Driddle said:
What does your halfling ranger do with his riding dog companion when the party leaves camp to explore the ol' ruins? -- bring the dog with him as an attack/scout buddy and risk his ride home, or protect the pooch from most harm by setting him as guard for the campsite?
Well, my halfling wizard
used to take his riding dog, just so he wouldn't slow down the rest of the group.
But then came the day when an ogre mage came out of nowhere with a Cone of Cold, and that was it for poor Rover. He was a good dog, too, and deserved better.
*sniffle* Ah well, it's a good excuse to manufacture a set of Wings of Flying, anyway. And learn Teleport. BECAUSE WALKING IS FOR CHUMPS.
But as for the rest of the group, our ranger generally leaves three of her trained animals (her horse, a war dog, and an Albadian lightning hawk) at the camp to guard the other animals, and the paladin's mount is often there, too (it's a 3.0 game). That's one intelligent animal and three highly-trained ones, which can generally drive off an inquisitive predator or steer the other horses to safety.
Oh, and our GM is generally more interested in the things that want to kill our characters than he is in the things that want to kill our character's horses, and he allocates his time accordingly. If we don't make a big fuss about our campsite or make it important to the game, he's not going to make a big deal about it either.
--
which suits us all just fine
ryan
