Kill All Animals!

[Slobber Monster]

My players just don't seem to be able to resist the urge to move their pets right next to brutal melee machines. So far they've lost a wolf, a bear, and a crocodile to an Ogre, a Hound Archon, and a large Earth Elemental. They've also lost an owl familiar, who fell to an assassin's crossbow bolt while he was out scouting.

Am I a mean DM? I hope so.

 

[shilsen]

That's not being a mean DM. Having the animals come back as ghosts and possess the PCs who didn't protect them well enough - now that would be mean. Which, of course, means that I heartily suggest you do it

 

[Pielorinho]

They need to learn some tricks. Here are some tricks:
1) Don't send your familiars out scouting unless either it's a reasonably native habitat for them (so they won't look suspicious to assassins) or they can hide (so the assassins can't see them). If the DM is targeting owls that are flying at dusk in woodlands with assassin's bolts, something's wrong.
2) Animal companions should be well-buffed. A simple mage armor is a huge blessing for a companion; barkskin plus mage armor is even better. If your animal companion is going to be going into melee, definitely consider these two as the bare minimum buffs.
3) Many animal companions are great mage-killers. If they've got reach, poison, or improved grab, have them go after the spellcasters, and watch the fun.
4) Cardinals can take down a butterfly like nobody's business. At least, that's what I'm watching out my window right now. Cool!

Daniel

 

[Slobber Monster]

Hmmm... ghost animals wouldn't really work for campaign reasons. Besides, two of the characters assoctiated with said critters died later anyways.

They just seem to have trouble in general figuring out that large or bigger creatures tend to immediately smash any lightly armored target that presents itsself. Some of my players are inexperienced with DnD and RPG's in general, so their tactical sensibilities are sometimes a bit, uh, lacking. I don't pull punches though, so slowly but surely they seem to be learning.

 

[tetsujin28]

My players just don't seem to be able to resist the urge to move their pets right next to brutal melee machines.

That's what they're for. As Pielorinho noted, give them the right buffing spells, and they can be pretty darn effective. I've been casting mage armour and shield on my PC's familiar, and letting him deliver touch spells, as his + to hit is so much better

 

[IcyCool]

They just seem to have trouble in general figuring out that large or bigger creatures tend to immediately smash any lightly armored target that presents itsself. Some of my players are inexperienced with DnD and RPG's in general, so their tactical sensibilities are sometimes a bit, uh, lacking. I don't pull punches though, so slowly but surely they seem to be learning.

It sounds like you are right on track then. They should be careful with those fragile beasties. And they'll learn when it's best to use them.

Also, it's good for the PC to have their Animal Companion/Pets/Familiars beat down once in a while. I dropped (didn't kill though), the party wizard's Lantern Archon familiar with a Chaos Hammer spell from the Apothecary of Sin (a Glabrezu). It pretty much shut the wizard down completely. The player was so stunned that he kinda looked lost. Several sessions prior to that, the Paladin had a somewhat stricken look when I announced that instead of shooting at him (which was doing next to nothing), the enemy archers were going to shoot at his Dragonnel (a much easier target, as it turned out).

For some silly reason, PC's never expect you to go after their stuff (and yes, I group lackeys and pet critters in with stuff).

 

[Pielorinho]

I've been casting mage armour and shield on my PC's familiar, and letting him deliver touch spells, as his + to hit is so much better

Careful with that--you can only cast shield on your familiar by sharing your own shield with it, and if it goes more than 5' from you, its own copy of Shield expires.
But if he's just hanging out on your shoulder, then there's no problem!

Daniel

 

[shilsen]

Careful with that--you can only cast shield on your familiar by sharing your own shield with it, and if it goes more than 5' from you, its own copy of Shield expires.
But if he's just hanging out on your shoulder, then there's no problem!

Nope. You can also cast spells with a target of "You" (such as Shield) on your familiar instead of yourself.

 

[ptolemy18]

My players just don't seem to be able to resist the urge to move their pets right next to brutal melee machines. So far they've lost a wolf, a bear, and a crocodile to an Ogre, a Hound Archon, and a large Earth Elemental. They've also lost an owl familiar, who fell to an assassin's crossbow bolt while he was out scouting.

Am I a mean DM? I hope so.

Killable pets (and familiars, and animal companions) are great; it's a way to make battles bloodier for the party without necessarily killing the PCs themselves.

One of my group's PCs, a barbarian with no "Handle Animal" skill or Charisma bonus, bought a war dog a few sessions ago. I had the dog occasionally do what he wanted, but periodically I'd call for Handle Animal rolls, which often had the result of the dog running away, or not attacking, or stuff like that. Finally, I had him make a Handle Animal roll to prevent the dog from singlehandedly charging into a group of troglodytes (it was emboldened from killing one of them). The dog got mobbed and killed.... but at least it wasn't the PC!

(Not that I have anything against killing PCs, of course.... but I like the "multiple ways to torment PCs without killing them" angle too.)

Jason