[Tome] Warden

[erik]

erik's commentary

I was won over on the most recent ranger discussion thread that there is conceptual space for a nature-caster that isn't a druid. For D&D it really should be called a Ranger for legacy's sake, but hey Thief became Rogue; why not improve upon Ranger and make this a Warden?

Image is a bit large

Warden
"Aye, I can get you to the foot of Mount Doom. We'll walk right in."

The Warden is a rugged combatant with unmatched mastery in his element. Able to avoid detection and adapt the elements to his best advantage. Wardens represent mysterious rangers and grizzled hunters who have slain beasts that would give nightmares.

Playing a Warden: Wardens while passable front line combatants, specialize in gaining advantage by mastery of their terrain rather than going head-to-head. They are guides and force multipliers. Infiltrating camps, spotting dangers and placing enemies at a disadvantage.

A level or two as a Warden can give some stealth and an animal companion to a martial build.

Alignment: Every alignment has its share of Wardens. Nature knows no allegiance.

Races: Most humanoid races have wilderness savvy individuals, Wardens are rarest in urban societies. Wardens are common among Elves, Lizardfolk and Centaurs. A Warden is rarely seen among the kin of Halflings or Hobgoblins.

Starting Gold: 4d6x10 gp (140 gold)

Starting Age: As Ranger.

Hit Die: d8
Class Skills: The Warden's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Use Rope (Dex).
Skills/Level: 6 + Intelligence Bonus
BAB: Good (1/1), Saves: Fort: Good; Reflex: Good; Will: Poor

Level, Benefit
1 Track, Master of the Wild
2 Favored Terrain +1
3 Great Fortitude
4 Evasion
5 Master of the Wild
6 Favored Terrain +2, Hazard Proof
7 Hunter's Mark
8 Unerring Mark
9 Hazard Proof - Planar
10 Master of the Wild, Favored Terrain +3
11 Slayer's Mark
12 Force of Nature
13 Death Mark
14 Favored Terrain +4
15 Master of the Wild, Run like the Wind
16 Arrow Storm
17 Perfect Tracking
18 Perfect Pursuit, Favored Terrain +5
19 Weather's Wrath
20 Master of the Wild, Earth's Fury


All of the following are Class Features of the Warden class:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Wardens are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and with light armor and shields (except tower shields).

Spells: A Warden casts divine spells which are drawn from the Warden spell list. When a Warden gain access to a new level of spells, she automatically knows all the spells for that level on the Warden spell list; essentially, her spell list is the same as her spells known list. She can cast any spell she knows without preparing it ahead of time.

To cast a Warden spell, a Warden must have a Wisdom score of 10 + the spell's level. The Difficulty Class of the saving throw against a Warden's spells are 10 + the spell's level + her Wis modifier. A Warden has the same number of spells per day as a bard, except that she never gains more than three spell slots per level. She gains bonus spells for a high Wisdom.

A Warden's caster level is equal to her character level, as standard for Tome rules.

0 Level: create water, cure minor wounds, detect magic, detect poison, flare, guidance, light, mending, purify food and drink, read magic, resistance

1st Level: calm animals, charm animal, cure light wounds, detect animals or plants, detect snares and pits, endure elements, entangle, faerie fire, goodberry, hide from animals, jump, longstrider, magic fang, magic weapon, obscuring mist, pass without trace, speak with animals, summon nature's ally I

2nd Level: animal messenger, animal trance, barkskin, bear's endurance, bull's strength, cat's grace, cure moderate wounds, delay poison, firetrap, fog cloud, gust of wind, hold animal, reduce animal, resist energy, lesser restoration, summon nature's ally II, summon swarm, tree shape, warp wood, wood shape

3rd Level: cure serious wounds, daylight, diminish plants, dominate animal, haste, keen edge, greater magic weapon, meld into stone, neutralize poison, plant growth, protection from energy, quench, remove disease, sleet storm, snare, speak with plants, spike growth, stone shape, summon nature's ally II, water breathing, wind wall

4th Level: air walk, antiplant shell, blight, cure critical wounds, freedom of movement, giant vermin, planar tolerance, repel vermin, rusting grasp, spike stones, stoneskin, summon nature's ally IV

5th Level: animal growth, awaken, commune with nature, control winds, mass cure light wounds, deathward, heroes' feast, insect plague, summon nature's ally V, transmute mud to rock, transmute rock to mud, tree stride, wall of thorns

6th Level: antilife shell, find the path, ironwood, liveoak, move earth, repel wood, stone tell, summon nature's ally VI, transport via plants, wall of stone

Track:
At 1st level a Warden gains Track as a bonus [Skill] feat.

Master of the Wild (Ex):
At 1st level, a Warden must select one of two paths to pursue: Beast Master or Master Hunter. This choice affects the character’s class features but does not restrict his selection of feats or special abilities in any way. If a Warden already possesses a feat awarded at a given level he may select a different [Combat] or [Skill] feat respectively instead.

If the Warden selected Beast Master, he receives the [Skill] feat Beast Master.
If the Warden selected Master Hunter, he may select a Favored Enemy whose creature type he as studied extensively to gain advantages in combat. The Warden always has the Edge versus his Favored Enemies. The Warden is a deadly and hardy slayer of creatures. He gains a +2 bonus per Warden level on weapon damage rolls and gains 1/- Damage Reduction per Warden level as well.
Categories of favored enemy are:

• Animate (Construct and Elemental)
  Beast (Animal, Magical Beast and Vermin)
  Dragon
  Nature (Fey and Plant)
  Humanoid (Giants and Monstrous Humanoids)
  Undead
  Weird (Aberration and Ooze)

At 5th level the Warden's aptitude in his chosen path improves.
If the Warden selected Beast Master, he gains a bonus [Skill] feat chosen from the following: Animal Affinity, Mounted Combat, or Swim Like a Fish.
If the Warden selected Master Hunter, he gains an additional Favored Enemy. The Warden also gains a +4 insight bonus to all saving throws versus any racial ability used by his Favored Enemies.

At 10th level the Warden's aptitude in his chosen path improves again.
If the Warden selected Beast Master, his Companion gains either Elusive Target or Juggernaut as a bonus [Combat] feat.
If the Warden selected Master Hunter, he gains either Giant Slayer or Mage Slayer as a bonus [Combat] feat. He also gains an additional Favored Enemy.

At 15th level the Warden's aptitude in his chosen path improves again.
If the Warden selected Beast Master, he may choose to be affected or not by his Companion's special abilities (Su or Ex) if in contact. (ex: A small Warden with a Blink Dog companion could ride his companion and blink in synchrony).
If the Warden selected Master Hunter, his Death Mark DC gains a +4 bonus vs Favored Enemies (DC 27). He also gains an additional Favored Enemy.

At 20th level the Warden's aptitude in his chosen path improves again.
If the Warden selected Beast Master, he gains a +4 bonus to his effective druid level for the purposes of determining his Companion's bonuses.
If the Warden selected Master Hunter, he gains an additional Favored Enemy. The Warden also gains a +4 insight bonus to attack versus his Favored Enemies.

Favored Terrain:
A Warden really does know her surroundings like the back of her hand. The Warden gains a circumstance bonus to Reflex saves, AC and Survival while in her Favored Terrain. At 2nd level and at every 4 levels thereafter (6th, 10th, 14th, 18th) the Warden gains an additional Favored Terrain and her bonus increases.

While in her Favored Terrain a Warden also is treated as having the Edge in combat and is unaffected by difficult terrain or environmental threats. Finally, while in her Favored Terrain the Warden may take 10 minutes to make a successful DC 20 Survival check to locate a suitable shelter. A shelter can host 1 medium sized creature per Warden level comfortably, and 2 medium sized creatures per Warden level if packed in tightly. This shelter will protect all occupants from environmental effects and ranged attacks made from outside the shelter.

Terrains available:
Desert, Forest, Mountain, Plain, Swamp, Tundra, or Underdark.

Great Fortitude:
At 3rd level a Warden gains Great Fortitude as a bonus [Skill] feat.

Evasion (Ex):
At 4th level a Warden can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the Warden is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless Warden does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Hazard Proof (Su):
At 6th level the Warden may as a standard action emanate an aura for 1 round that protects against natural hazards to a radius of 60' and all terrain is treated as stable ground. For example he Warden could activate Hazard Proof and guide her party safely up as rocks and earth raged all around in an avalanche, or they could walk safely across quicksand.

At 9th level the Warden continuously emanates Planar Tolerance to a radius of 60' as a Supernatural ability.

Hunter's Mark (Ex):
At 7th level the Warden may as a swift action choose an enemy to focus her attention upon. The Warden has a +2 Competence bonus to attack rolls upon this enemy as well as a +2 Competence bonus to all opposed rolls vs. this opponent.

Unerring Mark (Ex):
At 8th level the Warden may reroll one attack roll per round against an opponent she has marked with her Hunter's Mark.

Slayer's Mark (Su):
At 11th level the Warden may as a free action once per round treat a missile weapon as having the Slaying property as a Slaying Arrow against an opponent she has marked with her Hunter's Mark.

Force of Nature (Sp):
A Warden can not be stopped. At 12th level the Warden gains the ability to cast Freedom of Movement as a spell-like ability at will on herself or her Companion, if any.

Death Mark (Su):
At 13th level the Warden may as a free action once per round treat a missile weapon as having the Greater Slaying property as a Greater Slaying Arrow against an opponent she has marked with her Hunter's Mark.

Run like the Wind (Sp):
At 15th level the Warden gains the ability to cast Wind Walk as a spell-like ability once per day.

Arrow Storm (Su):
At 16th level the Warden as a full attack action can fire an arrow at each and every target within range, to a maximum of one target for every Warden level she has earned. Each attack uses the archer’s primary attack bonus, and each enemy may only be targeted by a single arrow.

Perfect Tracking (Sp):
At 17th level a Warden may cast Discern Location as spell-like ability 2 times per day.

Perfect Pursuit (Sp):
At 18th level a Warden may use the planar travel function of Gate as spell-like ability 2 times per day.

Weather's Wrath (Sp):
At 19th level a Warden may cast Control Weather as spell-like ability once per day. The casting time and delay are only a full-round action rather than 10 minutes.

Earth's Fury (Su):
At 20th level, a Warden can become one with the land. Once per day she may as a standard action Meld into Stone and project a body made of earth. The Warden's new body effectively is under the effect of a Shapechange to Earth Elemental forms only, Small to Elder (Elder is allowed despite the HD limit). Should her earth body be killed while in this form, a new body will reform above where she melded into stone 1d3 rounds later. Equipment worn or carried is copied with the new body as similarly to Astral Projection. When Earth's Fury ends the equipment and body crumble to the ground as an inert pile of earth.

Earth's Fury can be cancelled at will by the Warden or when the Meld into Stone has been disrupted.
___________________

Beast Master [Skill] Feat

Beast Master [Skill]
You are the alpha.
Handle Animal ranks:
0: You have Animal Empathy. This allows you to use your Handle Animal check for Diplomacy with animals.
4: Animal Companion. This ability functions like the druid ability of the same name. A beast master may select from the alternative lists of animal companions just as a druid can with his effective druid level equal to his character level. Like a druid, a beast master cannot select an alternative animal if the choice would reduce his effective druid level below 1st.
9: You can Speak with Animals at will as a spell-like ability.
14: Magical Beast Companion. Your alternative Animal Companion instead of being an animal may be a Magical Beast. The effective druid level cost for a magical beast is equal to its CR+4, and a remainder of at least 1 additional effective druid level is required to take a magical beast (ex: a Behir at CR 8 would require 13 effective druid levels in order to be taken as a Magical Beast Companion). Remaining effective druid levels give additional bonuses as with alternative Animal Companions. The Companion must be a single creature, swarms are not acceptable selections.
19: Animals come when your need is greatest. As a spell like ability you may Summon Nature's Ally VII to summon animal entries only, once per day.

[erik]

I'm not quite done yet, but I just started this tonight and I really ought get to bed for work tomorrow morning.

[erik]

There we go. It's pretty much done and ready to be torn apart with criticism.

It tracks through all levels. It helps the party get through enviros at all levels. It isn't a total wash in combat either.

There may be some confusing wording or copypasta fails since I did most of the work in one evening.

[TarkisFlux]

Ignoring spell selection because I can't be assed to think about it at the moment. Also doing features in random order, because I've got less time now than I thought.

Bonus feats are fucked. Actually fucked. Let's say they take Beast Master. They get Track, Beast Master, Great Fortitude, Bonus Feat, Bonus Skill Feat, and then 4 more Bonus Feats for a grand total of 9 bonus feats over their 20 levels. They get 5 of by level 5, and 6 by 10. For comparison, the Knight gets 2 by level 10. The samurai gets 4 by 10. The fighter gets 6 by 10 and 11 by 20, and is the closest comparison. That is a shitty thing in this case. You have too many feats here and need to lose some of them.

Nature's Hearth is not a 7th level ability. It might be for planar environments, but spending 10 minutes to protect yourself against biting cold or desert heat in a stationary place seems more like a level 1 extension of a favored environment.

Run like the wind may as well be continuous. It's walking on air. At level 15. After you gave them at-will FoM. Who cares?

More later probably.

[erik]

Thanks. =-)
I was expecting to scale it back some. I try and start on the high end and pare it down as required. In this case I was comparing him to a Druid and thinking is this better or worse than a Druid? Weaker spells, better animal companion or much better in combat vs. favored enemies. Durability is probably a bit less than a Druid unless vs. a favored enemy.

Nature's Hearth was meant to be an alternative to Leomund's Secure Shelter which comes online at 7th level (and takes 10 min casting time), but without the spells and amenities. Still, an early extension to Favored Terrain is fair.

I can dump Nature's Lore entirely. I tend to rate the Skill feats as less valuable than the Combat feats which is why I was happy to spread them all over the place like nutella. But they can go and that puts the bonus feats down to 3 or 4.

I don't feel bad about the high level SLAs because if anything they those are coming on later than primary casters get em. FoM is a bit redundant since they could potentially cast it 3+ times a day at level 14 anyway.

I'll try and make some tweaks with your advice in mind later this evening.


[edit: UPDATED!
I wiped out Nature's Lore, moved Nature's Hearth into Favored Terrain, and shifted Evasion and Unstoppable up a couple levels to fill in gaps for empty levels. Also shifted up Unerring Mark and Hazard Proof - Planar to fill in gaps, also so that Planar Tolerance for the party comes online as soon as Planeshift (9th level) in case thar be primary caster in the party.

I realized I forgot a level 20 Master of Wild so popped that in there and got rid of the Shield Other ability since it was lame. For Master Hunter I bumped the +4 attack bonus to the end and popped in a simple gaining of the Edge vs. favored enemies.

Reduced The Wind Walk to 1/day instead of 2, since 1 really should be plenty.

I tried to clean up the language for Beast Master feat in calculating EDL for alternative companions. Still not super satisfied with it, but it will hold for now. Having Magical Beasts costing their CR+4 seems about right, and I have no interest in actually writing out a full list of critters on a per level basis.

The spell list was mostly just taking the druid list and then throwing in a few cleric/buff spells (MW, GMW, Heroes' Feast). I think I'll trim out some more of the druid spells since there's no good reason to have Heat/Chill Metal and some others. It was done as a quick and dirty measure. Hah, I just noticed I miswrote Barkskin as bearskin. I saw that and was like, "What the hell is bearskin?" Anywho, I cleaned up the spell list a bit now.

I put in a rider on the capstone ability since I wanted the Warden to basically be using Shapechange to have an earth body, and realized that equipment was getting left behind. Oops. The wording might need cleaned up on this one too. The capstone ability may be abuseable, but it is level 20 and it isn't an instant win button so I'm happy with it. Also made it explicit that the ability can be ended by screwing with the Meld into Stone.

[TarkisFlux]

I think I would have gone a different way with the bonus feats. Rather than putting them in the Master of the Wild feature, I'd have just given them a bonus one to pick from at 5 or 10. That feature seems all about whether you hate certain foes super hard or have a pet that helps you kill stuff, and the bonus feats for you just sort of get in the way of that. The damage bonus of Master Hunter is probably fine though, even if it does require you to play "read the DM's mind about the campaign" before you pick one. Or two. The DR is similarly adequate, but the lack of energy resistance or other defensive measures will probably hurt.

Favored terrain going to level 18 for non-planar stuff is a joke. Rangers suck on the plane of fire and in the acid pools of the abyss I guess. You probably want this done by category with an adjustment time or something instead. So a ranger can build a structure anywhere with an hour , and can adapt to a terrain after a few days or a week there. Once adapted they get edge and can make houses in a few minutes. They get this in any prime terrain at level 2, transitive planes at level 8, and outer / inner planes at level 12. Or something. The straight numerical bonuses are largely unnecessary, and I can't come up with a way to make them relevant without also being too much to track in any system that includes prime and planar terrains. Which isn't to say you shouldn't try if you're dissatisfied with my plan, of course.

Hazard proof sort of competes with the above changes, and they should probably be a tag team of some sort - one for travel, one for resting. Maybe travel immunity happens after resting immunity, maybe the other way around. Point is that that one levels appropriately, while favored terrain does not.

Hunter's Mark as a swift seems like it fails to punish deviation sufficiently, in that there's no penalty other than lost efficacy for not changing your mark to whatever you happen to feel like shooting. Or maybe I just hate marking mechanics.

Run Like the Wind... Why the fuck did you reduce it? It's the same level as a spell they already get as an at-will SLA. It's the method by which the class gains flight. Saying "1 should be plenty" needs justification, since you're asking them to use their slots or gear for it now and not doing that with FoM.

Earth's Fury seems a bit underwhelming for a 20 honestly. If you want it to be a natural form of astral projection, just do that already. You may as well just write a few properties that they gain instead. Like an earth body, DR, slam attacks, earth glide, selectable size, and magical copies of whatever gear they were using.

[erik]

Re: Lack of Energy Resistance. Hunh. I thought Protection from Energy was on the spell list since I was just copy-pasting the druid list mostly. That's a copy-paste fail on my part. I'll put that in there. They have Resist Energy already, but it was an error that I left out Prot from Energy.

I don't think that being a Master Hunter where you are great at killing a few creature types necessarily means you need to mind-read the DM. Hopefully the DM takes it into account and gives you a chance to shine every now and then. Nothing says you can't talk to the DM when making a character too. One thing I wanted to avoid with the Favored Enemy mechanic was problematic shit like getting a bonus on skill checks vs. creatures. For the most part I'm happy that the bonuses aren't a pain in the ass to track and the Save bonus should be memorable enough that you won't forget it.

Favored Terrain at 18th level is still notching up the bonus some. Other planes may well have mountain terrain or whatever and still gain applicable bonuses. I'm not sure that's a total joke. I don't understand the complaint about sucking on the plane of fire, you grant Planar Tolerance to the party via Hazard Proof so you're not hosed. You don't have the terrain bonus to AC/Ref/Survival but that's not a huge set back.

Re: Deviation of Hunter's Mark. I was mostly wanting to have it so you pick one guy to focus on during a round, and I didn't want to have irritating multi-round tracking type marking because that's the shit that irritates me about marking.

For Run like the Wind, does it need to be on all the time? By the time you get it it lasts 15 hours. I thought more than that was probably pointless. And maybe people don't want to be gassy 24/7.

[TarkisFlux]

The energy resist thing was a reference to the favored enemy bit, not in general (though yay patching). If your favored enemies are elementals, why do you not reduce their energy damage as well as their physical damage without casting a spell? Similarly, if you take dragons, why do you not reduce the damage of their breath weapons without casting a spell?

As for the mind reading... you're suggesting metagaming instead? That's completely possible, but doesn't remove the potential for a problem. The DM could be honest with you, and then everyone else at the table could decide that they want to go in a different direction when something comes up. If you drop that damage bonus, I'm not really sure what your contribution to combat is. A few bonus feats and backup spells don't really cut it. What does he contribute in a fight when he's not shooting at mooks or his favored enemy?

I missed that Planar Tolerance went to a free action, which means it's pretty much good for everything. As long as you're awake. I'm not sure what you do when you want to sleep though. So the concern is reduced, but still stands.

I suppose I could have been more clear that the bonuses from favored terrain were unnecessary even in this format. They stack with all of the other bonuses you're passing out, and you can get some pretty ridiculous stuff eventually. I'm just not a fan of large number deviations like that, particularly ones of a type that stack with everything else you're giving out.

Air walk lasts 10 min/level, just like FoM. I don't know where you're getting 15 hours from.

[erik]

Re: reducing energy damage from enemies, mostly because I don't want too many fiddly bits. They can do it via spells and that's enough for me. At higher levels they get +4 save to go with their Evasion and that would tend to reduce damage further.

I was envisioning Master Hunter as a grizzled slayer of whatever who could go toe to toe with their prey. Giant Slayer at level 10 is in case they want to be mixing it up with big beasts, Mage Slayer is in case they want to be mixing it up with caster critters.

Run like the Wind is not Air Walk, it is Wind Walk.
(checks to make certain... yay, I did actually write Wind Walk. I was worried for a sec there)

Contribution in Combat for a Beast Master is fairly simple. Critter + Normal Attacks = enough damage to matter/enough meat shield to matter.

Master Hunter would be swingy definitely. Heavy damage/tanking vs. favored enemies. vs. everyone else he is unremarkable. Hrm. Dammit. At mid-high levels they throw out save or die arrows, but nothing unique at low to mid-low levels.

In this a Warden is not terribly different from a Tome Fighter or Kantian Paladin when fighting non-Favored Enemies (or non-evil enemies for a fair comparison) at lower levels. I'll stew on that. My gut reaction is that whatever combat feats you select are going to be how you're contributing at low levels.

I may condense the Favored Enemy lists some more to make them more frequently occurring, especially since I left out a couple creature types. It was an intentional omission to leave out vanilla humanoids, however, and I expect to stand by that. If you're hunting your fellow kind, that's an Assassin.

Animate (Construct + Elemental)
Beast (Animal, Magical Beast and Vermin)
Dragon
Nature (Fey and Plant)
Humanoid (Giants + Monstrous Humanoids)
Undead
Weird (Aberration + Ooze)

In a city campaign with all humans a Warden doesn't really get to shine, but that's not really surprising either.

I think to solve Planar Tolerance I'll just have it as an always on aura and also put it as a spell on their list to assist party members who will be exiting the aura.

[TarkisFlux]

Fair enough on energy resist being too fiddly, though reflex saves won't assist you against fire elemental punches.

The comparison of Master Hunter Wardens to Kantian Pallys goes poorly for them though, as the Pally can grant immunities via aura and also have a special mount cohort with potential offensive abilities on top of occasionally dealing lots of damage to a particular set of foes. In that comparison it looks like you could give most of Beast Master and Master Hunter without making the Pally cry. The fighter comparison is too variable for me to want to work out, so I'll just concede it.

My bad about Wind Walk, and my apologies. It is overland flight though, and definitely not tactical flight. If you want them to have tactical flight I stand by my suggestion of Air Walk as continuous about that level instead. You could add Wind Walk to their spell list as a 5 or 6 in that case (the 6 delays acquisition by 1 level but should be otherwise fine).

I support your compressed list and the exclusion of humanoids. No Outsiders though? I don't care really, just curious if there was a reason or an oversight.

Planar Tolerance as a non-action aura would be fine. I'm not sure I'd give it at 9 (so you could have field trips but not stay overs), but certainly by 14 or so.

[Korgan0]

This still runs into the problem of having a bunch of bonuses be entirely contingent on whether or not you're facing the right kind of enemy or not, with no benefits if you're facing the wrong kind. I'd do what other tome rangers have done, and add minor bonuses based on the type of enemy you get favoured enemy bonuses against that nevertheless are always useful.

[...You Lost Me]

An animal companion will remain useful in all fights, but favored enemy bonuses are very contingent on choosing the right enemies. I don't see much reason to not go for Beast Master.

[OgreBattle]

What animals would you recommend per level?

[erik]

Perhaps Master Hunter gets the Damage and DR bonuses always just by being a badass slayer of things.

I didn't have outsiders as favored enemies because they're so varied that I don't really like them as favored enemies. That said, I could see a blanket anti-outsider. Maybe I'll grant them as a freebie favored enemy at level 10 tho.

As for recommended companions... depends what you want. Meat shield, mount, DPS, grappler. Extra niches get even more varied with magical beasts.

Wolf or Riding Dog is typical at level 1.
I'm partial to Ape at level 4 because they have 10' reach, or Direbat for a Flying mount.
Rhino is a fine meatshield and gives good damage on charges at level 7

At 11th you can start getting magical beasties... up to CR 6.
my personal favorites would be:
Aranea
5 head breath-weapon Hydra
Phase Spider
Unicorn
Winder Wolf
Or any of a number of large flying critters

I did learn that Lamia are Magical Beasts instead of Monstrous Humanoids. That's stupid. If not for it being stupid I'd recommend them for their Wisdom drain + SLAs

At level 13 a Hellwasp Swarm seems an obvious choice (again weird that they are logged as Magical Beast instead of say, outsider). I'm thinking about putting in a rider "no swarms" because that's fucked.


too busy to touch anything right now, maybe this evening

[erik]

There. I changed the Master Hunter as above. Bonus Dmg/DR is against any opponent. Vs. Favored Enemies can now gain +4 DC to the slaying arrows and bumped up the +4 save bonus vs Favored Enemies to be earlier. Removed references to level of Favored Enemy bonus since the are no longer level dependent.

I'm still leaving outsiders alone. Maybe there should be a Combat feat for dealing with outsiders if someone wants to be a banisher/demon slayer or something. Outsiders are such a huge and varied chunk of monsters that I think they deserve their own prestige class or combat feat at least.

I put in an explicit rider for the Beast Master that when in contact with their companion they can choose to be affected or not by their Ex or Su abilities. So they can ride their Remorhaz now. Yay.

Explicitly outlawed swarm companions.