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I know... That's what I've been telling the players but this dog just seems to always roll high for the trip. The PC has also been considering magic items as well as enchanting it's armour.

Also what magic items would you say that a dog could have? I'm probably going to allow rings (through ear) and amulets/collars. Any suggestions?

My players are

Thorgar (the Mighty): Shoati Druid/Barabarian -currently looking very un-shaotilike after being reincarnated as a human-

Zenovia : Varisian Sorceress -currently enjoying the joys of Fireball-

Cain :Halfling Rogue/Swashbuckler -looks like Christopher Walken wearing the Skinsaw Mask-

Eldarion: Human (chelexian? Absalom?) Cleric of Iomodae -Undead Whapper extrodinaire

Barik Anand - Dwarf Fighter (with Dwarf Fighter levels) - Already been planned as a giant killing machine

Hmmm... Thanks a lot for that. The main reason I asked about the Scemt thing is that they are about to enter the last part of The Skinshaw Murders and a certain baddie is going to be invisible.

As for combat effectiveness, this Dog has had rather jammy HD roles and is packing 50+ hitpoints. Not fantastic but often enough to attract the attention of something big for a will... It also has successfully tripped numerous big opponents for example Malfesnekor got broughht down by the dog.

Very good picture. I just wish I'd had this earlier to show my players. They captured Gogmurt and the PC barbarian/druid eventually let him go with the intention of tracking him down and just tormenting him.

Anyway... I ran a solo adventure with Thorgar (Barbarian 2/Druid 3) as he went off to check out the secret door in Thistletop that they left and find and torment Gogmurt.

He ended being ambushed by the now very hungry Bunyip (due to it's main food source being wiped out) and eventually with the aid of his Dog and Shalelu (who'd been trailing him) killed it... wandered into Thistletop and nearly died vs the Hermit Crab.

They then had a couple of hours wrestling the gold helmet out of Thistletop before camping for the night in Thistlewood.

The next day I had Shalalu find goblin tracks and the pair went off to 'Hunt some goblins' and eventually found Gogmurt. Now... I'd beefed him up a bit with a new Wolf companion as well as a pair of goblin rangers mounted on worgs.
Thorgar still thought it'd be a walk over (he's kinda got infinate confidence) and it was about half way through the fight that Gogmurt's 'secret' came out.

I'd decided previously that when Gogmurt realised that the entire Thistletop tribe had been killed he started to pray to Lamashtu to grant him vengence upon the PC's. Lamashtu answered by gifting the goblin druid with lycanthropy as a (natural) werewolf :) Needless to say Thorgar was mightly surprised and by the end of the fight Bono and Shalelu were both in the negatives, all the opponents were dead and Thorgar was on 1 hp.

Just a curiousity of mine as a DM. I was just wondering how other DM's handle PC's animal companions?
Do you let them just use them as an extension of the character or do you step in to 'play' the role of the companion.

The animal companion in my campaign is a Riding Dog called Bono and currently has the highest AC (due to it gaining/being taught Light Armour Proficiency and having Masterwork Hide Shirt) probably has the most impressive kill tally so far by killing most of the Thistletop Goblins by itself... It's now referred to amongst the goblins around Sandpoint as 'The Devil Dog'.

Anyway... Digressed there. I usually have a lot of ambushes being signalled by the dog barking or growling as it scents something. Do other DM's have the companions work like that?

Name of PC: Ragnar (also known as Ragnar the Timid and Ragnar the Chaste (through no fault of his own)

Class/Level:Human (from the Lands of the Linorm Kings) Fighter 3

Adventure: Burnt Offering

Catalyst: Yeth Hound to the Throat

Story: The party had cleared the top of Thistletop and had wandered down to the next level finding the Temple of Lamashtu. They kicked the door in and before anyone stepped in, both the Yeth hounds began howling. All bar one (Thorgar the Mighty Druid 2/Barbarian 1) ran off upstairs while Thorgar charged in and challenged the Yeth hounds to come get him.
Somehow... with no fudging from me he managed to hold off being floored for the 6-7 rounds it took for the party to return to help him. He dropped to -6 just as the other restormed the temple and the Varisian sorceress fired a volley of Magic Missles to get their attentions. Cue another fight and Shalelu using her wand of Cure Light to get Thorgar back up and the party killed one Yeth hound then started to hem in the last one. One critical later and Ragnar had his throat torn out by the Yeth hound.

Several days later they held the funeral for Ragnar on the beach at Sandpoint, burning him on a pyre as Thorgar (in his reincarnated form- more later) gave a speech that had us in stitches. A true heroes send off.

Name of PC: Thorgar (the Mighty)

Class/Level:Shoati Druid 2/Barbarian 1

Adventure: Burnt Offerings

Catalyst: Attempting to Overrun Nualia and being Death Knelled

Story:On the groups return to Thistletop (with a new dwarven fighter in tow to replace Ragnar) they fought their way through the 2nd level, catching Bruthazmus with his pants down (literally) in the harem and incinerating most of the room with a Burning Hands spell. They subdued Orik and were surprised how co-operative he was (after capturing Lyrie and getting a torrent of abuse from her). They ventured into the third level and found Nualia who's Yeth hound was swiftly slain and she bottlenecked the PC's for a time before Thorgar attempted to open a second front by Overrunning her... Cue a critical from Nualia and Thorgar dropped... She then paused to check if he was alive before casting Death Knell on him. They later managed to kill her and take Thorgar's body back.
Back at Sandpoint they were pulling their hair out as the questioned Madame Vavishti about who could reincarnate Thorgar who eventually pointed them to a 7th level Druid who lived about 4 days away. Even though Thorgar was killed by a death effect (Death Knell) I allowed them to bring him back (mainly cos we all thought Thorgar was brillant and his Riding Dog Companion Bono had the most kills in the party - The goblins called it the Devil Dog) and also because I couldn't understand why Nualia had a 18-20 threat range with her sword and he'd been criticalled on an 18.
He actually came back as a Human although this time he was a bit different being white and shorter (he views it as a bonus as he can go the Ven Vinders shop now and have another crack at Shayliss)