The Fate of an Animal Companion: Advice Needed


Advice


Hello, I'm looking for some advice on a strange situation I've arrived at:

An NPC in a game I'm running has been stalking the PC's for a while. This week, he made his move and attacked them. Despite his intel gained, and his strategies employed, he died.

He was a Ranger who Prestiged into Shadow Dancer. He had a Dog Animal Companion. He used his companion for a shadow to hide in plain sight with. He directed it with a dog whistle. This dog was posing as a stray outside the PC's Guild Hall. The PC's (foolishly) accepted it as a lovable stray and adopted it - despite the fact that it was inexplicably very well trained already.

So my question is this: do the rules state anything specific about Animal Companions whose masters are killed? Do they revert back to a normal animal according to their entry in the Bestiary? Do they remain unchanged? This Dog did not receive an Int bonus, so it's not sentient. As far as its behavior goes, it would probably become quite confused that its master has vanished. The dog wasn't in the area when the Shadow Dancer made his move; the dog wasn't built for combat. Therefor, it would probably not have any animosity toward the PC's. Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)


AFAIK, the rules are silent on what happens to a dead character's animal companion/familiar. It's GM's call. Do whatever suits the story.


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If the PCs have adopted it, then you could just keep it around for when you need a plot hook in future. Make sure you always give it a mention when they return to the guildhall, build it into the world.

You can then use it give them hints and point them towards any ongoing plot. If you've got a disguised BBEG paying a visit then the dog seems anxious and hides under a chair. Maybe it recognizes some of the former master's friends? One of your PCs gets captured? Have the dog follow at a distance and try some Lassie shenanigans.


Cuup wrote:


So my question is this: do the rules state anything specific about Animal Companions whose masters are killed? Do they revert back to a normal animal according to their entry in the Bestiary? Do they remain unchanged? This Dog did not receive an Int bonus, so it's not sentient. As far as its behavior goes, it would probably become quite confused that its master has vanished. The dog wasn't in the area when the Shadow Dancer made his move; the dog wasn't built for combat. Therefor, it would probably not have any animosity toward the PC's. Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

I would assume they lose their divine grace that they receive while under the service of a ranger, so revert back to a normal dog. How the dog reacts afterwards is your call :p


If you have a Druid in the party this would be a wonderful animal to see Awakened. After all, it has an actual background. Perhaps it would remember a few of its masters secrets or perhaps it would pine to have him back. Just imagine the fun when the pooch leads the party to master's secret stash of diamond dust, steals it from them in the dead of night, digs up master's remains and delivers both to the doorstep of the local church.


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Follow the Rule of Cool.

I once had an NPC bad guy cavalier knocked off his charging horse and bashed to death. The horse basically kept running. Weeks later, it found itself a new helper to assist it in revenge.

I'm pretty sure I retconned a little more Intelligence into that horse to make this work, but it was certainly worth it. See, the party first noticed a black unicorn, which turned out to be the horse's new advocate. Yeah, shape-shifting devil who'd taken on the horse's situation for amusement. The devil explained that it had agreed to punish the particular PC who'd nuked the cavalier, and that the rest of the party were free to go, unharmed as long as they didn't interfere. Very witty. The horse watched the fight from a decent distance, the party mashed the devil, and the horse re-evaluated its vengeance quest. It trotted away, having recognized it was outclassed.

Sure, it was kind of cute, kind of trite, but the players enjoyed it. It was a call-back to a previous encounter, it was the direct consequence of their overwhelmingly rapid success with the cavalier, and it wasn't punishment. It was bonus fun.

So follow the RoC in your own way, that's my advice.


Thanks for your input, guys! I'm definitely gonna have the dog stick around. Being Awakened could be a possibility, but I'll have to wait and see what the party Druid does. Nothing wrong with a simple guard dog in the mean time - especially a pre-trained one.

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