Guard Dog?

[Lord Torin]

The Guard Dog listed in the Player's handbook for 25 gp, what are it's STATS?

 

[FireLance]

I suggest you use the stats for a dog as stated in the MM, pg 271, and consider it trained for the purpose of guarding (knows the tricks attack, defend, down and guard) as stated under the Handle Animal skill in the PHB, pg 74.

 

[Dirigible]

I'd use the riding dog. It's suppsoed to represent 'working' breeds, and it's tougher, which a rootin', tootin' fightin' guard dog needs to be.

 

[Lord Torin]

This is the problem we are having. Does anyone know of anything listed in the rules anywhere? Arms and Equipment? Anywhere?

You help is appreciated.

 

[FireLance]

In the rules, no. But consider: a light horse (presumably, trained for riding) is half the cost of a light warhorse (presumably, trained for combat riding). It is more difficult to train an animal for guarding (DC 20) than to train it for riding (DC 15). This implies the same animal trained for guarding would cost more than an animal trained for riding.

By that logic, a riding dog trained for riding only would cost 75gp, which is still more than the cost of a guard dog. I thus conclude that the 25gp guard dog is the 1HD dog in the MM.

 

[Sanackranib]

I assume by guard dog you are refering to one of the larger "attack dog" breeds rather then one of the smaller bark is worse then bite breeds.
going off of said assumption somthing along the lines of a mastiff or Rotwiellier should start at the 50-75 range and have 2hd. for stats treet as a wolf. better/bigger or more highly trained varietys would cost more

 

[Hannibal Barca]

The entry for dog on page 271 in the MM states that the dog is a small animal 20-50 lbs, and suggests also using the entry for coyotes, jackals, and African wild dogs. It seems doubtful that the game designers had a dog of that size in mind as the typical "guard" dog. The Riding Dog entry cites as examples collies, huskies, and St. Bernards. That being said, the logic of the light horse/light war horse proffered by Firelance appears to make sense. A small description of the guard dog in the PHB would have been nice. Oh, well.