No worries, Malkaz! It was a question that immediately had my mind flooding with ideas as soon as I saw it, so thanks for asking it in the first place!
I was playing a Goliath barbarian and I intimidated 3 wolves to being my "pets" with an intimidation role every 3 hours or 10 turns. 2 of em got washed away in a flood but I still have good ole Freddy. RIP El Chapo and Sammy
Thanks so much for this insight! I finally got my first pet in D&D after months of waiting. I have a ranger, but she's a "gloom stalker" class and doesn't automatically get a pet. At least half the party were able to tame/buy pets, but I never really got the opportunity. My DM was surprised to find out I was the first non-beastmaster ranger he'd played with, and he asked me after a game what pet I'd most want, which was a flying snake. I was so annoyed when we met an NPC who had one, because I knew I couldn't steal it... but in the last session, I kinda RP'd with the snake by letting it eat an enemy I had wounded. We then found out that NPC had been fatally poisoned, and since the snake already liked me, she entrusted it to me. I feel like waiting so long and earning the pet through creative RP'ing (instead of an animal handling roll) was extra meaningful. The whole experience really suited my character's personality. Even if Spitz the snake isn't especially powerful and won't make much impact in battle, I'm so happy that Lenora the ranger finally earned her friend.
Be a bard, cast awakening on a bear teach him to play the drums. Get a crow with find familiar, give that guy a triangle. Then ride into battle with some sick jams, with the villages' agonizing screams as the vocals... did I mention the bard was evil
I'm running a game, the same one I was commenting about on monday, and our paladin has a pet pseudodragon named Backpack. They found it in a hollow in a huge redwood tree, and spent literally an hour trying to get it out. They succeeded, and the p.d stayed with them because they gave it food. After about a week of in game time, the paladin fully bonded with it and gained him as a familiar. There bond is not developed on rolls and skills, but a friendship and connection between them. I think that pets are something that players have to earn, like getting an actual animal to like you. You have to care for them and play with them and feed them and give them appropriate space to like you. Honestly I think the whole "Rangers get pet becus skilz" is ridiculous, I think everyone should be able to have pets, just they have to be dedicated and willing to care for them.
A friend of mine said she wanted a small pet dragon, but I denied her request. But I later found out about pseudodragons, and I'm reconsidering. Right now they're in a goblin hideout, I'm thinking of adding the pseudodragon like: you find it in a cage where the goblins keep all their treasures and captives. And they have to free, feed and use animal handling to keep it. What do you think?
I currently play as a Lore Master (UA) Wizard, who has a pet familiar named Smaug, a lizard that has been in Glim's (wizard) life since he was 5. When he first created the spell, he miscasted, causing it to have a patch work of chromatic and metallic dragon scales, and causing Glim's left pupil turn from orange to bright blue. DM loved it, and apparently cried a little in Smaugs first ingame death.
Haha! No worries, mattpark909! I'm so glad that this was useful. Give me a prod if there's anything else that you'd like me to cover, and I'll get on it! Cheers for watching.
For those non rangers looking to start with a pet, human with magic initiate wizard and taking find familiar is a very good option that I have enjoyed thoroughly in the past.
This is so in-depth! Really great ideas and analysis of each option. I especially like the "attune" to a creature option, as one of the players in my game is a nature-based paladin. It opens up so many possibilities: they could have per rest special actions just like magic items, just for 1 example! I can't wait to write up some options for my players. Thanks so much!
My bard bought a chicken in the phb, and my friend put a glyph of warding on its beak, to cast "mass healing word" when the command "here chiky chiky!"
i had a berserker that tamed a chimera once and he became his pet and thats what happened when my dm sighed and said "yeah sure roll handle animal" and then i got a nat 20
My players got a pet owlbear on the lost mine of Phandelver, the one locked in a tower. After they convinced it not to eat them and cleared out the castle, I had the owl bear secretly start tracking them, that night, they encountered a hungry owl bear that seemed strikingly familiar, taking the hint they fed it again and it's been a part of the group ever since.
Two important considerations to allowing every player to have an animal companion are 1) balance and 2) table time. If the animal companions are something more than a squirrel or cat -- say a brown bear or dire wolf -- then the DM will need to adjust the difficulty of all encounters. More difficult encounters usually result in longer battles. Then, of course, instead of 4 PCs taking turns in combat, you have 4 PCs and their companions, for 8 (or more). This means every round of combat takes longer, every battle stretches out. Now, some groups might not mind this; others may. The question is: does the added fun of animal companions justify the added game complexity and longer battles? For some groups it absolutely may; for others it won't. Just something to consider, is all.
Hey Josh I play a wood elf cleric/blood hunter and I have been given an owl as a familiar and it's an amazing pet it can scout ahead and it deals pretty much no damage so there is no worries about it dealing the final blow. Owls are amazing. And psudodragons are amazing too :)
I'm playing a blood hunter, he has a mastiff for companionship and protection. We homebrewed some rules for it all. It's great fun...especially as he's quite disobedient and only occasionally does what I say!
In my campaign my character has two guard drakes (a red and a gold) and we use them like any other companion. They're cr2 and we're level 10, had no issues with party balance or anything like that. Honestly if you want a pet I'd recommend just running it like any other cohort is run, where they can be no more than 1/2 the parties level.
You also dont really need to be a ranger if you want an animal companion, you could get a raven at lvl 1 if you are a raven queen warlock, and even if you arent you can have any tiny animal in your possession at lvl 3 on pact of the chain, and any caster that can use the find familiar can also get a tiny animal companion, also most dms wont care if your animal is just flavor text so be sure to ask your dm!
In the game that I am running for my son I have a ranger who has a wolf that is levelling at the same time that she is one of the nice things that you can do which goes back to your idea about having a displacer beast cub she's had this wolf for for a very surprising amount of time it kind of grew up with her but for all intensive purposes the wolf should be quite old at this point but it's not as she's leveling it is started to unlock other abilities which I have taken from the winter wolf statline and whenever she gets a ability score improvement she could also put a point into any of the main stats for her wolf it doesn't get as powerful as magical items or legendary weapons but it is a good way of keeping it to a point where it's still practical to use and yes it does have its own initiative =) Conversely my son has a bear who has been with him since the very start of the game it can come out with him on missions and all the rest of that but it's not controlled by him it's controlled by me he gives it a general command and then it goes does its own thing nine times out of ten however it completely ignores him but he loves the bear anyway XD
love the idea of a pet instead of a magical item, the wolf can block position and causes 1d4 to one enemy who moves through. the ferret is like magehand, a hawk can steal an item or hold a foe distracted or take 1d4 if ignored. they could act as skills instead of the character learning tracking themselves. fantastic ideas.
If they are playing a Neceomancer just have them summon a Zombie Dog or a Skeletal Minotar or something. In my first Campaign, our Barbarian got a Giant spider named Lil Bean as a pet. If you called him Big Bean he would shrink to like 4 inches tall then say Lil Bean to go back to regular size. Fun for surprise attacks.
A normal beast companion should only match a normal handler. Maybe a set of rules for monstrous pets the adventurers can command- like a legendary actions set for the party. The wolf doesn’t get special attacks but can be commanded to strike or grapple as the owners actions or it can drag any player out of danger, menacing foes who must roll morale to choose the wolf or ally as a target while the wolf moves and or protects the fallen. Huge party bonus, not much increase in action economy. Maybe they capture an owl bear who stays trained to wait quietly beside the fray during combat, but when released, it acts like a fireball spell but upon exploding into battle he isn’t considered a target while devouring one of the fallen for the rest of combat. That ones harder because thematically it has to drop at least one foe.
No familiars? Sadness. Seriously though: the connection of Ranger (Companion) Paladin (Mount) and Wizard (Familiar) is different from a Pet or Work animal.
My (very few) homebrew campaigns are very mystical and nature-spirit based, and my idea was the Ranger has to earn their bonded companion. Starting at the beginning, they dream / meditate to mentally enter another plane, and attempt to call forth or contact a denizen of said realm. When they hit level 3, they can finally give this being a physical form, following the Arcane Beastmaster formula; it has to fit a certain body type, but not a set species. They can practice summoning in their down-time to improve their abilities, though most of that is related to the beast, which can get certain buffs if the players decide to share a percentage of their XP. While the beast won't run away, the boys and I decided that beasts can be affected by what's going on. They might be frightened, to the point of crazed panic, or have an "ooh, SHINY!" moment, or so on. While the ACTUAL mechanics varied the 3 times we experimented, this could work with other classes if you thought of a way to bring a specific character into repeated contact with an individual beast. Perhaps you regularly do jobs for the Royal Archmage of Blunk, and your cleric loves playing with his familiar (say, a catlike creature), and finally, His Archiness just gets tired of having to pry them apart, and stuffs the thing in the cleric's bag as their part of the payment. The important thing is to think of some perk(s) as to why said critter deserves a place on the team. Maybe she might alert you of traps, poison, or shapeshifters, or maybe she can make a tremendously loud noise to frighten off wild beasts. The party is going to need something outside of battle to compensate for the supplies needed to keep the pet in question.
This is not in DnD but in my game there is a class called Shaman that has a soulbound with an animal that he can warg into and can change into different animals as long as he can change into that type of animal as well. This however comes with the drawback of their souls really being connected. If the animal dies the Shaman will most likely die or become mad and because of that the pet is really treated like an equal and not just thrown recklessly at enemies.
I’m a Bard who befriended a Owlbear during one of my games. A friend of my DM was not happy when he heard that. 😅 And since you mention to flash forward so since I had this Owlbear for about a, month, I could say I trained it for years or so and now its tamed. I really think I should at least get that much since my party members abandoned me in the middle of our adventure that lead to me not playing for a month.
14:00- hey that kind of sounded like what happened in our game. Our guides female dragon liked me over my other party members. I just figured that its something my DM thought of since when we were trying to escape a Black Death Dragon it didn’t attack me but just stared at me as we climbed a leader to frozen freedom. Out of the fire and into the icebox, I say.
I figure, by and large, if a player wants a pet, they can have it, and I don't really care what sort of pet they get, BUT, if they're planning on using the pet in combat, they'll have to invest the time to train it, and use (assuming 5e) at least a bonus action, possibly an action to give the animal orders. And the animal is still an animal, and might get things wrong despite training.
I would say the only bit I disagree on is the 'no pets before 3rd or 4th level'. In Pathfinder I was playing a Swashbuckler and in his backstory he was a noble who hunted and trained alongside his dog similar to Fable 3 where you're clearly not a beastmaster, but dog is your best friend and fights alongside you even when you're battling powerful demons. When he ventured off into the world his dog came with him and I really wanted to start off with him because it made the most sense as opposed to explaining it like "Oh well he left and the dog followed him" or something like that, which would've worked, but felt less special. The only problem was that the GM decided that I would need to take both of my starting feats and my only starting trait to get him, the trait was just to get the companion to begin with-a normal dog from the handbook, the first feat was to make him a companion, and another in order to start with it right away. It was a lot of taxing on his part because he was convinced I was trying to be OP, when all I wanted was to just have a dog that didn't die immediately the moment I started fighting bigger stuff. I tried to point out 'What's the point of spending a trait and a feat on a dog if I need to spend another just so he's allowed to level up?' and the GM had this idea that if I didn't want him to die I should leave him at home... Because that makes fucking sense, I'm gonna spend a trait _and_ a feat just so I can leave the dog at fucking home, when I could spend my 1k starting gold (I was level 2), and buy a dog for the same damn thing. The point of this little story is that if you're gonna give your players something, don't shortchange them and make it really shitty. In 5e I'd personally go with letting players start with an animal companion and adjust them as they level up like a proper companion. Whether or not I 'taxed' them on it would depend on the pet in question and what everyone else has. Say one person wants to start with a dog, another person wants to start with a knightly title, or say with some cool magical item that'll level up as they go along, it evens out, but if they're the only one I might require some gold just to pay for the animal and for upkeep, but if they want say a more powerful companion, or a more potent bond, that might require a feat, either when they hit 4th level and the bond becomes 'true' or if they're a human they can take the variant rules. A background might work as well, say giving somebody the 'Wilderness' background and making their special thing be an animal companion.
A dwarf miner with a pickaxe and canary and a pet canary that lives in his beard (like a nest). I was thinking maybe the bird could chirp if it detected evil but no fighting or anything. But if the detect evil is not allowed I’m fine with it just hanging out in my dwarfs beard. Also do pickaxes count as axes and are they simple weapons?
I just want a wolf fighter (so it can use a sword with its mouth), I even have a backstory (being the companion of my half-orc’s parent, being pretty much like brothers).
My DM just let me have a pet rat. because it's so small it can just hang out in my pocket or pack mostly outside of the game. Mechanically, I sometimes ask If I can try and interpret his animal senses to predict danger (follow the rats on a sinking ship idea) It barely effects the game and it gives my character some more individuality
I am going to be playing a Yautja barbarian (yes, a Predator from Predator... I have the best GM) And I am asking if I can have a pet sparrow or falcon. I am not sure if that is OP or not. They won't attack at all (Not until later when I train it to.) It would just rest on my arm sometimes and I feed them (like Senu from Assassins creed Origins)
If you want to speed up the bonding process (minus the training) let the PC use their animal handling to actually save the animal's life, from a trap or another predator maybe. There are cases of animals in the wild saved in such ways, often apex predators including a shark, will then bond with that human and follow them like a puppy.
what if ones character's back story is to find there long lost pet. once character was raised by dragons and trying to find her friend which is a dragon...how can i integrate that in to the story line. or if i should allow that and they're a dragon bloodline sorcerer? also what if someone chose a human wanting to mix there race with an enemy like a pixie or a mindflayer or something with there characters race because of there back story how can you integrate that because you don't wan them to leave because you're "sticking to the books" even if you're making a totally new world?
What about the mastiffs listed in the equipment list in the players handbook? I was thinking a mage that had one that only attacked someone that physically attacked the mage for example
Me who wants to tame a roc I found in a drow city: hey dm what do I roll to tame this beast Dm: no you’ll have to do that yourself Me: ok rolls for dexterity gets nat 20-25 total, does that get me to ride it Dm: ...why do you do this?
Yeah, it’s weird. I was playing lost mine of phandelver, and I went into cragmaw hideout, and there were three wolves. I used animal handling to tame one and he’s my pet now. Buuut, we replayed that campaign with the same characters. So I already had spark in the spot where I met spark, So things got weird, we just made two wolves appear.
Arcane Forge Thank can you preferably do the Cambion first because it’s the one I’m more confused by, I’ve heard the difference is that a Tiefling is a cursed individual who had a Fiend interfere with their bloodline at some point in the past while a Cambion is the child of Mortal and Fiend, but in Xanathar’s Guide it clearly states in the random table for the Tiefling’s parents that a Fiend can have be the Tiefling’s father or mother.
Cambions are explicitly half-fiend. Tieflings can be, but can also be the result of mixed bloodlines generations past. So how is it that some offspring from fiend-human relations end up tieflings, and some cambions? Because extraplanar blood doesn't really play by the rules of genetics in the first place - for example, infernal blood doesn't thin out - the offspring of a tiefling and any compatible partner is always a full tiefling. I'm sure there's a demonologist in Thay writing a thesis on exactly how this works, The big differences are that cambions always kill their mothers during childbirth, they feel a strong pull toward evil, and they have enough extraplanar lineage to classify them as Fiends. Protection from Evil and Divine Sense *do* work on cambions, but they don't work on Tieflings. How do you tell the difference visually? That's just it - apart from "the more fiendish ones are more likely to be cambions", I doubt you can, which is a rather large problem for tieflings.
They absolutely do. But they can't act in combat. They can be used as a means to extend vision, or perform touch spells from afar but they're not like a ranger's combat pet. So, it's just however you want to use it really. Cheers for watching, Charles!
I'm not a big fan of giving players full control over a pet when their characters aren't in full control of it. IMO the bond between Beastmaster Rangers and their Companions is their core feature, not the reviving or other abilitys. They have control over their companion as if they were acting themselfs, similary to magic familiars and their telepathic bond. When a character tames a random animal they just don't have that level of control over it. In combat I'd probably have them make an animal handling check first thing on their initiative to see if the pet obeys them. If they pass, they get to control the creature. If they fail, I as the DM get to act out the creatures own intend, which may or may not lead to the desirable results. That DC might rise of fall depending on how well the player treats and trains said pet, but even then I'd never give them full guaranteed control. Maybe even make them use a bonus action to "command the pet" and make said skill check. When they pass they get to control the pet on it's next initiative.
I allow non-rangers to have pets but it's primarily a flavor thing. I don't grant the animals any special magical abilities but certain actions are acceptable, for example a rogue using a bird to relay written messages over great distance, or a bard with a dancing lemur to busk for gold coins. It's restricted to pretty much non combat abilities that any normal animal might be capable of performing. Curling up with a pet dog on a freezing night to prevent the exhaustion from sleeping in the cold would be considered acceptable as well.
You are an awesome DM! That's some of the best ideas and uses for pets! I find it sad that so many players are only/mostly concerned with combat abilities. Actually, the Wizard's Familiar options are pretty amazing for utility uses, I could see some social uses too, and of course there's the Owl, famous for being able to rather effortlessly Help(give advantage) in combat with it's Flyby ability.
shmuckling - Thanks. I try to allow as much freedom as possible while keeping it balanced. Animal companions are a pretty simple thing to work in. It's my puzzles that tend to stump players like the rusted heavy iron lock and the fragile glass key. It's a simple solution but people still mess it up.
Arcane Forge - Go for it! Non-combat animal companions are great for a variety of reasons. I'd suggest smaller animals just because they are easier to keep up with. Birds tend to be a good choice simply because they can be largely self sufficient and stay out of combat scenarios.
Or you can give them non combat pets... Exploration and Social situations are also a part of the game and depends on the group more important than combat.
I think so! Either mechanically if you want to go for a kind of steampunk setting or organically if you just have a cool homebrew monster you'd like to use! It's a good idea to use the stats or slightly alter the stats for existing monsters of an appropriate CR though, and make sure you DM (if you're not the DM) is cool with it!
I've decided not to play any characters with nature skills any more since we don't seem to encounter normal animals and the DM doesn't consider monsters or giant versions of animals things that these skills would work on. This essentially makes for a whole bunch of useless skills I can never use. I tell a lie, I was allowed to tame an Orc War Dog one because it was already domesticated. I liked that dog. Then he randomly decided it wasn't with me any more. He said I left it at home. So I guess I don't get to make my own decisions any more. I don't know who is feeding it. Poor doggy.
Sounds like a really bad GM to me. Talk to them and make sure to stress that you would prefer if they talked to you, rather than just make choices because reasons. Tell him to meet you part way, let you know what to expect, and not to screw you over just because.
Thanks Josh for answering my question and giving us so many good ideas X3
No worries, Malkaz! It was a question that immediately had my mind flooding with ideas as soon as I saw it, so thanks for asking it in the first place!
I was playing a Goliath barbarian and I intimidated 3 wolves to being my "pets" with an intimidation role every 3 hours or 10 turns. 2 of em got washed away in a flood but I still have good ole Freddy.
RIP El Chapo and Sammy
Machio Naruzo take the alpha position
Thanks so much for this insight!
I finally got my first pet in D&D after months of waiting. I have a ranger, but she's a "gloom stalker" class and doesn't automatically get a pet. At least half the party were able to tame/buy pets, but I never really got the opportunity.
My DM was surprised to find out I was the first non-beastmaster ranger he'd played with, and he asked me after a game what pet I'd most want, which was a flying snake. I was so annoyed when we met an NPC who had one, because I knew I couldn't steal it... but in the last session, I kinda RP'd with the snake by letting it eat an enemy I had wounded. We then found out that NPC had been fatally poisoned, and since the snake already liked me, she entrusted it to me.
I feel like waiting so long and earning the pet through creative RP'ing (instead of an animal handling roll) was extra meaningful. The whole experience really suited my character's personality. Even if Spitz the snake isn't especially powerful and won't make much impact in battle, I'm so happy that Lenora the ranger finally earned her friend.
Be a bard, cast awakening on a bear teach him to play the drums. Get a crow with find familiar, give that guy a triangle. Then ride into battle with some sick jams, with the villages' agonizing screams as the vocals... did I mention the bard was evil
I'd not really thought of this! Great idea, Andrew!
Cheers for watching.
Andrew Halderman welcome to the house of ice and snow baby!
I'm running a game, the same one I was commenting about on monday, and our paladin has a pet pseudodragon named Backpack. They found it in a hollow in a huge redwood tree, and spent literally an hour trying to get it out. They succeeded, and the p.d stayed with them because they gave it food. After about a week of in game time, the paladin fully bonded with it and gained him as a familiar. There bond is not developed on rolls and skills, but a friendship and connection between them. I think that pets are something that players have to earn, like getting an actual animal to like you. You have to care for them and play with them and feed them and give them appropriate space to like you. Honestly I think the whole "Rangers get pet becus skilz" is ridiculous, I think everyone should be able to have pets, just they have to be dedicated and willing to care for them.
A friend of mine said she wanted a small pet dragon, but I denied her request. But I later found out about pseudodragons, and I'm reconsidering. Right now they're in a goblin hideout, I'm thinking of adding the pseudodragon like: you find it in a cage where the goblins keep all their treasures and captives. And they have to free, feed and use animal handling to keep it. What do you think?
That could work... remember that there's also Faerie Dragons, which could work.
I like your idea though, I would do that
I currently play as a Lore Master (UA) Wizard, who has a pet familiar named Smaug, a lizard that has been in Glim's (wizard) life since he was 5. When he first created the spell, he miscasted, causing it to have a patch work of chromatic and metallic dragon scales, and causing Glim's left pupil turn from orange to bright blue. DM loved it, and apparently cried a little in Smaugs first ingame death.
Awh! That sounds really sweet, GrimmofSparta! I hope that Smaug rose to live again!
Cheers for watching!
My dude you are the real MVP, I've been trying to find this for a few pcs.
Haha! No worries, mattpark909! I'm so glad that this was useful. Give me a prod if there's anything else that you'd like me to cover, and I'll get on it!
Cheers for watching.
For those non rangers looking to start with a pet, human with magic initiate wizard and taking find familiar is a very good option that I have enjoyed thoroughly in the past.
Ben McConaughy you can also do ritual caster to pick up find familiar.
Extremely underrated Chanel
This is so in-depth! Really great ideas and analysis of each option. I especially like the "attune" to a creature option, as one of the players in my game is a nature-based paladin. It opens up so many possibilities: they could have per rest special actions just like magic items, just for 1 example! I can't wait to write up some options for my players. Thanks so much!
My bard bought a chicken in the phb, and my friend put a glyph of warding on its beak, to cast "mass healing word" when the command "here chiky chiky!"
i had a berserker that tamed a chimera once and he became his pet and thats what happened when my dm sighed and said "yeah sure roll handle animal" and then i got a nat 20
bretton I Geez 😂 That's what you would need at my table. The DC is 8+CR+5(if a predator)+5(if not a beast i.e. like a chimera!)
I told my players, "If you want a pet, YOU are responsible for it, feed it, walk it, and if need be, bury it."
Jak Askr isn’t that what bed stark said about the dire wolves
@@laurenkifer9145 Yeah, something similar to that. There is an apt saying by T.S Elliot: 'Good writers borrow, great writers steal.'
Kingsman be like
My players got a pet owlbear on the lost mine of Phandelver, the one locked in a tower. After they convinced it not to eat them and cleared out the castle, I had the owl bear secretly start tracking them, that night, they encountered a hungry owl bear that seemed strikingly familiar, taking the hint they fed it again and it's been a part of the group ever since.
Two important considerations to allowing every player to have an animal companion are 1) balance and 2) table time.
If the animal companions are something more than a squirrel or cat -- say a brown bear or dire wolf -- then the DM will need to adjust the difficulty of all encounters. More difficult encounters usually result in longer battles.
Then, of course, instead of 4 PCs taking turns in combat, you have 4 PCs and their companions, for 8 (or more). This means every round of combat takes longer, every battle stretches out.
Now, some groups might not mind this; others may. The question is: does the added fun of animal companions justify the added game complexity and longer battles? For some groups it absolutely may; for others it won't. Just something to consider, is all.
the DM Lair Maybe make both PC and pet attack at the same time, would seem cool and maybe ease it up.
Hey Josh I play a wood elf cleric/blood hunter and I have been given an owl as a familiar and it's an amazing pet it can scout ahead and it deals pretty much no damage so there is no worries about it dealing the final blow. Owls are amazing. And psudodragons are amazing too :)
Nice one, Tkdean. Cleric/blood hunter sounds like a fun mix too. How are you finding the combination?
Cheers for watching!
Arcane Forge it's awesome I'd give it a try some time if you are planning a game anytime soon. It's broken against undead though :)
adam baumunk Matthew Mercer made it for his show critical role. It's an amazing class
I'm playing a blood hunter, he has a mastiff for companionship and protection. We homebrewed some rules for it all. It's great fun...especially as he's quite disobedient and only occasionally does what I say!
In my campaign my character has two guard drakes (a red and a gold) and we use them like any other companion. They're cr2 and we're level 10, had no issues with party balance or anything like that. Honestly if you want a pet I'd recommend just running it like any other cohort is run, where they can be no more than 1/2 the parties level.
You also dont really need to be a ranger if you want an animal companion, you could get a raven at lvl 1 if you are a raven queen warlock, and even if you arent you can have any tiny animal in your possession at lvl 3 on pact of the chain, and any caster that can use the find familiar can also get a tiny animal companion, also most dms wont care if your animal is just flavor text so be sure to ask your dm!
Oooooh this helps alot
Thank you so much for posting this.
You got a new SUBSCRIBER
In the game that I am running for my son I have a ranger who has a wolf that is levelling at the same time that she is one of the nice things that you can do which goes back to your idea about having a displacer beast cub she's had this wolf for for a very surprising amount of time it kind of grew up with her but for all intensive purposes the wolf should be quite old at this point but it's not as she's leveling it is started to unlock other abilities which I have taken from the winter wolf statline and whenever she gets a ability score improvement she could also put a point into any of the main stats for her wolf it doesn't get as powerful as magical items or legendary weapons but it is a good way of keeping it to a point where it's still practical to use and yes it does have its own initiative =)
Conversely my son has a bear who has been with him since the very start of the game it can come out with him on missions and all the rest of that but it's not controlled by him it's controlled by me he gives it a general command and then it goes does its own thing nine times out of ten however it completely ignores him but he loves the bear anyway XD
love the idea of a pet instead of a magical item, the wolf can block position and causes 1d4 to one enemy who moves through. the ferret is like magehand, a hawk can steal an item or hold a foe distracted or take 1d4 if ignored. they could act as skills instead of the character learning tracking themselves.
fantastic ideas.
If they are playing a Neceomancer just have them summon a Zombie Dog or a Skeletal Minotar or something.
In my first Campaign, our Barbarian got a Giant spider named Lil Bean as a pet. If you called him Big Bean he would shrink to like 4 inches tall then say Lil Bean to go back to regular size. Fun for surprise attacks.
A normal beast companion should only match a normal handler. Maybe a set of rules for monstrous pets the adventurers can command- like a legendary actions set for the party.
The wolf doesn’t get special attacks but can be commanded to strike or grapple as the owners actions or it can drag any player out of danger, menacing foes who must roll morale to choose the wolf or ally as a target while the wolf moves and or protects the fallen. Huge party bonus, not much increase in action economy.
Maybe they capture an owl bear who stays trained to wait quietly beside the fray during combat, but when released, it acts like a fireball spell but upon exploding into battle he isn’t considered a target while devouring one of the fallen for the rest of combat.
That ones harder because thematically it has to drop at least one foe.
Good insights and thoughts. Great video, bud
Thanks again, Jason! I'll keep making it, if you keep watching it :D
No familiars? Sadness.
Seriously though: the connection of Ranger (Companion) Paladin (Mount) and Wizard (Familiar) is different from a Pet or Work animal.
My (very few) homebrew campaigns are very mystical and nature-spirit based, and my idea was the Ranger has to earn their bonded companion. Starting at the beginning, they dream / meditate to mentally enter another plane, and attempt to call forth or contact a denizen of said realm. When they hit level 3, they can finally give this being a physical form, following the Arcane Beastmaster formula; it has to fit a certain body type, but not a set species. They can practice summoning in their down-time to improve their abilities, though most of that is related to the beast, which can get certain buffs if the players decide to share a percentage of their XP. While the beast won't run away, the boys and I decided that beasts can be affected by what's going on. They might be frightened, to the point of crazed panic, or have an "ooh, SHINY!" moment, or so on.
While the ACTUAL mechanics varied the 3 times we experimented, this could work with other classes if you thought of a way to bring a specific character into repeated contact with an individual beast. Perhaps you regularly do jobs for the Royal Archmage of Blunk, and your cleric loves playing with his familiar (say, a catlike creature), and finally, His Archiness just gets tired of having to pry them apart, and stuffs the thing in the cleric's bag as their part of the payment.
The important thing is to think of some perk(s) as to why said critter deserves a place on the team. Maybe she might alert you of traps, poison, or shapeshifters, or maybe she can make a tremendously loud noise to frighten off wild beasts. The party is going to need something outside of battle to compensate for the supplies needed to keep the pet in question.
This is not in DnD but in my game there is a class called Shaman that has a soulbound with an animal that he can warg into and can change into different animals as long as he can change into that type of animal as well. This however comes with the drawback of their souls really being connected. If the animal dies the Shaman will most likely die or become mad and because of that the pet is really treated like an equal and not just thrown recklessly at enemies.
I’m a Bard who befriended a Owlbear during one of my games.
A friend of my DM was not happy when he heard that. 😅
And since you mention to flash forward so since I had this Owlbear for about a, month, I could say I trained it for years or so and now its tamed.
I really think I should at least get that much since my party members abandoned me in the middle of our adventure that lead to me not playing for a month.
14:00- hey that kind of sounded like what happened in our game. Our guides female dragon liked me over my other party members.
I just figured that its something my DM thought of since when we were trying to escape a Black Death Dragon it didn’t attack me but just stared at me as we climbed a leader to frozen freedom.
Out of the fire and into the icebox, I say.
You get a like for the DA:O reference! The man!
I figure, by and large, if a player wants a pet, they can have it, and I don't really care what sort of pet they get, BUT, if they're planning on using the pet in combat, they'll have to invest the time to train it, and use (assuming 5e) at least a bonus action, possibly an action to give the animal orders. And the animal is still an animal, and might get things wrong despite training.
I would say the only bit I disagree on is the 'no pets before 3rd or 4th level'. In Pathfinder I was playing a Swashbuckler and in his backstory he was a noble who hunted and trained alongside his dog similar to Fable 3 where you're clearly not a beastmaster, but dog is your best friend and fights alongside you even when you're battling powerful demons. When he ventured off into the world his dog came with him and I really wanted to start off with him because it made the most sense as opposed to explaining it like "Oh well he left and the dog followed him" or something like that, which would've worked, but felt less special.
The only problem was that the GM decided that I would need to take both of my starting feats and my only starting trait to get him, the trait was just to get the companion to begin with-a normal dog from the handbook, the first feat was to make him a companion, and another in order to start with it right away. It was a lot of taxing on his part because he was convinced I was trying to be OP, when all I wanted was to just have a dog that didn't die immediately the moment I started fighting bigger stuff.
I tried to point out 'What's the point of spending a trait and a feat on a dog if I need to spend another just so he's allowed to level up?' and the GM had this idea that if I didn't want him to die I should leave him at home... Because that makes fucking sense, I'm gonna spend a trait _and_ a feat just so I can leave the dog at fucking home, when I could spend my 1k starting gold (I was level 2), and buy a dog for the same damn thing.
The point of this little story is that if you're gonna give your players something, don't shortchange them and make it really shitty. In 5e I'd personally go with letting players start with an animal companion and adjust them as they level up like a proper companion. Whether or not I 'taxed' them on it would depend on the pet in question and what everyone else has. Say one person wants to start with a dog, another person wants to start with a knightly title, or say with some cool magical item that'll level up as they go along, it evens out, but if they're the only one I might require some gold just to pay for the animal and for upkeep, but if they want say a more powerful companion, or a more potent bond, that might require a feat, either when they hit 4th level and the bond becomes 'true' or if they're a human they can take the variant rules. A background might work as well, say giving somebody the 'Wilderness' background and making their special thing be an animal companion.
A dwarf miner with a pickaxe and canary and a pet canary that lives in his beard (like a nest). I was thinking maybe the bird could chirp if it detected evil but no fighting or anything. But if the detect evil is not allowed I’m fine with it just hanging out in my dwarfs beard. Also do pickaxes count as axes and are they simple weapons?
When the elf gets a pet displaced beast.
Hireling beasts! Fantastic! You just did it!
I just want a wolf fighter (so it can use a sword with its mouth), I even have a backstory (being the companion of my half-orc’s parent, being pretty much like brothers).
My DM just let me have a pet rat. because it's so small it can just hang out in my pocket or pack mostly outside of the game. Mechanically, I sometimes ask If I can try and interpret his animal senses to predict danger (follow the rats on a sinking ship idea)
It barely effects the game and it gives my character some more individuality
I am going to be playing a Yautja barbarian (yes, a Predator from Predator... I have the best GM) And I am asking if I can have a pet sparrow or falcon. I am not sure if that is OP or not. They won't attack at all (Not until later when I train it to.) It would just rest on my arm sometimes and I feed them (like Senu from Assassins creed Origins)
Don't forget animals get equipment slots too
If you want to speed up the bonding process (minus the training) let the PC use their animal handling to actually save the animal's life, from a trap or another predator maybe. There are cases of animals in the wild saved in such ways, often apex predators including a shark, will then bond with that human and follow them like a puppy.
what if ones character's back story is to find there long lost pet. once character was raised by dragons and trying to find her friend which is a dragon...how can i integrate that in to the story line. or if i should allow that and they're a dragon bloodline sorcerer? also what if someone chose a human wanting to mix there race with an enemy like a pixie or a mindflayer or something with there characters race because of there back story how can you integrate that because you don't wan them to leave because you're "sticking to the books" even if you're making a totally new world?
More please
What about the mastiffs listed in the equipment list in the players handbook? I was thinking a mage that had one that only attacked someone that physically attacked the mage for example
That's a really good call, Ron! I'd not thought of that to be honest!
Cheers for watching!
If I may suggest look up ArchDrake's City and Wild guide that was released recently. Helped me alot. It is homebrew content as far as I know
Me who wants to tame a roc I found in a drow city: hey dm what do I roll to tame this beast
Dm: no you’ll have to do that yourself
Me: ok rolls for dexterity gets nat 20-25 total, does that get me to ride it
Dm: ...why do you do this?
Yeah, it’s weird. I was playing lost mine of phandelver, and I went into cragmaw hideout, and there were three wolves. I used animal handling to tame one and he’s my pet now. Buuut, we replayed that campaign with the same characters. So I already had spark in the spot where I met spark, So things got weird, we just made two wolves appear.
What about Druids of the Circle of the Shepherd? They can talk and bond with animals. How would that work? Cheers
Can you draw either a Cambion or a Half-Dragon, I want to know what sets them apart from a Typical Tiefling And Dragonborn.
I can definitely do either of those things, Inquisitor Thomas! Those are brilliant suggestions, so thanks so much!
Thanks for watching as well!
Arcane Forge Thank can you preferably do the Cambion first because it’s the one I’m more confused by, I’ve heard the difference is that a Tiefling is a cursed individual who had a Fiend interfere with their bloodline at some point in the past while a Cambion is the child of Mortal and Fiend, but in Xanathar’s Guide it clearly states in the random table for the Tiefling’s parents that a Fiend can have be the Tiefling’s father or mother.
Cambions are explicitly half-fiend. Tieflings can be, but can also be the result of mixed bloodlines generations past.
So how is it that some offspring from fiend-human relations end up tieflings, and some cambions? Because extraplanar blood doesn't really play by the rules of genetics in the first place - for example, infernal blood doesn't thin out - the offspring of a tiefling and any compatible partner is always a full tiefling. I'm sure there's a demonologist in Thay writing a thesis on exactly how this works,
The big differences are that cambions always kill their mothers during childbirth, they feel a strong pull toward evil, and they have enough extraplanar lineage to classify them as Fiends. Protection from Evil and Divine Sense *do* work on cambions, but they don't work on Tieflings.
How do you tell the difference visually? That's just it - apart from "the more fiendish ones are more likely to be cambions", I doubt you can, which is a rather large problem for tieflings.
I had elven ranger that took the leadership feat and befriended a knoll fighter that i had to roleplay fun times
Doesn't a warlock get a farmiliar in one of it's variations?
They absolutely do. But they can't act in combat. They can be used as a means to extend vision, or perform touch spells from afar but they're not like a ranger's combat pet. So, it's just however you want to use it really.
Cheers for watching, Charles!
I'm not a big fan of giving players full control over a pet when their characters aren't in full control of it. IMO the bond between Beastmaster Rangers and their Companions is their core feature, not the reviving or other abilitys. They have control over their companion as if they were acting themselfs, similary to magic familiars and their telepathic bond. When a character tames a random animal they just don't have that level of control over it.
In combat I'd probably have them make an animal handling check first thing on their initiative to see if the pet obeys them. If they pass, they get to control the creature. If they fail, I as the DM get to act out the creatures own intend, which may or may not lead to the desirable results. That DC might rise of fall depending on how well the player treats and trains said pet, but even then I'd never give them full guaranteed control.
Maybe even make them use a bonus action to "command the pet" and make said skill check. When they pass they get to control the pet on it's next initiative.
Find Familiar For Everyone!!!
I allow non-rangers to have pets but it's primarily a flavor thing. I don't grant the animals any special magical abilities but certain actions are acceptable, for example a rogue using a bird to relay written messages over great distance, or a bard with a dancing lemur to busk for gold coins. It's restricted to pretty much non combat abilities that any normal animal might be capable of performing. Curling up with a pet dog on a freezing night to prevent the exhaustion from sleeping in the cold would be considered acceptable as well.
You are an awesome DM! That's some of the best ideas and uses for pets! I find it sad that so many players are only/mostly concerned with combat abilities. Actually, the Wizard's Familiar options are pretty amazing for utility uses, I could see some social uses too, and of course there's the Owl, famous for being able to rather effortlessly Help(give advantage) in combat with it's Flyby ability.
shmuckling - Thanks. I try to allow as much freedom as possible while keeping it balanced. Animal companions are a pretty simple thing to work in. It's my puzzles that tend to stump players like the rusted heavy iron lock and the fragile glass key. It's a simple solution but people still mess it up.
That's really cool, Fierce Mushroom! I may have to add some of this flavour to my games! Great thinking.
Cheers for watching!
Arcane Forge - Go for it! Non-combat animal companions are great for a variety of reasons. I'd suggest smaller animals just because they are easier to keep up with. Birds tend to be a good choice simply because they can be largely self sufficient and stay out of combat scenarios.
'One fourth'? not a quarter?
I mean. If you want to split hairs, then sure?
Or you can give them non combat pets...
Exploration and Social situations are also a part of the game and depends on the group more important than combat.
I’d just say let them have pets but make these puts not really combat pets more like pets that defends themselves but otherwise never get involved
Can you make your own pets?
I think so! Either mechanically if you want to go for a kind of steampunk setting or organically if you just have a cool homebrew monster you'd like to use! It's a good idea to use the stats or slightly alter the stats for existing monsters of an appropriate CR though, and make sure you DM (if you're not the DM) is cool with it!
I've decided not to play any characters with nature skills any more since we don't seem to encounter normal animals and the DM doesn't consider monsters or giant versions of animals things that these skills would work on. This essentially makes for a whole bunch of useless skills I can never use. I tell a lie, I was allowed to tame an Orc War Dog one because it was already domesticated. I liked that dog. Then he randomly decided it wasn't with me any more. He said I left it at home. So I guess I don't get to make my own decisions any more. I don't know who is feeding it. Poor doggy.
amuletts that DM if they didn't want you to have it anymore should have spoke to you instead of just whisking it out of the story.
Sounds like a really bad GM to me. Talk to them and make sure to stress that you would prefer if they talked to you, rather than just make choices because reasons. Tell him to meet you part way, let you know what to expect, and not to screw you over just because.
I’m the 489th person to like
Yer vids are braw loon, fir ya bide?
Thanks so much! I've been living in Edinburgh for the past 10 years or so, how about yourself?
Cheers for watching!