D&D General Animal PCs?

[abe ray]

How would you fine people use animals as PCs in the various editions of dnd?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

They are broken. Without clothes, no shoes (think about walking on the snow without a good boots), and without opposible dumbs.

And animals have got better senses than humans to sense predators or prey. And in the real life apes are really strong. A chimpancee as two humans and a gorilla as eight. Elephants can't jump but push carriots.

A little squirrel or a monkey can climb very fast, sometimes too fast in a D&D game. A feline, big or little, can jump very good. Birds and bats can cross a dungeon without touching floor and walls, avoiding the traps, or to be used to send a written message to the lady in the window from the tallest tower.

My suggestion is only as monster pet allies, demi-PCs.

 

[Rikka66]

That depends on exactly what you want out of it. What kind of animals? And are the species just the race, or do you want an entirely new badger class?

As an example, let's say a player is inspired by Sif of Dark Souls. They want to be a wolf with a sword in its mouth. I'm going to assume magic is involved in some way and give the wolf higher intelligence and the ability to speak languages. I'll allow them to wield a weapon, even a two-handed one since wolves are medium sized, in their mouth.

Stat wise we can do a +2 Dex, and a +1 to whatever is appropriate based on the backstory. Maybe they don't care, and we can just do +1 to Str. We'll give them a bite as a natural weapon, and a once per encounter save against prone. Keen Hearing and Smell, Pack Tactics, 13 AC from natural armor and choice between perception and stealth proficiency. We can talk briefly so between us we understand the various advantages and disadvantages that come from being a quadruped and how NPCs will generally react to a talking wolf strolling into town.

Is this totally balanced? I don't know. I think it's neither too powerful or too weak, which is all I'm worried about for a personal homebrew. I'd take this approach for just about any medium or small sized animal.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

As a PC, I use animals the same way I do in real life: dinner.

 

[Ace]

How would you fine people use animals as PCs in the various editions of dnd?

Talking sentient animals can be fun to play but come with significant challenges do to social status and lack of opposable thumbs . So long as these can be dealt with, it can be pretty fun actually.

Also give this is D&D , there are some already in game options that might work. Winged cats with levels in a class that grants Mage Hand say work just fine.

 

[Minigiant]

My PC got polymorphed into a large dog once and stayed that way for many sessions.

I got dog armor, a telepathy amulet, and magically capped my teeth with magica silver.

 

[Richards]

In my last 3.5 campaign I had an adventure where the PCs had all been turned to stone and the players spent the game session role-playing their familiars and animal companions: a raven, an eagle, a timber wolf, and a dire wolf (plus the elderly NPC henchman who often groomed them). Together, they had to figure out who had done this to the PCs and find a way to undo it. (That was made much easier once they freed the female fire elemental familiar of another PC, but I didn't want the group starting out with her from the get-go.)

It was a fun one-shot, but nothing I'd want to do on a longer basis.

Johnathan

 

[ccs]

If the game in question was 3x/pf1/5e? Then I'd just use the PF ogl book Nobel Wild as the works already done.
Might have to convert a little bit for 5e use though.

For anything prior to OD&D - 2nd? Its a very arcane process - I'd just eyeball things as needed, Making S(omething) Up, until everyone involved was happy.

There'd be no attempt for 4e as I wouldn't be involved in a game of that edition.

Btw, I've played a Sorcerer Parrot in PF before.

 

[abe ray]

They had rules for it in 2nd edition via dragon magazine.

 

[thealmightyn]

I think the best way to try out animal races would be to run a campaign, one-shot, whatever where all of the player characters were animals to get things like "animals have better senses" out of way. One possibility would be to use the materials provided by the team that does the Animal Adventures Kickstarters.