Running Pets in D&D 5e | The Innkeeper
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- Everyone loves animals, and players love animals in D&D - but in 5e the rules for running pets are a little... lackluster. In this episode of The Innkeeper we take a look at all the options available to players who want a pet in their Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition game.
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My party gained an owl that started out as an enemy in a group of inelegant animals lead by a wearbear. Our monk knocked it out and broke it's wing so she decided to nurse it back to health. This owl has been to hell and back with us over the course of about half a year in game time. Last session he found a pellet that made him a owl large enough to be a mount while we were in the lair of an adult black dragon, and he helped us land the finishing blows.
That cat has clearly succeeded on its charm person rolls.
I actually like the idea of familiars being real animals just magically bonded to you.
i’m playing through curse of strahd rn and my character has managed to domesticate a bat and as she’s a warlock once i hit level 3 i think i’m gonna take pact of the chain but just make the bat my familiar
The old way of familiars. 5e dropped this way to simplify the game. I prefer the role play and adventure possibilities of seeking and connecting with a creature. Characters value a relationship that demands an effort on their part.
This is such an incredibly underrated channel. This was a great video! Keep up the amazing work!
In one of my older campaigns, I was a deep gnome with an intentionally convoluted and pathetic backstory which is too long to list but it involves living in a ball pit of a restaurant and stealing churros from children, being part of a crime family and having 3 evil ex-girlfriends.
He had a pet rabbit named Dex, as he was a Ranger Beastmaster. The fact that you said that it's crap makes me actually happy because Tobias (my gnome) was a failure.
How I kept Dex interesting was the idea that Dex was NOT really the pet. Tobias was. For example, if there was 1 bed, then Dex would take it and Tobias would sleep in coldness on the floor. Dex is the master and Tobias was his trusty companion that loved him.
I played in a game where my Monster Slayer Ranger had a pet wyvern.
Had him since level 3, the DM modified it so he was only CR 1/4 from the start and got stronger as I gained levels.
Eventually I opted to spend gold to progress his CR and it got really expensive to get him all the way up to CR 6, but it was worth it.
Toruk was the goodest boi.
If the player was investing time and money in training the beast, you could give it an extra 1, 2, 3 hit dice without much problems - a beasts hit dice are listed in the MM. Let them buy some armor for it. Most creatures have some sort of perk - pack tactics, keen senses, etc. - that makes them not useless to have around if they aren't going to die outright. Let them benefit from the rules for being downed as opposed to killed outright at 0 hp. Any or all of those things can make having a pet around not suicidal for the pet.
Experienced this today for the first time with a Mastiff passively dying to environment damage, there should at least be a death save roll for pets, particularly on a 5(1d8+1) HP
This really cleared things up, thanks for making this video.
I had didn't know that Psuedodraragons had that power but its really cool.
I made a homebrew for my campaign that is a Dragon Turtle Wyrmling who uses the familiar ability just like a Psuedodragon would, except with fire resistance instead of magic resistance, and its all because of this video :)
What i do is depending on the pet they would have a bonus action that is unique to the pet
If you have a true "beast master" in your group give the beast master multiple "Beasts" and therefor it can supercede the normal "pets"/companions.
My group managed to help a dire wolf with its wounds and calmed it down, so now he follows us around because we give him food. I named him cupcake, and he is a great pet
could potentially do it where a character can use their bonus action to ask a pet to do something and they have to roll an animal handling check. if they fail the animal would have a d100 dice with different things it would do. give players the opportunity to train animals out of battle but have it take some time and still have a chance to fail if the animal rolls low on an intimidation check prior to battle. animals with too high an intelligence could take a lot longer to train or have special needs such as needing attention from their owner ect
As a newer D.M. I have found the solution to this. Give every player that wants pets at the beginning of the game... Or through a short side one off quest.
And then as the party continues introduce new allies or pets for the party members who don't have a "pet" or ally. Make each P.C control the ally and in doing so will make them care for them. When they die, they die, including the pets you gave in the beginning that's the story. Each player needs to keep track of their Ally/friend/pet.
this is just what I needed! thank you, innkeeper
Im coming late to the discussion, but the beast master ranger (PHB) is meant more like an utility creature then a Monster you use only in combat.
The beast master (TCE) however is the opposite and it's immensly more powerful than any beast that the players can have as a companion.
The reasons is that the PHB let you befriend a creature at every long rest, so if you go into a cave you can find a spider, a forest you find a wolf or a eagle and so on. You change the beast depending of what you're doing and what the party needs.
The TCE beast is an intelligent creature with proficency in everything, attacks a lot and can even revive if you spend a slot mid combat (just a minute to do so)
Omg I NEED to play a crazy cat lady with a dozen cats! xD :D
Really helpful video. Thank you! Will certainly be checking out the rest of your content and sharing your channel with friends.
A 4th small category would be mounts. There are only 8 in the PHB but could easily be expanded by the DM.
Hey, with all the changes that came out with Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and as well as Fizban's Treasure of Dragons, we now have access to a lot more pets that scale with the player level. (this includes the new Investment of the Chain Master eldritch invocation that improves Warlock's familiars, the Steel Defender for Artificer Battle Smiths, the new Primal Companion option for Ranger Beast Masters, the Wildfire Spirit for the new Druid Circle of WIldfire, the Drake Companion for the new Ranger Drake Warden, and all the new spells that allows you to summon a scalable creature.) i think it's time to revisit this topic.
Some unified game mechanic as opposed to the each subclass has its own convoluted mess
5e leans more to limited use advantage instead of a companion being a companion.
Im hoping the miniatures for non-tiny pets and possibly a pet card for pets will help with the pwt mechanic gap. Based on renown, favorability, and loyalty. I also have no problem telling my players that a pet ran off due to neglect prior to a "it would be convenient" point.
Wait... they have an Elephant... and only an ogre chasing them?... am I the only one who sees a simpler solution to this?
The ogre is a barbarian with a mouse totem.
Currently playing a support character who's a Raven Queen Warlock/(UA) Drakewarden Ranger who has Pact of the Chain to always have 3 pets around
call me a bad dm, but I allowed my party to go on long sidequests to let them capture and tame giant animals, which serve as rides, companions, and a second character. for example, my little brother went into a goblin forest to find a giant hawk nest and capture it to tame when he gets back to the home village.
That is a great name for a cat
Great vid! Both entertaining and helpful. My pre-5E, non- warlock character has a Psuedo-Dragon familiar that a GM had me thinking might not be consistent with 5E rules if I wanted to inter grate or adapt the character into 5E. Of course I'll be looking up & sighting those 5E MM rules. Since I've always felt my role playing & background story (which effectively qualified the character as a dragon-sorcerer before the class existed) played a big part in getting/bonding with my "Scorpion-Drake" in the first place, I expect the 5E rules will support my position. Thanx.
Easy: if there's a Ranger Beastmaster, then you can't have combatants pets. If there's not, just use Tasha's sidekick rules.
a mimic that helps you get away with murder by rating the bodies
Can you use the "Awaken" spell on companions?
Yes man! Amazing video!
I will never forget my sister's acrobatic moose.
The beast master should be able to just direct their companion animal with a single command at the start of combat. "Kill that guy", and the animal attacks the target continuously until it's dead, the companion is killed, or the ranger uses another action to direct it to do something else.
Very nice
lol @ Stampy, so funny.
I have always though that the problem with beast master ranger is they took the key feature of 2nd Ed ranger and made it a subclass. Just like all druid can wild shape but moon druids do it better. All rangers should have a companion just Beast Masters should get better ones and control it easier.
I would never forget my pet polar bear Boris he is amazing
I have a 3 headed Hellhound named Cerberus , He is the best boy
Honestly just allowing the pet attack to be a bonus action with a chance of failing catastrophically for the pet (because of opportunity attacks) wouldn't hurt the balance of the game that much.
The old common sense approach. 5e lacks that far to often.
as a person who is currently has been spenting months trying to tame a displacer beast of all i can relate to the pain tho im very wary of how set beast acts with towns ppl food personality etc
Thanks know I know how to have a cockatric as a pet
Currently playing a warlock with pact of the chain and a pseudodragon. I've ended up using it like a radio and drone (recon and dropping alchemists fire on people) It's good fun, but I don't think my dm throught it would end up getting used like that.
So my bard has a otter that he has been friends with since child hood. So how would that work in a d&d campaign?
If it's just for roleplay then I'd say it could follow simple commands but doesn't help in combat. If you plan on using it in combat then I'd stat it the same as a badger or maybe even a wolf and just add a swim speed.
I have a pet silver dragon and I just toast common orcs
Me and my party just tamed a mimic, we named it edgard and it INSTANTLY became a meme
Area of effect spells = dead pets. No way around it. Sadly pets are a wonderful and fun idea, but straight up non magical pets are like goldfish from the fair.
Don't give the necromancer any ideas. The business of zombie and skeleton pets..... On the other hand having a loyal pets spirit getting the power boost of being a ghost or spirit type creature has possibilities.
"Fuck you Stampy"... Subscribed!
How about the pet can't attack separately until the player is a certain level, I would personally go with level 6,7, or 8. You could also have the beast be a certain level instead.
My character is an undead musician seeking revenge on the bandits who murdered him and his wife 1 year prior on the night before their wedding. He wields a crossbow and a throwing knife.
If you're a movie buff, his familiar is obvious...
(Or would it be a dire version...?)
Shadow sorcerer's hound of ill omen anyone? Or the artificer's construct?
I don't really think of the shadow sorcerer's hound as a pet, the fact it disappears after 5 minutes means its never a permanent member of your party (though a shadow sorcerer whose hound is an split personality or shadowy force they interact with is an awesome idea). I decided to steer away from the artificer because the class is only in UA and didn't want to comment on it until we had concrete knowledge of how their pets/constructs would work - but you're right you can definitely roleplay with your construct if you want! - The Innkeeper
If you're going to Homebrew a campaign anyway, why not add in or modify rules from 3.5 as needed? The amount of resources available for the 3.5 edition are beyond count, and several of their basic rule books contained excellent rules that can be modded into any current 5e game with very little work. Though, admittedly, several of those rules still required the player to sacrifice an action to get their animal companion or pet to do anything.
What about stubbles codex of companions, options 4?
Fuck balance, I want an army and each soldier has an army of pets.
Not lying when I say the cat got an insta subscribe
What if you found a baby dragon?
any tips to controlling/commanding a chimera? LOL
can someone create a pet level stat system? or link me to one? the CR rating for the pet my player has would make it WAY to powerful if I use CR as their level
This is a year old but check out the sidekick section in Tasha’s cauldron of everything. They released the sidekick stuff in there that was in unearthed arcana that he talked about in this video. I never checked what it was like in unearthed arcana but it’s so well done in Tasha’s. Makes it so they can hold their own in a fight with them getting abilities based on the class u choose for them, roll for health every lv, get ASI’s (maybe feats). But they never outshine a full party character. It’s basically 2/3 of a player character. Recommend checking it out if u haven’t (it’s honestly how the Beastmaster always should’ve been but I’m glad any character can get it too).
It’s pronounced fluff ball with claws
lol Eldritch Blast
Question about dnd pets say I want an uncommon medium sized pet and a goblin pops up and sens thay are a medium sized mob. would I be able to make the goblin my pet please respond please and thank you.
Goblins are sentient, thinking creatures, so treating them as a pet would be rather degrading I think haha. Short answer, no.
Question. In the campaign I'm playing there's a cat person who's a cook named parsley who we saved from a evil boss who trapped him and we stopped off with him on my shoulder, I want him as like a pet like a felyne from monster hunter. Can I have it?
About eight comments down someone asks about having a goblin as a pet. I'd imagine the Innkeeper's answer to that similar question applies to yours.
PS - Maybe the cat person could be your sidekick?
@@ronn-ammon8975 update
Me and my friend"hired" the cats and now they both have assassin's creed hoods and are cooks.
Izz Man : Hmmm🤔, not so sure I'd wanna eat anything from a cook dressed like an assassin😱; but so long as Parsley doesn't start smoking catnip in the kitchen you should be OK. Glad you worked it out. Congrats and happy gaming.
Or you realize you cant both attack before 5 because you are low level like why cant death cleric use weapons to do spells at level one?
Try giving them a leek.
More cat please.
What if someone played as an animal
I am a 6th level warlock exploring Waterdeep under city with the intent to blow up Xanathar in his layer. OfCourse even the best plan never survives 1st contact with the enemy and ours went sideways. We were successful at wrecking stuff, but in all the ruckus I managed to befriend a pail little albino Gazer who is currently being trained to be my familiar. The party has great interaction with the little monster because it's so completely irritating. Mocking everyone constantly. Chasing cats dogs kids NPCs for funsies. Chewing on everything. If I have a point to make, I guess it is that problem child pets are memorable. They give a DM so much to work with and tons of ridicules moments of comic relief in and out of a dungeon.