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I've already mentioned that I've struggled to find fun Fighter subclasses, since most of the class fantasy of its subclasses better suits other, more thematic classes. I like the idea of having animal companions, but almost all of them are nature-themed in some way. somanyrobots' Houndmaster, however, captures non-nature-themed mastery over beasts perfectly. Like they already encouraged in the subclass description itself, I've taken some liberty with what types of "war hounds" you can summon, to allow for a bit of customization, gameplay variation and roleplaying opportunities. More on those choices below!
SUBCLASS FEATURES
When you adopt this archetype at 3rd level, you gain Expertise in Animal Handling.
In addition, you learn the Animal Friendship spell, with Wisdom as your spellcasting modifier. You can cast it once, regaining the ability to do so after a Long Rest.
NOTES Expertise in a niched but thematic skill. The original version of this feature granted you the ability to revive beasts, since your hounds actually make Death Saving Throws (more on that below), but since they're instantly unsummoned when they die in BG3, I opted for an Animal Friendship spell instead.
Additionally at 3rd level, you gain the companionship of a hound. Choose between a dog, who excels at flanking your enemies, a worg, who can reduce the combat effectiveness of nearby enemies, or a blink dog, who offers unparalleled mobility by teleporting across the battlefield. Initially, you have one companion hound, receiving an additional hound at levels 7 and 10. See its game statistics in the accompanying War Hound stat block, which uses your Proficiency Bonus in several places.
When one of your hounds is reduced to 0 hit points, it begins making Death Saving Throws as if it were a player character. You may stabilize one of your hounds within 1.5m as a Bonus Action.
NOTES Okay, so first things first. I went with with three different choices that go with different playstyles/player race choices while still sticking to dog-like creatures, where I figured the regular dog was the most "standard" choice for perhaps a noble houndmaster or a good-aligned character, the worg was meant for your less-than-good, more aggressive character, and the blink dog for elves or other races connected to the Feywild. You're of course welcome to pick whatever you want, but I did add a bit of dialogue for each of these types that are a bit thematic for the type of animal they are (hint: the worg is a bit more violent than the others). I decided not to include wolves because they're already available for Beast Master Rangers, and for the same reason I didn't include the Hound of Ill Omen (Nimbus) as that would encroach on the Shadow Sorcerer too much.
That being said, the original iteration of this feature is much more restrained than what I chose to implement, simply because Larian chose a similar approach for e.g. the Beast Master Ranger. First, you don't have to sacrifice one of your own attacks to order a hound to attack. They can move and attack just like any other familiar or summoned creature. Second, the hounds heal like usual during short rests—you don't have to use your own hit dice to heal them, and they will heal as much as a regular player character would. Third, the war hound summon spell has a Short Rest cooldown, so you don't have to spend a week to find a replacement if it dies. The original is likely better when playing tabletop D&D, but this way is arguably more appealing in a video game.
Also at 3rd level, you and your hound learn to work together to pressure an enemy's defenses. As a Bonus Action after you hit an enemy with a weapon attack, you can command one of your hounds within 1.5m of the target to immediately make an attack as a Bonus Action.
You can command your pack of hounds in this way a number of times equal to 1 + your Wisdom Modifier, regaining all uses after a Long Rest.
NOTES For some reason, Larian never implemented a way to break the initiative order to "immediately" do something that you've used a resource to do. Hence, using this ability allows your hounds to use a Bonus Action attack on their coming turn (or immediately, if you're in the same initiative order). This one had a strange but small bug—nothing gamebreaking, but potentially annoying—that I've mentioned down in the bug section.
At 7th level, you and your hounds make an excellent tracking team. When within 18m of your hounds, you can add your Wisdom Modifier when you make Perception or Survival checks. Furthermore, your hounds will automatically sniff their way to buried treasures.
NOTES Since summoned creatures don't make passive checks (afaik), I simply reflavored this as you working together with your hounds to find hidden objects and enemies. I also added Scratch's sniff aura, which I honestly haven't tested to see if it works properly, so please let me know if it doesn't or if it behaves strangely!
Also at 7th level, your hounds' combat skill increases. They gain the following features:
Evasion. When the war hound is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage on a success, and only half damage on a failure.
Magic Fangs. The war hound's attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming Resistance and Immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Directed Assault. The war hound adds your Wisdom Modifier to its attack and damage rolls.
NOTES Greatly increases the defensive and offensive capabilities of your war hounds. Evasion works like the Monk/Rogue class feature and Magic Fangs is essentially Moon Druids' Primal Strike. Directed Assault is the only strictly unique feature, but was easy enough to implement and rewards you for increasing your Wisdom stat.
At 10th level, your hounds' combat abilities improve. You can select an additional ability for each of your war hounds out of the following options:
Crippling Fangs. After the hound deals damage to an enemy, that creature must roll 1d4 and subtract the result from its next attack roll before the start of your next turn.
Savage Rush. The hound's speed increases by 3m, and in the first round of combat, the hound can Dash as a Bonus Action.
NOTES Unlocks a spell that you can use to target your summoned hounds to give them an additional feature. Remember to do so every time you summon them! The original also included an additional feature that allowed the hound to more easily grapple targets, but since grappling isn't really a thing in (vanilla) BG3, I just removed it.
At 15th level, when you use your Commanded Attack feature, you may command all your war hounds instead of just one.
NOTES *Requires a mod that allows levelling past level 12.* Simple and to the point. Changes the amount of targets of Commanded Attack from 1 to 3. They still need to be in melee range of the creature you initially attacked though.
At 18th level, you and your hounds fight in perfect coordination with one another. Whenever any of your hounds deals damage to a target, the next attack you make against that target within 1 minute deals an additional 1d4 damage. This effect can stack up to three times.
NOTES *Requires a mod that allows levelling past level 12.* Also simple and to the point. I wanted to implement it so that each "stack" (remaining duration) makes it so that it deals an additional 1d4 damage per stack, but apparently that only works if you're the one with the stacks, not the creature you attack. For now each of your hounds' attacks add up to three statuses which are consumed when the creature is attacked by the Houndmaster to deal additional damage. Doesn't look as flashy, but it works.
POTENTIAL ISSUES/DISCLAIMERS
• Evidently Blink Dogs have a limited animation repertoire, so some things like jumping and being Downed won't have an animation.
• Make sure you re-summon your companions when your Proficiency Bonus increases and when they gain new features, as it's not automatically updated for an already summoned creature.
• Since the regular dog uses dialogue reserved for Scratch, there might be some strange interactions if you talk to it before key moments have already happened with Scratch. Let me know if it ends up being too annoying and I'll switch its dialogue to something else.
• For some reason, the Commanded Attack feature replaces the regular attack of your hounds instead of adding the extra attack, which I asked it to do. That means you can't use your regular Action attack if you can't use your Bonus Action attack first.
1. Start BG3 Mod Manager and press the "Open Mods Folder" button on the top bar, or press Windows + R and type %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\Mods\. 2. Open "Houndmaster.zip" and place "Houndmaster.pak" in the Mods folder. 3. inactive mods to active mods in the mod manager window. If you encounter any issues, try placing it further down in the load order. Make sure you use the "Public" profile. 4. Click "Save Load Order to File" in the top bar and launch the game.
