Animal Characters

Moe Ronalds · May 11, 2002

A monkey rogue with a human bard helping him out? (Yes Bobo, Whya don't you dance-ah for the nice-ah people, ah?)

Dinkeldog · May 11, 2002

Why don't you try to get the licensing rights to "Wind in the Willows". Or you could remake "Burrows and Bunnies" as d20. I would buy either of those in a heartbeat.

V-2 · May 11, 2002

There is also the D20 publishers forum...

Ah, but that would be blatant commercialism.

Aeolius · May 11, 2002

In my "Nature of the Beast" campaign concept, the PCs began as the forest animal companions to the local druidess. One day, they discovered she had been slain - the campaign was to be a murder mystery, of sorts.

KnowTheToe · May 11, 2002

Gamma World had the equivelent of playing awakened animals. It cuts down on some roleplaying opportunities, but can still be playable. Never forget about Rule Zero, you can run it any way you darn well please.

mmadsen · May 11, 2002

Re: Re: Animal Characters

There's where you're wrong. Fighter and rogue work for absolutely anything with minimal or no rationalization, and it's not all that unlikely that an Awakened animal could advance as a sorcerer.

When I said that "character classes don't seem like a good fit," I meant that there's no good class for a dog to become a better dog. For instance, I'd like to give a dog a class with Good Fort and Ref Saves, enough Skill points (and the proper class Skills) for Listen, Spot, Swim, and Wilderness Lore, and good dog Bonus Feats (Trip, Disarm, Mobility, Alertness, etc.).

Obviously the human classes aren't designed for this (not that they should be).

mmadsen · May 11, 2002

When my daughter wanted to try D&D the DM allowed her to play a talking cat.

That's exactly what I'm going for. Everyone can identify with animals, most people like animals, and it's easy enough to pretend to be an animal.

She has since played a faerie dragon, a an owl sorceror and a wolf with druidic abilities. the wolf was Awakened by a treant and given an amulet that allowed spells to be cast by verbal only. That character is a 2 HD critter and Druid 3 currently. Fits in well with the group and her movement and trip ability have been very useful!

Those all sound like great ideas.

hong · May 11, 2002

mmadsen said:
That's exactly what I'm going for. Everyone can identify with animals, most people like animals, and it's easy enough to pretend to be an animal.

Mmm, sheep.

mmadsen · May 11, 2002

Re: Re: Re: Animal Characters

When I said that "character classes don't seem like a good fit," I meant that there's no good class for a dog to become a better dog. For instance, I'd like to give a dog a class with Good Fort and Ref Saves, enough Skill points (and the proper class Skills) for Listen, Spot, Swim, and Wilderness Lore, and good dog Bonus Feats (Trip, Disarm, Mobility, Alertness, etc.).

Dog skills:

(From the Monster Manual entry)
Listen
Spot
Swim
Wilderness Lore

(Others)
Animal Empathy (Human Empathy? "Ooh, look at the doggie!")
Balance (show dogs)
Handle Animal (sheep dogs)
Heel (oh, sorry, Heal, and I guess dogs aren't good at that)
Hide (not as well as a cat or fox)
Intimidate (guard dog)
Intuit Direction
Jump
Move Silently (again, not as well as a cat or fox)
Perform (circus dog)
Search
Sense Motive ("smell" fear, a lie, etc.)
Tumble (circus dog)

PenguinKing · May 11, 2002

Re: Re: Re: Animal Characters

mmadsen said:
When I said that "character classes don't seem like a good fit," I meant that there's no good class for a dog to become a better dog. For instance, I'd like to give a dog a class with Good Fort and Ref Saves, enough Skill points (and the proper class Skills) for Listen, Spot, Swim, and Wilderness Lore, and good dog Bonus Feats (Trip, Disarm, Mobility, Alertness, etc.).

You seem to have a very specific idea of what a "better dog" is. Not all dogs are particularly tough, or especially good trackers, or any better in a fight than "run up and bite it", etc. To get exactly what you want, you'd have to essentially devise a separate character class for every breed of dog you wish to include.

Honestly, I think the easiest route would be just to make your canine a multiclass Fighter/Expert and be done with it.

- Sir Bob.