NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ringtail" data-source="post: 8542901" data-attributes="member: 7015570">Watch dogs are a real thing, and a common trope in a lot of genres, not just fantasy, so yes I would allow the use of the animal to confer some kind of bonus, but with some caveats:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The Character and the Animal are not the same being. Having two creatures means the likelihood of spotting an ambush or intruder goes up, but the animal is not actually extending the senses of its handler. So no, the PC does not get a bonus to Passive Perception. There is a reason every creature has their own PP score, even the wolf. Passive Perception is based solely on what that creature can do.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">However I do think the animal can help the character search by alerting its handler to things it may not have seen, so I'm not opposed to the idea of giving advantage on Perception Checks. Not Passive, Active Checks. However this is only in regards to detecting creatures. The animal companion cannot help the handler find traps, or secret doors, etc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Now when it comes to taking shifts while travelling or camped, it depends on whether or not you use Passive Perception or Active Perception for Guard Duty. In my home games we used Active Perception for whoever was on watch, in t his case allowing the animal to grant advantage. Also keep in mind the animal's senses, they might have a leg up over the handler based on race. However, the animal like any creature on watch can only take one shift.</li> </ol>Finally, if you're okay with the initial suggestion, but just think a bonus of +5 is too high, you could agree but give a smaller bonus. +1 or +2 is a bit more reasonable. Anything more than that starts to add up quite a bit, especially with the bounded accuracy of 5e. Granted, you stated the Ranger's perception is already quite high. Once you get a Passive in the 20+ range (very possible with certain feats or class abilities) most creatures except the most high level monsters aren't really going to be able to sneak up on the Ranger anyway, so I don't think its that big of a deal.</blockquote>

Verification