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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Luthien Greyspear" data-source="post: 2646492" data-attributes="member: 34334">While in my current campaign I don't have any tree-huggers dragging their furry friends behind them, I have had it done in the past.  The last two (2e) campaigns I ran had rangers or druids, and they were no problem.  The one character was a meistersinger (bard kit that attracted animals like Snow White attracted short men), and he had an owl, a mountain lion, and a bear.  Of the three, the only one that went with him into the Underdark was the lion, and it was no better or worse off than any other party member.  The meistersinger got a little more chewed up than normal, because he deferred all the healing he was offered to his animal first.I do see the problem with the concept of sending these beloved companions into combat, since one would think that the druid or ranger would want to keep them out of harm's way.  Let's turn this argument around, however: how many loyal wolf companions would want their best friend to get hurt when they could prevent it by biting someone?  The animals most likely WANT to fight the character's enemies, because that means they are protecting their friend.  Animals (especially social animals like wolves or bears) actively defend those in their families, and it is probable that extends to the character.Think of how many people have dogs to defend their homes.  Just because they rarely have to actually attack someone, we think of them as just big pets.  Still, if a fight started, and the dog was in a position to bite the man with the gun pointed at his best friend, you bet your @$$ he's going to chomp down on that arm and protect his family.  Same social rules apply to adventurers; it's just that it happens more often. (Mostly because the characters are the ones breaking in.  Maybe we should be more concerned about all these druids and rangers seducing these poor animals into lives of crime... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> )</blockquote>

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