Looking for some 3.5 pathfinder stats for companion and pet animals


Advice


I am a ranger, and need some stats for some animals I want to take as companions and pets. I know these exist, but can only find references to them online or bestiary entries, but no stats as a companion or a pet.

First, I have what the GM called a 'Duskhound'. It is half goblin dog, half Warg. We found the literally newborn pup in a den, and took it with us. I weaned it, raised it by hand, reared it, and trained it over the course of the last 4 levels. The GM said it is now adult size, big and strong enough to adventure with us. I want to take it as a *pet*, I think, not a companion. I am a Beastmaster Ranger, and can get much more powerful companions to spend my Druid levels on, as far as I am aware, which is why I just want it as a trained pet. I imagine this thing is infinitely loyal to me, I raised it by hand. I also assume it knows basically all the tricks, since I spent so long raising this thing by hand. However, I am still a bit fuzzy on how pets work, and haven't taken one yet. Do I need stats for them? Where do I pull stats from (for example, if I also decide to grab a crow, where do I find stats and the limitations of what it can learn? Are stats the same for companions and pets, they just don't get companion perks and don't level up?) And, of course, I could not find any stats for a Duskhound, even companion stats. What would one look like on paper?

And the other animal I am looking for is the infamous Fleshraker, which every guide says is on top of the 'must have companions' list. Can I find one in the wild, and what would stats look like for one as a companion pulled in the wild? What level do I need to be to grab one in the wild? The information on them is very scattered, and I can't find consistent companion stats for them anywhere! Other than purchasing a wartrained one, what other 'improved' versions of it can I get? And how much are wartrained ones? We are heading into a large chaotic evil city, so I imagine they would have plenty of such vicious animals for sale... The two stat sheets I am looking at are here:

http://aaronwiki.us/index.php?title=Fleshraker_Dinosaur

and here:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=12918877&postcount= 5

And a final general question I googled around, but perhaps just have not asked in the correct way to get an answer... When an animal is taken in the wild as a companion, they are basically bumped down in power to match level 1 companion stats, right? So, is there actually a minimum level for taking specific animals? They all 'start' at level 1 when taken as animal companions, then you do the calculations to level them according to the charts. I am unclear if there are actually restrictions on what I can take since they all start at level 1 anyways... So does only taking an animal as a *pet* have level requirements? And do I need to change stats on them when they become a *pet*?

Basically, I want a size huge or bigger quadraped of some kind (or a dire tortoise!) to use as a charger. I don't need direct control, I just want to give it combat riding and charge it over enemies as simple rinse and repeat combat. I was going to take mammoth rider, but I am shying away from it now because I don't want the mammoth as my primary animal when it has such a simple job. Plus, I can't take a size huge animal into every dungeon... I don't need it to be powerful, just to serve as an armored platform for riding for me and the squishies as well as the charge to knock stuff around for them. Like a D&D APC. :p


Bump...


Bump


Getting a combat-useful pet is 100% at your GM's discretion.

The Fleshraker was an abomination of the 3.5 MM 2 or 3. Due to how PF animal companions work, the MM stats won't do you much good.


Ask your dm if you can add the advanced template to your worg/goblin dog pup. Or use the sort stats from monsterous mount. But pf companions have little correlation to bestiary stats.

The Exchange

For the flesh-raker, those (from what I remember) were just velociraptors. Which can be found in the bestiary under dinosaurs, and I do beleive there were stats for animal companions there.


Kita_dawg wrote:
I imagine this thing is infinitely loyal to me, I raised it by hand. I also assume it knows basically all the tricks, since I spent so long raising this thing by hand.

If you want to go by the rules (Pathfinder ones) you'd normally have to roll Handle Animal for raising a wild animal and teaching him tricks. If you have been with him for so long the GM can probably say you just succeeded, but you could have taken in many more pets in the same time, if you used only the minimum amount of time required.

Quoting from the PRD (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/skills/handleAnimal.html#_handle-animal) :

Teach an Animal a Trick: You can teach an animal a specific trick with 1 week of work and a successful Handle Animal check against the indicated DC.

Rear a Wild Animal: To rear an animal means to raise a wild creature from infancy so that it becomes domesticated. A handler can rear as many as three creatures of the same kind at once.

If your GM lets you, you can just buy adult animals and train them for fighting in three weeks, or drop the coin for already trained ones, no need to raise them from the egg. I found this very nice price table: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateEquipment/gear/animalsAndTranspo rts.html#_pets-and-familiars-table

Kita_dawg wrote:
However, I am still a bit fuzzy on how pets work, and haven't taken one yet. Do I need stats for them? Where do I pull stats from (for example, if I also decide to grab a crow, where do I find stats and the limitations of what it can learn? Are stats the same for companions and pets, they just don't get companion perks and don't level up?)

My daughter switched from a druid to a ranger, and is really missing her companion. So I decided to let her tame a constrictor snake – since I also couldn't find the precise ruling on pets, I ended up using Druid companion stats, without the magical perks (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/classes/druid.html#_druid). I mean, why should a pet have better stats than a companion, right?

Well, I'm not so sure it was the right call. While the companion starts smaller, weaker, it also evolves and can be easily replaced if killed. The pet snake took her three weeks of training, and if it dies, it dies – and it can't gain any xp, it is not going to level up. I'm thinking of replacing the companion stats for regular monster ones (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/snake.html#_snake-constrictor )... but a CR 2 pet for a level 1 character is just nuts!

I'm guessing we should have a halfway stat block for pets, between companions and regular monsters. There is the Young Creature template, but it just doesn't seem enough for some higher level CR pets, say like a dinosaur (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monsterAdvancement.html )

Or maybe you could get pets using a similar system as the one for building encounters... calculating the amount of xp a monster is worth, relating it to your level somehow... dunno. As a GM, I'd just let you try to tame animals with similar levels to yours, to avoid balance issues with the rest of the party.

On what an animal can learn, is covered by Handle Animal also: An animal with an Intelligence score of 1 can learn a maximum of three tricks, while an animal with an Intelligence score of 2 can learn a maximum of six tricks.

And while there's no crow I could find, there are Raven familiar stats: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/familiar.html#_familiar


So are fleshrakers regular 3.5 D&D, not pathfinder? I am having trouble finding out anything about them beyond forum chatter... I found the MMIII, though, so I know they exist!

I have only taken in one other companion dinosaur (Arsinitherium), and had the duskhound since before that one. I rolled a few handle animal checks, then the DM stopped having me roll. I just announced that I trained, and he accepted it. :)

I am still unsure where to even find info on a duskhound, however. Should I work with the GM to write up stats somewhere between Goblin Dog companion stats and Worg stats, or do stats for this thing exist somewhere?

For the curious RPers, the Duskhound occurred as a blasphemous abomination between the goblin leader (I forgot what race she was... I don't think goblin...) and her very slutty mount and lover, her Worg. The Worg was the father of this one surviving little bastard baby after he raided the goblin dog pens one night... ewww... :p

Wow, when I think about it logically, I am pretty sure he said the Worg was an intelligent worg... which means this duskhound might be intelligent too! I need to investigate this further... hmmm...

Now, is the CR of an animal in the bestiary the same as it's level? Is that a fair way to determine if it is something I can tame? And on the same note, if it is a high CR monster that gets REALLY big (like a full grown Roc), can I get an egg/ newborn and raise it to full size as a 'pet', even if there are limits to size on 'companion'? Are these kind of up to the GM? I know I am asking a lot of questions, but it seems no one at the table has much experience with animal companions and pets beyond the occasional one-off familiar or regular ranger/ druid pet. No one specialized in animals, and no one seems to really know much about the rules, and it seems I am quickly becoming the expert, even though I am the most novice player... >.<

I read some guides, and the GM and the other experienced players seem to take what they say with a lot of raised eyebrows. Some things they just believe me on, and other things they tell me I need to find exact entries for, which is why I am concerned about trying to write my own stats for pets. Entries and rules don't exist, but pets are allowed and can be combat trained, so I am not sure what happened in the rule set to overlook this. Lots of time passes in our campaigns because we 'fast travel', which leaves me plenty of time to train up pets. My Handle Animal is really high, so I can take 10 with almost everything I train. When I begin to train in earnest, I will roll to see if I can train something better, but ultimately, the GM lets me train successfully if enough time is available to do so. I think I will use it as a litmus test as to when my circus gets out of control; if he is making me roll for every trick, he is sick of my animals. ;) I don't want to get too crazy, though, nor do I want to drag all the pets everywhere. I just want to be able to have reserves of specialists depending on where we are heading.

Sczarni

Kita_dawg wrote:
So are fleshrakers regular 3.5 D&D, not pathfinder? I am having trouble finding out anything about them beyond forum chatter... I found the MMIII, though, so I know they exist!

Yup MM3 was not open content, so owned by WotC

Kita_dawg wrote:


I am still unsure where to even find info on a duskhound, however. Should I work with the GM to write up stats somewhere between Goblin Dog companion stats and Worg stats, or do stats for this thing exist somewhere?

From Goblins of Golarion: "most dangerous breeds, though, is the duskhound. These goblin dogs possess the advanced creature template—in addition, their large red eyes afford them darkvision to a range of 60 feet." not sure if this is what our DM was going for though, so you should ask them


Thanks!

So... uh... how do I do an advanced creature template? Do I just take the base goblin dog and add the few things mentioned in Goblins of Golarion (low light vision, darkvision, scent, and 11 hp)?

Grand Lodge

...and yet, they don't have stats for a chicken.


blackbloodtroll wrote:
...and yet, they don't have stats for a chicken.

Heehee... this makes me think of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where Jones Sr. (Sean Connery) scares a flock of birds (they were seagulls, maybe?) into an oncoming fighter plane, causing them to crash into it and bring it down in a burning wreckage. :D I want to try swarms some time, but this GM said 'no way'!

One day...

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