Combat animal death


Pathfinder Society

Grand Lodge 3/5

Hello everyone,

According to that FAQ, "during the course of a scenario, you may have one combat animal and as many noncombat animals as you
like." If I have one combat animal, one noncombat animal and my combat animal dies gefore the end of a scenario, can I switch to my noncombat animal for the remaining combats ?

Thanks in advance.

2/5

If you swith in the middle there it will be 2 combat animals during the course of a scenario, no?.

Yes, it's only one at a given time, but the FAQ says "during the course of a scenario".

The Exchange 2/5

Oykiv wrote:

If you swith in the middle there it will be 2 combat animals during the course of a scenario, no?.

Yes, it's only one at a given time, but the FAQ says "during the course of a scenario".

At no point during the course of the scenario would he have more than one combat animal though.

It's ok to switch combat animals. The limit is there to prevent a player's turn from taking too long as they account for the actions of multiple animals.


Agree with Oykiv. It's "during the course of a scenario" according to FAQ and not "during the course of a combat." That prevents people from burning through one pet's resources (hit points, SLAs, etc) and switching to a fresh one each combat. I don't know how exploitable that actually would be, though.

Reading that FAQ question/answer again, it says that I can have multiple pets as long as they don't engage in combat and aren't "disruptive." That implies that I could have a Familiar, Eidolon, and Animal Companion if only the AC engaged in combat (although the GM has the explicit right to make me leave one of them behind). I'd always thought that I couldn't have both an AC and a familiar.

5/5 5/55/55/5

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DM's call

I'd be fine with it.

The purpose of the rule is to keep your turn from taking half an hour with all your pets going. If your critters tag out you avoid that problem.

Silver Crusade 5/5 5/5 **

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For me, whether I'd allow it would depend on circumstances.

Large group, probably not. Group ROTFL stomping scenario, probably not.

Group struggling to succeed, sure

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

Since you can't spam purchase high CR critters anymore, I doubt that a handful of Riding Dogs will alter the course of a combat.

Silver Crusade 4/5

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There are plenty of people who generate enough spam just casting Summon Monster spells. Having one combat animal that replaces the one who died/retreated/was sacrificed to the gods for good luck on the missions/whatever doesn't seem excessive to me.

But again, I'd call this an "expect table variation" question. Nobody should be planning in advance to do this often enough to need a definite ruling.

3/5

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FAQ wrote:
If you have more than one class-granted animal companion (or eidolon), you must choose which will be considered the combat animal at the start of the scenario.

I fear that this strongly implies that Oykiv is correct, but I still lean towards allowing tagging out, and 'only one' means 'only one at a time' without official comment.

Scarab Sages

Fromper wrote:

There are plenty of people who generate enough spam just casting Summon Monster spells. Having one combat animal that replaces the one who died/retreated/was sacrificed to the gods for good luck on the missions/whatever doesn't seem excessive to me.

But again, I'd call this an "expect table variation" question. Nobody should be planning in advance to do this often enough to need a definite ruling.

Been wondering about this one. Is a summoned animal considered a combat animal? Am I only allowed a single summoned creature at a time?

3/5

Murdock Mudeater wrote:
Fromper wrote:

There are plenty of people who generate enough spam just casting Summon Monster spells. Having one combat animal that replaces the one who died/retreated/was sacrificed to the gods for good luck on the missions/whatever doesn't seem excessive to me.

But again, I'd call this an "expect table variation" question. Nobody should be planning in advance to do this often enough to need a definite ruling.

Been wondering about this one. Is a summoned animal considered a combat animal? Am I only allowed a single summoned creature at a time?

A summoned animal is a spell effect, not a combat animal.

The Exchange 5/5

here's a link to an old thread where I asked much the same question...

Second Mount in a Game...Dec 2, 2011.

At the time I avoided asking what would happen if the PC was to buy a replacement animal in the middle of the game. I mean, can a PC who has one mount shot out from under him, buy a second one, and then use it? Or are Re-Mounts not allowed?

The Exchange 4/5 5/5

dragonhunterq wrote:
FAQ wrote:
If you have more than one class-granted animal companion (or eidolon), you must choose which will be considered the combat animal at the start of the scenario.
I fear that this strongly implies that Oykiv is correct, but I still lean towards allowing tagging out, and 'only one' means 'only one at a time' without official comment.

But don't forget the end of the FAQ entry (bolding mine):

FAQ wrote:
In general, a mount, a familiar or mundane pet, and your class-granted animal(s) are acceptable, but more than that can be disruptive.

That seems to indicate the whole point is to avoid disruption. So I'm fine with bringing in another companion if the one you designated as your "combat animal" dies. (Between combats. And if there is a narrative space to allow it. By which I mean your companion won't just "poof" into existence, you need to have some way of bringing it to you. Hosteling armor, casting carry companion or other methods that make sense.)

As for "swapping" companions (without the first one dying) I'm a little bit more ambivalent. I can't immediately come up with a case where you would be "more powerful" by having multiple animals (one at a time) than one more focused animal but I bet it does exist. Still, if you choose to build that way I'd be tempted to allow it, subject to the same points as before. In the case of a dead companion - and the penalties that imposes - it is pretty clear you aren't going to be killing them off on purpose so I'm definitely fine with that.

Grand Lodge 3/5

Thanks for your answers.

3/5 **** Venture-Agent, Massachusetts—Boston Metro

Kevin Willis wrote:


As for "swapping" companions (without the first one dying) I'm a little bit more ambivalent. I can't immediately come up with a case where you would be "more powerful" by having multiple animals (one at a time) than one more focused animal but I bet it does exist. Still, if you choose to build that way I'd be tempted to allow it, subject to the same points as before. In the case of a dead companion - and the penalties that imposes - it is pretty clear you aren't going to be killing them off on purpose so I'm definitely fine with that.

The only legal case that exists is the Occultist which is the only class I can think of that pushes the rules of how many combat animals you can have.

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