Hey, new DM here. one of my players is making a character and we agreed to let her have a young pet in her backstory, we settled on a dire wolf. My main question is: How do I modify stats so that I am not using the Dire Wolf stats, because it is just a pup, and she will be a first level character. Is there any precedent for downscaling the beast?
There are a few guides around that help you modify creatures up or down in difficulty, but it's not really a necessary process. There are already stat blocks for things smaller than a Dire Wolf - just use some of those.
As a very small pup, it's probably best to treat the wolf as an object to be kept safe in a backpack. At some point you could give it the stats of a Fox, useless in combat but able to function. Later grow it to a Jackal or a Mastiff for some basic combat functionality. Next it can graduate to a Wolf, then eventually to a Dire Wolf.
You would want to ensure that this creature is always far less powerful than the players, so that it isn't upsetting the game balance too much. To keep it relevant later in a campaign you could start giving it Warrior Sidekick levels (from Tasha's).
Hey, new DM here. one of my players is making a character and we agreed to let her have a young pet in her backstory, we settled on a dire wolf. My main question is: How do I modify stats so that I am not using the Dire Wolf stats, because it is just a pup, and she will be a first level character. Is there any precedent for downscaling the beast?
There are a few guides around that help you modify creatures up or down in difficulty, but it's not really a necessary process. There are already stat blocks for things smaller than a Dire Wolf - just use some of those.
As a very small pup, it's probably best to treat the wolf as an object to be kept safe in a backpack. At some point you could give it the stats of a Fox, useless in combat but able to function. Later grow it to a Jackal or a Mastiff for some basic combat functionality. Next it can graduate to a Wolf, then eventually to a Dire Wolf.
You would want to ensure that this creature is always far less powerful than the players, so that it isn't upsetting the game balance too much. To keep it relevant later in a campaign you could start giving it Warrior Sidekick levels (from Tasha's).
The fox's art even looks like a puppy.