Best.Pet.Evar

[HeavenShallBurn]

The most interesting pet I've ever seen was the familiar of one of my players. If I'd been DMing face-to-face I never could have pulled it off, luckily over the internet they couldn't hear my laughter at the most entertaining parts.

This player had just lost his character and was getting bored with a fighting class so the new character was 5th level male Rakasta wizard from one of the sky-islands. He chose a Tressym from the FRCS as a familiar and named her Kismet. I let him use a netbook feat that allowed a familiar to take on an alternate form of their master's race for something like 12 or 18 hours a day.

Now Tressym if you look up their stats are very smart for familiars, as smart as a PHB race not counting the bonuses. The other players never connected the attractive female rakasta named "Metty" that they all assumed was a cohort with his Tressym familiar. It was entertaining enough that I made an exception and allowed him to take leadership and use his familiar as his cohort at 6th level. Which meant Kismet got caster levels of her own. One of the other characters grew attached to "Metty" as he knew her. Eventually this character and "Metty" actually got to making out at the inn(rp'ed discreetly). Whereupon the mage burst in and accused this cleric of molesting his familiar. Hilarity ensued and the words to properly describe it escape me.

 

[Aeric]

My (2nd edition) paladin quested for and found a unicorn for my special mount. It was unusual because it could fire a ray of searing light out of its horn. Later I discovered that it was actually a quicksilver dragon that had polymorphed itself into a unicorn for reasons unknown, and the searing light was actually its breath weapon. The dragon died some time later, and I got a "normal" warhorse instead.

 

[Harmon]

Elrick

Originally, a pack dog my wife's character purchased to carry their gear into and around inside close spaces (dungeons, caves, etc).

Eventually they ran into a Druid, and the druid for some reason befriended the dog while they were resting up in a village for a few days.

Elrick wonders in (he would some times wonder off, steal food, and find some lady dogs to help make puppies) and say "hay, we leaving today or what?" in a gruff voice.

Awakened Elrick demanded a share of the loot. At first he only got half shares, but after proving himself worthy to the Rogue (Flank, Fight defensive, and assist AC) he got a fair share. He bought Mythral Chain Shirt barding and started gaining levels as a Ranger.

By the time the characters reached 12th lvl he was about 10th or so and giving as good as he got. He was still a mighty horny, but he offset the goodie-goodie cleric.

He was fun to NPC.

 

[Clueless]

Bebilith. (Dominate is a useful spell)

 

[SteelDraco]

Back in the early days of 3e, my dwarven druid had a raven as one of his animal companions. It was mostly used as a messanger and scout, since I could use it for a couple of my spells to make it really good at those jobs.

It just so happened that the party sorcerer had a raven as well, as his familiar.

What I did NOT know was that he was an alienist. This had... bad effects on his familiar.

My raven laid eggs, and of course I helped her take care of them. Until they hatched, and turned out to be hunting horrors, from Call of Cthulhu.

The DM of that game still occasionally describes a group of five ravens, watching whatever character I happen to be playing, as though waiting for something.

 

[Set]

In 2e, a Minotaur with 55 hp we were fighting got hit with Polymorph Other and turned into a rat. The Wizard ended up making it his Familiar. Other than having 55 hp, it was a normal rat, save for it's occasional (and completely ineffectual) attempts to head-butt people...

In another game, a 1st level Ranger ended up spending 5 rounds rolling around on the ground, dropping weapons left and right, attempting to kill the Orc chieftan, while his war dog killed five other Orcs. The player laughed that his dog was the true Orcslayer, and he was learning from the master.

 

[MarkB]

My half-orc paladin, Grudnuk, rode an advanced dire weasel called Scruffles. That was great fun, and he was good in combat - blood drain can be very effective.

In the end, Scruffles lived but Grudnuk died. The party had been captured by orcs, and the only way they'd keep Scruffles alive was if Grudnuk swore not to use him to attempt to escape. So when the one uncaptured party member created the needed diversion and the others managed to get loose, Grudnuk ordered Scruffles to carry his friends to safety while he tried to escape the camp on foot, with fifty orcs chasing him. It was a good death for a paladin.

 

[QuaziquestGM]

After the "Thanksgiving episode" the npc adept/witch/healer I gave the party ended up with 2 axebeak chicks as pets. They now handle rodent control in the party's recently aquired mine.

 

[Herobizkit]

One character I DM'd decided that he would use his Animal Friendship on a triceratops, which he proceeded to use as his mount for the rest of the short-lived campaign.

 

[Jolly Giant]

A very low-Int female hill giant adept, who worshipped the PCs as gods; does that qualify as a pet?

If not, how about a sometimes helpful (but more often annoying) pseudo dragon?