D&D 5E Beast master wants to use pet to get +5 to passive perception

[JiffyPopTart]

That is their perception check. Not whether they maintain the focus to assist you with your efforts. The dog that wakes at the crinkle of a bag may also wake, sneak down to the pantry, and 'crinkle a few bags' without notifying you.

If you don't think dogs grant homeowners an advantage in hearing intruders then we will just have to disagree on fundentals.

 

[billd91]

If you don't think dogs grant homeowners an advantage in hearing intruders then we will just have to disagree on fundentals.

In my experience, they don't. What they do is tell you when they hear intruders. Very loudly. Loud enough to drown out the sound of any sneaking intruder.

 

[Vaalingrade]

If you had to guess....what would a wolf standing up, staring Intently into the darkness to the SouthWest, hair raised in fear, and emitting a low growl signify.

That is owner is abusing their class features by using them as intended.

If you were on watch with this wolf do you think you might also stand up? Draw a weapon? Alert your sleeping allies? Look specifically SouthWest?

Slay the cheater for denying me the chance to be jumped by goblins.

 

[Seramus]

Your average dog can learn over 100 unique command words and associated behaviors, which can include combinations of body movements, barks, and pathing.

The upper 20% of dogs can learn over 200, which we draw service animals from. They can walk the blind complex paths to grocery stores, libraries, etc. Step in front of you with a blocking motion for car danger, use a different blocking motion for falling/stairs danger, and a third blocking motion for dangerous looking people (based on taught criteria). They can give you specific barks for bathroom, food, water, car intruders, foot intruders, etc.

Wolves are even sharper at problem solving and logic puzzles in a general sense.

And if it's a Tashawolf, it probably just looks like a wolf and has 8 Intelligence, and understands every language you speak.

But don't worry. If your dog never attended school, I still love them and they are the best of bois.

 

[tetrasodium]

If you don't think dogs grant homeowners an advantage in hearing intruders then we will just have to disagree on fundentals.

Mine will usually come check on me if I climb out of bed at night and I'm not exactly noisy about it. Very few dogs won't react to someone entering the house, especially if their humans are asleep or seem uncomfortable.

 

[Flamestrike]

I dunno. I've got a whole different experience.

My players constantly collect pets and never, ever, ever ask them to do anything more strenuous than cuddle. It's not even that they forget them like familiars, they just pick critters they like, then refuse to fight or leave them.

I honestly wish they would use them because half their pets have powers and they don't get used unless it's a passive like how the Mousin Orm goes out and steals small objects and gets you in trouble that I get to activate.

I had a 'LG' Bard PC that bought a Dog at 1st level, and used it to find traps, and never fed, cared for it or named it, and used it to give him flanking (that I subsequently removed).

When it died, he just bought another nameless Dog and repeated.

When I pointed out that this was a slightly sociopathic thing to do, he quit the game.

There was much rejoicing.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Silly player. You use herd animals to find traps.

They're less likely to balk at danger and once they kerplode, you can eat the result.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Oh no! A bonus to passive perception actually using the existing rules that some people don't want to allow! What an abuse.

Seriously?

lol right?

It's neither an abuse, nor is it outside the rules. Heck, they're whole posit that it's somehow two checks with the observant benefit is just...completely unfounded.

RAW, the companion is fully capable of keeping watch and alerting you to danger. Therefor it can assist you in that endeavor. Doing so gives you advantage. Since Observant doesn't call it's bonus "advantage", it stacks with actual advantage.

Oh no...our ambush encounter...it's broken...

I'm sorry, but I don't agree.

Humans were probably using the reactions of wolves/dogs hanging around their camps as indicators of trouble coming before wolves were fully domesticated. "Animal helps other animal recognize threats," is one of the most common symbiotic relationships in the animal kingdom!

Seriously, I've seen theories that wolves didn't even so much get domesticated by us on purpose, like horses were, but rather hunted with us, alerted us to danger, hung around near our camps to get scraps from us, and were deeply social in a similar way to us and thus easily got comfortable with us around, and this literally just meant that the friendly helpful wolves were more successful in areas with humans around, and slowly became more friendly and helpful over generations. By the time we actually started actively trying to domesticate them, they'd gotten themselves halfway there already!

And it wasn't even weird behavior. There are areas where wolves and corvids help eachother find food and stay alert to danger. Highly social animals with similar needs just sometimes cooperate rather than directly competing. It's a whole thing.

A dog lifting its head, ears perked up, and looking beyond the firelight, and the owner asking, "What is it, boy?" is a trope as old as westerns.

This. A thousand times.

I can get that you don't like the mechanical request for some reason. But saying there's "no in-game logic" seems excessive.

Yeah RAW arguments aside...I think folks forget sometimes that dogs come from wolves, and this specific type of tasks is one of the primary reason that shift even happened.

The Ranger should be getting advantage on checks to forage food in the wilderness, track creatures, and keep the group's morale up, too!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If you don't think dogs grant homeowners an advantage in hearing intruders then we will just have to disagree on fundentals.

You are asleep. Someone tries to break into your house. The dog barks.

Sounds like advantage to me.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

How exactly can the wolf Help the Ranger with a Perception task when the Wolf does not speak Common and will therefore be unable to effectively share information? Why will the Ranger know that "Howl, howl, howl" means "Enemies are approaching" and not "I'm hungry"? Are wolf companions trained to point at intruders the way some dogs point at game?

Sounds like someone who has never met a dog!