Blackmill's page

Clone companion says

Each time you Command your companion, both your companion and its duplicate gain 2 actions.

How does this interact with feats such as lead the pack or companion's cry which change the number of actions an animal companion may take when commanded?

It seems to me that the most internally consistent resolution is for the duplicate to gain the same number of actions as the animal companion
(i.e. one with lead the pack and three with companion's cry).

What do you think?

The rules for riding animal companions limits the animal companion to grounded movement unless it has the "mount" ability.

You or an ally can ride your animal companion as long as it is at least one size larger than the rider. If it is carrying a rider, the animal companion can use only its land Speed, and it can't move and Support you on the same turn. However, if your companion has the mount special ability, it's especially suited for riding and ignores both of these restrictions.

However, to my knowledge not all megafuana companions have stats. In the case of the roc, we are told that a young roc has the stats of a bird, but we are not told the stats for a mature roc. Thus, we don't know if a mature roc has the "mount" ability.

Roc: Use bird statistics for a young roc.

Now, there are several reasons to think that an adult roc should have the "mount" trait, or otherwise be able to fly with a rider. This is not only logical, given the size of an adult roc, but even stated in the fluff

Particularly skilled druids or rangers might capture and train a roc to serve as a flying mount

From a RAI perspective, though, what is most relevant is the wording for the mammoth lord's trampling charge feat. This action requires that the mammoth lord is riding their mount, and clearly indicates that the animal companion can use special modes of movement, such as flying.

You urge your mount forward, trampling enemies in your path. You command your mount to Stride up to its Speed (or to Burrow, Climb, Fly, or Swim, if it has the corresponding movement type)

This leads me to my question. Seeing as everything seems to points towards an adult roc being capable of flight while ridden, is there anything RAW that undeniably leads to this conclusion?

Add the following lines to Wild Shape:

You may cast spells while in wild shape, even when in a battle form. However, you are stupefied 2 while in wild shape, and this condition cannot be removed by any means except by returning to your normal form. If you are immune to the stupefied condition, you cannot use wild shape. This does not allow you to cast spells with verbal components while in forms that lack speech. Similarly, you cannot cast spells with material or somatic components in forms that are incapable of performing manipulate actions.

Additionally, add the following line to Dragon Shape:

While using wild shape to polymorph into a dragon battle form, you gain the ability to speak.

For reference, the stupefied condition reads

You take a status penalty equal to this value on Intelligence-, Wisdom-, and Charisma-based checks and DCs, including Will saving throws, spell attack rolls, spell DCs, and skill checks that use these ability scores. Any time you attempt to Cast a Spell while stupefied, the spell is disrupted unless you succeed at a flat check with a DC equal to 5 + your stupefied value.

Essentially, this homebrew allows a druid in dragon form (via wild shape) to take a high risk gamble to cast a spell, and otherwise weakens all forms. I also like this change thematically, since one can interpret the druid failing to cast their spell as them not being able to control their inner beast.

1. What do you think?
2. Is the value for stupefied reasonable?
3. Would it be better to replace the stupefied condition with something less punishing, such as "to cast a spell while in wild shape, you must pass a DC 5 flat check"?