D&D 5E We Don't Need Magic Shops!... or How My Players Continually Confound Me.

[akr71]

I'm running HotDQ for my players and in the middle section(s) the party passes through some major cities - even spending 10 days in Baldur's Gate. In an effort to be prepared I made lists of the type of shops that they would be able to find easily and what magic items they might be able to buy.

What did they go in search for? Animals! Totally took me by surprise, but I went with it and the assassin has himself a pet hawk which he has been training for the last number of days. Now the monk tells me that she wants to buy a pet too. A cat - not a house cat, but some sort of wildcat, like a bobcat or lynx or something. At least this time I have a bit of time to prepare, but what to use as a base stat block? A house cat is a tiny beast, CR 0 and doesn't feel right. A panther is a medium beast, CR 1/4. I'm thinking small beast, CR 1/8 which leads me to re-skinning a giant rat and giving it more cat-like abilities like Keen Smell, but Pounce feels too much for a small beast.

Any ideas?

Oh yeah, the warlock in the group is pact of the chain, with a pseudodragon familiar. I've got a travelling circus on my hands..

 

[pdzoch]

They'll like the menagerie right up to the point where they see a "no pets allowed" sign.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

One dramatic fireball later and the 'problem' was solved..

 

[plisnithus8]

I run campaigns for my 13-y-o and his friends.
Every one of them will try to buy pets in any market we go to; it's like a traveling circus with dogs and cats, a monkey, a gecko, a gold fish...
They spend close to 1/2 of each encounter defending their animals; one started crying because while he could breath underwater, I reminded him after his fight with a shark that the ferret in his pouch could not.

 

[Guest 6801328]

There should be a shop specializing in "Bags of Rats".

 

[WarpedAcorn]

One of the most frustrating things as a DM is to create all sorts of NPC's and Experiences in one area only to have the Players decide to go off in a completely different direction. Its cool and all, and lets the games be very fun and spontaneous...but its literally the equivalent of a cat ignoring the brand new fancy toy and just playing with the box it came in.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I think you're on the right track with re-skinning (slight pun intended) a Giant Rat. The Mastiff is my benchmark for character pets, and it's CR 1/8. Getting a Panther pushes you into Beastmaster pet territory.

 

[Corwin]

one started crying because while he could breath underwater, I reminded him after his fight with a shark that the ferret in his pouch could not.

Oof. Am I a bad person because this made me laugh a little? Not so much the IC thought of a ferret dying. More at the young player forgetting about its existence and subsequent drowning. Although I guess, to put an even finer point on it, its really that you waited until *after* the fight to break the news to him, and his subsequent reaction. That made me chortle. I'm going to heck, aren't I?

 

[akr71]

I run campaigns for my 13-y-o and his friends.
Every one of them will try to buy pets in any market we go to; it's like a traveling circus with dogs and cats, a monkey, a gecko, a gold fish...
They spend close to 1/2 of each encounter defending their animals; one started crying because while he could breath underwater, I reminded him after his fight with a shark that the ferret in his pouch could not.

Yes, this is my family I'm DMing for - my daughter is the warlock with the pseudodragon, my son the 'ninja' with a hawk and now my wife playing the monk wants a wildcat.

I think you're on the right track with re-skinning (slight pun intended) a Giant Rat. The Mastiff is my benchmark for character pets, and it's CR 1/8. Getting a Panther pushes you into Beastmaster pet territory.

Yeah, specifically said 'small cat, but not a house cat - think I can find or buy one?' Maybe an orphaned bobcat somewhere along the trail...

Make her spend resources to keep the thing alive - or wait until she has some downtime to properly care for and train the thing.

 

[Tony Vargas]

There should be a shop specializing in "Bags of Rats".

"... we sell a lot of products in the "Bag O'" line.. like Bag O' Glass, Bag O' Nails, Bag O' Bugs, Bag O' Vipers, Bag O' Sulfuric Acid...."