D&D General You Don’t Have To Leave Wolfy Behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' Your Companions Level Up With You!

Has your character ever had a beloved pet, a steed, or an NPC companion that, as your character leveled up, became too weak to take along on adventures? Your funny goblin friend or pet owlbear might have once been useful battle companions, but you can’t really bring them into the great wyrm’s den and expect them to survive. With regrets, you must bid them adieu.

Or maybe one kobold survives your raid on its lair and vows revenge--over your adventuring career you meet them time and time again, growing in power as you do. Your personal Moriarty, a nemesis to rival you no matter how strong you become!

Pets and Sidekicks aims to fix that. In games like Dungeons & Dragons and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, which are predicated on the heroes becoming more powerful over time and facing ever-more powerful villains, allies (and recurring foes!) should become more powerful too. In Pets and Sidekicks, you’ll find rules for NPCs that level up along with the characters.

• Level up your pets and animal companions!
• Befriend NPC sidekicks and allies who keep track with your characters!
• Encounter recurring monsters and NPC villains who have leveled up each time you meet them!
• Use evolving wildshapes and other shapechanging powers throughout your adventuring career. You wanted to change into a wolf in your early levels--now you can still do so at later levels!

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In this book you'll find:

• Various types of companion, with rules on how to use them, how to lose them, and how they gain heroic levels.
• New backgrounds like Beast Friend, feats like Bonded Companion, Expert Rider, and Ringleader, as well as a new combat tradition and character archetypes.
• A catalog of pet tricks allows you to customize your companion. Pets can scout, track, herd, guard, and more.
• Heroic features like blindsight, fast movement, innate spellcasting, and tough hide, which can be chosen as a companion levels up.
• From various bardings and saddles, to carts, sleighs and sleds, there’s a wide array of equipment.
• A slew of new magical items— the collar of disguise, saddle of recall, awakening gem, and much more!
• Animal companions like bears, dogs, beetles, lizards, raptors, sharks, and spiders.
• Monstrous companions (and foes) like flumphs, pseudodragons, spirits, and owlbears.
• Allies (and villains) including adepts, wizards, knights, goblin rogues, and kobold sorcerers!
• And so much more, including companion flaws and traits, downtime activities, and rules for loyalty and motivations.

Follow the project on Kickstarter!

 

[Morrus]

I've been thinking about converting A5e stronghold followers (including Voidrunner's officers) into companions for my own games, but I suspect this book will cover similar ground. Really looking forward to it!

There are rules for how a follower can graduate to a companion.

 

[Koloth]

Does the book cover the downsides of pets and companions? Once a party has the traveling circus of critters, very unlikely that town guards will allow the group entry. Would you want to explain to his honor the mayor why you let in a party's lion that proceeded to chow down on a visiting VIPs favorite horse? Even if you manage to talk/bribe your way past the guards, finding an inn that would allow a collection of critters inside could prove as hard a challenge as that last dungeon. Or arranging travel accommodations on a ship or with a caravan. A fair number of useful spells have limits on the number of creatures covered.
Don't forget the possibility that cute pet dragonette on the cover will happily devour that pair of ferret companions your ranger recently found. Keeping your pets/companions fed could be an issue if one or more is from an environment far removed from the party's current location. Think finding bamboo for that pet panda or eucalyptus for the ranger's koala.

Pets and companions can add fun to a game but they also come with a bunch of complications.

 

[Morrus]

Does the book cover the downsides of pets and companions? Once a party has the traveling circus of critters, very unlikely that town guards will allow the group entry. Would you want to explain to his honor the mayor why you let in a party's lion that proceeded to chow down on a visiting VIPs favorite horse? Even if you manage to talk/bribe your way past the guards, finding an inn that would allow a collection of critters inside could prove as hard a challenge as that last dungeon. Or arranging travel accommodations on a ship or with a caravan. A fair number of useful spells have limits on the number of creatures covered.
Don't forget the possibility that cute pet dragonette on the cover will happily devour that pair of ferret companions your ranger recently found. Keeping your pets/companions fed could be an issue if one or more is from an environment far removed from the party's current location. Think finding bamboo for that pet panda or eucalyptus for the ranger's koala.

Pets and companions can add fun to a game but they also come with a bunch of complications.

Sounds like you already have a handle on that!