[Ranger] Primordial Shepherd Archetype

There hadn't been an elemental ranger as of late and I always felt there was a lot of room to interpret - after all, the elemental planes are real places that rangers could theoretically travel. I also wanted to try a summoner for the first time, so it was either this or the Ooze Wrangler's slime companions (which ended up in the compendium anyway!)

Primordial Shepherd Design

The main goal of the Primordial Shepherd ranger was to design a ranger with a companion, something I've always avoided because it'd take up too many pages. Inspired by the Drakewarden progression, I designed the primordial spirits summoned by the Shepherd to be many (unlike the drake, which is just one).

Primordial Shepherd Features Overview

• Elemental Core - At 3rd level, the Primordial Shepherd learn a language. It doesn't compare well to Drakewarden's thaumaturgy but four languages is pretty useful sometimes.
• Primordial Bond - Also at 3rd level, they get to summon a primordial spirit, complete with stat block and theming suggestions. The spirit differs from the drake in several important ways but are balanced around their primary damage method, bursting like bombs when they drop to 0 hit points. The important thing to note is that after the first use, they cost spell slots to summon and have VERY little hit points. There's an in-depth comparison further below.
• Primordial Flock - At 7th level, the Primordial Shepherd gets a utility feature that temporarily takes one of their spirits out of use. These utility options are all useful in certain situations and choice makes them flexible.
• To also account for constantly spending actions on summoning spirits (whereas other rangers can multiattack), the ranger can now make one additional attack when commanding a spirit.
• Elemental Boon - To account for losing a spirit to utility, 7th level also allows the ranger to have up to 2 spirits at the same time so they can keep doing your combat thing if need be, or swap between two spirits' Elemental Boon benefits.
• Primordial Mastery -11th level represents a significant ranger investment, so it lightens the load by granting 2 spirits whenever 1 is summoned. This saves spell slots which a ranger really needs, plus effectively doubles any spirits' damage, corresponding well to a 11th-level damage bump.
• Elemental Ward - At 15th level, the Primordial Shepherd gets its defensive feature. It won't decrease your overall damage intake like other rangers can, but it does keep you alive, allows your weak spirits to absorb overkill damage, and even burst in your enemy's face (with a damage boost). It's actually pretty good if used smartly.

How do Primordial Spirits compare to the Drakewarden's Drake Companion?

CONS:

• The major downside here is the spirit's HP is effectively less than half the drake's. They'd only have 11 HP at 3rd level and 25 at 10th, compared to the drake's 20 HP at 3rd and 55 at 10th. They can't tank damage for you and will likely fall within 1-2 turns of combat with the enemies you'd be facing.
• Due to above, Primordial Shepherds are also likely to be spending lots of spell slots and their actions to summon the spirits each time they fall. This is a big tax on the action economy; you especially can't do other things while the drake watches your back.
• They also do not have the Infused Strike trait, which would normally grant extra damage to someone's strike, serving as the replacement for a ranger's typical +1d6 bonus damage. This means unlike a drake, who can stay out of the fight and provide a hefty damage bonus over long battles, the spirits offer no such bonus.
• Resistances instead of immunity, though bludgeoning is a good one for certain fights.
• Remains Small, which subjects it to grappling or similar disadvantages and cannot be mounted.

PROS:

• Explosive Recall is the major design element here, allowing it to deal burst damage to nearby creatures. It's designed as burst damage as opposed to low consistent drake damage. Because spirits fall so quickly and need actions to resummon, it's like casting action spells. Thus their damage corresponds roughly to a 1st-level burning hands spell (in addition to doing other things the spell can't do, of course).
• This damage increases as the ranger levels: 7th level allows for added prep for higher burst damage; 11th level essentially doubles Explosive Recall; 15th level directly increases both summoned spirits, adding an extra 2d6 damage total.
• Calculation for damage per spell slot at 3rd level, assuming drakes last 2 turns and spirits last only 1: a drake can deal 26 damage over 2 turns (2x2d6 + 2xPB damage plus a ranger's normal attack with the extra action from the surviving turn); a spirit can deal 18+ damage over 1 turn (8d6 +2xPB damage), adding more depending on who gets caught in the splash damage.
• Includes excellent speeds (flight) allows for maneuverability and scouting. Unfortunately all its attacks/features still require them to be within 5 feet of a target.

TL:DR: High burst damage in the right situations, but very heavily taxes spell slots and action economy. Drakes by comparison deal comparable damage over time.