Level Up (A5E) In Pets & Sidekicks Your New Friend Can Learn Tricks

Abilities acquired by heroic companions in Pets & Sidekicks are broadly divided into two categories: pet tricks and heroic features. Heroic features are those big ticket powers that creatures and NPCs gain as they level up, and are available to all companions who gain heroic levels, whether pet or sidekick. Pet tricks, on the other hand, are designed for companions with an Intelligence score less than 5--the 'pets' in 'Pets & Sidekicks'. Let's take a look at the pet tricks in the book!

Pets—companions with an Intelligence score of 4 or lower—can be trained to perform useful out-of-combat activities, such as chores and journey activities, beyond the actions inspired by their masters’ orders and their own instincts. Dogs can be trained as watchdogs and sheepdogs, wolves and owlbears can hunt, and horses and griffons can be trained to the harness or the saddle, among other tasks.

Many domesticated animals know one or more pet tricks when they’re acquired—for instance, when you buy a horse, you can expect it to know either the Steed or Labor pet trick. In addition, you can use downtime to teach pet tricks to your companion, and some companions in Chapter 5 automatically learn new pet tricks as they gain heroic levels.

Pets & Sidekicks brings you allies, adversaries, pets, and companions who can level up alongside your characters. Pets & Sidekicks is on Kickstarter now!

 

[Distracted DM]

Are there recommendations on how to treat/count these sidekicks for challenge purposes? For example, iirc MCDM's pets from Flee Mortals! are suggested to count as a powerful magic item, and for the party to not have more than one of them.

 

[bonchon]

I have one very important question. Can my pet be harmed in the game?
I'm all for high danger / high consequences in my D&D game when it comes to player characters. But I do not want anything happening to a pet.

 

[Morrus]

Are there recommendations on how to treat/count these sidekicks for challenge purposes? For example, iirc MCDM's pets from Flee Mortals! are suggested to count as a powerful magic item, and for the party to not have more than one of them.

One heroic level is equal to a 1/2 CR.

 

[Morrus]

I have one very important question. Can my pet be harmed in the game?
I'm all for high danger / high consequences in my D&D game when it comes to player characters. But I do not want anything happening to a pet.

There's a few options for handling pet death (or the lack thereof).

 

[Distracted DM]

One heroic level is equal to a 1/2 CR.

How does that factor in when figuring the party's side of things? They have a CR 3 sidekick, for example. Does it count as a level 6 PC in the party?

 

[paul_hughes]

Hey, Paul Hughes here!

I have one very important question. Can my pet be harmed in the game?
I'm all for high danger / high consequences in my D&D game when it comes to player characters. But I do not want anything happening to a pet.

Absolutely. There are explicit "don't hurt the pet" rules in this book that I personally use at my table, and there are also a menu of other options for groups with different tastes. But I personally would rather have my character killed than my character's pet. The default option is safety for pets.

How does that factor in when figuring the party's side of things? They have a CR 3 sidekick, for example. Does it count as a level 6 PC in the party?

In the book, we differentiate between allies who count toward encounter building just as you say (a CR 3 ally counts as a level 6 PC) and sidekicks who were paid for by an expenditure of character-building resources - for instance, if your archetype gives you a pet, or you get a pet through a feat or feats, that pet is counted as part of your character and doesn't affect encounter building. That's true whether the pet is a ranger companion or one of the new companion options from this book.