Ever have a player just play as the Ranger's Animal Companion?

Slit518 · Jun 8, 2019

Have you ever ran a game where one player was the Ranger, and the other player was just the Ranger's Animal Companion?If so, how did that turn out?

Xeviat · Jun 8, 2019

I had a 3 person group that was lacking a beefy melee character (druid, sorcerer, Bard), so I built a barbarian but made it a wolf. I had the druid player ostensibly run the wolf in combat but I ran it out of combat. So it was kind of there.

aco175 · Jun 8, 2019

I think we had a little sister play the animal, but I seem to remember that she lost interest when she needed to share the spotlight.

Richards · Jun 8, 2019

I wrote an adventure once for my home campaign where the players each ran one of the PCs' animal companions, familiars, or pets. For that one adventure only, the 5 players ran a raven familiar, eagle animal companion, timber wolf animal companion, dire wolf pet, and the 70-year-old human NPC who helped care for them when he and the PCs were out in the field. They had to find out what happened to the PCs (who had all been simultaneously turned to stone in their headquarters) and find a way to undo it. It was an interesting change of pace.

Johnathan

Laurefindel · Jun 8, 2019

No, but a friend of mine played the mount of his paladin once in 3.5. The “human” was just a dumb noble brat. The celestial horse was the brain and soul of the character.

Umbran · Jun 8, 2019

I know of several games in which the entire group played such - the ranger's companion, the paladin's warhorse, the wizard's familiar - it's a thing.

Heck - Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers had a comic book. It's a thing.

Tonguez · Jun 8, 2019

Often, I've even had a druid who played a Tree

Anyway, having a useful animal companion (either combat or utility (eg monkey or hawk)) is great, especially when the players take it as a chance to communicate IC and use fun tactics

Paul Farquhar · Jun 8, 2019

I once had a player play the party's pack pony whist their character was elsewhere.

the Jester · Jun 8, 2019

I would not want to do this for more than an isolated one-shot, because you are either removing a major class feature of the ranger in question (by forcing him to give up control over his pet) or taking away the agency of the player running the pet (by leaving the ranger in charge). I don't like putting players in the position where I am telling them where their loyalties lie instead of the other way around.

jgsugden · Jun 9, 2019

I ran an Awakened Wolf that was a monk before. I think it was in 3E? It was short lived and a long time ago. It was fun and I've been looking to do it again sometime.