I've decided to let my niece train one of the wolves she found and calmed in the Kennels of Cragmaw Hideout early in LMoP. Does anyone know if there are rules for training wild animals? I'm planning to borrow a mechanic from another system I've played, but wanted to see if this is already established somewhere; I have the DM's manual and Player's guide but it doesn't seem to be covered. Thanks!
I don't recall any tables or sections on training animals, I believe there's simply a passing comment on it.
In most cases I believe a series of Animal Handling checks and some narrative flair are all that is suggested for what you're attempting.
Animal Handling vs DC X to gain its trust, do this Y number of times until the wolf is now friendly toward you.
Animal Handling vs DC X to train the wolf in a certain action, do this Y number of times to make it a command word action/reaction/bonus
That's the basic formula that I use when someone wants to try to work with an animal. The caveat here is that I almost never allow a wild animal to be tamed by simply feeding it jerky, whereas you are using an animal that was already kenneled so it may be possible.
Thanks! I'm borrowing a mechanic from the Darken Realms system. Basically, an initial successful check (DC 15) and the Wolf became friendly, willing to follow the party (and defend, to some degree) the animal trainer unless it is frightened, hurt by the party, or neglected- but still controlled entirely by the DM. Each day on a successful animal handling check (still DC 15 but with a lot of room for circumstance bonuses and the aid of another player), the player can do 1d4 training points; once they reach 25 points the Wolf is trained and can join the party, controlled by the player character.
I really like your idea of adding abilities that have to be trained individually! I think I'll give it a very basic (weakened) bite attack, but allow the trainer to add a limited number of new skills/attacks with additional training.
Technically, unless a player becomes a beast master ranger, it should always be under DM control as a friendly NPC.
It may also be a good idea to look at the beast master to learn what the characters CAN'T do without that class (alternatively, the PHB beast master being underpowered, and many people using the revised beast master from UA instead, you may want to use PHB beast master as an example of what they CAN do).
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I've decided to let my niece train one of the wolves she found and calmed in the Kennels of Cragmaw Hideout early in LMoP. Does anyone know if there are rules for training wild animals? I'm planning to borrow a mechanic from another system I've played, but wanted to see if this is already established somewhere; I have the DM's manual and Player's guide but it doesn't seem to be covered. Thanks!
I don't recall any tables or sections on training animals, I believe there's simply a passing comment on it.
In most cases I believe a series of Animal Handling checks and some narrative flair are all that is suggested for what you're attempting.
Animal Handling vs DC X to gain its trust, do this Y number of times until the wolf is now friendly toward you.
Animal Handling vs DC X to train the wolf in a certain action, do this Y number of times to make it a command word action/reaction/bonus
That's the basic formula that I use when someone wants to try to work with an animal. The caveat here is that I almost never allow a wild animal to be tamed by simply feeding it jerky, whereas you are using an animal that was already kenneled so it may be possible.
Thanks! I'm borrowing a mechanic from the Darken Realms system. Basically, an initial successful check (DC 15) and the Wolf became friendly, willing to follow the party (and defend, to some degree) the animal trainer unless it is frightened, hurt by the party, or neglected- but still controlled entirely by the DM. Each day on a successful animal handling check (still DC 15 but with a lot of room for circumstance bonuses and the aid of another player), the player can do 1d4 training points; once they reach 25 points the Wolf is trained and can join the party, controlled by the player character.
I really like your idea of adding abilities that have to be trained individually! I think I'll give it a very basic (weakened) bite attack, but allow the trainer to add a limited number of new skills/attacks with additional training.
Thanks!
Technically, unless a player becomes a beast master ranger, it should always be under DM control as a friendly NPC.
It may also be a good idea to look at the beast master to learn what the characters CAN'T do without that class (alternatively, the PHB beast master being underpowered, and many people using the revised beast master from UA instead, you may want to use PHB beast master as an example of what they CAN do).