WARRIOR-RANGER KIT

Beastmaster

Description:  A wanderer, the Beastmaster has a natural affinity for animals 
that exceeds even that normally possessed by Rangers.  Unlike other adventuring 
Rangers, the Beastmaster does not command, train, or control his or her animal 
companions; rather, they are his or her friends and comrades in arms.  They tend 
to isolate themselves from human contact, accompanied only the fierce natural 
beasts that are their friends and allies.  Often misunderstood and feared by 
rural and urban folk alike, the Beastmaster seldom stays in one place for long, 
nor is he or she comfortable in civilized lands.  They keep to the fringes of 
civilized lands, having small use for the trappings and constraints of such 
society.

Beastmasters must be human, half-elven, or half-orcish.  They can be of chaotic 
neutral, chaotic good, or neutral good alignment and must have a Constitution 
score of at least 15.

Weapons & Armor:  A Beastmaster must begin play with proficiencies selected from 
the following weapons only, and must spend all initial proficiency slots:  axe 
(hand), blowgun, club, dart, knife, javelin, sling, staff, spear.  They may 
possess only leather or hide armor when created, and will never wear armor other 
than leather, studded leather, hide, and studded hide and they can only use 
shields made of wood, bone, hide, or other 'natural' materials.

Special Benefits:  Many of a Beastmaster's special abilities derive from their 
close relationship with wild and tame animals of all sorts, but they also share 
many of the standard Ranger abilities.

Animal Empathy:  As a standard Ranger, but Beastmasters also have the ability to 
establish telepathic contact with any normal or giant natural animal within 30' 
with an Intelligence of at least 1.  This requires intense concentration and 
prevents the Beastmaster from doing anything else in the round that this ability 
is used.  The Beastmaster can communicate fully with the contacted creature and 
can indicate to the creature that he or she desires its friendship.  If the 
offer is sincere (and the animal will know if it not), the creature will be 
calmed and will not attack or flee unless it is itself attacked.  A reaction 
must be rolled, but the reaction will be Indifferent at worst.  In addition, he 
or she can attempt to use his or her Animal Empathy ability to improve this.

Animal Henchmen:  Any animal that has a Friendly reaction with the Beastmaster 
can be recruited as a henchman.  If the animal fails a save vs. rods with a -1 
penalty for every three levels of the Beastmaster (rounding up), he or she will 
become bonded to the Beastmaster and become a faithful henchman in the service 
of the Beastmaster.  The Beastmaster can gain such animal henchmen at any level, 
up to the maximum allowed by his or her Charisma score.  Once an animal has been 
bonded with a Beastmaster in this fashion, he or she gains the ability to 
communicate with such henchmen, as per the speak with animals spell.  The 
Beastmaster automatically gains the benefits of the Animal Lore proficiency with 
respect to any and all bonded animals.  Further, once the Beastmaster has 
attained 5th level he or she gains the ability to mentally communicate with any 
and all bonded animal henchmen over any distance (but not across planar 
boundaries), enabling the Beastmaster to directly explain tricks or tasks that 
he or she wishes the animal to attempt and enabling both partners in the mental 
link to communicate their needs and desires.  At 5th level and above, a 
Beastmaster can also see through the eyes of any bonded animal henchman, though 
he or she cannot see through his or her own eyes while using this ability.  
Bonded animal followers never need to make a morale check, and they gain the 
combat bonus versus the Beastmaster's species enemy.

In addition to the above, an amount of experience points equal to half those 
gained by the Beastmaster is distributed equally amongst all of the 
Beastmaster's animal henchmen.  These henchmen advance on the fighter experience 
point table, and every time they gain a "level" they gain 3 hit points and a +1 
bonus to their THAC0.

Animal Horde:  At 9th level or above, a Beastmaster can summon a horde of wild 
animals to fight for him or her.  These animals can be summoned only in the 
Beastmaster's primary terrain, and it takes a full week for them to assemble.  
This horde must be brought together for some specific great purpose that can be 
explained simply.  Up to 100 hit dice of animals per level of the Beastmaster 
can be summoned.  For every ten animals that arrive, there will be one pack 
leader with one extra hit die and maximum hit points.  The horde will stay 
together for one week for each level of the Beastmaster.  This ability can be 
used only once each year.

Coordinated Attack:  Beastmasters are able to use their empathy with bonded 
animal henchmen to make a special Coordinated Attack.  To attempt this, a 
Beastmaster and one of his or her followers must each attempt a single attack on 
a given opponent in the same round, forgoing multiple attacks that are usually 
allowed (an animal will use its most damaging single attack), with a +2 bonus 
granted to the animal follower's attack.  The Coordinated Attack has the speed 
factor of either the Beastmaster's attack or that of the animal, whichever is 
slower.  If either attack misses, that attacker automatically loses initiative 
on the following round.  If both hit, both attacks will cause double normal 
damage.  A Coordinated Attack involves only one follower and may be attempted 
only once against a particular opponent during a given combat encounter.

Pathfinding:  As a standard Ranger.

Priestly Powers:  As a standard Ranger, but a Beastmaster gains magical 
abilities as a Ranger one level lower than his or her actual level.

Roguish Repertoire:  As a standard Ranger, but in addition a Beastmaster learns 
many of the tricks of stealth of the animal kingdom, gaining a +5 bonus to all 
thieving skills.

Species Enemy:  As a standard Ranger.

Superior Conditioning:  As a standard Ranger.

Tracking:  As a standard Ranger.

Special Hindrances:  Beastmasters tend to eschew the trappings of 'civilized' 
society and the greed that consumes it.  They will never build a fortress or 
establish any permanent habitation in a civilized area, and in addition they 
begin play with a free suit of hide armor but otherwise only 1d4 x 10 g.p. with 
which to purchase other equipment.  They tend to prefer simple weapons rather 
than those traditionally preferred by Rangers and do not practice archery and 
the arts of missile combat to the extent that other Rangers do, forsaking the 
Missile Mastery class ability and the ability to make use of weapon or shield 
specialization.

In addition to avoiding the material trappings of civilization, Beastmasters 
tend to be self-imposed outcasts from society, suffering a -1 penalty to 
reaction rolls with common NPCs and a -2 penalty with those from the upper 
class.  Further, their maximum effective Charisma when dealing with civilized 
society is 15.  They must come from a Wilderness background and may never take 
any Urban non-weapon proficiencies.  A Beastmaster can never retain humanoid 
henchmen or hirelings, and they do not gain Followers as a typical Ranger does, 
preferring instead the company of any Animal Henchmen they are able to attract.

The deep bond of the Beastmaster with his or her Animal Henchmen imposes certain 
risks as well as the benefits described above.  Anytime that one of his or her 
animal henchmen is wounded, the Beastmaster suffers a -1 penalty to all die 
rolls for the next round.  If more than one henchman is injured in the same 
round, this penalty is doubled to -2 on the succeeding round, but the penalty 
can never be more than this.  If one of his or her bonded henchmen is killed, he 
or she will be stricken with grief and will suffer a -2 penalty to all die rolls 
for the next 24 hours.  It should be noted that a Beastmaster's Animal Henchmen 
are not under his or her direct control and are free to come, go, or act as they 
will, though the Beastmaster can exert significant influence over their actions.  
Any attempt to habitually restrict their freedom or a pattern of ignoring their 
needs and desires will result in resentment, sulkiness, and possible abandonment.

Bonus Proficiencies:  Survival (home terrain), Tracking
Preferred Proficiencies:  Acute Hearing, Agriculture, Alertness, Ambush, Animal 
Lore, Animal Noise, Bowyer/Fletcher, Camouflage, Direction Sense, Disease 
Resistance, Distance Sense, Endurance, Excellent Vision, Fire-building, Fleet 
Footed, Foraging, Hunting, Intimidation, Jumping, Leatherworking, 
Mountaineering, Night Vision, Running, Survival, Swimming, Tattooing, Veterinary 
Healing, Weather Sense
Forbidden Proficiencies:  Armorer, Engineer-Artillerist, Engineering, Etiquette, 
Fortification, Heraldry, Weaponsmithing, plus any Urban proficiencies