittedly, I have less play experience so maybe I'm missing something, but why don't more people talk about Mighty Bulwark in Sentinel (and coming on Guardian) more? Not only does it increase the numerical bonus from Bulwark to a 4 (and "every +1 matters in PF2"), but it also means that it applies to ALL Reflex saves, so now it works against Trip and Disarm, and other non-damage-causing Reflex saves, which seems like it could be pretty significant, and might be the reason why Champions don't get it (leaves something for Sentinel and Guardian).
Don't get me wrong; the Champion archetype is still solid on its own. I just think that this is another significant difference between Champion and Sentinel, and one that seems to get overlooked a lot.
Rogue changed heaps- they took out Battle Assessment and Minor Magic Feats, both great feats for Rogue Archetype
Right, it just didn’t change in Player Core 2. This is a video about player core 2 archetype changes.
Awesome another Archetype top 5 Video cant wait to watch it.
I always have fomo when playing with am archetype, always super worried I'm gonna miss out on the class feats I want
Beastmaster is my absolute *LEAST* favourite archetype.
Unlike all other archetypes, it doesn't provide features that other classes get but at later levels, it offers the same features at _earlier_ levels, with better availability and bonus abilities, _and_ offers more of them.
A Beastmaster Wizard's animal companion scales faster than a Ranger's, the Wizard can have more companions than the Ranger, and the Wizard gets more feats and focus spells to enhance it than the Ranger does.
I think that's messed up.
I wish Duelist got changes. Namely akin to the advanced weapons.
It feels like the only what to make a Two-Hand (not two-handed) build is to go fighter. It would’ve been great if the archetype gave you Dual-Handed Assault at lvl 8. The only way to get this is fighter lvl 4, or lvl 8 with the archetype
Ranger with twin strike and flurry is also solid. There's also a swashbucler build that isn't half bad.
@@PsiPrimeProductions1 Okay I misspoke
Two-Hand as in the trait. So Katanas, Bastard swords. Basically you can either fight two handed or keep a hand free for manuevers
Here is a comment, it doesnt have anything useful to say.