Which subclasses are best and what are they good at?
Tamers are featured in Loot Tavern Press’ Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting and Ryoko’s Guide to the Yokai Realms. They aren’t just pet owners with spells, each subclass changes what your companion does on the battlefield – whether that’s turning it into an elemental artillery piece or a disciplined martial striker. In this guide,
I’ll break down what each Tamer paradigm actually offers, what it’s good at, and why.
Infuser
What are they?
Tamers who channel elemental power into their companions. Whether the origin of this power is through planar mishap, primordial bloodline or even arcane research, infusers bond their beasts to acid, cold, fire or lightning and turn them into conduits for raw energy.
Key abilities
- Infuse (Lv3) – At the end of a long rest, choose acid, cold, fire or lightning for each companion. The first time your companion hits on its turn, it deals extra damage of the chosen type (1d4, scaling to 1d10 by level 14).
- Elemental discharge (Lv7) – When you infuse a companion, it gains a powerful elemental action based on the chosen element, normally damage in an area of effect. This can be used once per short or long rest (and twice at level 18).
- Primordial shield (Lv10) – Your companion gains resistance to its infused element. Once per rest, you can use your reaction to grant it immunity to that damage type until the start of your next turn.
- Unstable fusion (Lv14) – Infuse your companion with a second element for 1 minute, gaining the benefits of both Infuse, Elemental Discharge and Primordial Shield. Once per long rest.
What are they good at?
Elemental burst damage and durability. Elemental Discharge is the core of the subclass. It’s one of the best damage routes for the companion and with some prior knowledge of your foes, you could select the element best suited to the battle. A Tamer could hedge their bets and infuse their companions with a variety of elements if they are unsure of what to expect.
How effective are they?
Solid. Elemental Discharge is the standout. A 25-foot cone dealing 6d6 fire damage or a 10-foot radius lightning burst that removes reactions seems quite impactful. Even the lower-damage options have strong secondary effects like speed reduction or battlefield denial. Because this refreshes on a short rest, you should be able to use it in most meaningful combats.
Primordial Shield can make your companion much harder to KO when facing the right damage type. Resistance at baseline and temporary immunity on demand is strong defensively in the correct situation, but it won’t always be applicable, so it’s more of a nice to have when it fits the fight.
Unstable Fusion allows your companion to choose two elements. Double elements means double access to resistances, discharge options and defensive flexibility. For one minute, your companion becomes a bit of an elemental threat – but like all these abilities it’s more useful when you know what element presents vulnerability for an enemy, if not it’s more of a pot luck.
The problem is that much of this power is tied to specific damage types. In encounters where the enemy isn’t using your infused element, it becomes less relevant
Overall, the Infuser does enhance a companion’s combat presence with area damage, control and defensive scaling. It’s not overwhelming, but it is useful and tactically interesting.
Score: 3/5
Leader
What are they?
Whether it’s through encouragement, hand signals or telepathic reinforcement, leaders get the best of their companions through inspiration and strategic mastery.
Key abilities
- Inspire (Lv3) – As an action, grant your companion a die (d6 scaling up to d12) that can be added to attack rolls and saving throws until the start of your next turn.
- Action Burst (Lv7) – When you command a companion (as an action or bonus action), you can push it further. On its turn, it gains one additional action of your choice. Once per companion per short or long rest (twice at level 18, but only once per turn). Once you have harder hitting companions or have scaled them up a bit with equipment, this can be a great way to keep them attacking or take strategic moves to get them into the right place.
- Leader’s Fortitude (Lv10) – When a visible attacker hits your companion, you can use both your and its reactions to halve the damage. The Tamer does not have many uses for its reactions (nor do companions), so an ability like this feels almost like a free gift to use each round and keep the companion fighting for longer.
- Combo (Lv14) – As an action, summon a second companion for 1 minute. When you command them, you can command both simultaneously. They act after you in an order of your choice. If the first attacks a chosen target, the second gains advantage against that target. This is another useful capstone and answers one of the issues the core class has in getting outscaled in terms of damage at later levels. The rest of the party will be hitting pretty hard at this level and one companion normally won’t measure up in terms of damage – but throwing two out there might just bridge that gap a bit.
What are they good at?
Leaders are good at making the most of action economy and improving the chances of the companion contributing in combat. The subclass doesn’t reinvent the class the way some subclasses can, but it does smooth things out and make the core class more efficient. There is a trade off, in that the Tamer sacrifices some of their actions to enable the companions to have more reliable battle performance.
How effective are they?
When it comes to the Tamer subclasses, the leader feels quite strong and reliable. It doesn’t rely on situational damage types or complicated setups, but it enhances core mechanics like accuracy, action economy and durability to a degree that helps the class punch at a more similar scale to some of the other party members.
Inspire has some potential, working a little bit like a gated version of bardic inspiration, this is a useful way to make your companions more efficient, but needs to be weighed up against what else the Leader could do with that action (e.g. attack or cast a spell). Not a bad option, but won’t be the best choice in every encounter.
It may not have the raw spectacle of some other subclasses, it just enables the companion to do more. More actions, more reactions and more companions to command.
Score: 4/5
Necromancer
What are they?
Not to be confused with the Wizard subclass of the same name, these Tamers can command a group of undead companions.
When a creature dies near you, you can attempt to claim its soul before it passes on. On a failed Charisma save, its soul is bound to its body, its type becomes undead, and it rises as one of your companions. Even humanoids and giants don’t automatically resist this, while other Tamers can’t bond to those creature sub types.
Key abilities
- Soul binding (Lv3) – When a creature dies near you, you can attempt to bind its soul. On a saving throw failure, it rises as an undead companion under your control.
- Animate dead (Lv7) – Learn animate dead, always have it prepared, and can cast it once per long rest without a slot. Creatures raised this way use the statistics of a ghast (Medium or smaller) or a minotaur skeleton (if Large or larger). You can only maintain control of one creature per casting. Commands issued to your companion can also apply to your animated undead within 100 feet.
- Enervate (Lv10) – As an action, transfer life force between you and your summoned companion. You can damage your companion to heal yourself, or damage yourself to heal it, up to twice your Tamer level in necrotic damage.
- Aura of Undeath (Lv14) – Your companion radiates a 15-foot aura forcing a creature in the aura to make a Constitution save or take necrotic damage, while the companion gains temporary hit points. If the Aura is online, and the companion is reduced to zero health, they immediately revive on 1 HP.
What are they good at?
The necromancer offers a different theme for the Tamer and seems good at assembling a crew of companions quickly. You don’t have to worry about trying not to kill your chosen beastie when bonding to it and Animate Dead adds temporary reinforcements. A ghast or minotaur skeleton stat block is not trivial, and the ability to issue the same command to all companions simplifies your action economy so you’re effectively running multiple bodies off the same instruction. They also have ways of sustaining the companions for longer, so you are capable of remaining part of the fight in a longer battle.
So overall the abilities on offer keep your Tamer and companions around longer than other subclasses.
How effective are they?
Potentially strong, not as explosive as other subclasses but there are ways to make fights more of a war of attrition. And opening up your companion options to humanoid and giant gives you more variety for your roster.
Animate Dead providing a ghast or minotaur skeleton once per long rest is solid. These are meaningful stat blocks. Limiting control to one per casting keeps it in check, but you still gain extra bodies on the field, and shared commands help keep turns manageable.
Enervate makes your Tamer a bit more reliable. Trading hit points between you and your companion can stabilise bad situations and makes it harder for enemies to focus one of you down.
Aura of Undeath is the most unique ability among Tamers. A minute of bonus action necrotic damage and temporary hit points adds consistent pressure. The refusal to drop to 0 immediately makes your companion frustrating to remove during that window, though the eventual collapse balances it.
The subclass scales well and has strong moments, but it’s a bit grindy rather than explosive in damage and concentrates more on just lasting a long time on the field.
Score: 4/5
Splicer
What are they?
Splicers obsess over improving their companions. Through tiny stitches and surgical augmentation, they reshape their companions into something more efficient, more dangerous. Whether trained in wizarding schools or assisting a mad scientist, they’ve reached one conclusion: a psychically bonded companion can always be improved.
Key abilities
- Augment (Lv3) – Gain splicer points which you can spend to modify your companions. Options range from darkvision, swim speeds and climbing to natural armour, wings, tremorsense, blindsight, extra limbs and even size increases. These range in quality from quite niche (tremorsense) to very useful (flight), you can even apply extra armor multiple times to keep raising AC.
- Modular upgrades (Lv7) – At the end of a long rest, grant each companion a powerful action option usable once per short or long rest. Options include:
- A charming cone that incapacitates
- A radiant burst that blinds
- A restraining poison web
- A psychic shriek that damages and breaks concentration
- Battlefield harvester (Lv10) – Command a companion to consume a recently slain creature. All companions gain one of that creature’s resistances or a condition immunity until you use this feature again.
- Adrenal overload (Lv14)- For 1 minute, one companion becomes a huge, mega mutant monster. It gains massive temporary hit points, a big strength buff and Multiattack (x3), among other effects. When it ends, it falls unconscious for 1d4 hours and gains 2 levels of exhaustion
What are they good at?
The subclass doubles down on the adaptability of the core class. Augment is the backbone here, you can tailor companions for scouting, mobility, grappling, stealth or just raw damage. And because you can reallocate points, you’re not locked into early decisions forever.
Adrenal Overload is what the class really needs to punch at the weight that most of the party will be at.
How effective are they?
It’s a bit of a mixed bag, some features seem more widely applicable than others but the capstone really fills a hole in the Tamers arsenal. Giving options for things like flight or a burrowing speed is a great way to give your Tamer more control over the companion, as generally speaking you are making do with what the DM throws in your way, but with a Splicer, you can customise the creature to your liking.
Augment offers some variety in the offence a companion can give in battle and even allows for some status effects. Overall it’s more of what the Tamers needs, but within the paradigms of how the class is designed,
Score: 3/5
Sensei
What are they?
Sensei don’t just command companions, they mentor and train them like Mr. Miyagi. With precise coaching and supernatural awareness of movement and balance, they turn beasts into disciplined strikers. The other Tamer subclasses empower companions through magic or mutation, the Sensei empowers through martial techniques.
Key abilities
- Martial Strikes (Lv3) – Your companion gains a new melee attack, damage scales from 1d6 at level 3 up to 1d12 at level 18. At level 5 it gains two attacks with the Attack action, and at level 14 it gains three.
- Martial Techniques (Lv3) – Choose three techniques that your companions can use when commanded. Techniques include mobility, control, burst damage and more. This adds some more variety to the fairly standard attacks the companions may come with as part of their normal stat block.
- Unleash (Lv7) – Your companion moves up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks and can make up to six Martial Strike attacks against different targets.
- Shrug It Off (Lv10) – Reduce bludgeoning, piercing or slashing damage your companion takes by your spellcasting ability modifier. Passive while you aren’t incapacitated.
- Martial Prodigy (Lv14) – For 1 minute, one companion makes four Martial Strike attacks instead of three, gains two bonus actions per turn, and gains temporary hit points each round.
What are they good at?
Martial Strikes give your companion a reliable scaling attack option with built-in multiattack progression. Unlike most Tamer subclasses that rely on once per rest bursts, the Sensei offers a few buffs that can keep companions hitting harder over longer periods.
Martial Techniques are where the subclass gains some variety and depth over others. Bonus action grapples and shoves, defensive reactions and mobility options offer strong tactical flexibility that the Core class and other subclasses are lacking. You can build for control, burst or survivability depending on your selections.
How effective are they?
As Tamer subclasses go, this is probably the best, even if it is a little labor intensive to keep on top of a full set of companions with different techniques each level. It rewards you with a lot of more variety in things you can do on the battlefield and probably the best damage options of the lot.
At level 3 some of the subclasses gain a damage buffing feature for example the Infuser can start using their cone of elemental damage, the Splicer can start tacking extra features to the companion like more armor or the ability the fly. These all have utility, but the Sensei has the best feature at this level with Martial Strikes. These generally have the strongest battlefield utility, they scale up in damage at the companion levels and come with additional features to (like knocking enemies prone). Generally, the companions are just going to be hitting the hardest, (1d6 at first – more than any of the other subclasses can do) and this is one of the areas that the Tamer really needs to concentrate on or they will be outpaced by other damage dealers in the party. They are needed to help the little monsters scale with the rest of the party as they level up.
Bonus action grapples and shoves, defensive reactions and mobility options offer strong tactical flexibility that the Core class and other subclasses are lacking. You can build for control, burst or survivability depending on your selections.
They also are one of the more durable options, with a level 10 damage mitigating effect that gives resistance to 3 of the most common damage types in the game. So not only are your companions hitting harder, they won’t be KO’d easily and will be on the field dealing more damage turn after turn.
5/5
Which Tamer subclass is best?
All the options add something to the core Tamer paradigm, and try to fill in some of the inherent holes in the class. Mostly this is in the form of raw damage, where the core class lags behind as other classes seem to scale better over time and overtake them.
The best of the lot is the martial arts focussed Sensei, it offers some great burst damage that the others seem to lack. The Splicer deserves an honorable mention too, it does a lot to bridge the damage gap with the test of the party. There are plenty of modular upgrades to help trick out some of the more plain stat blocks that you might have to use for companions if that’s all the DM is putting in your way.
The Necromancer does make catching beasties easier (you don’t have to worry if you accidentally kill them) and adds another animated body to the field (from the animate dead feature). This means more attacks and more damage as time goes on, plus a further distraction for enemies. However, like the Infuser, lacks the burst damage needed to keep up with Fighters and Barbarians who might threaten to outshine your more consistent, value driven Tamer builds.
At time of writing, the table of contents is showing pugilist subclasses.
Thanks for letting us know, have fixed!