Only the artificer. For future reference: ranger companions and find familiar also don't count. These features don't add to the player's action economies.
Tamed pets, mounts, friendly NPCs, and permanent summons able to act semi-independently (like animate dead or simulacrum) can, especially if their CR is high enough or there are a lot of them. But there aren't any good rule for how to balance encounters around friendly NPCs.
Whilst they might not technically add to the action economy, they do add to the body economy. If you have a few characters like this in a party then small enemy groups get bodied very easily - so it is something to consider.
Only the artificer. For future reference: ranger companions and find familiar also don't count. These features don't add to the player's action economies.
Tamed pets, mounts, friendly NPCs, and permanent summons able to act semi-independently (like animate dead or simulacrum) can, especially if their CR is high enough or there are a lot of them. But there aren't any good rule for how to balance encounters around friendly NPCs.
Valid point. To me familiars while low on hit points you can still cast Dragon's Breath on the familiar and it becomes a threat that can draw the enemy's attention. Where I was looking at it, as SwiftSign pointed out, there is still an extra body that can participate in the combat. You are right though the rules are not there with accompanied NPC in combat.
Bodies are just pools of HP. And more bodies just makes total HP more susceptible to AoE. More HP increases the party's defense/survivability.
Balancing encounters is more of an art than a science. Different builds of the same class and level can handle subtly different threats. 4 min-maxers can turn what should have been a deadly encounter into a medium one.
Maybe treat the pet classes as 1 or 2 levels higher to account for the increase in defense (HP), but I think treating the pet as another player even at half level will unbalance it (or maybe not, I haven't looked too closely at balancing encounters for mix level parties).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Setup: An Artificer Battle Smith is being added to a game I'm running and along for the ride is the character's Steel Defender.
Question: When calculating or balancing encounters, do you include the Steel Defender as an additional party member or include only the Artificer?
The Steel Defender is a class feature and not a party member.
Only the artificer. For future reference: ranger companions and find familiar also don't count. These features don't add to the player's action economies.
Tamed pets, mounts, friendly NPCs, and permanent summons able to act semi-independently (like animate dead or simulacrum) can, especially if their CR is high enough or there are a lot of them. But there aren't any good rule for how to balance encounters around friendly NPCs.
Whilst they might not technically add to the action economy, they do add to the body economy. If you have a few characters like this in a party then small enemy groups get bodied very easily - so it is something to consider.
Valid point. To me familiars while low on hit points you can still cast Dragon's Breath on the familiar and it becomes a threat that can draw the enemy's attention. Where I was looking at it, as SwiftSign pointed out, there is still an extra body that can participate in the combat. You are right though the rules are not there with accompanied NPC in combat.
Bodies are just pools of HP. And more bodies just makes total HP more susceptible to AoE. More HP increases the party's defense/survivability.
Balancing encounters is more of an art than a science. Different builds of the same class and level can handle subtly different threats. 4 min-maxers can turn what should have been a deadly encounter into a medium one.
Maybe treat the pet classes as 1 or 2 levels higher to account for the increase in defense (HP), but I think treating the pet as another player even at half level will unbalance it (or maybe not, I haven't looked too closely at balancing encounters for mix level parties).