The Mahout: Basic Class Information

TwoSix said:

I'm curious as to the rationale to the number of mechanics that are tied to the "Pet of less than your maximum CR" concept. The mechanic would seem to push you in the direction of either:
a) training a pet of your maximum allowable CR and ignoring a number of class and subclass features
b) training a pet of your maximum allowable CR -1 and hoping the class and subclass bonuses make up the difference.

It would seem more straightforward, to me, to simply lower the expected CR by 1 (or fractionally, at low level) and simply always allow the class/subclass features to work.

Related to that issue, there's no real verbiage in the class to explain what sort of pet you're allowed to tame, after you obtain your starter pet at 1st level. The implication is certainly there that an Animalist can only tame beasts of a CR less than or equal to the max allowable CR in the chart, but there's no actual rules text stating as such. The Regimen class feature says that "Your regimen determines the kinds of creatures you can capture and train as pets.", but the 1st level feature says only that the character gains a pet of the beast type of a CR no higher than the table listing. There's no actual rules text that says if I meet a CR 2 sabertooth tiger at 1st level, I can't tame it as a pet, or that I would be allowed to tame a CR2 tiger even if I was 5th level (where CR2 creatures become allowable by the chart.)

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Nathaniel Lee said:

The challenge comes with a word such as "mahout" which really doesn't have much practical or even pop cultural use in most Western societies since "elephant rider" isn't really something that 99% of people will ever even need to think about.

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TwoSix said:

Ok, so I'm trying to put together the sections on Pet, Monster Tamer, and the Regimens to figure out how gaining and replacing pets work. If I make any mistakes, hopefully someone will correct me.

At 1st level, you gain a pet with the following limitations: CR <= 1/2, Int <= 5, type based on regimen. (Animalist = beast, Monstrous = monstrosity, Oddball = aberration, ooze, dragon).

At 1st level, this pet will follow you around, and take the Dodge action in combat by default. Its HP cannot exceed your own. As an action, you can command the pet to take the Dodge or Disengane actions, or use the Attack or Stay monster tricks. If the pet is provoked (I would assume by being attacked, but DM discretion), its default action may change from Dodge, even without the PC using an explicit action. What this default action changes to is again up to DM discretion.

I think the intent is that the PC can use the Pet befriending/turn into a pet rules from the Pet section to replace a dead pet (or simply find a better pet) even at 1st level, although the definition of a tamable creature is embedded in the Monster Tamer feature gained at level 2. My assumption is that you can only replace a pet at level 1 with the same kind of pet as defined in the Regimen section.

At level 2, you can now use Animal Handling checks on any type of tamable creature (again, CR <= 1/2, Int <= 5, type = (aberration, beast, monstrosity, ooze, dragon)). Assuming the creature is befriended and then made into a pet by Animal Handling checks, it now becomes your pet, and your previous pet is automatically dismissed. By my reading, there's nothing that restricts your choice of pet by regimen type, other than suffering disadvantage to your checks if it's not of your regimen's type (where type is implied by the Regimen but never explicitly stated).

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seebs said:

not with THAT attitude

we told the kid about Hannibal crossing the Alps with elephants (not the recent TV character, the historical general), and a day or two later, someone said "and knowing is half the battle!" and he said "the other half is getting the elephants across the mountain". i'm so proud of him.

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