D&D General Talking Animals

[plecostomus]

The party for my game includes a MCDM Flee Mortals! retainer stat block, the Hobgoblin Tactician, but the actual NPC is a heeler dog that can talk. The NPC being a dog was requested by the players. D&D has built-in background for this in terms of Awakened animals and plants. The dog's lore is she was Awakened when she ate a pumpkin given to her by a fairy.

At one point the PCs went down a ladder and asked if the dog needed to be carried. I said the dog is fine, she just needs to take it slow. If this ever became mechanically pressing, I would use the same rules as centaurs ("each foot of movement costs you 4 extra feet instead of the normal 1 extra foot").

The players haven't had any logistical issues besides that and they love their dog, maybe too much.

 

[Tonguez]

Monkeys, Apes all have opposable thumbs and thus tool use, octopus, elephants, otters and racoons have fine manipulators though maybe disadvantage on slight of hand.

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At one point the PCs went down a ladder and asked if the dog needed to be carried. I said the dog is fine, she just needs to take it slow. If this ever became mechanically pressing, I would use the same rules as centaurs ("each foot of movement costs you 4 extra feet instead of the normal 1 extra foot").

The players haven't had any logistical issues besides that and they love their dog, maybe too much.

Those centaur climbing rules crack me up, but it does take care of the biggest restriction on dog/wolf and other medium sized creatures who dont already have climb (the ones that do are often better than humanoid PCs except for the restricted weapon choice.) Even tiny climbers and flyers do well in their stealth niche as they arent there for combat anyway and their inability to carry much is more a feature than a bug.

 

[Stormonu]

Animal adventures has dog and cats as player characters. There could possibly also be rats, foxes and other animals but the game only has those as NPCs.

My wife has taken crib notes on that for my son's druid. A talking cat. No, not person cursed into animal form, but an Awakened cat that has druid levels. One of the 3 forms he can take is that of a CR 0 human (and hasn't used it yet). We've had less trouble incorporating him than I had with my Centaur character in a different campaign.