I just made it so that my players have to hatch theyr pet or buy it, but I also let them have it as part of theyr bachstory. either way they get it at a young age. They have to feed them every day and spend money or hunt food themselves. I also created an iltem found around hags that lets them age one year. This new resource got them thinking about how they want to spread it among each other, made things really interesting and over all really fun. But as always, works for me but could be worse for someone else
I had players tame a wild Displacer Beast once... But it took a lot for them to do so, not a single roll. It was initially going to attack them, as it was hunting. The party's initial roll was as follows: * The Bard gave the Druid Bardic Inspiration for an extra +1d8 * The Cleric used Guidance to add +1d4 * The Druid performed the roll, with her +9 bonus * The Barbarian took out some meat to offer, to Help for Advantage on the roll * The Druid used her Wild Talent die for another bonus (I forget what her die size was at the time). * After the roll, the Artificer reacted with Flash of Genius for an extra +5 (as the Artificer provides anecdotes about what Displacer Beasts like) The resulting roll was in the 40s. I let that get them out of fighting the Displacer Beast. They fought the rest of the encounter, but the Displacer Beast stayed on the sidelines enjoying the meat they were given. (I think it was previously from some criminals the party fought. Most of the meat the Displacer Beast and Barbarian had throughout the game was from evil Humanoids.) After the combat, they rolled again to convince the Displacer Beast to follow them. Again, they rolled amazingly. I continued to require more rolls, and they continued to keep the Displacer Beast happy and fed. It eventually reached the point where it would participate in combat, but would run away if bloodied or if the Druid was knocked out. (The druid was also using a lot of feline forms in combat.) It took a long time to reach that, and the Displacer Beast was initially less likely to fight anything that didn't look like it was made of meat. When designing my encounters, I always use Action Economy as a balance metric, so I added the Displacer Beast's attacks to that calculation to keep things challenging enough for the party. The party then took the Displacer Beast with them back to the Material Plane, and brought it to a city. They were smart enough to keep the Displacer Beast in the outskirts of the city, for the most part, with the Druid staying with them so they didn't attack people. (Wise choice, as it was still not a tame animal.) The party managed to hire someone (a friend from one of their backgrounds) to take care of her while they were in the city. The Druid created a sort of feline sanctuary just outside of the city, growing large amounts of catnip with her Plant Growth and Druidcraft spells. She started always keeping some on her as well. (And at this point, someone else joined the campaign playing a Tabaxi, so they had fun with that.) The party was still rolling to take care of and tame this creature at this point, and still succeeding. Finally, it eventually happened. The Displacer Beast considered the party to be her new pack, and just stayed by the Druid's side, trusting the party. They managed to tame the Displacer Beast. Eventually though, she started having some trouble keeping up with the party's power level. She didn't get class levels or anything... I let her proficiency bonus scale with the rest of the party, but nothing else. Not her AC, her HP, her damage rolls... The danger to bringing her into combat was increasing over time. When she finally got knocked out in a combat (and immediately healed), the party brought her to the feline sanctuary they had set up and let her hang out there when they went on their adventures, and they always returned to interact with her. (Really, this only lasted for one more trip away in which they defeated a major villain that had been plaguing them for a super long time and the Druid retired.) I had another Displacer Beast find the sanctuary, so now there's Displacer Kittens. The party loved that. The Druid has since retired, and the party is high enough level for her to cast spells while in Wild Shape, so in her retirement, the Druid stays in her Wild Shapes, and goes around the edges of the desert casting Plant Growth to restore the land, with her small pack of Displacer Beasts following her around. (The last major villain she defeated had been slowly turning the realm into a desert, and with that villain's spells no longer preventing growth in the area, the desert could now be restored.) Her pack starts to become its own legend in the region, seen as a good omen, as a sighting of this pack in your area is a sure sign that plants will start to grow in the region again.
A great book that has lots of low cr creatures that are designed for pets yet can still survive (to a point) is Stibble's Codex of Companions by Eldermancy. It's a great book and I highly recommend it.
I used the Mimcat once. The arcane trickster won it in a carnival and loved it (even though it tried to eat his familiar more than once) because it could turn into simple objects and he could use it as an awesome prop.
7:40 There are actually rules for Sidekicks in Tasha's, in a form of "half-classes" that you can give to a creature, either sapient or not. There are Warrior, Spellcaster, and Expert. They are pretty good, weaker than PCs but still pretty strong, each with a set of abilities.
I was about to write this out... for Combat companions, this is the way. very easy, already established and has progression. Simply mete out those sidekick levels as you wish to keep the combat companion in check.
The one-shot I do to teach new players is the basic “save the blacksmith’s daughter from goblins.” In the goblin lair there is a wolf in a cage, I make sure to explain that the wolf is VERY wild. Not tame at all. It will kill you if you let it out. Kill ya’ dead. Sometimes people let it out mid-combat. “I have a +1 in animal handling!” They say as they open the cage. Because I’m not a monster, I have the wolf run out of the cave on a good roll. On a bad roll they die. They never tame it. I explain to them that it takes time to tame something and the middle of combat is not the time to do that.
Kind of a missed opportunity imo Having played some far cry games I'd say that if you put a cage with a wild animal in a hostile area have the animal attack *anyone* upon release, not necessarily the players but anyone, kind of as a neutral unallied fighter that attacks whatever target is the most convenient. Having a wild animal on the loose would surely be a great distraction both in and out of combat that can act as a hazard for the players as well as something they can use for an advantage if they play around it smart. And after a while you can have it just leave because it had enough or something, so it's not overstaying it's welcome. In that case the animal handling check would not be about whether it attacks, but who it attacks first, assuming both the party and enemies are present. The way you described it it kinda seems like a good deed trap. Something like freeing an imprisoned creature, be it sapient or not, is typically regarded as a good thing so players might be incliened to do that and punishing that with either nothing or a hostile encounter based on a coinflip isn't really a fun result. You can make it a threat but make it one that's fun and rewarding to work around.
My first time as a DM, I gave my players a baby gold dragon, she caused a lot of problems and they constantly had to do animal handling checks, after a long time in game, they had to fight a beholder and they were losing (badly), when the beholder was about to give the final blow, the baby dragon sacrificed herself, me and my players were really sad about it, so after they basically obliterated the beholder (they were beating him even after he reached 0 HP), I made her come back as a baby dracolich because of her will to stay with them, it was a really wholesome moment.
We got some giant crabs as pets once. We used them as pack-animals/mounts. We considered using them in combat too, be we decided we didn't want them to get a taste for humanoid fleash. Plus, you know, we didn't want them to get killed.
I have a Druid who has and Bull Elk to use as a mount... Using "Speak with animal" and "Animal Friendship" and a dozen Handle Animal checks during downtime [It has one "trick" which is "Ride"]... the is only a mount for overland travel, and not combat... I did ride the Elk towards combat, dismounted, and let it run away as combat started.
I was going to say something about Tasha's sidekick rules, but someone else already that. I've no doubt the Tamed Companions stuff is more comprehensive and specific though. That said, at my table there's more than one kind of animal companion and a simple rule to govern them... If it's used in exploration or combat, it's fair game to attack. If it's used in roleplay only, then it's essentially immortal.
Puffball: the dimwitted al'miraj. He tagged along with them, but did not become THEIR pet. However, the NPC they were there to rescue, bonded with it too (once they rescued her), and when they met her again, she and Puffball were besties.
I recently ran a one shot for my group because we had a player out and I let my 8 year old son roll a character. They found a red dragon and when they killed the dragon my son started to get really upset. He was on the verge of tears. He told me he didn't want to kill the dragon. He wanted to keep it as a pet. I felt so bad for him so I told him as they searched the cave he found a red dragon egg. My 8 year old Goliath Barbarian now has a pet dragon and I am terrified
As someoneone mildly obsessed with honeybadgers I got a happy surprise that they got a mention here. I'd say a realistic role for a honey badger would be a nuisance tank with a bunch of non magical resistances, to the point of a probably near immunity to blades, arrows and poison. They wouldn't be dealing too much damage by themselves, at least I think so, they do have a bite force strong enough to break turtle shells. but they'd have tons of survivability as long as they dont go up in flames and they'd be a huge disruption on the battlefield. Especially given their special ability is a very smelly anal secretion, kinda like a skunk but instead of a targeted attack it's more like a small aoe. They're also pretty smart though idk how that would be represented in a game. Some of their other strenghts would probably be digging and foraging, and maybe even something like scent tracking because afaik their sense of smell is pretty good. Weaknesses would likely be most magical damage types. Realistically I'd say they're low health tanks with some crazy AC and resistances but magic would wear them down pretty quick. The reason honey badgers are so famously aggressive and fearless is because it's both their only defense as well as they can afford to do so thanks to their extemely strong skin. They are way too slow to run away from danger so their strategy is typically to cause as much of a ruckus as possible so whatever thing confronted them backs out because it sure as heck won't. They're also not intimidated by size so they'd use that approach for anything. I'd also give them a once per day self revive if they get downed just for the heck of it.
GinnyDi makes a great video about this one of her ideas is, your pet is immortal as long as they are just that, a pet. A companion and roleplaying tool not a fullt trained scout and fighting animal. But the second you wanna use them for more than a pet they can die. Another great book about having your pets level with you is stibbles codex of companions
i typically do that, my one change is the players can train their pets to do very basic things fetch a small item (however the pet needs to e trained to recognize the item ie just cause your squirrel can fetch a nut doesn't mean it knows what a key is) it can run around the feet of an enemy creating a tripping hazard (great for rogues to get sneak attack) or take your bonus action as an attack doing 1D4 since i don't allow anyone other than a Beastmaster Ranger or Druid to have an animal companion bigger than a medium sized dog. the pet is immortal if it's just hanging out being a pet i assume it isn't in the battle, but the second the player uses it to do any function it is not immortal until the task is over
A DM who bends the rules makes the game so much more fun , I believe that rules are more a guid line not defined rules the DM sets the rules and can't let tou do more things or less
My players met the snail a bunch of haregons were using as a pack mule and kept it, so the only time i have had them roll animal handling is when they talk about training it to be faster like the racing snails they met in the chapter before
Pet: FLUFFY! Cute thing... cuddle cuddle. Keep the thing out of combat. it might have a whole 1 hp. Animal sidekick: Almost an NPC. Mount: Almost an NPC War dog: Almost an NPC. If you toss any of them into combat.... they are valid targets.
I like the idea of adding HP along with their character. HP is always a challenge to express in our games but we should understand that it also means you stand to survive constant strikes and attacks longer and if that companion has been traveling with you long enough to know it will encounter an arrow more often than a nut, it should be able to react and survive more attacks just like you do.
Something I've always wanted to try is giving pets a friendship value. Players would spend time bonding with their pet. Then when the pet is reduced to zero hp instead of dieing the pet flees and returns to the players during the last long rest, but it's lost some of it's Bond with the player. If the friendship is reduced to zero than it will either die in combat or run off never to be seen again.
@@TheAciddragon069 if I didn't want you to use it I wouldn't have mentioned It. ;) I also recommend "stibbles codex of companions" whish is where I got the idea for a friendship stat, and has more bonuses tied to it.
Options: • Use the Sidekick options from TCE, the warrior works perfectly on animals, the expert works awesome on humanoids squires or helpers, even orphans the party rescued from the streets, and the caster is a good option to have if the party dont have a healer • Use the animal companion updated from the ranger beastmaster for animals, except is not an invocation from a character and use it only for the stats, maybe for the pc friend commanding it as a bonus or free action • there is rules for armor on animals and horses on the manuals, basically just buy them armor like you would with a normal character, it cost the same but takes one day or more for the blacksmith to adjust it
I've never had a player try to tame a wild animal without the use of magic. Using only animal handling and some food, they are content with just shifting the beast's disposition toward them favorably - toss some meat to a wolf and maybe it doesn't attack, but there is no expectation that they would be able to tame it that quickly. If they were to give a squirrel or similar creature some nuts, at best that might lead to the squirrel secretly following them and then doing something that helps them out in the next fight before it scrambles away - maybe they notice something tugging on their pack (the squirrel trying to steal some nuts) and as they stop to investigate they can roll a Perception check and possibly spot a group of enemies preparing to ambush the party that their passive perception wasn't good enough to notice. Absolutely agree that "pets", which I differentiate from "animal companions" and "sidekicks", should mostly just be there for roleplay purposes. Pets are creatures that have no significant value in combat because they lack the physical strength to actually hurt anything, and are typically a CR 0 creature. They can have some combat utility in very rare instances (such as the squirrel thing mentioned above) or with some specific tactics, such as throwing a poisonous snake at an enemy, but otherwise they are just there. Outside of combat, a pet can do some degree of scouting, but they lack the intelligence to map out an area, count the number of enemies or really provide much info that is going to be useful, even if you have the means to communicate with them, as they can only communicate with simple thoughts and emotions. Using Beast Sense would allow you to use them for scouting to a greater extent, similar to a wizard possessing their familiar, but without being able to directly control where the creature goes and its a 2nd level spell, so it is definitely not overshadowing the wizard's abilities. I run pets with the assumption that they will crawl inside a bag/pocket or will scramble away before any fireballs or other AOE hit, just because I am not a jerk and am not going to kill off the players' pets without good reason for doing so. Animal companions are creatures that can be effective in combat, but can't or have not been trained to fight better, and thus will only use the normal stat block for the creature. Sidekicks are creatures that have been trained to be better at fighting (such as a war dog) or have an unusual amount of experience fighting alongside people. Animal companions can be converted to sidekicks after they have gained some experience fighting alongside the PCs, and should be converted to either a warrior or expert sidekick (from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, pick the one that best fits the creature's natural attributes) at a level that gives them the closest amount of HP above what their normal stat block gives, then they can progress further from there, gaining levels when the PCs do, but only if the PCs are a higher level than they are. This allows the animals to increase HP and damage, keeping them relevant in later tiers of gameplay.
I think another thing to consider with animal pets is that their Int is generally only a 1 or 2. They're not going to be good at strategy, unless they are taught to perform specific maneuvers/tricks. Many animals are not very numerate, so they can't give an accurate count of enemies. They probably won't be able to (help) make a map of what they explored either, though they likely remember some landmarks/features that lead to things that interest them (food, shiny objects, or the like). Another thing is that unless you have magic (or are a forest gnome) you likely can't actually talk to them; they likely don't understand anything not spoken to them in such a way, and so would certainly not be able to recount a conversation they overheard. More intelligent creatures (such as worgs), especially that know at least one language, should be treated more like a hireling than a pet or mount.
Something people forget is that familiars are not actually pets. They're a spirit that is controlled by the magic of the spell. It's not the actual creature.
Great video! I’ve been drip feeding D&D to my kid and I’m sure this will come along as soon as we begin a serious adventure… ::fingers crossed:: Always appreciate your team and their work!
I am running The Lost Mines of Phandelver for the first time and in the very beginning there is a cave with three wolves on chains tied to stalagmites. I decided to add off in the corner a wolf puppy that was still being trained just to see how they would handle it. Predictable , I guess, the wood elf druid took it as a pet. Named it Grover. I did this just to see how they would react to it and kind of did expect them to take it as a pet and I have now found your video as I am researching what to do with it.
Just put a curse on the Squirrel: -Squirrel is now bonded to you and takes up an attunement slot. You can not unattune from it. -It shares the same initiative as you and you can direct it using your bonus action. -If the Squirrel ever dies, your character will permanently gain the 'Bad Pet Owner' curse. __Bad Pet Owner curse__ (-10) to Animal Handling checks All beasts and woodland creatures now see you as their sworn enemy (even polymorphed allies) The dead squirrel's spirit haunts you by eating your rations and disrupting your Long Rests This way the GM doesn't have to give the Squirrel plot armor during combat, because the squirrel's mortality is a feature, not a bug. :) AND, if played correctly, this can turn into a pretty cool Character Arc.
As a DM I have a hard enough time adjusting encounters, remembering player abilities, and keeping combat moving without adding more complications to the session. But if I were so inclined, I'd definitely consider your resource!
I'm going to give a Player a boar companion named Kevin Bacon who loves eating bacon to the point that he won't eat anything else unless it's been quite a while since he's last eaten anything
On the power level of the befriended squirrel, I might let them be very very well trained, but they're capability will never match a familiar. It's still just a squirrel. Send them to how scout ahead, come back and have the druid or ranger speak to them in squirrel, and at best "there's a walnut tree and three oak trees, and the second guard is eating sunflower seeds.". At worst he comes back with an acorn, a broken key, and sits there grooming his fur, after 4 hours.
Animal friends are nice to have and feel very fitting. And idk if u know this but theirs literally an a thing in Tasha’s that talks about sidekicks and u could have your pet be it. And they get all types of stuff like leveling up with u, getting asi’s, etc. I mean can u blame people for wanting to play an actual good Beastmaster? I mean actually u can make your beast companion your sidekick and get a lot of abilities for them (which phb Beastmaster doesn’t really give anything that great). Now revised Beastmaster is a whole other story. That just makes them absolutely amazing and I love it.
There's a reason why, from the start, I allow PCs to have pets but pets cannot be companions. They cannot control their pets or tell them to do things beyond any basic tricks for entertainment only. Only select classes get companions who can actually control and fight with animals. I also remind PCs to leave pets at a home base because they are still subject to area of effect spells.
And even if not for the sidekick rules from Tasha’s any character should be able to have a companion it’s just some will be more “powerful” then others (I put quotations cause Beastmaster sucks in the phb). And a pet will listen to u. Especially if it’s a dog/wolf. But hey with these new sidekick rules u can make your beast companion your sidekick and get abilities from both for your beast. Which if going off the phb sucks but the sidekick abilities definitely help. If the Dm allows it tho revised Beastmaster and make that your sidekick. That thing will be amazing!! With advantage on all saves and indomitable just as an example.
@@davidstratton696 there are multiple reasons why I disallowed most of Tashas because it was a power fantasy book. It cared nothing for "game balance" and it was all about just giving players more powerful options that made no sense. A game already rife with overlapping class problems was made worse by Tashas.
@@Doodle1776 Tasha’s is the best book they have made tf u talking about? And how does giving players more options make no sense or is a bad thing? It gives players more free rein and doesn’t limit them. Like being able to change what your race ability scores normally are since not all people of a particular race are all gonna be the same. Now we can play as an orc wizard and be just as good due to bumping up Int while getting abilities from the orc race. This opens up more role play potential. U want to play a smart Orc well now u can. And the sidekick rules are actually extremely well done. They aren’t gonna outshine the pc’s and they were never meant to. It simply makes things that wouldn’t be good later down the line able to hold their own. Like a wolf for example, a wolf is only good for a few lvs and then it falls off and will be killed insanely easily. This makes them a decent combatant at any lv cause it scales very well but won’t as I said ever outshine any of the pc’s. In fact they actually make the pc’s better at what they are doing like the expert sidekick class can help as a bonus action or the the warrior sidekick class can use its reaction to give disadvantage on a single attack against anyone that doesn’t target it as long as it’s within 5ft (like the protection fighting style). The sidekick is lik 2/3 of a player character so they aren’t anything insane. And this encourages players to make allies can help with role play. U need to stop thinking of it just as powergaming dude. Not everyone thinks like that. It’s helps with role play cause it doesn’t limit u a certain way and to make allies cause u know strength in numbers.
@@Doodle1776 And the option I gave with combing the sidekick rules and revised Ranger is only if the DM is allowing the revised Ranger. If not then your sidekick will not advantage on all saves cause that’s from revised Ranger. They get indomitable from sidekick but only if u go warrior and u have to wait just like a fighter does. It lvs with u. And u act like the phb Beastmaster doesn’t completely suck. They do. They did it right here. And u can still combine sidekick and the phb Beastmaster and u will get abilities from both but it will still not be anything crazy cause again phb Beastmaster sucks. It’s only if u can combine sidekick and revised Beastmaster that it gets kinda insane. Like have u even read up on the sidekick rules? I doubt it if u can’t see how well it’s done. It’s also super simple too. Go actually read up on it and toss your hatred for Tasha’s while u read it as well.
My sorcerer has gone through so many pack animals that he started calling his mules emergency rations.... When they died he would use his cooking skill to make them into stew... It was RoFM and people were starving. I couldn't waste the meat.
Loving the ideas presented here. Gives me an idea of how to deal with the Beastmaster Ranger without having to go full UA Ranger, which is just too powerful. Especially if you're a lazy DM like me and don't enforce anything resembling travel rules (doing so really deletes about half the Ranger's abilities). I'd love to play in a group where we actually enforce encumbrance, don't allow bags of holding, and make travel rules matter.
In my Planescape campaign, our Modron Druid (Druid Unit One) summoned a Sewer Rat to help in a tavern brawl the first session. She became our tank, we named her "Sue" after the modron titled her Sewer Rat Unit One. So Sue and Dru were our hardest hitters based off their natural resistances and toughness. She was the best and the DM has fun playing her up as a slightly cranky companion xD
Running a game where the ranger has an otter named Mimi, which the party has gone to great lengths in game to enchant it give it a magic attack (1D6 chaos damage on a claw attack, 'roll a D4 table of elemental damage') That otter has a higher kill count then some party members at this point. The same group also rescued a pig (full grown, not a cute teacup style) and have since given it saddle bags and use it as a pack animal, named him Hank.
For the algorithm! On the lines of familiars, I played a Pact of the Chain Warlock who had a quasit familiar with Spook. While he did use Spook for scouting, he was very protective of him instead of using him as a sacrificial piece on the map. Was fun to role play, and the other players were good with it.
Tasha's sidekicks. Follow the rules as set down no side rules needed. I will agree that training is definitely necessary. But it should used the same guidelines as characters for learning.
Its been two years sense my players adopted a baby cave bear. They still can't understand why all tavern keepers get angry and charge them over 500 gold when she destroys their rooms. Taverns aren't kennels, and when the bear burrows into an expensive mattress, claws all the furniture, and shits everywhere, I cant imagine why. Either way makes for a great session.
Im tempted to get the tamed companions one you made. I just finished a campaign where I let companions ruin the balance, and I'm looking for a better way to run them
I have a player with a dog, a horse, countless other small animals, probably a cat, and an ancient blue dragon. He got all of this when he was a running a campaign and a DMPC. He gave himself a blue dragon for free. Now he’s trying to use this character for every campaign I run and it’s so much to keep track of. How do I fix this?
Stibbles codex of I have companions is actually a really good book that helps with a lot of these things. It gives you step-by-step instructions on how someone can tame an animal how likely they are to be tamed what’s the things that they need to survive. It also has a bunch of other interesting animals other than your basic squirrel dog cat chicken bird whatever. Granted it does have those things but also as other things as well. I really really enjoy the book and also it gives you things that allows you to keep your companion alive. Basically they level up alongside your character and how much your friendship is to these little companions. You spend more time with them the more likely To love you. Spend less time with them though they can become more distant and then they’re more likely to run away.
I’m very curious. So this channel is absolutely filled with useful advice to a dungeon master. I was wondering if you had ever made or thought about making a channel dedicated to player advice to help a campaign run better. My players personally are fine, but I’ve seen some player tips on this channel and wondered if there was enough of your vast knowledge for a channel dedicated to helping players have the most fun?
D&D does have rules for training animals you just have to look at older versions.... - AD&D 2nd edition had the Animal training skill which went into detail around training animals including teaching skills and tricks. - 3rd edition/3.5 bundled under handle animal skill but detailed time to train and time to teach additional tricks. - 4th edition was where they dumbed the Handle animal skill down to a paragraph it does say for a wild beast it is a skill challenge that requires a number of sucesses. - 5E doen't even mention using animal handling to train animals. Tasha's cauldron of everything does have rules for sidekicks and recommends only using them with small partys. I would limit the limit of how far they can scout ahead maybe making a will power roll to not get side tracked and wander off.
In my game I had one of my players want a spider as a pet because they were fighting a bunch. The other player got a net out of her bag and it is now living in her bag named Jeff and they love it.
About the time and effort, i like the idea behind companions stolen from the czech rpg Dračí Doupě (a unique 2d6 system) where a companion creates a bond. A bond has different levels from 1 when is tamed and follows the person around to 3 where it is willing to follow every order. During the downtime, a character can attempt to strenghten this bond by training or olaying with the creature so it takes a minimum of 3 days to reach the max level of trust. Then when the companion is attacked, it can basically pull extra hp from this bond which simulates the lack of trust to its owner that allowed it to get hurt in the first place. If the bond reaches 0, the creature leaves. This includes creatures such as horses too. Spook the horse one too many times and it runs away and you never see it or your gear ever again. I have absolutely stole this principle giving the creature a default extra 1dX hp per bond level lost where the X depends on the stat block of the creature. So if a creature has 3 levels of bonds (the max), for example 1d4+2 hp, say 5, and it gets hit for 11 damage, the owner can roll as many d4 as is their bond to the creature to save them. If they are lucky and roll 4+4, the creature survives with 2 hp and 1 level of the bond remaining. The bond may be restored to full in a few days time. If they roll worse and use all bond levels, the creature may survive but with 0 bond it is spooked and runs away. It can be recaptured and a new bond can be established in the future, but usually it is gone gone. If all bond levels and hp aren't enough to cover the damage, the creature is killed.
Dude I don’t know what games you’re playing in but I’ve never even heard of a DM allowing a single animal handling check to tame a wild animal to such an extent that it becomes intelligent enough to go scout and report back like a familiar.
You know, pointing out the Find Familiar issue and how thoroughly that animal companion works in that second point, I was already under the assumption that animal companions (outside of Ranger/Druid class features) aren’t that smart or that useful, and players who try to excuse that logic should be aware that such companions are not that smart (or brave) to know or do any of that stuff. Just because you can do anything that you want in tabletop games does not mean that it is guaranteed to work how you want it to. And if it does, it’s a boring game with virtually no risk and adventure.
agreed. my rules for pets are they have to be listed as tiny nothing bigger than a cat or dog, the best thing it may be able to do is fetch something, and possibly run around the feet of an enemy as a tripping hazard, if you want it to attack it takes your bonus action and does 1D4 damage and that only comes after lots of down time training and animal handling checks, unless you are a beastmaster Ranger or a Druid then i have my own rules for that
I don't like the idea of an animal companion which only costs downtime and stays useful feels overdone. If you want to tame a wild animal, then its primary view of you should be "this person gives food and scratches and possibly shelter" not "I accept advanced orders from this person". While there are animals which are easily trained and useful, they tend to be domesticated animals, which compared to their wild counterparts, usually would be considered autistic or stupid. Just as an example, there was an attempt to use moose or elk as cavalry mounts, but, once combat started, they were too smart to be useful and didn't like charging into masses of pikes/spears/etc.
i typically do, i don't allow anyone other than a Beastmaster Ranger or Druid to have an animal companion bigger than a medium sized dog. To get the pet they need to lure in the animal, make an animal handling check, and have a cage or something to put it in since it is not trained (they can also purchase a pet from a vendor however they still need to train it and create a bond with the animal). Then they need to succeed on 5 animal handling checks during down time but can only do 1 a day. The players can train their pets to do very basic things fetch a small item (3 successful animal handling checks) (however the pet needs to e trained to recognize the item ie just cause your squirrel can fetch a nut doesn't mean it knows what a key is). It can run around the feet of an enemy creating a tripping hazard 3 successes (great for rogues to get sneak attack). It can take your bonus action as an attack doing 1D4 (3 successes to train) since some subclasses are shit on bonus actions. The pet is immortal if it's just hanging out being a pet i assume it isn't in the battle, but the second the player uses it to do any function it is not immortal until the task is over
yeah but taming a squirrel and having a magical ghost entity that can change its shape and be issued orders isnt really the same thing lol. also if mr fluffykins dies he is dead forever familiars just get some humbug ritual and poof they back. thats why you read books for years mr wizard.
I often play classes that get optional animals like they have animal companions, for example my swarmkeeper, has 6 butterflies called Fickle, Fackle, Alfred, Jay, zam, and Jimmy. They only are endangered if I endanger them.
I had a situation in a campaign where my party's barbar wanted to use a direwolf he managed to subdue as a mount. We went back and forth on the issue. I eventually let him gain it as a mount.
Years ago (3rd Ed)I played a half dragon sorcerer in Sunless Citadel and came across the white dragon wyrmling. My DM said that if I wanted to give it xp I had to allocate it from my own XP that I received, but at any given time it could not have more than 50% of what I had. It took four sessions before it trusted me. Long live Calcryx.
Im currently making a homebrew class called the Huntsman that gets a wolf companion as it's main class ability. The subclasses change the PC and the wolf companion who is a spirit that manifests a wolf form. It is an all martial class with no spells or cantrips. But the companion levels up with him and scales. It gets an asi when the PC does and it gets a d8 hit die every level. It can not take feats in place of an asi. Multi attack to match the extra attack at level 5 and 13. The class gets an asi every fourth level and has five "dead" levels. The three subclasses are The Rider and The Mount, The Poisoner and The Baneful, and The Yeoman and The Scout. I'm currently balancing it out to make sure i don't make anything game breaking.
You bring up some interesting points I also have issues with familiars is I think they should be geared somewhat toward specific roles. Small creatures like squirrels and the like would make good thieves or scouts and larger animals for combat. Though all familiars are small I never like how they are all used for scouting and the help action and there is nothing unique about them.
5th edition is very limited in the use of dogs (to use an example). My character has a number of pet dogs ( She is a bard). She has little ankle biters that are good watch dogs but nearly useless for fighting. They also eliminate vermin. She lives in a gypsy vardo. I have a couple dogs that are scent hounds and are skilled at tracking And of course a brace of war dogs. The character is the pack leader. All dogs do not have to come everywhere. In our game the animals have very good perception skills based in hearing and scent. They can increase by training and experience. Hit points can also increase based on training and experience. The biting skills DO NOT increase. They are still using the same teeth. The watch dogs are given the game feat of alert. At the end of the day they are just pets. Not replacements for familiars or a Ranger or Druids animal companions. Several have died in the line of duty, usually collateral damage. They have been victimized by sleep spells. .That is why we have halfling farmers who train dogs. They most certainly can not act as spies or scouts.
To point out, it also seems like you are allowing the pets to level up becasue of the time and effort invested in the animal. Hence if its easy to tem its easy for it to get killed and can remain static. IF you spending down time to allow training for all those things you also want it to matter(AC and hit point etc.....)
First of all I would make clear that there is 2 possibilities: Either the animal is a pet. So it is just for roleplaying and maybe occational flavour, but won't give any gamemechanical benefits. In turn I as a DM ignore the fact that the last 2 fireballs would have turned the pet into a piece of charcoal and that the pet would have drowned when nobody thought of casting waterbreathing on it when the party dove into that underwater cave or that it would have starved to death because nobody ever feeded it etc. Or the animal is an actual sidekick. In this case it will be giving gamemechanical benefits and tbh in that case I would make the animal stronger than "normal" animals just os they don't die at the first AoE spell being cast, but I would still expect the players to care for their new friend and protect it. Otherwise it would definitly die.
My paladin uses a giant lizard as her steed. We joke that I use Lizzy as a Yoshy because when I got the feature I almost falled down in a spike trap so I jumped off of her back.
I like it in the game LAST CHAOS where pets can become mounts when grown (fully leveled dragon, horse) or can keep pets that enable boost for defense or offense. D&D can make it better though in such like a squirrel companion maybe able to help in 15% base run speed (not stackable with any other speed buff) and +1 dexterity stat as to where a dog could help in +1 strength stat and a +1 to hit, damage on dice rolls. Beyond that, unless you are a Beastmaster ranger (or a Beastmaster like in the movie BEASTMASTER xD) companions won't do anything but follow you around keeping you company. D&D has summon monster scrolls or spells for offensive companions that actually fight otherwise. Wonder what an elephant could do though :? be a good mount, and maybe +1 to constitution and +5 to AC xD now im just thinking too much having fun... till next time we rolll the dice!!!
Not so sure about the levelling. The mentioned 1/2 the Barbarians HP and some skill... thats as strong as the Beastmasters whole class feature. Also a HUGE upgrade to a squirrel. So i would maybe add an milestone Feature which i just grant like a reward depending on the Type of creature. For example the Squirrel gets one extra hp per lvl, his bite deals 1d4 dt lvl3, and 1d6 at lvl10 instead of 1 and he gets Evasion at lvl5. And Elephant however gets 5 HP per lvl and an averange of +1dmg each lvl. Maybe some Memory related feature at lvl5. (Can find the closest waterhole) stuff like that.
OMG! I was JUST talking with my DM about how my barbarian wants to adopt a squirrel! We even picked out the breed of squirrel for her. However, I am fully aware that, although my forest gnome barbarian can talk with the squirrel, and see through the squirrel's eyes and ears, I cannot CONTROL that squirrel (unlike a wizard's familiar), and it is ALWAYS going to be a SQUIRREL. I specifically chose squirrel, because my barbarian has a wisdom of FOUR, and she is extremely foolish. A squirrel is a natural match for her. I fully expect my barbarian to have fun with her squirrel, and to attempt to use the squirrel to scout ahead, only to have the squirrel be completely sidetracked by some peanut butter sandwich the guard had waiting for his lunch, and the entire hour will be wasted watching through the cute squirrel eyes as the guard gets angry about losing his lunch, and the squirrel can't remember what I asked it to do, anyway. That is going to be half the fun of having an "animal companion," with a foolish barbarian. If I wanted EFFECTIVE animal scouts, I definitely would have gone with a wizard familiar.
He mentions Pegasus. Which are celestial creatures as a mount with the fact his rules specifically state that Celestial and Fiends are not able to be tamed
had a rogue. talk his way into making winter wolf ally. the winter wolf did more damage than his normal attacks even with sneak attack. at least at was presuasion check and not animal handling.
My players adopted a raven last session because the totem warrior barbarian could speak to it with magic (no joke). I don't think I'll give it levels, but it could still be usefull as a flying animal that can recieve direct orders.
Sidekick rules from Tasha’s does a good job at making companions and pets viable even in the later lvs. U don’t have to worry about them outshining your actual pc’s since it’s basically only 2/3 of what a normal character is. Which makes them viable even in the later lvs but not at all broken. They lv up with u, roll for health, get asi’s, and get certain abilities based on the class u give them. IT’s seriously amazing and I definitely recommend checking it out. I personally think even without this u should at least let the pet roll for health (it doesn’t have to be an insane amount just enough to be able to take even the smallest of hits which they can’t normally do).
Just started a campaign with pets. The artificer built a raven that was killed with the first hit in the second encounter. He snatched the ruby heart so he can rebuild later
George is a normal squirrel. There is a reason they do not fight honey badgers. If you take it adventuring it will do one of two things. Hide or die. It exists for enhancing role play It is a pet, not a familiar. The bard teaches George a few tricks and entertains the cute barmaid with them. Then works into her confidence and learns the village gossip. Perhaps they learn about a military unit that passed through town. Or that the local magistrate is looking for an excuse to detain the adventures. George is merely a tool for the spy. Not the spy. It is a one hit point pet.
Can a DM use the the animal pet as a part of the game? Like it was actually a shape shifting demon in disguse. Using the Party to clear out the original boss monsters because they are sitting on where its Demonic Sword of Destruction (or whatever reason it needed to use the party to clear out the boss monster.) Then have the once fluffy squirrel morph into a superboss as punishment for the parties BS? "What did you didn't actually think a wild animal was that easily tamed did you?"
I am DMing my 1st campaign ever for just my husband, so I quickly and eagerly let him tame a wolf and now have to figure out how that works because I didn't think about it 😆
I think most people that want animal sidekicks really want a character like the Beastmaster (1980s movie). I had a player take two ferrets thinking he could do the things in that movie and I promptly squished them in a trap. I know, Im a horrible GM
Wait Idk if u know this but theirs literally an a thing in Tasha’s that talks about sidekicks and u could have your pet be it. And they get all types of stuff like leveling up with u, getting asi’s, etc. I mean can u blame people for wanting to play an actual good Beastmaster? I mean actually u can make your beast companion your sidekick and get a lot of abilities for them (which phb Beastmaster doesn’t really give anything that great). Now revised Beastmaster is a whole other story. That just makes them absolutely amazing and I love it.
I just got a guard drake to be sorta friendly with me I rescued him/her from a Tiamat cult I’m excited to see where it leads I’m envisioning armour lolol
Love this channel. Want to join the patreon but am a little confused. Does every tier receive DM Lair Magazine every month and the other benefits from the tier or only the benefits listed under the patreon level?
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Tamed Companions: Animal Sidekicks the-dm-lair.myshopify.com/products/tamed-companions-animal-sidekicks
Big Ruleset Bundle the-dm-lair.myshopify.com/products/the-big-ruleset-bundle
"where can I find my next nut" sounds like today's dating sphere XD
Are "awakened" animal companions allowed to be trained in PC class levels in your campaigns?
I just made it so that my players have to hatch theyr pet or buy it, but I also let them have it as part of theyr bachstory. either way they get it at a young age. They have to feed them every day and spend money or hunt food themselves. I also created an iltem found around hags that lets them age one year. This new resource got them thinking about how they want to spread it among each other, made things really interesting and over all really fun. But as always, works for me but could be worse for someone else
I had players tame a wild Displacer Beast once... But it took a lot for them to do so, not a single roll. It was initially going to attack them, as it was hunting. The party's initial roll was as follows:
* The Bard gave the Druid Bardic Inspiration for an extra +1d8
* The Cleric used Guidance to add +1d4
* The Druid performed the roll, with her +9 bonus
* The Barbarian took out some meat to offer, to Help for Advantage on the roll
* The Druid used her Wild Talent die for another bonus (I forget what her die size was at the time).
* After the roll, the Artificer reacted with Flash of Genius for an extra +5 (as the Artificer provides anecdotes about what Displacer Beasts like)
The resulting roll was in the 40s. I let that get them out of fighting the Displacer Beast. They fought the rest of the encounter, but the Displacer Beast stayed on the sidelines enjoying the meat they were given. (I think it was previously from some criminals the party fought. Most of the meat the Displacer Beast and Barbarian had throughout the game was from evil Humanoids.) After the combat, they rolled again to convince the Displacer Beast to follow them. Again, they rolled amazingly. I continued to require more rolls, and they continued to keep the Displacer Beast happy and fed.
It eventually reached the point where it would participate in combat, but would run away if bloodied or if the Druid was knocked out. (The druid was also using a lot of feline forms in combat.) It took a long time to reach that, and the Displacer Beast was initially less likely to fight anything that didn't look like it was made of meat. When designing my encounters, I always use Action Economy as a balance metric, so I added the Displacer Beast's attacks to that calculation to keep things challenging enough for the party.
The party then took the Displacer Beast with them back to the Material Plane, and brought it to a city. They were smart enough to keep the Displacer Beast in the outskirts of the city, for the most part, with the Druid staying with them so they didn't attack people. (Wise choice, as it was still not a tame animal.) The party managed to hire someone (a friend from one of their backgrounds) to take care of her while they were in the city.
The Druid created a sort of feline sanctuary just outside of the city, growing large amounts of catnip with her Plant Growth and Druidcraft spells. She started always keeping some on her as well. (And at this point, someone else joined the campaign playing a Tabaxi, so they had fun with that.) The party was still rolling to take care of and tame this creature at this point, and still succeeding.
Finally, it eventually happened. The Displacer Beast considered the party to be her new pack, and just stayed by the Druid's side, trusting the party. They managed to tame the Displacer Beast.
Eventually though, she started having some trouble keeping up with the party's power level. She didn't get class levels or anything... I let her proficiency bonus scale with the rest of the party, but nothing else. Not her AC, her HP, her damage rolls... The danger to bringing her into combat was increasing over time. When she finally got knocked out in a combat (and immediately healed), the party brought her to the feline sanctuary they had set up and let her hang out there when they went on their adventures, and they always returned to interact with her. (Really, this only lasted for one more trip away in which they defeated a major villain that had been plaguing them for a super long time and the Druid retired.)
I had another Displacer Beast find the sanctuary, so now there's Displacer Kittens. The party loved that. The Druid has since retired, and the party is high enough level for her to cast spells while in Wild Shape, so in her retirement, the Druid stays in her Wild Shapes, and goes around the edges of the desert casting Plant Growth to restore the land, with her small pack of Displacer Beasts following her around. (The last major villain she defeated had been slowly turning the realm into a desert, and with that villain's spells no longer preventing growth in the area, the desert could now be restored.) Her pack starts to become its own legend in the region, seen as a good omen, as a sighting of this pack in your area is a sure sign that plants will start to grow in the region again.
I love this story! Thank you for sharing it!
Now that is how you should tame creatures in DnD.
Cojnsidering tigers and gators can be chill and appreciate free food, this even has basis in RL situations :3
A great book that has lots of low cr creatures that are designed for pets yet can still survive (to a point) is Stibble's Codex of Companions by Eldermancy. It's a great book and I highly recommend it.
I used the Mimcat once. The arcane trickster won it in a carnival and loved it (even though it tried to eat his familiar more than once) because it could turn into simple objects and he could use it as an awesome prop.
7:40
There are actually rules for Sidekicks in Tasha's, in a form of "half-classes" that you can give to a creature, either sapient or not. There are Warrior, Spellcaster, and Expert. They are pretty good, weaker than PCs but still pretty strong, each with a set of abilities.
👏 I thin Luke destroyed his copy of tashas after reading the subclasses so he never got around to the sidekick rules XD
The Expert sidekick NPC dryad is actually the MVP on my table, and is a cheerful teenager girl
I was about to write this out... for Combat companions, this is the way. very easy, already established and has progression. Simply mete out those sidekick levels as you wish to keep the combat companion in check.
Sidekick rules actually originated with Dragon of Icespire Peak. Not sure if Tasha's expanded them or just transplanted them.
@@thejawgz6719 Probably transplanted because it has many things from adventure books so players can use them without spoilers in the book.
The one-shot I do to teach new players is the basic “save the blacksmith’s daughter from goblins.” In the goblin lair there is a wolf in a cage, I make sure to explain that the wolf is VERY wild.
Not tame at all.
It will kill you if you let it out.
Kill ya’ dead.
Sometimes people let it out mid-combat. “I have a +1 in animal handling!” They say as they open the cage. Because I’m not a monster, I have the wolf run out of the cave on a good roll. On a bad roll they die. They never tame it. I explain to them that it takes time to tame something and the middle of combat is not the time to do that.
Kind of a missed opportunity imo
Having played some far cry games I'd say that if you put a cage with a wild animal in a hostile area have the animal attack *anyone* upon release, not necessarily the players but anyone, kind of as a neutral unallied fighter that attacks whatever target is the most convenient.
Having a wild animal on the loose would surely be a great distraction both in and out of combat that can act as a hazard for the players as well as something they can use for an advantage if they play around it smart. And after a while you can have it just leave because it had enough or something, so it's not overstaying it's welcome.
In that case the animal handling check would not be about whether it attacks, but who it attacks first, assuming both the party and enemies are present.
The way you described it it kinda seems like a good deed trap. Something like freeing an imprisoned creature, be it sapient or not, is typically regarded as a good thing so players might be incliened to do that and punishing that with either nothing or a hostile encounter based on a coinflip isn't really a fun result.
You can make it a threat but make it one that's fun and rewarding to work around.
My first time as a DM, I gave my players a baby gold dragon, she caused a lot of problems and they constantly had to do animal handling checks, after a long time in game, they had to fight a beholder and they were losing (badly), when the beholder was about to give the final blow, the baby dragon sacrificed herself, me and my players were really sad about it, so after they basically obliterated the beholder (they were beating him even after he reached 0 HP), I made her come back as a baby dracolich because of her will to stay with them, it was a really wholesome moment.
We got some giant crabs as pets once. We used them as pack-animals/mounts. We considered using them in combat too, be we decided we didn't want them to get a taste for humanoid fleash. Plus, you know, we didn't want them to get killed.
I have a Druid who has and Bull Elk to use as a mount... Using "Speak with animal" and "Animal Friendship" and a dozen Handle Animal checks during downtime [It has one "trick" which is "Ride"]... the is only a mount for overland travel, and not combat... I did ride the Elk towards combat, dismounted, and let it run away as combat started.
I was going to say something about Tasha's sidekick rules, but someone else already that. I've no doubt the Tamed Companions stuff is more comprehensive and specific though.
That said, at my table there's more than one kind of animal companion and a simple rule to govern them... If it's used in exploration or combat, it's fair game to attack. If it's used in roleplay only, then it's essentially immortal.
Puffball: the dimwitted al'miraj. He tagged along with them, but did not become THEIR pet. However, the NPC they were there to rescue, bonded with it too (once they rescued her), and when they met her again, she and Puffball were besties.
I recently ran a one shot for my group because we had a player out and I let my 8 year old son roll a character. They found a red dragon and when they killed the dragon my son started to get really upset. He was on the verge of tears. He told me he didn't want to kill the dragon. He wanted to keep it as a pet. I felt so bad for him so I told him as they searched the cave he found a red dragon egg.
My 8 year old Goliath Barbarian now has a pet dragon and I am terrified
As someoneone mildly obsessed with honeybadgers I got a happy surprise that they got a mention here.
I'd say a realistic role for a honey badger would be a nuisance tank with a bunch of non magical resistances, to the point of a probably near immunity to blades, arrows and poison.
They wouldn't be dealing too much damage by themselves, at least I think so, they do have a bite force strong enough to break turtle shells.
but they'd have tons of survivability as long as they dont go up in flames and they'd be a huge disruption on the battlefield.
Especially given their special ability is a very smelly anal secretion, kinda like a skunk but instead of a targeted attack it's more like a small aoe.
They're also pretty smart though idk how that would be represented in a game.
Some of their other strenghts would probably be digging and foraging, and maybe even something like scent tracking because afaik their sense of smell is pretty good.
Weaknesses would likely be most magical damage types. Realistically I'd say they're low health tanks with some crazy AC and resistances but magic would wear them down pretty quick.
The reason honey badgers are so famously aggressive and fearless is because it's both their only defense as well as they can afford to do so thanks to their extemely strong skin. They are way too slow to run away from danger so their strategy is typically to cause as much of a ruckus as possible so whatever thing confronted them backs out because it sure as heck won't. They're also not intimidated by size so they'd use that approach for anything.
I'd also give them a once per day self revive if they get downed just for the heck of it.
GinnyDi makes a great video about this one of her ideas is, your pet is immortal as long as they are just that, a pet. A companion and roleplaying tool not a fullt trained scout and fighting animal. But the second you wanna use them for more than a pet they can die. Another great book about having your pets level with you is stibbles codex of companions
Way I run in adventure league is if I kill it during the session, it comes back next session. Basically one free meat shield for one round of combat.
i typically do that, my one change is the players can train their pets to do very basic things fetch a small item (however the pet needs to e trained to recognize the item ie just cause your squirrel can fetch a nut doesn't mean it knows what a key is) it can run around the feet of an enemy creating a tripping hazard (great for rogues to get sneak attack) or take your bonus action as an attack doing 1D4 since i don't allow anyone other than a Beastmaster Ranger or Druid to have an animal companion bigger than a medium sized dog. the pet is immortal if it's just hanging out being a pet i assume it isn't in the battle, but the second the player uses it to do any function it is not immortal until the task is over
A DM who bends the rules makes the game so much more fun , I believe that rules are more a guid line not defined rules the DM sets the rules and can't let tou do more things or less
My players met the snail a bunch of haregons were using as a pack mule and kept it, so the only time i have had them roll animal handling is when they talk about training it to be faster like the racing snails they met in the chapter before
Pet: FLUFFY! Cute thing... cuddle cuddle.
Keep the thing out of combat. it might have a whole 1 hp.
Animal sidekick: Almost an NPC.
Mount: Almost an NPC
War dog: Almost an NPC.
If you toss any of them into combat.... they are valid targets.
The cute 1 hp squirrel...when they do speak with animals... has no clue what they want if it's not nuts.
I like the idea of adding HP along with their character. HP is always a challenge to express in our games but we should understand that it also means you stand to survive constant strikes and attacks longer and if that companion has been traveling with you long enough to know it will encounter an arrow more often than a nut, it should be able to react and survive more attacks just like you do.
Something I've always wanted to try is giving pets a friendship value. Players would spend time bonding with their pet. Then when the pet is reduced to zero hp instead of dieing the pet flees and returns to the players during the last long rest, but it's lost some of it's Bond with the player. If the friendship is reduced to zero than it will either die in combat or run off never to be seen again.
ooh i may steal this and add it to my pet rules, though that is just 1 more thing to track
@@TheAciddragon069 if I didn't want you to use it I wouldn't have mentioned It. ;) I also recommend "stibbles codex of companions" whish is where I got the idea for a friendship stat, and has more bonuses tied to it.
Options:
• Use the Sidekick options from TCE, the warrior works perfectly on animals, the expert works awesome on humanoids squires or helpers, even orphans the party rescued from the streets, and the caster is a good option to have if the party dont have a healer
• Use the animal companion updated from the ranger beastmaster for animals, except is not an invocation from a character and use it only for the stats, maybe for the pc friend commanding it as a bonus or free action
• there is rules for armor on animals and horses on the manuals, basically just buy them armor like you would with a normal character, it cost the same but takes one day or more for the blacksmith to adjust it
I've never had a player try to tame a wild animal without the use of magic. Using only animal handling and some food, they are content with just shifting the beast's disposition toward them favorably - toss some meat to a wolf and maybe it doesn't attack, but there is no expectation that they would be able to tame it that quickly. If they were to give a squirrel or similar creature some nuts, at best that might lead to the squirrel secretly following them and then doing something that helps them out in the next fight before it scrambles away - maybe they notice something tugging on their pack (the squirrel trying to steal some nuts) and as they stop to investigate they can roll a Perception check and possibly spot a group of enemies preparing to ambush the party that their passive perception wasn't good enough to notice.
Absolutely agree that "pets", which I differentiate from "animal companions" and "sidekicks", should mostly just be there for roleplay purposes. Pets are creatures that have no significant value in combat because they lack the physical strength to actually hurt anything, and are typically a CR 0 creature. They can have some combat utility in very rare instances (such as the squirrel thing mentioned above) or with some specific tactics, such as throwing a poisonous snake at an enemy, but otherwise they are just there. Outside of combat, a pet can do some degree of scouting, but they lack the intelligence to map out an area, count the number of enemies or really provide much info that is going to be useful, even if you have the means to communicate with them, as they can only communicate with simple thoughts and emotions. Using Beast Sense would allow you to use them for scouting to a greater extent, similar to a wizard possessing their familiar, but without being able to directly control where the creature goes and its a 2nd level spell, so it is definitely not overshadowing the wizard's abilities. I run pets with the assumption that they will crawl inside a bag/pocket or will scramble away before any fireballs or other AOE hit, just because I am not a jerk and am not going to kill off the players' pets without good reason for doing so.
Animal companions are creatures that can be effective in combat, but can't or have not been trained to fight better, and thus will only use the normal stat block for the creature. Sidekicks are creatures that have been trained to be better at fighting (such as a war dog) or have an unusual amount of experience fighting alongside people. Animal companions can be converted to sidekicks after they have gained some experience fighting alongside the PCs, and should be converted to either a warrior or expert sidekick (from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, pick the one that best fits the creature's natural attributes) at a level that gives them the closest amount of HP above what their normal stat block gives, then they can progress further from there, gaining levels when the PCs do, but only if the PCs are a higher level than they are. This allows the animals to increase HP and damage, keeping them relevant in later tiers of gameplay.
I think another thing to consider with animal pets is that their Int is generally only a 1 or 2. They're not going to be good at strategy, unless they are taught to perform specific maneuvers/tricks. Many animals are not very numerate, so they can't give an accurate count of enemies. They probably won't be able to (help) make a map of what they explored either, though they likely remember some landmarks/features that lead to things that interest them (food, shiny objects, or the like). Another thing is that unless you have magic (or are a forest gnome) you likely can't actually talk to them; they likely don't understand anything not spoken to them in such a way, and so would certainly not be able to recount a conversation they overheard.
More intelligent creatures (such as worgs), especially that know at least one language, should be treated more like a hireling than a pet or mount.
Something people forget is that familiars are not actually pets. They're a spirit that is controlled by the magic of the spell. It's not the actual creature.
Thank you for this! as a new DM and an animal nut that cant resist throwing fuzzy creatures into my campaigns this resource was a FABULOUS find!
Great video! I’ve been drip feeding D&D to my kid and I’m sure this will come along as soon as we begin a serious adventure… ::fingers crossed:: Always appreciate your team and their work!
I am running The Lost Mines of Phandelver for the first time and in the very beginning there is a cave with three wolves on chains tied to stalagmites. I decided to add off in the corner a wolf puppy that was still being trained just to see how they would handle it. Predictable , I guess, the wood elf druid took it as a pet. Named it Grover. I did this just to see how they would react to it and kind of did expect them to take it as a pet and I have now found your video as I am researching what to do with it.
Just put a curse on the Squirrel:
-Squirrel is now bonded to you and takes up an attunement slot. You can not unattune from it.
-It shares the same initiative as you and you can direct it using your bonus action.
-If the Squirrel ever dies, your character will permanently gain the 'Bad Pet Owner' curse.
__Bad Pet Owner curse__
(-10) to Animal Handling checks
All beasts and woodland creatures now see you as their sworn enemy (even polymorphed allies)
The dead squirrel's spirit haunts you by eating your rations and disrupting your Long Rests
This way the GM doesn't have to give the Squirrel plot armor during combat, because the squirrel's mortality is a feature, not a bug. :)
AND, if played correctly, this can turn into a pretty cool Character Arc.
Man, you are really coming into your own in making these videos.
Freaking bravo, dude.
Great content.
A honey badger would probably tear apart a drow as the drow cries mercilessly that it's poison doesn't do anything lol.
As a DM I have a hard enough time adjusting encounters, remembering player abilities, and keeping combat moving without adding more complications to the session. But if I were so inclined, I'd definitely consider your resource!
As far as I can tell, you are the only one to create and print rules for this. Great job
I'm going to give a Player a boar companion named Kevin Bacon who loves eating bacon to the point that he won't eat anything else unless it's been quite a while since he's last eaten anything
On the power level of the befriended squirrel, I might let them be very very well trained, but they're capability will never match a familiar. It's still just a squirrel.
Send them to how scout ahead, come back and have the druid or ranger speak to them in squirrel, and at best "there's a walnut tree and three oak trees, and the second guard is eating sunflower seeds.". At worst he comes back with an acorn, a broken key, and sits there grooming his fur, after 4 hours.
First mistake on animal sidekick is to allow animal sidekicks... every other possible mistakes derives from that one ^^
Animal friends are nice to have and feel very fitting. And idk if u know this but theirs literally an a thing in Tasha’s that talks about sidekicks and u could have your pet be it. And they get all types of stuff like leveling up with u, getting asi’s, etc.
I mean can u blame people for wanting to play an actual good Beastmaster? I mean actually u can make your beast companion your sidekick and get a lot of abilities for them (which phb Beastmaster doesn’t really give anything that great). Now revised Beastmaster is a whole other story. That just makes them absolutely amazing and I love it.
There's a reason why, from the start, I allow PCs to have pets but pets cannot be companions. They cannot control their pets or tell them to do things beyond any basic tricks for entertainment only. Only select classes get companions who can actually control and fight with animals. I also remind PCs to leave pets at a home base because they are still subject to area of effect spells.
And then theirs the sidekick rules from Tasha’s that just kinda craps on what u just said 😂.
And even if not for the sidekick rules from Tasha’s any character should be able to have a companion it’s just some will be more “powerful” then others (I put quotations cause Beastmaster sucks in the phb). And a pet will listen to u. Especially if it’s a dog/wolf.
But hey with these new sidekick rules u can make your beast companion your sidekick and get abilities from both for your beast. Which if going off the phb sucks but the sidekick abilities definitely help. If the Dm allows it tho revised Beastmaster and make that your sidekick. That thing will be amazing!! With advantage on all saves and indomitable just as an example.
@@davidstratton696 there are multiple reasons why I disallowed most of Tashas because it was a power fantasy book. It cared nothing for "game balance" and it was all about just giving players more powerful options that made no sense. A game already rife with overlapping class problems was made worse by Tashas.
@@Doodle1776 Tasha’s is the best book they have made tf u talking about? And how does giving players more options make no sense or is a bad thing? It gives players more free rein and doesn’t limit them. Like being able to change what your race ability scores normally are since not all people of a particular race are all gonna be the same. Now we can play as an orc wizard and be just as good due to bumping up Int while getting abilities from the orc race. This opens up more role play potential. U want to play a smart Orc well now u can.
And the sidekick rules are actually extremely well done. They aren’t gonna outshine the pc’s and they were never meant to. It simply makes things that wouldn’t be good later down the line able to hold their own. Like a wolf for example, a wolf is only good for a few lvs and then it falls off and will be killed insanely easily. This makes them a decent combatant at any lv cause it scales very well but won’t as I said ever outshine any of the pc’s. In fact they actually make the pc’s better at what they are doing like the expert sidekick class can help as a bonus action or the the warrior sidekick class can use its reaction to give disadvantage on a single attack against anyone that doesn’t target it as long as it’s within 5ft (like the protection fighting style). The sidekick is lik 2/3 of a player character so they aren’t anything insane. And this encourages players to make allies can help with role play.
U need to stop thinking of it just as powergaming dude. Not everyone thinks like that. It’s helps with role play cause it doesn’t limit u a certain way and to make allies cause u know strength in numbers.
@@Doodle1776 And the option I gave with combing the sidekick rules and revised Ranger is only if the DM is allowing the revised Ranger. If not then your sidekick will not advantage on all saves cause that’s from revised Ranger. They get indomitable from sidekick but only if u go warrior and u have to wait just like a fighter does. It lvs with u. And u act like the phb Beastmaster doesn’t completely suck. They do. They did it right here. And u can still combine sidekick and the phb Beastmaster and u will get abilities from both but it will still not be anything crazy cause again phb Beastmaster sucks. It’s only if u can combine sidekick and revised Beastmaster that it gets kinda insane.
Like have u even read up on the sidekick rules? I doubt it if u can’t see how well it’s done. It’s also super simple too. Go actually read up on it and toss your hatred for Tasha’s while u read it as well.
Animal companions: All the fun of a shopping episode.
My sorcerer has gone through so many pack animals that he started calling his mules emergency rations.... When they died he would use his cooking skill to make them into stew... It was RoFM and people were starving. I couldn't waste the meat.
Loving the ideas presented here. Gives me an idea of how to deal with the Beastmaster Ranger without having to go full UA Ranger, which is just too powerful. Especially if you're a lazy DM like me and don't enforce anything resembling travel rules (doing so really deletes about half the Ranger's abilities). I'd love to play in a group where we actually enforce encumbrance, don't allow bags of holding, and make travel rules matter.
In my Planescape campaign, our Modron Druid (Druid Unit One) summoned a Sewer Rat to help in a tavern brawl the first session. She became our tank, we named her "Sue" after the modron titled her Sewer Rat Unit One. So Sue and Dru were our hardest hitters based off their natural resistances and toughness. She was the best and the DM has fun playing her up as a slightly cranky companion xD
Running a game where the ranger has an otter named Mimi, which the party has gone to great lengths in game to enchant it give it a magic attack (1D6 chaos damage on a claw attack, 'roll a D4 table of elemental damage')
That otter has a higher kill count then some party members at this point.
The same group also rescued a pig (full grown, not a cute teacup style) and have since given it saddle bags and use it as a pack animal, named him Hank.
For the algorithm!
On the lines of familiars, I played a Pact of the Chain Warlock who had a quasit familiar with Spook. While he did use Spook for scouting, he was very protective of him instead of using him as a sacrificial piece on the map. Was fun to role play, and the other players were good with it.
Perfect timing! The party I run just adopted 3 hyenas from some cultists of Yeenoghu they defeated 😅
Tasha's sidekicks. Follow the rules as set down no side rules needed. I will agree that training is definitely necessary. But it should used the same guidelines as characters for learning.
Its been two years sense my players adopted a baby cave bear. They still can't understand why all tavern keepers get angry and charge them over 500 gold when she destroys their rooms.
Taverns aren't kennels, and when the bear burrows into an expensive mattress, claws all the furniture, and shits everywhere, I cant imagine why.
Either way makes for a great session.
Im tempted to get the tamed companions one you made. I just finished a campaign where I let companions ruin the balance, and I'm looking for a better way to run them
Loved your suggested way to handle animal sidekicks. As a beginner, I would have easily slipped into instantly befriending my animal. Thank you!
I have a player with a dog, a horse, countless other small animals, probably a cat, and an ancient blue dragon. He got all of this when he was a running a campaign and a DMPC. He gave himself a blue dragon for free. Now he’s trying to use this character for every campaign I run and it’s so much to keep track of. How do I fix this?
Fix it with a single word: nope.
Hey, guys! Fluffy has finally levelled up to Vorpal Bunny.
Stibbles codex of I have companions is actually a really good book that helps with a lot of these things. It gives you step-by-step instructions on how someone can tame an animal how likely they are to be tamed what’s the things that they need to survive. It also has a bunch of other interesting animals other than your basic squirrel dog cat chicken bird whatever. Granted it does have those things but also as other things as well. I really really enjoy the book and also it gives you things that allows you to keep your companion alive. Basically they level up alongside your character and how much your friendship is to these little companions. You spend more time with them the more likely To love you. Spend less time with them though they can become more distant and then they’re more likely to run away.
I’m very curious. So this channel is absolutely filled with useful advice to a dungeon master. I was wondering if you had ever made or thought about making a channel dedicated to player advice to help a campaign run better. My players personally are fine, but I’ve seen some player tips on this channel and wondered if there was enough of your vast knowledge for a channel dedicated to helping players have the most fun?
D&D does have rules for training animals you just have to look at older versions....
- AD&D 2nd edition had the Animal training skill which went into detail around training animals including teaching skills and tricks.
- 3rd edition/3.5 bundled under handle animal skill but detailed time to train and time to teach additional tricks.
- 4th edition was where they dumbed the Handle animal skill down to a paragraph it does say for a wild beast it is a skill challenge that requires a number of sucesses.
- 5E doen't even mention using animal handling to train animals. Tasha's cauldron of everything does have rules for sidekicks and recommends only using them with small partys.
I would limit the limit of how far they can scout ahead maybe making a will power roll to not get side tracked and wander off.
George meets a sweet young thing who has a pecan horde. He betrays the party with false information. Then teabags the barbarian.
George the Vampire Squirrel. Flying and in search of a Moose companion.
In my game I had one of my players want a spider as a pet because they were fighting a bunch. The other player got a net out of her bag and it is now living in her bag named Jeff and they love it.
About the time and effort, i like the idea behind companions stolen from the czech rpg Dračí Doupě (a unique 2d6 system) where a companion creates a bond.
A bond has different levels from 1 when is tamed and follows the person around to 3 where it is willing to follow every order. During the downtime, a character can attempt to strenghten this bond by training or olaying with the creature so it takes a minimum of 3 days to reach the max level of trust.
Then when the companion is attacked, it can basically pull extra hp from this bond which simulates the lack of trust to its owner that allowed it to get hurt in the first place. If the bond reaches 0, the creature leaves. This includes creatures such as horses too. Spook the horse one too many times and it runs away and you never see it or your gear ever again.
I have absolutely stole this principle giving the creature a default extra 1dX hp per bond level lost where the X depends on the stat block of the creature. So if a creature has 3 levels of bonds (the max), for example 1d4+2 hp, say 5, and it gets hit for 11 damage, the owner can roll as many d4 as is their bond to the creature to save them. If they are lucky and roll 4+4, the creature survives with 2 hp and 1 level of the bond remaining. The bond may be restored to full in a few days time. If they roll worse and use all bond levels, the creature may survive but with 0 bond it is spooked and runs away. It can be recaptured and a new bond can be established in the future, but usually it is gone gone. If all bond levels and hp aren't enough to cover the damage, the creature is killed.
Animal sidekick = BACON!!!!
That's right! It doesn't matter what animal it is. It always yields BACON!!!
Don’t u dare!!!
Running Mines of Phandelver for two players. I'm going to allow them a Mastiff companion/sidekick and this video has been very helpful.
Dude I don’t know what games you’re playing in but I’ve never even heard of a DM allowing a single animal handling check to tame a wild animal to such an extent that it becomes intelligent enough to go scout and report back like a familiar.
You know, pointing out the Find Familiar issue and how thoroughly that animal companion works in that second point, I was already under the assumption that animal companions (outside of Ranger/Druid class features) aren’t that smart or that useful, and players who try to excuse that logic should be aware that such companions are not that smart (or brave) to know or do any of that stuff.
Just because you can do anything that you want in tabletop games does not mean that it is guaranteed to work how you want it to. And if it does, it’s a boring game with virtually no risk and adventure.
agreed. my rules for pets are they have to be listed as tiny nothing bigger than a cat or dog, the best thing it may be able to do is fetch something, and possibly run around the feet of an enemy as a tripping hazard, if you want it to attack it takes your bonus action and does 1D4 damage and that only comes after lots of down time training and animal handling checks, unless you are a beastmaster Ranger or a Druid then i have my own rules for that
I don't like the idea of an animal companion which only costs downtime and stays useful feels overdone. If you want to tame a wild animal, then its primary view of you should be "this person gives food and scratches and possibly shelter" not "I accept advanced orders from this person".
While there are animals which are easily trained and useful, they tend to be domesticated animals, which compared to their wild counterparts, usually would be considered autistic or stupid. Just as an example, there was an attempt to use moose or elk as cavalry mounts, but, once combat started, they were too smart to be useful and didn't like charging into masses of pikes/spears/etc.
One of the players in my Saturday game adopted a skunk from a dead Kobold Inventor. He even bought it custom made leather barding!
i typically do, i don't allow anyone other than a Beastmaster Ranger or Druid to have an animal companion bigger than a medium sized dog. To get the pet they need to lure in the animal, make an animal handling check, and have a cage or something to put it in since it is not trained (they can also purchase a pet from a vendor however they still need to train it and create a bond with the animal). Then they need to succeed on 5 animal handling checks during down time but can only do 1 a day. The players can train their pets to do very basic things fetch a small item (3 successful animal handling checks) (however the pet needs to e trained to recognize the item ie just cause your squirrel can fetch a nut doesn't mean it knows what a key is). It can run around the feet of an enemy creating a tripping hazard 3 successes (great for rogues to get sneak attack). It can take your bonus action as an attack doing 1D4 (3 successes to train) since some subclasses are shit on bonus actions. The pet is immortal if it's just hanging out being a pet i assume it isn't in the battle, but the second the player uses it to do any function it is not immortal until the task is over
yeah but taming a squirrel and having a magical ghost entity that can change its shape and be issued orders isnt really the same thing lol. also if mr fluffykins dies he is dead forever familiars just get some humbug ritual and poof they back. thats why you read books for years mr wizard.
I often play classes that get optional animals like they have animal companions, for example my swarmkeeper, has 6 butterflies called Fickle, Fackle, Alfred, Jay, zam, and Jimmy. They only are endangered if I endanger them.
I especially like that this was a 12 minute ad
I had a situation in a campaign where my party's barbar wanted to use a direwolf he managed to subdue as a mount. We went back and forth on the issue. I eventually let him gain it as a mount.
Years ago (3rd Ed)I played a half dragon sorcerer in Sunless Citadel and came across the white dragon wyrmling. My DM said that if I wanted to give it xp I had to allocate it from my own XP that I received, but at any given time it could not have more than 50% of what I had. It took four sessions before it trusted me. Long live Calcryx.
Depending on the level, I probably would have sacrificed a feat and taken the Leadership feat. I've definitely done that a couple of times.
Or the reverse. I have all these cute animals and my players dont want pet companions :'(
Im currently making a homebrew class called the Huntsman that gets a wolf companion as it's main class ability. The subclasses change the PC and the wolf companion who is a spirit that manifests a wolf form. It is an all martial class with no spells or cantrips. But the companion levels up with him and scales. It gets an asi when the PC does and it gets a d8 hit die every level. It can not take feats in place of an asi. Multi attack to match the extra attack at level 5 and 13. The class gets an asi every fourth level and has five "dead" levels. The three subclasses are The Rider and The Mount, The Poisoner and The Baneful, and The Yeoman and The Scout.
I'm currently balancing it out to make sure i don't make anything game breaking.
You bring up some interesting points I also have issues with familiars is I think they should be geared somewhat toward specific roles. Small creatures like squirrels and the like would make good thieves or scouts and larger animals for combat. Though all familiars are small I never like how they are all used for scouting and the help action and there is nothing unique about them.
5th edition is very limited in the use of dogs (to use an example). My character has a number of pet dogs ( She is a bard). She has little ankle biters that are good watch dogs but nearly useless for fighting. They also eliminate vermin. She lives in a gypsy vardo. I have a couple dogs that are scent hounds and are skilled at tracking And of course a brace of war dogs. The character is the pack leader. All dogs do not have to come everywhere. In our game the animals have very good perception skills based in hearing and scent. They can increase by training and experience. Hit points can also increase based on training and experience. The biting skills DO NOT increase. They are still using the same teeth. The watch dogs are given the game feat of alert. At the end of the day they are just pets. Not replacements for familiars or a Ranger or Druids animal companions. Several have died in the line of duty, usually collateral damage. They have been victimized by sleep spells. .That is why we have halfling farmers who train dogs. They most certainly can not act as spies or scouts.
And thus the epic saga of the "Rabbit of Caerbannog" became a thing (again)
I got my pet rat from urchin backround to stand watch for us at night! At first as a joke but my dm was cool with the idea of training it for it!
To point out, it also seems like you are allowing the pets to level up becasue of the time and effort invested in the animal. Hence if its easy to tem its easy for it to get killed and can remain static. IF you spending down time to allow training for all those things you also want it to matter(AC and hit point etc.....)
What if the creatures had to be attributed some of the owners XP to level up? Choices choices...
Your pet trying to take over my job.
I cast fireball
You forgot the first mistake: "DM describes otherwise unneeded cute, fuzzy squirrel."
First of all I would make clear that there is 2 possibilities: Either the animal is a pet. So it is just for roleplaying and maybe occational flavour, but won't give any gamemechanical benefits. In turn I as a DM ignore the fact that the last 2 fireballs would have turned the pet into a piece of charcoal and that the pet would have drowned when nobody thought of casting waterbreathing on it when the party dove into that underwater cave or that it would have starved to death because nobody ever feeded it etc. Or the animal is an actual sidekick. In this case it will be giving gamemechanical benefits and tbh in that case I would make the animal stronger than "normal" animals just os they don't die at the first AoE spell being cast, but I would still expect the players to care for their new friend and protect it. Otherwise it would definitly die.
But Luke... The squirrel was really a minion of the BBEG spying on the party, or even the BBEG in wild shape. 🤓 Enjoy your bacon.
My paladin uses a giant lizard as her steed. We joke that I use Lizzy as a Yoshy because when I got the feature I almost falled down in a spike trap so I jumped off of her back.
I like it in the game LAST CHAOS where pets can become mounts when grown (fully leveled dragon, horse) or can keep pets that enable boost for defense or offense. D&D can make it better though in such like a squirrel companion maybe able to help in 15% base run speed (not stackable with any other speed buff) and +1 dexterity stat as to where a dog could help in +1 strength stat and a +1 to hit, damage on dice rolls. Beyond that, unless you are a Beastmaster ranger (or a Beastmaster like in the movie BEASTMASTER xD) companions won't do anything but follow you around keeping you company. D&D has summon monster scrolls or spells for offensive companions that actually fight otherwise. Wonder what an elephant could do though :? be a good mount, and maybe +1 to constitution and +5 to AC xD now im just thinking too much having fun... till next time we rolll the dice!!!
Not so sure about the levelling. The mentioned 1/2 the Barbarians HP and some skill... thats as strong as the Beastmasters whole class feature. Also a HUGE upgrade to a squirrel. So i would maybe add an milestone Feature which i just grant like a reward depending on the Type of creature. For example the Squirrel gets one extra hp per lvl, his bite deals 1d4 dt lvl3, and 1d6 at lvl10 instead of 1 and he gets Evasion at lvl5. And Elephant however gets 5 HP per lvl and an averange of +1dmg each lvl. Maybe some Memory related feature at lvl5. (Can find the closest waterhole) stuff like that.
OMG! I was JUST talking with my DM about how my barbarian wants to adopt a squirrel! We even picked out the breed of squirrel for her.
However, I am fully aware that, although my forest gnome barbarian can talk with the squirrel, and see through the squirrel's eyes and ears, I cannot CONTROL that squirrel (unlike a wizard's familiar), and it is ALWAYS going to be a SQUIRREL.
I specifically chose squirrel, because my barbarian has a wisdom of FOUR, and she is extremely foolish. A squirrel is a natural match for her.
I fully expect my barbarian to have fun with her squirrel, and to attempt to use the squirrel to scout ahead, only to have the squirrel be completely sidetracked by some peanut butter sandwich the guard had waiting for his lunch, and the entire hour will be wasted watching through the cute squirrel eyes as the guard gets angry about losing his lunch, and the squirrel can't remember what I asked it to do, anyway.
That is going to be half the fun of having an "animal companion," with a foolish barbarian.
If I wanted EFFECTIVE animal scouts, I definitely would have gone with a wizard familiar.
Ya we dont have animal companions unless its part of your class. Makes it easier.
a pig so if it dies,,,, BACON
That's not a pet. It's livestock. If it was a pet you would barry it when it dies, not eat it.
@@agsilverradio2225 Why waste the meat ?
Suspension of disbelief in a game i just got fireballed, a druid has some magic animal mojo, no?
He mentions Pegasus. Which are celestial creatures as a mount with the fact his rules specifically state that Celestial and Fiends are not able to be tamed
had a rogue. talk his way into making winter wolf ally. the winter wolf did more damage than his normal attacks even with sneak attack. at least at was presuasion check and not animal handling.
My players drive me nuts wanting animal companions or a wondrous figurine. My answer is always no, and I blame the drizzt books for this.
I know it makes me sound like an old Boomer, but the old AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide covered these topics & more - and I still use it!
My players adopted a raven last session because the totem warrior barbarian could speak to it with magic (no joke). I don't think I'll give it levels, but it could still be usefull as a flying animal that can recieve direct orders.
Sidekick rules from Tasha’s does a good job at making companions and pets viable even in the later lvs. U don’t have to worry about them outshining your actual pc’s since it’s basically only 2/3 of what a normal character is. Which makes them viable even in the later lvs but not at all broken. They lv up with u, roll for health, get asi’s, and get certain abilities based on the class u give them. IT’s seriously amazing and I definitely recommend checking it out.
I personally think even without this u should at least let the pet roll for health (it doesn’t have to be an insane amount just enough to be able to take even the smallest of hits which they can’t normally do).
Just started a campaign with pets. The artificer built a raven that was killed with the first hit in the second encounter. He snatched the ruby heart so he can rebuild later
Sidekick rules from Tasha’s are worth a look at if u don’t want your pets to just die constantly (especially in the later lvs).
George is a normal squirrel. There is a reason they do not fight honey badgers. If you take it adventuring it will do one of two things. Hide or die. It exists for enhancing role play It is a pet, not a familiar. The bard teaches George a few tricks and entertains the cute barmaid with them. Then works into her confidence and learns the village gossip. Perhaps they learn about a military unit that passed through town. Or that the local magistrate is looking for an excuse to detain the adventures. George is merely a tool for the spy. Not the spy. It is a one hit point pet.
Can a DM use the the animal pet as a part of the game? Like it was actually a shape shifting demon in disguse. Using the Party to clear out the original boss monsters because they are sitting on where its Demonic Sword of Destruction (or whatever reason it needed to use the party to clear out the boss monster.) Then have the once fluffy squirrel morph into a superboss as punishment for the parties BS? "What did you didn't actually think a wild animal was that easily tamed did you?"
I am DMing my 1st campaign ever for just my husband, so I quickly and eagerly let him tame a wolf and now have to figure out how that works because I didn't think about it 😆
A insect like a scorpion or a spider and if I really thought harder it would bee a swarm of giant wasps
I think most people that want animal sidekicks really want a character like the Beastmaster (1980s movie). I had a player take two ferrets thinking he could do the things in that movie and I promptly squished them in a trap. I know, Im a horrible GM
Wait Idk if u know this but theirs literally an a thing in Tasha’s that talks about sidekicks and u could have your pet be it. And they get all types of stuff like leveling up with u, getting asi’s, etc.
I mean can u blame people for wanting to play an actual good Beastmaster? I mean actually u can make your beast companion your sidekick and get a lot of abilities for them (which phb Beastmaster doesn’t really give anything that great). Now revised Beastmaster is a whole other story. That just makes them absolutely amazing and I love it.
And yea that’s terrible.
I'll name him George and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him!
I just got a guard drake to be sorta friendly with me I rescued him/her from a Tiamat cult I’m excited to see where it leads I’m envisioning armour lolol
Tasha's Cauldron has Sidekick rules.
Stibbles Codex of Companions basically does all you mention and more...
Love this channel. Want to join the patreon but am a little confused. Does every tier receive DM Lair Magazine every month and the other benefits from the tier or only the benefits listed under the patreon level?
I feel really called out for wanting to keep the cockatrice.