Allowing Pets (non-combat)

Immortal Sun · Jan 25, 2019

Allow a player to use it as an animal companion or familiar. There are rules for those already and most common animals can already be familiars, just note that since this is a natural familiar and not a spirit as per the Find Familiar spell, if it dies, it's dead.

Allow the player to use it as an actual stated creature. Just note that if the animal is placed in danger, there's a real chance it will be dead.

Allow the player to keep it but like a real pet, it stays at home when you go to a dungeon. The animal is adorable flavor but nothing else, note I would never suggest killing it in this case.

Tonguez · Jan 25, 2019

Umbran said:
Okay, real world: Cats are territorial. They are not typically creatures of the road. In the real world, when faced with danger in a place that isn't their territory, a cat will bolt. Yelling, clashing of swords and shield, the zap of spells? That cat is out of there.

On top of this - cats are not creatures of the mid-day. Evening, night, dawn, sure. But during mid-day, when the characters are most active? Sleep-time for kitty.

The adventuring life is not a good match of Fluffy.

So, you have a very basic decision - does this cat behave like a normal cat, or does it behave like a story-cat? Decide that, and the rest follows.

nonetheless a dominant Tom can have a home range of 5 miles which is quite sufficient for a forested area that the PCs are exploring. When I was a teenager I had a cat who would follow me on my paper run which spanned a good chunk of the community and the few times it did bolt , it bolted back to me.

But yes that cat was very unusual and was the neighborhoods dominant Tom - it use to chase dogs and sleep in the middle of the road, refusing to move for cars (at least until it got too slow)

But then perhaps a cat who only comes back to camp at night to be feed and smooch around the PCs before disappearing in the daylight could be a thing

Aiden_Keller_ · Jan 25, 2019

DM Dave1 said:
Since it is a cat, it is very unlikely to listen to any orders, amirite? Therefore, the DM decides what it does most of the time. You could even create a table of random actions that happen during combat. Something like:

2d4
2 = attacks enemy
3 = dodges
4 = hisses and dashes
5 = hides
6 = hisses and paws at air menacingly
7 = falls asleep in sunny spot on side of road
8 = sharpens claws on druid's wooden shield or paladin's plate mail boots

Now watch them protect the cat at all costs during the next encounter. Could be fun.

I want them to quite possibly protect it at all costs and have the encounter go horribly wrong so they realize cats don't do well on the road!

And yes it won't take orders...doesn't make sense...

Aiden_Keller_ · Jan 25, 2019

Umbran said:
Okay, real world: Cats are territorial. They are not typically creatures of the road. In the real world, when faced with danger in a place that isn't their territory, a cat will bolt. Yelling, clashing of swords and shield, the zap of spells? That cat is out of there.

On top of this - cats are not creatures of the mid-day. Evening, night, dawn, sure. But during mid-day, when the characters are most active? Sleep-time for kitty.

The adventuring life is not a good match of Fluffy.

So, you have a very basic decision - does this cat behave like a normal cat, or does it behave like a story-cat? Decide that, and the rest follows.

Great advice...I WANT a normal cat!

Aiden_Keller_ · Jan 25, 2019

Immortal Sun said:
Allow a player to use it as an animal companion or familiar. There are rules for those already and most common animals can already be familiars, just note that since this is a natural familiar and not a spirit as per the Find Familiar spell, if it dies, it's dead.

Allow the player to use it as an actual stated creature. Just note that if the animal is placed in danger, there's a real chance it will be dead.

Allow the player to keep it but like a real pet, it stays at home when you go to a dungeon. The animal is adorable flavor but nothing else, note I would never suggest killing it in this case.

I do NOT want it to have a lot of abilities...using RAW Rules from PHB...simply trying to figure out a mostly flavor animal...

Aiden_Keller_ · Jan 25, 2019

The best part of all of this is that...in preparation for the journey they went and bought Daily Rations at full price to feed the cat for 3 weeks....
Now it is most likely to run away and they spend a TON on food...they will still get to eat it at least.

Li Shenron · Jan 25, 2019

Aiden_Keller_ said:
How do I allow players to have pets...like they found a cat wandering around town and want to keep it....

What is the problem with that?

The only thing I would watch out for, is whether the player might become emotionally attached to the pet, in which case I'll grant it narrative protection.

This is something I already do for PC's families. IMXP most players don't even define whether their PCs have a family or not, but if they do, then I make sure I know whether the players are fine with me as DM bringing their families into the narrative or leave it wholly in the player's hands, because (a) it may not be interesting and (b) it may be a burden. Whether it is a sibling or a pet, it is one thing to just occasionally have them show up in the story, but a very different matter to have them threatened, harmed or die.

SkidAce · Jan 25, 2019

Umbran said:
So, you have a very basic decision - does this cat behave like a normal cat, or does it behave like a story-cat? Decide that, and the rest follows.

Are you a story cat or a normal cat?

(Pssst...real answer.....have it act like Toto....)

Ralif Redhammer · Jan 25, 2019

Pets may be off-limits for me, but familiars and animal companions are a different story. Especially if the familiar just exists to constantly spam the Help action.

Oofta said:
But ... but ... threatening a PC's loved ones and pets is a time honored tradition! Think of the awesome scene where the BBEG growls out the line "Surrender or Fluffy becomes kibble! BWAHAHAHA!"

Aiden_Keller_ · Jan 25, 2019

Ralif Redhammer said:
Pets may be off-limits for me, but familiars and animal companions are a different story. Especially if the familiar just exists to constantly spam the Help action.

Yeah....familiars and animal companions are going down...but I will try to make the cat ACT Normal...

Allowing Pets (non-combat)

Immortal Sun

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Tonguez

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Aiden_Keller_

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Aiden_Keller_

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Li Shenron

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Ralif Redhammer

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Aiden_Keller_

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