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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 7486272" data-attributes="member: 2525">Sure, and in our game our beastmaster uses a panther in combat sometimes. He hasn't died yet, though it's been close sometimes. I do wonder if people are playing with "instant death" at 0 hit points for animal companions, or unconscious with death saving throws for them? We went with death saving throws. The DMG says, "Most DMs have monster die the instant it drops to 0 hit points, rather than having it fall unconscious and make death saving throws.  Mighty vilains and special nonplayer characters are common exceptions; the DM might have them fall unconscious and follow the same rule as player characters."For us, an animal companion is definitely in the "special nonplayer character" as it's granted by a player character ability and is part of the party. So we have it go unconscious with death saving throws at 0 (though instant death from massive damage remains possible). Does it? It says, "accompanies you on your adventures and is trained to fight alongside you." For us we've found the beast using the Help command is most effective, particularly once you hit 7th level and can command it to Help as a bonus action instead of as an action. Granting the ranger advantage on their attack is pretty helpful, is part of fighting alongside the ranger, but isn't really "ferocious pet entering the fray" as much as it's "pet distracting the prey while the prey gets hammered by the Ranger and focuses on that Ranger because it just got hammered by him, and not his mild nuisance of a distracting pet".  It's a subtle difference in language but in use we've found it somewhat meaningful.  Aw come on, flying around on a Pteranodon that can make flyby attacks is awesome!</blockquote>

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