My (3.5)scout's about to class into Ranger next lvl up. Been thinking about an animal companion for him in the future. Since he's a fisherman, I wanted it to make sense. First I thought an otter would be perfect (it would), but after spending entirely too much time on youtube, I saw it. A PENGUIN. I knew I had to have one. Asked my DM about it, and all he said was, "If you can find one." So, I've put aside all other personal priorities to hunt down a penguin. On the Sword Coast. Anyone have any ideas where one might be found?
Well, there's enough cold coast land in the Realms to justify finding a penguin, I think the larger question is justifying having one as a combat companion.
Penguins aren't what you'd call "threatening" animals. They can swim well, but otherwise their movement is unimpressive.
Assuming you and your GM are okay with ignoring that entirely, then you could probably pick an animal and just reskin it to be a penguin. Most of the beasts that make for decent animal companions won't make a good 1:1 changeover to a penguin.
I would suggest using the Octopus as the base from which to make a homebrew beast. Many of the stats would be similar. No Darkvision or special abilities, though. Reverse the Underwater Breathing so that it only breathes air, and can hold its breath underwater for 15 minutes. Maybe increase the hit points a bit.
A fair assessment, but this particular campaign is shaping up to be more RP-heavy than combat-heavy. I'm lookin mostly for a laugh and a good story out of this one. What do you mean reskin an animal? Is that a Ranger ability (I'm fairly unfamiliar with the class) or are you talkin meta?
They need somewhere that’s large predator free to breed and ocean to feed. Isolated islands, frozen continents. Maybe you can find someone who deals in exotic pets. I think Tomb of Annihilation has some sellers of exotic pets, I would think that other areas should have some exotic pet markets too. ToA has dinosaurs, why not penguins as well?
A traveling circus might have one, and there are in canon carnivals with exotic animals you could reference. Maybe they got it as a novelty but now trying to sell it for various reasons. Or maybe they're cruel to the animals and you and your companions can help rescue them.
Maybe an old, retired ranger in Luskan has one and they're looking to find a good companion for it that'll treat it well, as they are too old to go out anymore. Or they know someone who has one, thought it'd be an excellent pet, and are in over their heads so they need to find a better home!
...or barring all that, just steal one from a zoological garden. 😁
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
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My (3.5)scout's about to class into Ranger next lvl up. Been thinking about an animal companion for him in the future. Since he's a fisherman, I wanted it to make sense. First I thought an otter would be perfect (it would), but after spending entirely too much time on youtube, I saw it. A PENGUIN. I knew I had to have one. Asked my DM about it, and all he said was, "If you can find one." So, I've put aside all other personal priorities to hunt down a penguin. On the Sword Coast. Anyone have any ideas where one might be found?
Well, there's enough cold coast land in the Realms to justify finding a penguin, I think the larger question is justifying having one as a combat companion.
Penguins aren't what you'd call "threatening" animals. They can swim well, but otherwise their movement is unimpressive.
Assuming you and your GM are okay with ignoring that entirely, then you could probably pick an animal and just reskin it to be a penguin. Most of the beasts that make for decent animal companions won't make a good 1:1 changeover to a penguin.
I would suggest using the Octopus as the base from which to make a homebrew beast. Many of the stats would be similar. No Darkvision or special abilities, though. Reverse the Underwater Breathing so that it only breathes air, and can hold its breath underwater for 15 minutes. Maybe increase the hit points a bit.
A fair assessment, but this particular campaign is shaping up to be more RP-heavy than combat-heavy. I'm lookin mostly for a laugh and a good story out of this one. What do you mean reskin an animal? Is that a Ranger ability (I'm fairly unfamiliar with the class) or are you talkin meta?
"Reskin" is a video game term, I believe. It means to keep the same mechanics while changing the appearance of something.
Oh I misread that. I'm not looking for stats, but the actual penguin.
They need somewhere that’s large predator free to breed and ocean to feed. Isolated islands, frozen continents. Maybe you can find someone who deals in exotic pets. I think Tomb of Annihilation has some sellers of exotic pets, I would think that other areas should have some exotic pet markets too. ToA has dinosaurs, why not penguins as well?
Elemental Plane of Water, maybe. Or somewhere north of the Great Glacier near Vasaa (though technically penguins are South Pole-ish animals).
We are headed to Luskan. Think the black market of a town ruled by pirate lords'd probably have one?
Every pirate has a parrot. The really cool pirates have penguins.
A traveling circus might have one, and there are in canon carnivals with exotic animals you could reference. Maybe they got it as a novelty but now trying to sell it for various reasons. Or maybe they're cruel to the animals and you and your companions can help rescue them.
Maybe an old, retired ranger in Luskan has one and they're looking to find a good companion for it that'll treat it well, as they are too old to go out anymore. Or they know someone who has one, thought it'd be an excellent pet, and are in over their heads so they need to find a better home!
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...or barring all that, just steal one from a zoological garden. 😁
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.