First ever campaign playing a Half-Orc Moon Druid asking for help/advice
Missed a session do to work but another player was RPing my character while I was gone. My party ran into a some dead bodies of a wolf pack then find a wolf pup survived and my friend RPing my charater figured I liked animals and gave it to me.
I was filled in the following week and was super excited but my concern is, I'm not to familiar with companion rules and not quite sure what to do with the puppy.
My suggestion would be to treat the pup as a familiar for now.
Its unable to attack but will defend you through a reaction.
When the pup gets older then have a look at the rangers companion under beast master pg 93 of the players handbook. With the exception being that when it dies it can't be replaced.
You'll need to ask your DM if its a pure bred wolf or if its a dire wolf pup or mixed breed and so on.
Your living expenses would also need to be increased to include caring for the pup until it gets old enough to hunt for itself if you like to live off grid or you'll need to feed it when in town.
Some taverns/hotels won't permit a wolf on site as you'll also need to keep in mind that it will need to be boarded for the night.
A guard would mist likely attack the wolf if they saw it in the street at night.
I was filled in the following week and was super excited but my concern is, I'm not to familiar with companion rules and not quite sure what to do with the puppy.
There are no general companion rules. The rules for Find Familiar, the Warlock's Pact of the Chain, the Beast Master Ranger's Animal Companion or any of the monsters with variant familiar rules are specific to those particular spells/class features/monsters.
True but as a general guide you can look at the ones I mentioned while taking into account that its not a spell based creature. By having a general idea you could negotiate with the DM for functionality.
Find familiar can apply to babies as it has limits to its actions in combat without using the magical aspects.
"your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts in its own turn. A familiar can't attack, but it can take other actions as normal"
As a pup it wouldn't have any combat capabilities but it could nip at anyone that triggers a reaction maybe 1d4.
When it grows up they need to know what type of wolf it is as dire wolves are bigger and stronger then wolves.
If the DM permits it to be a battle companion, by looking at both the beast stats and the rangers companion description. Not only could they get an idea of what the stats would be like but also how it would function in battle.
Again something to base negotiations on.
Or if its a dire wolf then it could be treated as a mount given its a larger beast. Again looking at the mount section of the players hand book would give them an idea on what's involved.
Its best to know what interest yourself and what you might like to do with a found companion before discussing it with the DM, that way later on there's less likely to be any misunderstanding or expectations.
In 3.5 there were some clearer rules how to use 'handle animal' along with a trained companion. I'd look at these rules and work with the DM to adapt them to 5.0 (especially since most of the familiar rules seem to imply some sort of mystical connection). Make sure to look at the limitations applied to familiars in terms of actions available in combat so your companion isn't too powerful though.
Dunno why they didn't come out with a basic set of rules for Animal Handling in 5.0. With the little blurb that they have listed in the PHB they should have just removed the skill altogether.
Dunno why they didn't come out with a basic set of rules for Animal Handling in 5.0. With the little blurb that they have listed in the PHB they should have just removed the skill altogether.
Simplicity was a priority for the 5e rules. The smaller they could get the core rules, the better. Taming wild animals rarely comes up and different DMs will have different preferences for what that'll entail, so I think they made the right call.
My suggestion would be to treat the pup as a familiar for now.
Thanks for the advice everbody. I do like the idea of treating him like a familiar. Wouldn't feel to great about taking a baby animial to a boss fight. Wanna work with my DM with small story for the pup, like going full "mom-mode" and raising it till it is strong enough to find it's own pack. Something similiar to Ash and Butterfree from the first season of Pokemon
Dunno why they didn't come out with a basic set of rules for Animal Handling in 5.0. With the little blurb that they have listed in the PHB they should have just removed the skill altogether.
Simplicity was a priority for the 5e rules. The smaller they could get the core rules, the better. Taming wild animals rarely comes up and different DMs will have different preferences for what that'll entail, so I think they made the right call.
That goes to my second point. Why keep it at all if they didn't really want to elaborate on it or at least give clear examples of what it's capable of? It's a pet peeve of mine, but pointless to complain about. I'm sure some tables get value out of it, but at my table (and apparently many others) it's just ignored.
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First ever campaign playing a Half-Orc Moon Druid asking for help/advice
Missed a session do to work but another player was RPing my character while I was gone. My party ran into a some dead bodies of a wolf pack then find a wolf pup survived and my friend RPing my charater figured I liked animals and gave it to me.
I was filled in the following week and was super excited but my concern is, I'm not to familiar with companion rules and not quite sure what to do with the puppy.
Thank you im advance for any help
My suggestion would be to treat the pup as a familiar for now.
Its unable to attack but will defend you through a reaction.
When the pup gets older then have a look at the rangers companion under beast master pg 93 of the players handbook. With the exception being that when it dies it can't be replaced.
You'll need to ask your DM if its a pure bred wolf or if its a dire wolf pup or mixed breed and so on.
Your living expenses would also need to be increased to include caring for the pup until it gets old enough to hunt for itself if you like to live off grid or you'll need to feed it when in town.
Some taverns/hotels won't permit a wolf on site as you'll also need to keep in mind that it will need to be boarded for the night.
A guard would mist likely attack the wolf if they saw it in the street at night.
There are no general companion rules. The rules for Find Familiar, the Warlock's Pact of the Chain, the Beast Master Ranger's Animal Companion or any of the monsters with variant familiar rules are specific to those particular spells/class features/monsters.
The DM decides how your new "pet" behaves.
True but as a general guide you can look at the ones I mentioned while taking into account that its not a spell based creature. By having a general idea you could negotiate with the DM for functionality.
Find familiar can apply to babies as it has limits to its actions in combat without using the magical aspects.
"your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts in its own turn. A familiar can't attack, but it can take other actions as normal"
As a pup it wouldn't have any combat capabilities but it could nip at anyone that triggers a reaction maybe 1d4.
When it grows up they need to know what type of wolf it is as dire wolves are bigger and stronger then wolves.
If the DM permits it to be a battle companion, by looking at both the beast stats and the rangers companion description. Not only could they get an idea of what the stats would be like but also how it would function in battle.
Again something to base negotiations on.
Or if its a dire wolf then it could be treated as a mount given its a larger beast. Again looking at the mount section of the players hand book would give them an idea on what's involved.
Its best to know what interest yourself and what you might like to do with a found companion before discussing it with the DM, that way later on there's less likely to be any misunderstanding or expectations.
In 3.5 there were some clearer rules how to use 'handle animal' along with a trained companion. I'd look at these rules and work with the DM to adapt them to 5.0 (especially since most of the familiar rules seem to imply some sort of mystical connection). Make sure to look at the limitations applied to familiars in terms of actions available in combat so your companion isn't too powerful though.
Dunno why they didn't come out with a basic set of rules for Animal Handling in 5.0. With the little blurb that they have listed in the PHB they should have just removed the skill altogether.
Easiest to just treat it as if you had purchased a Mastiff for 25gp
Simplicity was a priority for the 5e rules. The smaller they could get the core rules, the better. Taming wild animals rarely comes up and different DMs will have different preferences for what that'll entail, so I think they made the right call.
Thanks for the advice everbody. I do like the idea of treating him like a familiar. Wouldn't feel to great about taking a baby animial to a boss fight. Wanna work with my DM with small story for the pup, like going full "mom-mode" and raising it till it is strong enough to find it's own pack. Something similiar to Ash and Butterfree from the first season of Pokemon
Thanks again everyone
That goes to my second point. Why keep it at all if they didn't really want to elaborate on it or at least give clear examples of what it's capable of? It's a pet peeve of mine, but pointless to complain about. I'm sure some tables get value out of it, but at my table (and apparently many others) it's just ignored.