Hi there, I am new to DnD and, this website. Had pretty much just dabbled in DnD a couple of times over the years.
I’m in the process of creating a character for an upcoming campaign I’m starting with friends, I wanted to be more prepared and creative than my previous games, and I had an idea for a character, basically the girl and the bear from the Golden Compass (I didn’t realise the idea was basically that until now lmao)
But my idea is basically to have a child-like character with a sentient mount either like a bear, or some other large creature that is also able to communicate, but I’m unsure how to go about it, I know that some classes cast familiars in, but I wanted the mount to be a fixture, like, if he does die in game, he’s just dead and not a case of “Oh well recast him next when able”.
Also would this need to be set as a separate character? Sort of like, I’d need to control both the creature and the girl separately?
Also I’m so sorry if this is the wrong place to post! New to all this
Your best bet is going to be something like Beast Master ranger, which allows you to summon a primal beast to fight alongside you. The beast is not, however, able to communicate with other party members. Fundamentally, this is a necessary component of the game - if it was able to communicate, you either run into the problem where one player is playing two characters (which can bog down the game and take too much attention from others) or you can run into the problem where the DM is playing your companion's personality and thus inserting themselves into the domain of the party (one of my many issues with CR Campaign 3). Within combat, anything like Beast Master ranger has you control both your character and your summon in combat.
No pet class feature has a "if he dies, he dies" rider on their summons--not familiars, not Paladins with Find Stead, not Beast Master Rangers. From a game design stance, this makes sense - it is really, really easy to kill the kinds of creatures these abilities make (they cannot be too powerful or they would break balance), which means they likely are going to die sometimes. If the death was permanent, then mechanically the player would be cut out from a fundamental element of their class/subclass features, which would result in a poor game experience for the player.
If you want the death to be meaningful, then you can do that through roleplay - form a connection with the spirit you summon, then feel genuine loss when you lose it. You can also then roleplay trying to bond with your new summon--provided you do not make that bonding such a big distraction it reduces others' fun by trying to keep the focus on yourself and your pet.
Quick replies and in depth, I was expecting to get an answer next week.
But yes, that all makes sense. I guess I’ll do a bogged down version for this game and just hope I bring that idea to full fruition in a different game (maybe Pathfinder or something)
Thank you also, all of the info you’ve shared has been super helpful! :)
5e RAW not withstanding, there was a spell called "awaken" which would grant sapience to a non-sapient target. There was another spell called permanency which makes another spell effect relatively everlasting, largely used in association with wondrous item creation. You could for example, awaken your actual bear pet, not a summoned spirit class feature, then possibly give it a collar or something with "tongues" permanently cast on it. You now have a character who is a bear that can talk.
The real problem would only be if you were the only player with 2 characters.
It doesn't really work unless you are in a group of 3 players for example playing a party of 6 characters where each player gets to be 2 characters.
-OR-
Perhaps if each charter is only active at a certain time like in the movie Ladyhawke. One character is 'human' for the day shift and just the companion creature at night, the other is 'human' at night and the companion creature during the day; so only one character at a time is interacting with the rest of the group, not both characters at once.
EDIT: Also not sure how relevant this is to your current situation, but you don't necessarily need to play both characters yourself. Not with in the context of D&D yet, but I've played the sapient mount of another player's character before. So if you find someone who wants to partner up with your concept, that is doable too. You could play a real barBearian who is like Trinket to Vexalia but sapient and a full party-member just with someone else playing notVexalia.
I guess you do something like a re-skinned Goliath ‘bear’ as your combat character and then dip a level in warlock to take pact of the chain for an imp familiar to do the social and exploration stuff. You could reskin the imp as a gnome child or the like.
5e RAW not withstanding, there was a spell called "awaken" which would grant sapience to a non-sapient target. There was another spell called permanency which makes another spell effect relatively everlasting, largely used in association with wondrous item creation. You could for example, awaken your actual bear pet, not a summoned spirit class feature, then possibly give it a collar or something with "tongues" permanently cast on it. You now have a character who is a bear that can talk.
The real problem would only be if you were the only player with 2 characters.
It doesn't really work unless you are in a group of 3 players for example playing a party of 6 characters where each player gets to be 2 characters.
Awaken is still a spell. And it no longer needs permanency. And it allows the target creature to speak a language you know. Though you are very right about the issues with playing a second character. And it’s a 5th level spell, so it a while before you could do it.
To the OP, you could also look at sidekick rules from Tasha’s. It gives examples for using something like a wolf as a warrior sidekick. But, as with the above, you end up playing 2 characters. That can get confusing, especially if you’re new to the game. It’s an interesting concept, but I’d suggest first playing a while with just a more typical character, maybe as Cearwyn suggested a beast master ranger. Though I’d add drakewarden and maybe battlesmith artificer in there to give you companion options.
Thrn once you have a handle on how the game works, you go trying something like this.
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Hi there, I am new to DnD and, this website. Had pretty much just dabbled in DnD a couple of times over the years.
I’m in the process of creating a character for an upcoming campaign I’m starting with friends, I wanted to be more prepared and creative than my previous games, and I had an idea for a character, basically the girl and the bear from the Golden Compass (I didn’t realise the idea was basically that until now lmao)
But my idea is basically to have a child-like character with a sentient mount either like a bear, or some other large creature that is also able to communicate, but I’m unsure how to go about it, I know that some classes cast familiars in, but I wanted the mount to be a fixture, like, if he does die in game, he’s just dead and not a case of “Oh well recast him next when able”.
Also would this need to be set as a separate character? Sort of like, I’d need to control both the creature and the girl separately?
Also I’m so sorry if this is the wrong place to post! New to all this
Your best bet is going to be something like Beast Master ranger, which allows you to summon a primal beast to fight alongside you. The beast is not, however, able to communicate with other party members. Fundamentally, this is a necessary component of the game - if it was able to communicate, you either run into the problem where one player is playing two characters (which can bog down the game and take too much attention from others) or you can run into the problem where the DM is playing your companion's personality and thus inserting themselves into the domain of the party (one of my many issues with CR Campaign 3). Within combat, anything like Beast Master ranger has you control both your character and your summon in combat.
No pet class feature has a "if he dies, he dies" rider on their summons--not familiars, not Paladins with Find Stead, not Beast Master Rangers. From a game design stance, this makes sense - it is really, really easy to kill the kinds of creatures these abilities make (they cannot be too powerful or they would break balance), which means they likely are going to die sometimes. If the death was permanent, then mechanically the player would be cut out from a fundamental element of their class/subclass features, which would result in a poor game experience for the player.
If you want the death to be meaningful, then you can do that through roleplay - form a connection with the spirit you summon, then feel genuine loss when you lose it. You can also then roleplay trying to bond with your new summon--provided you do not make that bonding such a big distraction it reduces others' fun by trying to keep the focus on yourself and your pet.
Quick replies and in depth, I was expecting to get an answer next week.
But yes, that all makes sense. I guess I’ll do a bogged down version for this game and just hope I bring that idea to full fruition in a different game (maybe Pathfinder or something)
Thank you also, all of the info you’ve shared has been super helpful! :)
5e RAW not withstanding, there was a spell called "awaken" which would grant sapience to a non-sapient target. There was another spell called permanency which makes another spell effect relatively everlasting, largely used in association with wondrous item creation. You could for example, awaken your actual bear pet, not a summoned spirit class feature, then possibly give it a collar or something with "tongues" permanently cast on it. You now have a character who is a bear that can talk.
The real problem would only be if you were the only player with 2 characters.
It doesn't really work unless you are in a group of 3 players for example playing a party of 6 characters where each player gets to be 2 characters.
-OR-
Perhaps if each charter is only active at a certain time like in the movie Ladyhawke. One character is 'human' for the day shift and just the companion creature at night, the other is 'human' at night and the companion creature during the day; so only one character at a time is interacting with the rest of the group, not both characters at once.
EDIT: Also not sure how relevant this is to your current situation, but you don't necessarily need to play both characters yourself. Not with in the context of D&D yet, but I've played the sapient mount of another player's character before. So if you find someone who wants to partner up with your concept, that is doable too. You could play a real barBearian who is like Trinket to Vexalia but sapient and a full party-member just with someone else playing notVexalia.
Thank you for your time and please have a very pleasant day.
I guess you do something like a re-skinned Goliath ‘bear’ as your combat character and then dip a level in warlock to take pact of the chain for an imp familiar to do the social and exploration stuff. You could reskin the imp as a gnome child or the like.
Awaken is still a spell. And it no longer needs permanency. And it allows the target creature to speak a language you know. Though you are very right about the issues with playing a second character. And it’s a 5th level spell, so it a while before you could do it.
To the OP, you could also look at sidekick rules from Tasha’s. It gives examples for using something like a wolf as a warrior sidekick. But, as with the above, you end up playing 2 characters. That can get confusing, especially if you’re new to the game. It’s an interesting concept, but I’d suggest first playing a while with just a more typical character, maybe as Cearwyn suggested a beast master ranger. Though I’d add drakewarden and maybe battlesmith artificer in there to give you companion options.
Thrn once you have a handle on how the game works, you go trying something like this.