D&D 5E Monster Adoption

[Fauchard1520]

Have you ever adopted an unusual pet? I’m not talking the standard “my ranger has a bear companion” stuff, but the full on “we were going to fight it, but decided to give it belly rubs instead.” Was it balanced? How did you keep it from eating the villagers when you went back to base? And if you've ever DM'd for such a beast, who got to control the thing? You are your players?

(Comic for illustrative purposes.)

 

[Ath-kethin]

In one campaign my character (a mage/thief) adopted a displacer beast and named her Dippy. I'm sure Dippy was very sad when that character met his inglorious end on the stinger of a juvenile purple worm.

And of course it wasn't balanced. Don't be silly. But I prevented Dippy frome eating the villagers by conveniently and regularly forgetting she even existed (the DM forgot at the same rate I did, which helped).

 

[iserith]

In a campaign years ago, the PCs came across an awakened mimic named Grng. They made a deal that they would take it back to the surface world where it could live in their headquarters and they'd give it steady feed. So it appeared as a desk in their office and they'd dispose of bodies by feeding them to it.

 

[Tonguez]

My Gnome Alchemist Orbril captured a mating pair of Giant Carnivorous Hamsters and become the worlds foremost breeder of Giant Hamsters (which were spread to Gnome burrows around the world)

Another Party kinda befriended and ‘kept’ an Otyugh under their Fortress which became a useful waste disposal system

 

[Gamerbug94]

My party once adopted a kruthik hatchling after slaying the rest of the nest. Lasted up until they decided to fly across a canyon and dropped it. The token for it remains on the world map in that canyon to this day...

 

[moriantumr]

I had a goblin warlock with a staff of the python. He regularly rode it, used it a way to help barbarians reach things, and loved his pet ‘Noodle.’ Noodle died to an adult black dragon heroically distracting it from party members.
If you want to have a dangerous pet, I would suggest a reskin or modified version of a staff of the python.

 

[aco175]

Back in 2e one of my PCs had a T-Rex which was a reincarnated wolf he had as a pet that died. The DM gave it the same intelligence as the wolf and it seemed to act the same as well until it figured out that it could eat horses.

 

[Fauchard1520]

Back in 2e one of my PCs had a T-Rex which was a reincarnated wolf he had as a pet that died. The DM gave it the same intelligence as the wolf and it seemed to act the same as well until it figured out that it could eat horses.

Heh. All fantasy animals are dogs until proven otherwise. Case in point.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

My party adopted an owlbear in a long-running campaign I DM'd for. He was known as "5000GP the Owlbear" based on a price estimate the PCs worked out they could sell him for if fully-trained. He wasn't particularly unbalanced because they were terrified of him getting injured and generally didn't allow him into combat.

 

[Faolyn]

My players recently adopted a tiny neck-pillow-shaped mimic. They've been feeding it jerky.