Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 GorefistBludgeoning Feb 05, 2015 22:29:13	I'm new to d&d and I've just started playing the 5th edition. When I purchased my starting gear I realized I could also purchase a mastiff. I am playing as a dwarf warrior with a background as a soldier. My question is do I have to be a druid or beast ranger or (insert other class) in order to have this pet and level it? Also in regards to leveling it, the only information I have is that it gains 1/8th of the experience given so does the DM have to take all players AND the pet into account to receive the experience? Ergo: 600xp to hand out with 5 players. If I have a pet does each person only receieve 100xp, and the 100xp given to pet would be: 1/8 x 100 = 12.5? Also does the pet level at the same levels as our characters? Ergo: 300 lvl 2, 900 lvl 3 etc. Lastly would my pet eventually learn different skills? How do you know how much hp/dmg you get when leveling the pet? Thanks for the information guys.    Sincerely,  D&Dnewb
#2 BoldItalic Feb 06, 2015 6:07:14	Not sure where you are getting those rules from?   In my view, your pet would not get XP and would not level up or gain skills or abilities any more than a horse or pony, would, for example.   Your DM might track its loyalty and might require you to spend downtime training it, but that's up to your DM.   If you lead it into combat, it will probably get killed, or at least badly injured, fairly easily and you would have to negotiate with your cleric about whether or not it gets any healing or if you have to carry it home and give it a long rest to recuperate.   Sounds fun, though.
#3 QwertyAzerty Feb 06, 2015 6:12:49	By the rule (if you play AL), no only ranger beastmaster can have a "combat" pet. Wizard can summon a familiar (find familiar) paladin can summon a celestial mount (find steed) warlock can summon a pet, but nothiing as big as a mastiff.   If you play outise of organized play, you can talk with your DM, present your backstory and he might give it to you.   Where did you saw those rule about 1/8th of the XP? from what I know the ranger pet level up with him and gain new power when the ranger gain level. If your DM is looking for idea on how to rule it I would refer him to the beast master and tell him that the beastmaster is sacrificing the hunter path to have that kind of power on his pet, so you should have less power then that (or maybe you can ask him that instead of becoming a fighter champion/battlemaster/eldricht knight maybe you could become a fighter beastmaster?   For creature improvement, I don't have the monster manual so I donT, know the rules for 5e but I know that back in 3.Xe monster manual they was some rules to improve a creature. and using handle animal you could teach your pet some tricks (sit, heel, stay, fetch, guard, attack, search etc...)
#4 akr71 Feb 06, 2015 6:13:42	Yeah, its just a mastiff.  Train it, love it, craft some armor for it, bring it into battle, but it is not a character, so no XP.  Just my opinion though.
#5 GorefistBludgeoning Feb 06, 2015 8:08:05	So on pg 157 in the players handbook (5th ed) it shows that you can buy a Mastiff for 25gp. Now if you turn to pg 307 it shows that the Mastiff has:    Armour class: 12 HP: 1d8 + 1 Speed 40ft Str 13(+1), Dex(14+2), Con(12+1), Int(3-4), Wis(12+1), Cha(7-2) Skills: Perception +3 Senses: Passive perception 13 Language - Challenge 1/8 (25xp) Keen Hearing and Smell (adv on wisdom perception checks that rely on hear/smell. Action: Bite. Melee weapon attack +3 to hit, reach 5ft, one target. Hit: 4(1d6 + 1) piercing dmg If the target is a creature it must succeed on a DC11 str saving throw or be knocked prone.   I was assuming that "challenge" meant that it could gain 1/8 xp. Also I looked it up in the Ranger section in the player manual and it appears there is a "Beastmaster" area. Therefore I feel that it shouldn't be able to level up etc. and take akr71's advice.
#6 akr71 Feb 06, 2015 8:33:26	The Challenge Rating is to give you an idea how tough an opponent it is.  A party of average level 1 could reasonably take on a pack of 8 mastiffs (8 x 1/8 = 1).  When they do so, they get 8 x 25 = 200 xp divided equally amoung party memebers.
(Reply to #5) Ranthalan	GorefistBludgeoning wrote:
#8 BoldItalic Feb 06, 2015 9:29:10	GorefistBludgeoning wrote: