Guard Dog?

[Asmo]

PHB p. 129, Mounts and related gear:

Guard dog 25 gp. What are the stats for the guard dog? The same as an ordinarie dog? (MM 271)
A player of mine has recently bought one and I don´t know how to treat it: how do you run it? I guess the player wants to use it in combat, but I don´t want to allow it without Handle Animal or some such. The player runs a cleric at the moment.

Asmo

 

[Bront]

Either as an ordinarly dog, or a riding dog trained for war, but not riding...

or you can take an ordinarly dog and give it either an extra HD, or a level in Warrior.

 

[FEADIN]

I think it's the "normal" dog, if it was the war dog you'd have to use the riding dog stats.

 

[FireLance]

I take it to be a "normal" dog, but trained for the general purpose of guarding (see the Handle Animal skill). It would know the tricks attack, defend, down and guard.

 

[dcollins]

Thanks to 3.5 for inserting "Guard Dog" with no description. MM descriptions of the dogs say this:

Dog: The statistics presented here describe a fairly small dog of about 20 to 50 pounds in weight. They also can be used for small wild canines such as coyotes, jackals, and African wild dogs.

Dog, Riding: This category includes working breeds such as collies, huskies, and St. Bernards.

Based on that, I think the 2HD Riding Dog statistics should be used. Definitely more a "working breed (collie)" than a "wild canine (coyote)".

EDIT: One other piece of evidence, in 1st/2nd Ed. "war dogs" had 2 HD, while "wild dogs" had 1 HD. I assume they mean the same thing as "war dogs" here.

 

[nittanytbone]

A riding dog costs significantly more than a guard dog. This leads me to believe that a big nasty (useful in combat) 2HD dog is a "riding dog" and a 1HD animal which is trained to guard and has scent and track but is not so useful in combat is a "guard dog."

 

[Klaus]

It's a "riding" (i.e. Medium) dog, but trained for Guarding as opposed to Combat Riding (which is a more difficult task to teach).

 

[Drowbane]

my two bits

Riding Dog with a different Trick selection.

 

[Thanee]

I'd say it's the normal dog with guard training.

A guard dog is not a war dog.

Bye
Thanee

 

[The Edge]

Id probably go for riding dog with dif tricks etc, but id want to have a look at it. The cost regards the training someone must have provided; while most people could train a grumpy dog, only skilled trainers can raise a smart dog that you can ride on and obeys more comands.

When a player bought a horse I quickly thought up a range of horses, each with slightly different stats and such, and varied the price acording to the quality of the animal. It adds intrest, and buying a good animal is where that "striaght from the horse's mouth" saying originates from. Shame he's already got it.