So I'm a new DM and so far my campaign is going smoothly, besides the fact that the party is trying to collect every animal and monster they can find. Killing them off or having them disappear hasn't discouraged them from continuing to try and collect more. I don't want to outright say no you can't do that but I am looking for a way to deter the monster collecting.
Have them roleplay the consequences of collecting monsters, such as the responsibility of caring for and maintaining the monsters. Make the cost involved a factor. Don't let the players think that their characters have the monsters when it suits them and that they can just go back to normal activities when it doesn't.
If this still doesn't deter them, maybe let them have their fun? "Gotta Catch 'Em All" you know.
Why don't you want them collecting monsters/animals?
As wtfdndad says, there are costs to keeping animals. Also, you don't roll an animal handling check and suddenly have a completely obedient creature that follows every command you give it. Just because you rolled a 20 on a Brown Bear doesn't mean it's going to get you your slippers in the morning.
And if they get a couple, are they natural predators? A wolf and a bear aren't going to curl up next to each other and have a nap. Much less a wolf and a mouse. That's just a travelling snack.
So make sure you keep the narrative happening and have it all make sense. But still, ask yourself why you don't want them collecting critters?
Do you mean they're keeping trophies of the monsters they've killed, and are now lugging around a whole bunch of severed hands, heads, etc? If that's the case, you don't need to do anything, that's fine.
Do you mean they're capturing them and keeping them somewhere? That seems like they've given themselves an extra challenge, just play it out. It's gonna get tougher and tougher for them to successfully keep contained all sorts of monsters - they'll need their own dungeon, hirelings, etc. Especially as the monsters get tougher. I can see how they might keep a wolf in a pen... but if they want to contain a big creature that can burrow, like a Xorn, that's gonna be pretty tough! That, honestly, sets up for some pretty neat quest hooks. "Well, you've captured the thing, and you've sedated it for now... but to keep it contained, you'll need a cage of adamantium, now where are you gonna find that much of it? You have a lead on a dungeon in the mountains... or you could get a powerful spellcaster to imprison it. You know just the guy, but he wants as payment a quest..."
Do you mean that they're taming them and having them as pets? ...no no no that doesn't work. They might be able to capture all sorts of things, but actually taming, training, and using them takes a lot of time and effort, and is probably impossible for many monsters. Some lack the intelligence to be trained, others are too intelligent to be trained, yet others have innate nature that's too powerful to overcome... sure, with a month of effort you might be able to train a wild wolf not to bite you, with a few months you can get a bear to not run away, but there's basically no way you can 'train' a gibbering mouther to do anything but attack things.
Hmm. It does add a dynamic challenge to creating encounters. I would probably make a rule that only allows you to have 1 pet with them at a time. Maybe up it to 2 if they have +5 animal handling.
You can also do fun things like having certain captures not like each other.
If you play it right, this could give them so many problems they'll stop by themselves.....
Or declare that: "The party's love for collecting wild and exotic animals has made them to finally decide to retire from adventuring for good and open a menagerie for the local cityfolk, so they can marvel at heretofore unknown beasts...... Role up new Character sheets....."
It's most a fear that the collection would get too out of hand and make balancing encounters more difficult (the party storming an enemy castle with a small army of subjugated monsters and tamed animals). It's kinda cool that my group of mostly new players want to solve every problem in a non-violent way, I prefer that over them being murder hobos xD.
Everyones mentioned alot of good points here though, being a new DM I guess I just need to learn to think outside of the box more, past just the "well I guess you succeeded on the DC I set to get it to follow you so now it's yours to command". I'm already feeling more comfortable with the idea of letting them collect, having to manage the risks and responsibilities involved.
+1 to MajorPuddles' thought above - an animal handling check doesn't mean you suddenly have a perfectly tamed companion animal. It might just mean "you succeed in gently patting the wolf's head and it doesn't eat you."
I'd add it takes months to train animals and creatures and that can only be done when you have downtime. Trying to train something while adventuring could lead to all sorts of things. Eating party's rations, behavioral issues, attracting other predators, running off by being frightened, fighting with other creatures caught, attracting an activist Druid who frees the creatures while the party sleeps, then the creatures attack the sleeping party (Auto Crits), ruining sneaking attempts and other attempts at the worst possible time, being banned from cities and towns. Then there's costs to feed, keep, train, house.
Then there's adventure hooks. The Druid above, Circus wanting rare animals for an exhibition, a collector wanting trophies. What happens when the word gets out about these adventurers. Perhaps they take a mate of something and then that mate comes looking.
Overall you're doing well. Don't sweat it too much and have fun with it.
+1 with the training time. You ever try to housetrain a dog? It can take months and that's an animal we domesticated thousands of years ago. A bear is going to pee where it wants, when it wants. And if they go to town, no one is going to give them space in the stables to keep their displacer beast next to a bunch of draft horses. And no one is going to let them stay at an inn with their pet fire beetle.
Also, mechanically, there are classes that get companions and familiars, and this really seems to step on their abilities. Tell them if they want a trained animal that does what they say in combat, they should take a few levels in ranger.
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So I'm a new DM and so far my campaign is going smoothly, besides the fact that the party is trying to collect every animal and monster they can find. Killing them off or having them disappear hasn't discouraged them from continuing to try and collect more. I don't want to outright say no you can't do that but I am looking for a way to deter the monster collecting.
Have them roleplay the consequences of collecting monsters, such as the responsibility of caring for and maintaining the monsters. Make the cost involved a factor. Don't let the players think that their characters have the monsters when it suits them and that they can just go back to normal activities when it doesn't.
If this still doesn't deter them, maybe let them have their fun? "Gotta Catch 'Em All" you know.
Why don't you want them collecting monsters/animals?
As wtfdndad says, there are costs to keeping animals. Also, you don't roll an animal handling check and suddenly have a completely obedient creature that follows every command you give it. Just because you rolled a 20 on a Brown Bear doesn't mean it's going to get you your slippers in the morning.
And if they get a couple, are they natural predators? A wolf and a bear aren't going to curl up next to each other and have a nap. Much less a wolf and a mouse. That's just a travelling snack.
So make sure you keep the narrative happening and have it all make sense. But still, ask yourself why you don't want them collecting critters?
Seed in an enemy druid who poses as a 'collectible' monster and tries to undermine the party's agenda.
find a way to kill them
What do you mean by 'collecting'?
Do you mean they're keeping trophies of the monsters they've killed, and are now lugging around a whole bunch of severed hands, heads, etc? If that's the case, you don't need to do anything, that's fine.
Do you mean they're capturing them and keeping them somewhere? That seems like they've given themselves an extra challenge, just play it out. It's gonna get tougher and tougher for them to successfully keep contained all sorts of monsters - they'll need their own dungeon, hirelings, etc. Especially as the monsters get tougher. I can see how they might keep a wolf in a pen... but if they want to contain a big creature that can burrow, like a Xorn, that's gonna be pretty tough! That, honestly, sets up for some pretty neat quest hooks. "Well, you've captured the thing, and you've sedated it for now... but to keep it contained, you'll need a cage of adamantium, now where are you gonna find that much of it? You have a lead on a dungeon in the mountains... or you could get a powerful spellcaster to imprison it. You know just the guy, but he wants as payment a quest..."
Do you mean that they're taming them and having them as pets? ...no no no that doesn't work. They might be able to capture all sorts of things, but actually taming, training, and using them takes a lot of time and effort, and is probably impossible for many monsters. Some lack the intelligence to be trained, others are too intelligent to be trained, yet others have innate nature that's too powerful to overcome... sure, with a month of effort you might be able to train a wild wolf not to bite you, with a few months you can get a bear to not run away, but there's basically no way you can 'train' a gibbering mouther to do anything but attack things.
Hmm. It does add a dynamic challenge to creating encounters.
I would probably make a rule that only allows you to have 1 pet with them at a time. Maybe up it to 2 if they have +5 animal handling.
You can also do fun things like having certain captures not like each other.
"I don't know if 'Gotta Catch 'Em All!' is such a great rallying cry."
If you play it right, this could give them so many problems they'll stop by themselves.....
Or declare that: "The party's love for collecting wild and exotic animals has made them to finally decide to retire from adventuring for good and open a menagerie for the local cityfolk, so they can marvel at heretofore unknown beasts...... Role up new Character sheets....."
It's most a fear that the collection would get too out of hand and make balancing encounters more difficult (the party storming an enemy castle with a small army of subjugated monsters and tamed animals). It's kinda cool that my group of mostly new players want to solve every problem in a non-violent way, I prefer that over them being murder hobos xD.
Everyones mentioned alot of good points here though, being a new DM I guess I just need to learn to think outside of the box more, past just the "well I guess you succeeded on the DC I set to get it to follow you so now it's yours to command". I'm already feeling more comfortable with the idea of letting them collect, having to manage the risks and responsibilities involved.
+1 to MajorPuddles' thought above - an animal handling check doesn't mean you suddenly have a perfectly tamed companion animal. It might just mean "you succeed in gently patting the wolf's head and it doesn't eat you."
I'd add it takes months to train animals and creatures and that can only be done when you have downtime. Trying to train something while adventuring could lead to all sorts of things. Eating party's rations, behavioral issues, attracting other predators, running off by being frightened, fighting with other creatures caught, attracting an activist Druid who frees the creatures while the party sleeps, then the creatures attack the sleeping party (Auto Crits), ruining sneaking attempts and other attempts at the worst possible time, being banned from cities and towns. Then there's costs to feed, keep, train, house.
Then there's adventure hooks. The Druid above, Circus wanting rare animals for an exhibition, a collector wanting trophies. What happens when the word gets out about these adventurers. Perhaps they take a mate of something and then that mate comes looking.
Overall you're doing well. Don't sweat it too much and have fun with it.
+1 with the training time. You ever try to housetrain a dog? It can take months and that's an animal we domesticated thousands of years ago. A bear is going to pee where it wants, when it wants. And if they go to town, no one is going to give them space in the stables to keep their displacer beast next to a bunch of draft horses. And no one is going to let them stay at an inn with their pet fire beetle.
Also, mechanically, there are classes that get companions and familiars, and this really seems to step on their abilities. Tell them if they want a trained animal that does what they say in combat, they should take a few levels in ranger.