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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6701381" data-attributes="member: 2067">I can dig it, though I don't think the DMG asks to consider Intelligence as a matter of mechanics or balance or anything (that is, the DMG seems OK with a blood hawk operating as an independent party member, if the DM is cool with it). What if the creature is engaged with the Animal Handling skill, or has been the target of Animal Friendship, or Speak With Animals? What if there was a spell (call it "Beast Bond") that maybe worked a bit like planar ally, to get a little more specific? Part of what I like about this potential solution is that it is agnostic with regards to the mechanics of it, and open to DMs to roll with. If you as a DM want to support your ranger having an animal companion without a class feature that specifies it, it's easy to make some small hoop or check or rule or spell to jump through in order to erase whatever objections you might have. A libertine DM might just say, "sure, you can have a bear that follows you around, it's a party member." One who has an Int-based prerequisite might say "Well, use Speak with Animals and make them Friendly." One who wanted it to be explicitly supernatural could say, "Use Animal Friendship, if it fades, they leave." One who just wanted to put some hoop might be like "If you undertake a quest for these druids, you can have a wolf buddy that follows you around."And the paladin player who wanted a squire or to ride around on a giant boar or whatever could do the same thing.</blockquote>

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