Can PC's buy animals in PFS?


Pathfinder Society

3/5

I'm pretty sure the answer is no, only pets allowed in PFS are animal companions/familiars/class features. No using Handle Animal to train a 50gp dog your 1st level Ranger bought in a store. But can anybody point me to the rule that says this? It's for a new player of mine who really wants his Bard to have a dog.

Silver Crusade 4/5

Actually, purchased pets are allowed.

There's a rule, probably in the Guide to Organized Play, but I don't remember exactly, that says you're only allowed to have one pet/animal companion/familiar/eidolon/whatever participate in combat, to keep any one player from dominating the table.

But buying one pet is fine. Just be sure to buy it combat trained, or else have a GM initial your chronicle sheet to confirm your Handle Animal checks (see the Society FAQs for how many tricks you can teach an animal per adventure).

5/5 *

Good news, animals in the CRB, Ultimate Equipment and Animal Archive are legal for purchase.

Purchased animals can be trained, but remember that they are limited by their intelligence in PFS. Since purchased animals never level up, there is only so many tricks a purchased animal will ever get to learn.

Also, they will get no bonus tricks from class levels.

I actually find it fairly common for my low level small-size characters to purchase a riding dog. 20ft movement sucks.

3/5

Huh, thanks, don't know why Herolab won't let me buy animals...

Sovereign Court 3/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Relevant FAQ.

Grand Lodge 4/5 **** Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento

http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/faq#v5748eaic9os6

There you go. That and the next two FAQ questions should answer all your questions

Sovereign Court

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Hero Lab is a crutch for the weak! Use paper next time and your fine. ;)

Scarab Sages 2/5

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Yes, real men snaps pencils and punch through paper!

4/5 *

rangerjeff wrote:
Huh, thanks, don't know why Herolab won't let me buy animals...

Did you realize that there is a separate "Other" tab where you purchase mounts and hirelings? It took me a long time to find it myself.

Shadow Lodge 4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Morgen wrote:
Hero Lab is a crutch for the weak! Use paper next time and your fine. ;)

Using HeroLab for character creation is like using TurboTax for your taxes. If you don't know what's going on behind the screen, you're not likely to do well in an audit. ;)

Liberty's Edge 2/5

For example, money weight in herolab. Money wieght will skew everything. BEWARE MONNEY WEIGHT!


im new at all of this and i was hopeing to find some pointers on everything there is to do cause i really want to be in this any help would be greatful

Sovereign Court

Just don't be a jerk and buy a combat trained bison for 75gp. So cheap and overpowered at level 1.

1/5

Zach Williams wrote:
For example, money weight in herolab. Money wieght will skew everything. BEWARE MONNEY WEIGHT!

One of the evilest things I've concocted was to give the players a horde of 100,000pp, in copper pieces...

Shadow Lodge 4/5

Treefolk wrote:
Zach Williams wrote:
For example, money weight in herolab. Money wieght will skew everything. BEWARE MONNEY WEIGHT!
One of the evilest things I've concocted was to give the players a horde of 100,000pp, in copper pieces...

Yeah, money weight (50 coins/pound) is a rule of the game, not just something invented by HeroLab.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Mystic Lemur wrote:
Treefolk wrote:
Zach Williams wrote:
For example, money weight in herolab. Money wieght will skew everything. BEWARE MONNEY WEIGHT!
One of the evilest things I've concocted was to give the players a horde of 100,000pp, in copper pieces...
Yeah, money weight (50 coins/pound) is a rule of the game, not just something invented by HeroLab.

But it does not have to be carried as coins. Gems, dust, whatever....

4/5

Just keep in mind you have to own the books where you find your combat-trained animal from.

3/5

Money weight!!!!

Yeah, I've seen more than a few characters come into my local PFS game shop night with questions about why their characters are slowed and have other penalties and the answer is money weight.

And yeah, thanks, eventually found the Other tab for that, and let my player know he was cool with his piece of shit roleplay dog that would be worthless in 2 levels.

And yeah, books. I've got them all, but the number of times I've heard a GM ask to see a book is exactly 0, out of about 100 game sessions total now. Ask where a rule is from and somebody look it up on their smartgadget? Yeah, that happens a lot, but book or bust isn't my PFS experience.

Dark Archive

What's wrong with a chararacter's flavor including a pet? They don't need to be useful anymore than our real life pets are useful, except maybe to bark when someone is at the door in the middle of the night. One of my favorite 2e fighters started as a lone traveler with a dog, and I don't think he ever came up mechanically. He died when we were level 10ish because the only way to survive a particular situation was by casting Earthquake off of a scroll, and he didn't make it. The party priest felt really, really bad. It was 8 or 9 years ago now, and I still remember it.

There's no need to be rude about his dog. Roleplaying games are more than just tactical combat simulations. Sometimes they can be tactical combat simulations with in-character emotional attachments.

4/5

If you're using rules from an additional resource you need to provide it. Note, Animal Archives isn't available via Paizo PRD, so "look up on gadget" is only possible via a non-official source or the PDF.

1/5

Greasitty wrote:

What's wrong with a chararacter's flavor including a pet? They don't need to be useful anymore than our real life pets are useful, except maybe to bark when someone is at the door in the middle of the night. One of my favorite 2e fighters started as a lone traveler with a dog, and I don't think he ever came up mechanically. He died when we were level 10ish because the only way to survive a particular situation was by casting Earthquake off of a scroll, and he didn't make it. The party priest felt really, really bad. It was 8 or 9 years ago now, and I still remember it.

There's no need to be rude about his dog. Roleplaying games are more than just tactical combat simulations. Sometimes they can be tactical combat simulations with in-character emotional attachments.

Well to be fair the GM is supposed to control all animal companions/pets and the player is supposed to influence them through handle animal. However the common stance is to let the player manage both for time efficiency purposes. RAW in this case would have the dog doing as he pleases with the character in question unable to influence him.

Dark Archive

I was responding to rangerjeff's "his piece of s&~+ roleplay dog that would be worthless in 2 levels" comment. It seemed unnecessary to me.

Hopefully it is obvious if you are going to bring an animal to an adventuring party that goes dangerous places, you should take a few ranks in Handle Animal. With a bard's charisma, that should go fine.

3/5

Greasitty wrote:

I was responding to rangerjeff's "his piece of s&~+ roleplay dog that would be worthless in 2 levels" comment. It seemed unnecessary to me.

Hopefully it is obvious if you are going to bring an animal to an adventuring party that goes dangerous places, you should take a few ranks in Handle Animal. With a bard's charisma, that should go fine.

That was a good story above, Greasitty, and I hope that's what my player gets out of this.

But my PFS experience has been a little more shallow than my home game experience used to be. The campaign you played with a dog was home game, right? Mt first PFS character had a great backstory, then I realized, even at a local game shop where it's mostly the same 15 people over 3 tables every week, nobody remembers or cares about your backstory from scenario to scenario. The RP I've found in PFS has been enjoyable, but superficial. Pick a part to play when you sit down at the table with these people, try to make it fit your alignment and skills, and go with it. Next time you play that character, he'll probably be the same, but he might be quite different.

And @ David Bruss, most people look up the SRD

Dark Archive

I completely see your point of view, there, Jeff, and it's certainly not uncommon. I go the other way with my characters - lacking any meaningful affect on the world around them and the characters they play with, I dig into their personal story harder. It is the only continuity they will ever get.

If I ever adopt your approach, I've considered playing someone with memory loss. It would fit in really well with the way most PFS gms run knowledge checks! And it would be fun trying to guess how I learned this bit of trivia in the past. ;)

5/5 *

I think what jeff mentions does vary by region. In Atlanta, we have a very large but quite close community. There are famous (or, infamous) characters among us that people know by name. a few of the newer players have only heard stories, and it's always fun to sit down at one of their tables having one of these iconic characters and the new players going "oh, god, it's YOU". :)

5/5 5/55/5

I’d recommend all GM’s and players with pets also read the “Attack” trick carefully under handle animal. Combat trained animals will not attack supernatural creatures, undead, aberrations, etc without a push (handle animal DC 25). You need an extra trick for this. When I point this out the players with pets they often look like a dear in headlights, it’s a rarely enforced rule that tames down the pet power.

Sovereign Court 5/5

Mike Clarke wrote:
Mystic Lemur wrote:
Treefolk wrote:
Zach Williams wrote:
For example, money weight in herolab. Money wieght will skew everything. BEWARE MONNEY WEIGHT!
One of the evilest things I've concocted was to give the players a horde of 100,000pp, in copper pieces...
Yeah, money weight (50 coins/pound) is a rule of the game, not just something invented by HeroLab.
But it does not have to be carried as coins. Gems, dust, whatever....

Letters of credit to the Bank of Abadar, excuse me, Church of Abadar.

The Exchange 4/5 Owner - D20 Hobbies

roysier wrote:
I’d recommend all GM’s and players with pets also read the “Attack” trick carefully

Anyone doing this would also just buy an untrained animal and train Attack twice for the Attack Anything ruling.


Todd Lower wrote:
Mike Clarke wrote:
Mystic Lemur wrote:
Treefolk wrote:
Zach Williams wrote:
For example, money weight in herolab. Money wieght will skew everything. BEWARE MONNEY WEIGHT!
One of the evilest things I've concocted was to give the players a horde of 100,000pp, in copper pieces...
Yeah, money weight (50 coins/pound) is a rule of the game, not just something invented by HeroLab.
But it does not have to be carried as coins. Gems, dust, whatever....
Letters of credit to the Bank of Abadar, excuse me, Church of Abadar.

I am that Jerk GM. Alternating treasure between bags and bags of copper coins for one adventure and paintings, tapestries, and marble sculptures in another adventure. All in the hopes that someone at the table will be smart enough to hire an overpriced Dwarven hireling and a cart.

Dark Archive 4/5

James Risner wrote:
roysier wrote:
I’d recommend all GM’s and players with pets also read the “Attack” trick carefully
Anyone doing this would also just buy an untrained animal and train Attack twice for the Attack Anything ruling.

That would take awhile. You can only train as many tricks per session as you have ranks in Handle Animal. If you're level two you can train both attack tricks, but good luck getting puppy to follow you anywhere strange (Heel), stay put without a short leash (Stay), or stop attacking an opponent you want to question (Down).

The Exchange 4/5 Owner - D20 Hobbies

Adam Mogyorodi wrote:
You can only train as many tricks per session

Even worse case, it takes only 4 scenarios. Which most people are able to do. Plus most people will have 2 or 3 or more ranks by the time they have 2000 gp Fame limit.

Dark Archive 4/5

Yup. Just try to keep your animal alive as well! It would suck to start back at square one without even the druid bonus tricks to keep you afloat.

4/5

just remember to make those Handle Animal rolls when you have your animal Heel, Stay, Attack... it may take a round or two...

Silver Crusade 4/5

Stephen Ross wrote:
just remember to make those Handle Animal rolls when you have your animal Heel, Stay, Attack... it may take a round or two...

Most people seem to forget that this applies to druids with animal companions, too. I don't think I've ever seen a Handle Animal check to command an AC at the table. Of course, druids get a +4 bonus when handling their AC, and it's only a DC 10, so any druid with +5 HA skill can "take 1" and succeed without rolling.


On a philosophical note, you can't actually purchase or own cats.

You can pay some money to a shop if you with, but it's up to the cat if they will deign to stay with you.

-j

Shadow Lodge

Fromper wrote:
Of course, druids get a +4 bonus when handling their AC, and it's only a DC 10, so any druid with +5 HA skill can "take 1" and succeed without rolling.

And unless they're pushing their AC or dealing with a non-AC animal, it's a free action, too...

Yeah, my Order of the Paw samurai doesn't bother with the HA checks, because even at level three he literally can't fail them; same with most Ride checks.

If I can fail it, I'll roll it. Otherwise, I don't even bring it up. If the GM asks for the roll anyways, I'll roll the d20 and announce success without ever looking at the die (or even waiting for it to stop).

Shadow Lodge 4/5

SCPRedMage wrote:
If I can fail it, I'll roll it. Otherwise, I don't even bring it up. If the GM asks for the roll anyways, I'll roll the d20 and announce success without ever looking at the die (or even waiting for it to stop).

If I have a GM ask me for a roll we both know I can't fail, I just roll it and tell him the total. Sometimes there are circumstance modifiers the player doesn't know about.

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