Wilderness Rogue with pet dogs Question

[DonTadow]

UPDATE---
Oh well, there goes the wilderness cohort. We played Friday and things went well except the player wanted to change the tricks the animal knew during mid section, to which the DM did not allow. The DM said the Combat Riding set fit better with the riding dog's background and the player agreed before game, but attempted to change it to the hunting set during session. There has been back and forth banter between the dm and the player for three days. The dm had the final straw today when the player wrote a negative comment about the dm followed by forceful dictation. I just got an email saying that the dog is gone and the player might be too if she doesnt choose something completely core. .

::I didnt want it to come to this but oh well. I figured it was. This player is very stubborn. I just hope that it doesnt pour over into MY campaign. Both the dm and player are players in my game.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Why would the Combat Riding package be a better fit? Everything else aside, that just doesn't make sense to me unless the character in question was a gnome or halfling ... :|

 

[DonTadow]

Why would the Combat Riding package be a better fit? Everything else aside, that just doesn't make sense to me unless the character in question was a gnome or halfling ... :|

The players background suggested that she rescued the dog as it was trained for goblin riding. Goblins originally owned and trained the dog as a riding dog. The dog had its six tricks when found thus was not able to learn any further tricks.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Oh. That's a distinction I wouldn't have worried about, since a Combat Riding dog is much less useful than a Hunting dog for someone who isn't going to be riding it.

Oh well.

EDIT:

Actually, looking at things ...

Combat Riding: attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel

Hunting: attack, down, fetch, heel, seek, and track

There's a lot of overlap between the two. And it's still possible to get a non-hunting trained dog to, for instance, track something; the Handle Animal DC is just a little higher and it takes a little longer.

 

[DonTadow]

Oh. That's a distinction I wouldn't have worried about, since a Combat Riding dog is much less useful than a Hunting dog for someone who isn't going to be riding it.

Oh well.

EDIT:

Actually, looking at things ...

Combat Riding: attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel

Hunting: attack, down, fetch, heel, seek, and track

There's a lot of overlap between the two. And it's still possible to get a non-hunting trained dog to, for instance, track something; the Handle Animal DC is just a little higher and it takes a little longer.

I pointed that out to the dm in training and she pointed that out to the player but the player was just a little too persistant. I think the problem came with the way it was handled by the player.

The player first sent an email wanting to set up an email account for the dog on our game website and critizing the way the dog should have acted in game. She also asked when did the dog level up which was a silly question because the HD advancement was already in the feat description. The DM sent her an email that said essentially that the dog is an npc and does not need an email account, also the dog behaves in a matter that the dm perceives from previous background. The dm also said in the email that she no longer wished to discuss the topic of the dog considering the party nearly fell into a pit trap because the player was more concerned about playing with her dog than checking for traps. There was some back and forth banter and I told the DM that bantering with a player really will hamper the game. IF a dm makes a ruling then thats the ruling whether its fair or not. IF the playr doesnt like it it is a game and the player is welcome to leave the game and find another that has rulings more suitable. I don't think i would have let this go on this long.

My campaigns are pretty open to what is allowed so i wouldnt have cared as much but i can understand a new dm not wanting anything odd in the campaign just yet.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Was the DM trying to play the dog?

That's something that could have been avoided; let the player run the dog, and just apply any required checks when the player has the dog start acting more than Int 2 of its own volition.

 

[DonTadow]

Was the DM trying to play the dog?

That's something that could have been avoided; let the player run the dog, and just apply any required checks when the player has the dog start acting more than Int 2 of its own volition.

The animal has no empahty with its owner, thus the dog will try to do whatever task it is told to do per the handle animal skill and to the best the dm thinks it can. She's running her campaign like i run mine and other dms i've encountered , players don't play npc characters, which is what hte dog is. It is like letting the pc run two characters.
In game, the dm pretty much played the dog as i would, the dog would follow the player to specific points that required handle animal checks. The dog woudl not go off on his own investigating for clues as the pc wanted.

I just think that avoids dm/player conflict about what an intelligent animal can and can't do and speeds up the game.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Long story short.

Player is REFUSING to abide by the guidelines everyone else is.

Give her an ultimatium. Play by these rules.

Kill the doggy. Kill the other doggy.

She's clearly being difficult to be difficult. Her idea is, well, not suited to teh type of adventure you are running. The character doesn't fit in.

If I was DM.... Well, I've been doing this for a long time so I have dozens of tricks up my sleeve.

1. She's an Elf prince, hiuh. From a kingdom fay away. It may be too late to fix this but, you should have done "Awakens after hundreds of years of magical sleep" or "Spontaneous re-alignment of the planes & Elfie's not in Kansas Anymore).

2. Let teh dog's get more powerful. Let her have her way with them. Then, when she's really needing them, you can reaveal the Lich who has been controlling them & the demons that now possess the doggies' bodies.

Really, putting up with this was your first mistake.

 

[Klaus]

If she wants her original character concept (drow rogue rebelling against her people), you can use the Savage Progressions article from the WotC site, written by Sean K Reynolds. Basically, she begins as a Drow Rogue 1, but with diminished racial powers, then "spends" two levels taking the remaining drow powers. By the time the party is 3rd level, she'll be a full-on Drow Rogue 1.

 

[DonTadow]

If she wants her original character concept (drow rogue rebelling against her people), you can use the Savage Progressions article from the WotC site, written by Sean K Reynolds. Basically, she begins as a Drow Rogue 1, but with diminished racial powers, then "spends" two levels taking the remaining drow powers. By the time the party is 3rd level, she'll be a full-on Drow Rogue 1.

The dm's only allowing phb races, even though the character would start at level 1, because of the land and the module she's running (shackled city) anything outside of the phb isn't allowed. The reason she's being so stern on the rules and i'm supporting it is because she's new herself only been playing 2 years.

This could be my fault because we're both feeling that the player is used to getting her way with characters. I'm pretyt lenient in my campaign as I can think of ways to put in almost any race if given time. I had said though I wouldn't allow any L.A. creatures over +2. Well she'd been wanting to play a weretiger for 3 years since I've known the player. So I worked in despite the lack of Lycanthropes in the campaign since then. At first it was easy but the player began annoyed after a magical injunction spell dispelled her wild leather armor causing her to change clothes everytime she wants to change or wear nothing. I probably appease certain players too much in ways that a new dm can't do and I don't think that player understand despite the fact that I personally told her that the new dm's campaign is going to be completely different. it's based off a module so its going to be less sitting in the inn playing a gig and more dungeon crawl (shackled cities) .