Taming Beasts

[Spibb]

So I have my group in a dark, cavern with the constant dripping sound echoing through. Suddenly, in a narrow corridor, one of them walks right into a gelatinous cube. So what's my group's first thought? Tame it.

Now I'm not sure what to do here. I'm not aware of any mechanic for how to tame any creature (let alone a gelatinous cube). My party doesn't want to be able to make the cube jump through hoops or anything complex like that, they just wanna make the cube friendly to them and be able to send it down narrow hall ways to trap enemies and stuff like that.

Anyone have any ideas for mechanics or examples of home-brewed mechanics?

 

[DracoSuave]

So I have my group in a dark, cavern with the constant dripping sound echoing through. Suddenly, in a narrow corridor, one of them walks right into a gelatinous cube. So what's my group's first thought? Tame it.

Now I'm not sure what to do here. I'm not aware of any mechanic for how to tame any creature (let alone a gelatinous cube). My party doesn't want to be able to make the cube jump through hoops or anything complex like that, they just wanna make the cube friendly to them and be able to send it down narrow hall ways to trap enemies and stuff like that.

Anyone have any ideas for mechanics or examples of home-brewed mechanics?

SKILL CHALLENGE!

Alright, a Gelatinous Cube is an elite, so a difficulty level 2 skill challenge is appropriate.

They should need to use Dungeoneering as one of their skills to even sort out how to -start- taming this thing. Beyond that, let them try to figure out what skills or other actions are appropriate and how. If it's reasonable, nod, and allow the attempt. If it's merely plausible, allow one try. If it's completely bunkus, have them roll, but remind them it does nothing.

During this time, the gelatinous cube won't be standing there quietly either. It WILL be doing what it normally does; trying to eat them. They'll still roll and act on initiative as usual. It may even be that half the party will be fighting to survive while the other half does their taming attempt. You may even add in a rule that Intimidate checks are required whenever a player damages the cube, with failures on that counting towards as one of the three failures on the skill challenge, and successes on it, well, not counting as one of the three failures.

Challenge Success = One tamed cube.
Challenge Failure = they'll have to defeat the cube normally.

 

[Fredrik Svanberg]

I don't know if I would allow them to tame it during a combat encounter. I would probably allow them to trick it in various ways and perhaps learn how to guide it along with them to use it in other encounters, but it would still not be an ally. A gelatinous cube is probably entirely driven by instinct and is easy to trick by throwing food in the direction they want it to go, for example. I would probably handle this with stunts.

To actually tame it I would require magical rituals/costly equipment to "pay" for the creature, and some downtime. Or a skill challenge, if they want to risk life and limb and the loss of the creature.

 

[DracoSuave]

I don't know if I would allow them to tame it during a combat encounter. I would probably allow them to trick it in various ways and perhaps learn how to guide it along with them to use it in other encounters, but it would still not be an ally. A gelatinous cube is probably entirely driven by instinct and is easy to trick by throwing food in the direction they want it to go, for example. I would probably handle this with stunts.

To actually tame it I would require magical rituals/costly equipment to "pay" for the creature, and some downtime. Or a skill challenge, if they want to risk life and limb and the loss of the creature.

Perhaps, but the thing to remember here is that gelatinous cubes are pretty much a 'I see it, I consume it' creature. It's hard to throw food as a distraction when the thrower is a larger chunk of food than what is thrown. It's got a simple program in that sense.

The other side of it is that the gelatinous cube is never -not- in combat. It is either eating, or looking for something to eat. There's no 'rest' for such a thing, merely a constant cycle of predation and consumption.

 

[LostSoul]

In H2 I think there's a skill challenge to tame a dire boar.