When it comes to mounts, familiars, and minions, who gets to control them at your table, the player or the GM?

Hussar · May 10, 2019

It's your familiar, henchman, whatever. You deal with it. You, the player, make it as important as you wish in the campaign. I've got enough balls to juggle without worrying about stepping on your toes with some familiar or animal companion.

Li Shenron · May 10, 2019

I let the players design and roleplay their familiars/companions freely.

Until combat starts... then I control their actions.

I've normally seen pets abused in combat when player-controlled, not outside of it.

akr71 · May 10, 2019

The player - the DM has enough on their plate. The only time I might override a player is with henchmen, followers or sidekicks. Sometimes the sidekick has their own motivations, ideals and goals which the player may not know about and I have to step in RP-wise.

For example, my players encountered an "awoken" bear one evening at camp. It was supposed to be a throw-away encounter to make the world feel rich and diverse. Apparently I role-played the bear too well and they tracked him down and convinced him to travel and adventure with them. I'm fine with it, but the bear has his own hopes and dreams and chasing treasure isn't one of them.

Blue · May 10, 2019

In my game, anything that's a feature of your character (class feature, result of a spell, etc.) are 100% under your control. (And when I'm a player, I expect the same - that's part of my character, and I am absolute authority on is how my character acts (baring spells, etc.).)

Anything else (NPCs, trained/befriended animals, etc.) are under the DM's control - who may cede it to the player's control temporarily or permanently without giving up the right to veto and action or take back. For example I've RP'd NPCs but giving out monster stat write-ups for the players to run in combat.

Coroc · May 10, 2019

In my group the mage has a familiar, he controls it. But he rarely uses it in combat like never.
Lately he got a robochicken in addition. I told him, he can control it by using his action (it can breathe fire for 1d4) but if he doesn't it will have its own head (I control it for

and giggles). Anything contributing to potential harmful situations (not only open combat) can and will get hurt / killed.

Celebrim · May 10, 2019

Fauchard1520 said:
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]When it comes to mounts, familiars, and minions, who gets to control them at your table, the player or the GM?

A bit of both.

Technically, they are all NPC's and part of the domain of the DM. But they are NPCs which are generally loyal to the PC's, closely connected to them, and willing to take orders from them. Most of the time, it just speeds play to let the player play the NPC in a combat situation, on the assumption that the PC is issuing orders and in their absence the 'dog' or whatever is acting like a smart movie animal.

However, it's sometimes fun to step in and RP the pet, mount, familiar, or whatever.

S'mon · May 11, 2019

Well I guess IMC they remain NPCs, and so ultimately under GM control. But I let player administer the crunch, and of course PCs can tell the critter to do stuff. A resummonable Familiar might do something suicidal if instructed, but a Ranger's animal companion probably won't, though it will take risks to help its companion humanoid.

TarionzCousin · May 11, 2019

thundershot said:
Player can control them until they prove unable to control them fairly.

So... a session and a half, maybe two.

Fauchard1520 · May 16, 2019

Li Shenron said:
I let the players design and roleplay their familiars/companions freely.

Until combat starts... then I control their actions.

I've normally seen pets abused in combat when player-controlled, not outside of it.

Weird. I'll usually go the exact opposite. The minion becomes my mouth piece in the party, but acts as a class feature once the dice come out.

Shiroiken · May 17, 2019

Generally I let the PCs run things, especially during combat. Role-playing is left to me, and I also hold a veto on suicidal actions. For convinience, I have pets and famliairs act on the same turn as their owner, but henchmen/followers have their own turn. Non-henchmen/followers are still controlled by me.

If the player tries to abuse this, such as by having the familiar explore an entire adventure area (often resulting in death, dismemberment, or other horrible outcomes), the familiar will become agitated, object (if able to speak), then eventually flat out refuse (berating the PC if able to speak). Hasn't happened yet, mostly because I have an awesome group, but I'm prepared for it.