Animal Servants - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Animal Servants

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
sinless
Jun 14, 2008 11:52:57 I am still in the earliest phases of planning but I would like to allow players to get Animal Companions without destroying the balance of the game. The problem I am running into is that all the rules I have tried to develope increase the power of one player's damage output over the other players in the party.

My current idea was using a feat, Animal Trainer (Level Req: 2), to allow the player to have a combat usable pet. By taking the feat you gain a level 2 Pet and you can also give up one At-will, daily, or encounter power to give your pet a At-will, daily, or encounter power (from a list of powers I have yet to make up). This feat can be taken multiple times, each time increasing your pets level by 2 (Can never be higher than the characters level) and allows for another power exchange.

I figure to balance encounters I will increase the difficulty of the encounter by an amount equal to how much XP the pet would be worth. For example if it were a 2th level encouter, of 5 2nd level monsters, worth 600 XP and the party had a 2nd level pet I would increase the encounter to have 6 2nd level monsters (although it would still only be worth 600XP).

Opinions?
#2
kenji508
Jun 16, 2008 17:07:31 Im rather sure your players would not share your fondness for the idea. Maby a ranger would think it was cool, but the other players would probably get rather anoyed with the extra turn they have to wait to get the spotlight. There is a reason they got rid of familiars and animal compainions. They were great story hooks, but didnt work very well on the table. Non combat pets should be fine, After all, what kind of adventuring party wouldnt want to have a dire rat mascot (Game i Dmed, ended sadly with the palidin having to pull an old yeller on an undead rat. Moral of the story, dont store animals in your backpack with no food then walk through a tainted area)
#3
therubberduck
Jun 16, 2008 19:11:05 Ya, I think that you should think more in the lines of how mounts have been handled or Doomduck's wonderful Familiar scheme. Don't make the creature an extra member of the group, but instead make it an extension of the player, so that the player must use his own actions to get the creature to act. Then find interesting things for the players to do with the creature so that the above setup doesn't suck. Which will probably be hard, since I'm sure the ranger will want his wolf to sink its teeth into the enemy, without this necessitating that the ranger stands inactive on the sideline.

Hmm.. let's take the above wolf as an example. Out of combat it will simply give a bonus to forage and tracking. In combat it stays within the same square as the ranger. He can take utility powers that allows interesting bonuses. Maybe the wolf will bite anyone that attacks the ranger as an interrupt action. Maybe the wolf will attack alongside the ranger when he attacks in melee, dealing extra damage. Maybe using a power, the wolf circles around an opponent, simulating flanking and giving the ranger combat advantage. And so on.
#4
Cyvaris
Jun 17, 2008 7:03:20 how about having the ranger(or other pc) give up his minor action to command the animal to take a move action and give up his move action to command it to attack.
#5
therubberduck
Jun 17, 2008 7:28:02 I'm thinking you'll have trouble balancing it. I don't think any other power allows you to deal damage with a move action. Though I might very well be wrong.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 sinless Jun 14, 2008 11:52:57	I am still in the earliest phases of planning but I would like to allow players to get Animal Companions without destroying the balance of the game. The problem I am running into is that all the rules I have tried to develope increase the power of one player's damage output over the other players in the party. My current idea was using a feat, Animal Trainer (Level Req: 2), to allow the player to have a combat usable pet. By taking the feat you gain a level 2 Pet and you can also give up one At-will, daily, or encounter power to give your pet a At-will, daily, or encounter power (from a list of powers I have yet to make up). This feat can be taken multiple times, each time increasing your pets level by 2 (Can never be higher than the characters level) and allows for another power exchange. I figure to balance encounters I will increase the difficulty of the encounter by an amount equal to how much XP the pet would be worth. For example if it were a 2th level encouter, of 5 2nd level monsters, worth 600 XP and the party had a 2nd level pet I would increase the encounter to have 6 2nd level monsters (although it would still only be worth 600XP). Opinions?
#2 kenji508 Jun 16, 2008 17:07:31	Im rather sure your players would not share your fondness for the idea. Maby a ranger would think it was cool, but the other players would probably get rather anoyed with the extra turn they have to wait to get the spotlight. There is a reason they got rid of familiars and animal compainions. They were great story hooks, but didnt work very well on the table. Non combat pets should be fine, After all, what kind of adventuring party wouldnt want to have a dire rat mascot (Game i Dmed, ended sadly with the palidin having to pull an old yeller on an undead rat. Moral of the story, dont store animals in your backpack with no food then walk through a tainted area)
#3 therubberduck Jun 16, 2008 19:11:05	Ya, I think that you should think more in the lines of how mounts have been handled or Doomduck's wonderful Familiar scheme. Don't make the creature an extra member of the group, but instead make it an extension of the player, so that the player must use his own actions to get the creature to act. Then find interesting things for the players to do with the creature so that the above setup doesn't suck. Which will probably be hard, since I'm sure the ranger will want his wolf to sink its teeth into the enemy, without this necessitating that the ranger stands inactive on the sideline. Hmm.. let's take the above wolf as an example. Out of combat it will simply give a bonus to forage and tracking. In combat it stays within the same square as the ranger. He can take utility powers that allows interesting bonuses. Maybe the wolf will bite anyone that attacks the ranger as an interrupt action. Maybe the wolf will attack alongside the ranger when he attacks in melee, dealing extra damage. Maybe using a power, the wolf circles around an opponent, simulating flanking and giving the ranger combat advantage. And so on.
#4 Cyvaris Jun 17, 2008 7:03:20	how about having the ranger(or other pc) give up his minor action to command the animal to take a move action and give up his move action to command it to attack.
#5 therubberduck Jun 17, 2008 7:28:02	I'm thinking you'll have trouble balancing it. I don't think any other power allows you to deal damage with a move action. Though I might very well be wrong.