Now they buy pigs

[Lord Pendragon]

A gray bag of tricks only costs 900 gold, and the animal will do practically whatever you say. They are summoned, so they don't actually die and you won't have troubles with the ... fantasy PETA or whatever. I would only use pigs if I couldn't afford at least one bag.

I'd allow the Bag of Tricks to work. Herding pigs is another matter. Pigs are stubborn, and very difficult to move. They don't bound forward to explore like dogs do, either. This means that to get the pig to move, you're going to have to be behind him, shoving him along. And that means that you'll be close enough to get caught by any trap the pig springs, anyway.

The only way this works is if you have a way to control the pig, to get it to walk out in front of the party by 5-10 feet, going where the party wants to go. Not gonna happen, IMO. So back to the Bag of Tricks, where you can command the summoned creature to do exactly that.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I've used the bag of tricks. Our DM put us through a dungeon filled with death magic touch effect trapped doors. Just kept throwing mice, bats and cats at them.

Hey, pigs/reality... what about guys who can throw fire out of their fingers or survive 2-3 terminal velocity falls? Not realistic either? At least piggies give the ranger a 'superpower' they can use - even if it is just herding 50 piggies silently and without trouble?

 

[Silver Moon]

D&D pig Lemmings! Brilliant!

The best part was that a local gift shop had gone out of business during which time I purchased over a hundred little rubbery-plastic pigs that worked great with 25mm miniatures, which added to the fun.

 

[Dingleberry]

I think it's clever, but not heroic. I'd rather my PCs be the latter.

 

[Numion]

We prefer using the Cleric in our group. Just blaze the traps while protected with a bundle of spells. Annoyed our rogue a little when I did that with my cleric.

Create Undead is also good for the non-alignmentally challenged teams. If I were to use pigs, I'd have some kind of enchantment on it, to make it do the stuff without hassle.

 

[Numion]

I think it's clever, but not heroic. I'd rather my PCs be the latter.

I also prefer heroic to cowardly, but I also much prefer alive to heroic

 

[Dingleberry]

I also prefer heroic to cowardly, but I also much prefer alive to heroic

Not me. I'll take a heroic death over a long-lived wuss every time. Blaze of glory.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Don't forget, if you don't have any pigs, you can just throw the gnome ahead of you to set the traps off.

 

[Zander]

Pigs? I thought that's what gnomes are for.

 

[Desdichado]

I guess there is a reason thay are penned and slopped rather than herded and grazed.

Exactly. Why do you think Jews and Muslims won't eat them? Because back in "ye very olden days" the early Arabs and Hebrews were pastoral nomads, living off herds of sheep and goats. Pigs were excluded exactly because you can't herd them.