So the rogue of my party has got herself a pet wolf.
Ran an encounter based off of the goblin caves in Lost Mines (with a larger cave complex and a different reason for being their), The party calmed down the 4 wolves at the front of the cave system, but left them chained initially. Then later on, after being washed out twice by the water trap, the rogue Tabaxi rested while the party carried on (cat's do not like getting wet). She then cut up pieces of goblins that had been killed outside the cave system, and then fed them to the wolves spending time petting them and getting them to trust her. a nat 20 for animal handling later, followed by a wisdom roll by each wolf to see if it stayed with her or ran out of the cave to safety one of the wolves stayed by her side. it helped her fight several goblins, killing 2 with her, and when it got wounded she gave it her healing potion to heal it.
So as a result of this I am loath to have the wolf just leave her once they get back out of the cave system to the forest, but as she is not a ranger (and does not want to multi class as one) I am not sure as to the best way to have her run the wolf.
Any suggestions or ideas, do I simply have it as an extra party NPC who does its own thing and she can kind of train it over time? How have other DM's run similar situations?
I don’t see why not. A wolf isn’t a super high CR, so unless your players are at a very low level, it probably won’t unbalance your game. Plus, you could always impose reasonable restrictions from story reasons. Maybe the wolf is a pregnant female, and so mostly stays out of combat. Maybe it needs more training before becoming a reliable battle asset. Maybe it’s sick (goblins don’t tend to take good care of their subordinates), or handicapped in some way. Maybe it’s too young to fight much. Maybe it wants to settle down and form a new pack, the better to guard your home base with.
There are lots of ways to allow players interesting IG rewards and features without unbalancing the power levels. Be creative! I once found and hatched a basilisk egg, and the DM ruled that it needed extensive training and equipment before it was safe to spend time or fight with.
Edited to add: plus, she did roll very high on her Animal Handling. Maybe this is the start of a whole new character trai!
Treat it as a Sidekick. The Tasha's rules for the Warrior Sidekick overtly spells out that a Sidekick need not be humanoid. At that point the Wolf becomes an NPC, and unfortunately it becomes something that's more on you to track than anything else. Remember that, unlike a Rangers companion, this wolf isn't trained and, if anything, thanks to abuse and neglect is probably even more bitey and violent than a normal wolf. I think it's good to not let players just get access to features of classes they haven't invested in, so they shouldn't get the full benefits one would get from a beastmaster pet, but it's still good to have the game world a bit more dynamic where stuff like this can still happen for characters.
Do they want to use it in combat and to otherwise help them with challenges, or is it just more of an rp thing where they have a pet wolf and it’s cool, but doesn’t affect the game. If it’s the second I’ve, it’s easy, just let them have a pet wolf friend. If it’s the first it can get complicated. Transmorphers idea of a sidekick is good, but then the wolf should get a share of xp, not sure how the other characters will feel about that. You could say if the rogue wants to keep it, they can use it like they were a beast master, but they need to take a homebrew feat to do it.
Either way, keep it in mind the next time the party has to climb a ladder or a rope. How does the wolf do it?
Do they want to use it in combat and to otherwise help them with challenges, or is it just more of an rp thing where they have a pet wolf and it’s cool, but doesn’t affect the game. If it’s the second I’ve, it’s easy, just let them have a pet wolf friend. If it’s the first it can get complicated. Transmorphers idea of a sidekick is good, but then the wolf should get a share of xp, not sure how the other characters will feel about that. You could say if the rogue wants to keep it, they can use it like they were a beast master, but they need to take a homebrew feat to do it.
Either way, keep it in mind the next time the party has to climb a ladder or a rope. How does the wolf do it?
I don’t run XP, milestone only for me going to see how it plays out for RP, thinking animal handling skill checks for a while to train it, when they get back to town there is a very good chance wolf will not want to follow then.
I would let them keep the wolf if it is something the wolf would do. However, since she is NOT a ranger, the wolf would NOT level up with them, and soon it will be way out-classed by the enemies they face as they level up. It would be increasingly dangerous to bring the wolf on adventures, since this is not a "beastmaster" pet but is just a wolf. You could go the sidekick route if you really want to, but I would only do that if I intended to play the wolf long-term as an "NPC" member of the party.
Also the wolf would do mostly what it wants in combat... it would probably protect its new "masters" and fight enemies that did not seem to strong for it, but it would not be able to be commanded to do specific moves in combat the way a ranger can command its beast.
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Wolves will only attack things that they think are not a threat to them unless thay have to. The next time thety get into combat I would have the wolf run a safe distance away, when the fight is over it wolf come back to them. With time the rogue might be able to train the wolf to do things like tracking and warning of danger but I wouldn;t allow it to be used in combat.
As someone said those the out of combat advantages of having a wolf also come with extra challenges. "If you want ot climb the cliff with a wolf on your shoulders make an athletics check with disadvantage".
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So the rogue of my party has got herself a pet wolf.
Ran an encounter based off of the goblin caves in Lost Mines (with a larger cave complex and a different reason for being their), The party calmed down the 4 wolves at the front of the cave system, but left them chained initially. Then later on, after being washed out twice by the water trap, the rogue Tabaxi rested while the party carried on (cat's do not like getting wet). She then cut up pieces of goblins that had been killed outside the cave system, and then fed them to the wolves spending time petting them and getting them to trust her. a nat 20 for animal handling later, followed by a wisdom roll by each wolf to see if it stayed with her or ran out of the cave to safety one of the wolves stayed by her side. it helped her fight several goblins, killing 2 with her, and when it got wounded she gave it her healing potion to heal it.
So as a result of this I am loath to have the wolf just leave her once they get back out of the cave system to the forest, but as she is not a ranger (and does not want to multi class as one) I am not sure as to the best way to have her run the wolf.
Any suggestions or ideas, do I simply have it as an extra party NPC who does its own thing and she can kind of train it over time? How have other DM's run similar situations?
I don’t see why not. A wolf isn’t a super high CR, so unless your players are at a very low level, it probably won’t unbalance your game. Plus, you could always impose reasonable restrictions from story reasons. Maybe the wolf is a pregnant female, and so mostly stays out of combat. Maybe it needs more training before becoming a reliable battle asset. Maybe it’s sick (goblins don’t tend to take good care of their subordinates), or handicapped in some way. Maybe it’s too young to fight much. Maybe it wants to settle down and form a new pack, the better to guard your home base with.
There are lots of ways to allow players interesting IG rewards and features without unbalancing the power levels. Be creative! I once found and hatched a basilisk egg, and the DM ruled that it needed extensive training and equipment before it was safe to spend time or fight with.
Edited to add: plus, she did roll very high on her Animal Handling. Maybe this is the start of a whole new character trai!
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Treat it as a Sidekick. The Tasha's rules for the Warrior Sidekick overtly spells out that a Sidekick need not be humanoid. At that point the Wolf becomes an NPC, and unfortunately it becomes something that's more on you to track than anything else. Remember that, unlike a Rangers companion, this wolf isn't trained and, if anything, thanks to abuse and neglect is probably even more bitey and violent than a normal wolf. I think it's good to not let players just get access to features of classes they haven't invested in, so they shouldn't get the full benefits one would get from a beastmaster pet, but it's still good to have the game world a bit more dynamic where stuff like this can still happen for characters.
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Do they want to use it in combat and to otherwise help them with challenges, or is it just more of an rp thing where they have a pet wolf and it’s cool, but doesn’t affect the game.
If it’s the second I’ve, it’s easy, just let them have a pet wolf friend.
If it’s the first it can get complicated. Transmorphers idea of a sidekick is good, but then the wolf should get a share of xp, not sure how the other characters will feel about that.
You could say if the rogue wants to keep it, they can use it like they were a beast master, but they need to take a homebrew feat to do it.
Either way, keep it in mind the next time the party has to climb a ladder or a rope. How does the wolf do it?
I don’t run XP, milestone only for me going to see how it plays out for RP, thinking animal handling skill checks for a while to train it, when they get back to town there is a very good chance wolf will not want to follow then.
I would let them keep the wolf if it is something the wolf would do. However, since she is NOT a ranger, the wolf would NOT level up with them, and soon it will be way out-classed by the enemies they face as they level up. It would be increasingly dangerous to bring the wolf on adventures, since this is not a "beastmaster" pet but is just a wolf. You could go the sidekick route if you really want to, but I would only do that if I intended to play the wolf long-term as an "NPC" member of the party.
Also the wolf would do mostly what it wants in combat... it would probably protect its new "masters" and fight enemies that did not seem to strong for it, but it would not be able to be commanded to do specific moves in combat the way a ranger can command its beast.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
cast enlarge and use as a mount. A cat riding a dog!
Life is very busy unfortunately, gone from most Pbp's indefinitely.
If you'd like to contact me, I am on Discord at GreatAxeblade#7595, always happy to chat :)
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Wolves will only attack things that they think are not a threat to them unless thay have to. The next time thety get into combat I would have the wolf run a safe distance away, when the fight is over it wolf come back to them. With time the rogue might be able to train the wolf to do things like tracking and warning of danger but I wouldn;t allow it to be used in combat.
As someone said those the out of combat advantages of having a wolf also come with extra challenges. "If you want ot climb the cliff with a wolf on your shoulders make an athletics check with disadvantage".