I hope I find you merry on this delightful day. As the title suggests I was wondering what the rules were on say rearing a wolf cub or finding a wolf (as say the ones chained in MoP) and calming it then befriending it and having it fight for you.
Are there actual rules in a rule book or do people just home brew it all.
No rules as such though animal handling checks would obviously be in order to decide how the wolf reacts to you. Animal Friendship would prevent it attacking you (not necessarily the rest of the party but Ias a DM I woouldn't have it attack your friends for no reason) and would help help with your interactions. Speak with animals would make your interntions clearer.
Speak to your DM to decide whether it is possible, how long it would take and things like that.
Having a pet can be great fun for the group but you also nned ot decide with the DM what happens in combat. As level 1 characters a full grown wolf can be of help but very quickly it will become useless and very quickly dead. By the time a wolf cub grows up the party will be a pretty high level. I think it best if pets are left for out of combat interactions (you might be able to train it to follow the scent of the bad guy) and when combat comes along it is assumes to be hiding out of the way until it is over.
I think that sounds like an awesome idea. Use a mixture of animal handling and RP to befriend it. Arya Stark had a pet wolf in GoT so there is precedent.
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I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they (genderfae).
However, if you want a route that's in line with RAW, take 3 levels in Ranger, take the Beastmaster Enclave and choose a Wolf as your companion.
If you want semi-RAW and don't want to take 3 levels in Ranger or don't want to take the Beastmaster Enclave, then you can learn Find Familiar (if it's not on your spell list, take the Magic Initiate feat and have it as your spell) and reskin it as a Wolf. It'll still have the stats of whatever familiar you chose...but it'll look like a Wolf. It'll not be as good as the Beastmaster's companion, but that's the result of not investing into it.
If you want to abandon RAW altogether, the most narratively consistent way would be to do a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. The issue I'd have with that is that it takes a subclass ability (it's the MAIN subclass ability) and hands it to a player for free.
As such, if I were inclined to grant it, I'd add conditions. I'd require that the party feeds it, so I'll deduct some gold each day to account for that. This is a nice stipulation - at low levels it costs a substantial percentage of their income while boosting their combat prowess, and at high levels they won't get much help from the pet but the cost is negligible. Additionally, I'd say that every time the pet dropped below half health, they'd have to roll another Wisdom (Animal Handling) check, the first time it would be DC5 and increase by 1 each time the check has to be performed. They can decrease the DC again (but not to below 5) by being consistently good to it. They can get Advantage by healing the pet or otherwise immediately attending to it. Disadvantage is given if they caused the damage or otherwise perceived to at fault by the pet.
It's all up to your DM though. Those are just suggestions on how it could be done, theyre the ones that ultimately decide.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Basic way that I work it is that you can't just get one good roll and train an animal; it takes time, patience, and discipline. However, if you keep at it, you can theoretically train just about anything, though openly hostile creature will take a lot of luck, and time, and will probably not stick around long enough to be trained!
Having a pet can be great fun for the group but you also nned ot decide with the DM what happens in combat. As level 1 characters a full grown wolf can be of help but very quickly it will become useless and very quickly dead. By the time a wolf cub grows up the party will be a pretty high level.
This type of scenario would be a case where I'd recommend using the sidekick rules from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Allowing the wolf to grow and develop with the party (albeit at a lesser rate) would allow the wolf to survive encounters versus being a potential liability each time.
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Good morning my fellow adventurers.
I hope I find you merry on this delightful day. As the title suggests I was wondering what the rules were on say rearing a wolf cub or finding a wolf (as say the ones chained in MoP) and calming it then befriending it and having it fight for you.
Are there actual rules in a rule book or do people just home brew it all.
Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
There are no official rules for such a thing, it would be down to the DM to adjudicate.
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No rules as such though animal handling checks would obviously be in order to decide how the wolf reacts to you. Animal Friendship would prevent it attacking you (not necessarily the rest of the party but Ias a DM I woouldn't have it attack your friends for no reason) and would help help with your interactions. Speak with animals would make your interntions clearer.
Speak to your DM to decide whether it is possible, how long it would take and things like that.
Having a pet can be great fun for the group but you also nned ot decide with the DM what happens in combat. As level 1 characters a full grown wolf can be of help but very quickly it will become useless and very quickly dead. By the time a wolf cub grows up the party will be a pretty high level. I think it best if pets are left for out of combat interactions (you might be able to train it to follow the scent of the bad guy) and when combat comes along it is assumes to be hiding out of the way until it is over.
I think that sounds like an awesome idea. Use a mixture of animal handling and RP to befriend it. Arya Stark had a pet wolf in GoT so there is precedent.
I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they (genderfae).
There is no advised route.
However, if you want a route that's in line with RAW, take 3 levels in Ranger, take the Beastmaster Enclave and choose a Wolf as your companion.
If you want semi-RAW and don't want to take 3 levels in Ranger or don't want to take the Beastmaster Enclave, then you can learn Find Familiar (if it's not on your spell list, take the Magic Initiate feat and have it as your spell) and reskin it as a Wolf. It'll still have the stats of whatever familiar you chose...but it'll look like a Wolf. It'll not be as good as the Beastmaster's companion, but that's the result of not investing into it.
If you want to abandon RAW altogether, the most narratively consistent way would be to do a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. The issue I'd have with that is that it takes a subclass ability (it's the MAIN subclass ability) and hands it to a player for free.
As such, if I were inclined to grant it, I'd add conditions. I'd require that the party feeds it, so I'll deduct some gold each day to account for that. This is a nice stipulation - at low levels it costs a substantial percentage of their income while boosting their combat prowess, and at high levels they won't get much help from the pet but the cost is negligible. Additionally, I'd say that every time the pet dropped below half health, they'd have to roll another Wisdom (Animal Handling) check, the first time it would be DC5 and increase by 1 each time the check has to be performed. They can decrease the DC again (but not to below 5) by being consistently good to it. They can get Advantage by healing the pet or otherwise immediately attending to it. Disadvantage is given if they caused the damage or otherwise perceived to at fault by the pet.
It's all up to your DM though. Those are just suggestions on how it could be done, theyre the ones that ultimately decide.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Thank you for all your replies and suggestions. It's something for me to mull over.
As another option, feel free to try out my rules for animal training on Homebrewery:
Animal Training
Basic way that I work it is that you can't just get one good roll and train an animal; it takes time, patience, and discipline. However, if you keep at it, you can theoretically train just about anything, though openly hostile creature will take a lot of luck, and time, and will probably not stick around long enough to be trained!
If you do use it, let me know how it goes!
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This type of scenario would be a case where I'd recommend using the sidekick rules from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Allowing the wolf to grow and develop with the party (albeit at a lesser rate) would allow the wolf to survive encounters versus being a potential liability each time.