Dungeons & Dragons 5e Element 133 Class Feature: Ranger: Command

Your ability to command and work with creatures has increased, and you gain proficiency in Animal Handling. If you are already proficient, double it. If it is already doubled, triple it. Additionally, you gain the following abilities;

Command/Rebuke Animals

You may spend an action to turn, command, or rebuke beasts and monsters. Your allegiance (good or evil) determines the effect you can have on some monstrous abominations. A character of good allegiance can turn the monstrous, driving them away or perhaps destroying them. One of the evil allegiances can use negative energy to rebuke the monstrous, causing the creatures to cower in her presence. (In the text that follows, up to the section on Effect and Duration of Turning, “turning” refers to turning or rebuking, whichever is appropriate for a particular Ranger.)

How Turning Works: A Scout can turn beasts and monsters (or other types of creatures at a higher level) as an attack action. Doing so does not provoke an attack of opportunity. To do so a Scout performs a call or physical movement meant to intimidate the creature, what this looks like depends on the player and on the creature you are attempting to turn.

Times per Day: A Scout may attempt to turn a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier.

Range: The Scout turns the closest turnable creature first. She can’t turn creatures that are more than 60 feet away or that have total cover.

Turning Check: First, roll a turning check to determine how powerful a creature you can turn. This is a Charisma check (1d20 + Charisma modifier). The table below shows the Hit Dice of the most powerful creature you can affect, relative to your tier. With a given turning attempt, you can’t turn any creature whose Hit Dice exceeds the result of your turning check.

Turning Damage: If your turning check result is high enough to let you turn at least some of the beasts (or other appropriate) creatures within 60 feet, roll 3d6 and add your tier and your Charisma modifier to the result to determine turning damage. That’s how many total Hit Dice of beasts (or other) creatures you can turn on this attempt.

You may skip over already turned creatures that are still within range so that you don’t waste your turning capacity on them.

Effect and Duration of Turning: Turned creatures flee from the Scout by the best and fastest means available to them. A turned creature flees for 10 rounds (1 minute). If it can’t flee, it cowers (can take no actions, –2 penalty to AC).

If the Scout moves to within 10 feet of a cowering turned creature, it overcomes the turning and can act normally. (The Scout can be standing within 10 feet of the creature without breaking the turning effect; she just can’t approach any closer to the creature.) The Scout can attack a turned and cowering creature with ranged attacks from more than 10 feet away, and others can attack in any fashion, without breaking the turning effect.

Destroying Monsters: If the Scout has twice as many tiers (or more) as the beast has Hit Dice, she may choose to destroy any creature that she would normally turn.

Evil Scouts and Monsters: A Scout with evil allegiance channels negative energy to rebuke (awe) or command (control) monsters, instead of turning or destroying them. An evil Scout makes the equivalent of a turning check. Creatures that would be turned are rebuked instead, and those that would be destroyed are commanded.

Rebuked: A rebuked creature cowers as if in awe (can take no actions, –2 penalty to AC) for 10 rounds.

Commanded: A commanded creature falls under the mental control of the Scout. The Scout can give mental orders to a commanded creature as an attack action. The Scout can command any number of creatures whose total Hit Dice don’t exceed her Tier. She may voluntarily relinquish command to establish command on different creatures.

Dispel Turning: An evil Scout may dispel the turning effect of a good Scout. To do so, the evil Scout makes a turning check as if attempting to rebuke. If the turning check result is equal to or greater than the turning check result that the good Scout scored when turning them, then the creatures are no longer turned. The evil Scout rolls turning damage to see how many Hit Dice worth of creatures she can affect in this way.

Bolster Beast: An evil Scout may bolster creatures against turning effects in advance. She makes a turning check as if attempting to rebuke them, but the Hit Dice result becomes the creatures’ effective Hit Dice as far as turning is concerned (provided the result is higher than the creatures’ normal Hit Dice). This bolstering lasts for 10 rounds.