One of my players wanted to enter his dog (not animal companion or familiar) into some illicit entertainment. He wanted to wager on his pet in a fight. Nice... I never had to deal with this before. So, I winged it.
He shows up with his dog, and faces off against the other owner... leash firmly in hand. I had the owners roll initiative checks in order to see who released their dog first, instead of the dogs'. Then it was a straight melee contest. Benji died - horribly.
How would you handle a dog fight? Did my method make sense?
And now the player wants to raise / train fighting dogs. Is there anything a player could reference for making "bigger badder" dogs, or is the only option out there right now the two dogs listed in the Monster Manual? I know Handle Animal allows characters to teach animals tricks, but it seems the alternatives won't give him much leeway. Any pointers?
It sounds like you ran it fine to me. Straight combat between the dogs. As for how to make bigger badder dogs. I think you could just use the advancement rules like you would for monsters. I'm not positive if that will work, but hopefully you will get some more responses.
Beldar
The characters in my AP weren't interested in entering any dogs in the fights themselves but were interested in a bit more detail than "you won your bet" or "you lost". To be honest it didn't even occur to me to engage the dogs in actual combat. I too "winged it" but this is how I handled it ...
I assumed each dog had training in "dog fighting". I made up names for ten dogs and then rolled a d10 to randomly ascribe individual fighting feat bonuses (to represent their past experiences or training, if any). So suppose Snarler enters the ring with a +5 bonus against Fang with a +3 bonus. Each dog rolls an opposed check and whoever wins - well... wins the match. The winner is then granted a temporary circumstance bonus of +1 for each recent fight it has consecutively won and a temporary circumstance penalty of -1 for each recent fight the dog has consecutively lost. I then had the PCs roll their gambling checks (or nature knowledge/ranger/druid checks) and if successful, gave them a chance to determine (before the fight) which dog had the higher bonus and was therefore more likely to win. This worked really well. I decided a natural 20 on the dogs' fighting skill check had the potential to be a death blow and in the first night of dog fights - two animals were killed (which resulted in a +2 circumstance bonus to the "killer" dog). I'm sure many of you can (and probably will) point out flaws in my system but it worked really well for me and something similar might work for you. If characters want to train their own dogs, a successful training result would possibly result in a +1 on their fighting skill bonus.
Anyway, that's what worked for me.
IRL, when a dog looses a fight, he's dead. The only chance of survival (per D&D rules) would be when/if the owner of the victor pulls him off the loser's throat before it goes to -10 hp.
At any rate, your random bonuses / betting system has some merit. I must confess, however, that I didn't even know that dog fighting was mentioned in the Diamond Lake backdrop article. I saw rat racing, and the like, but just assumed dog (and c0ck) fighting would happen.
Oh, if your players would like a chance to PLAY a game of chance, have them play Dragonchess against the computer (you can download it off the web), or buy Three-Dragon Ante (a card game which would go great in DL's parlors and pubs. Backgammon would work as well.
Back to the dogs...
I checked the MM entry, and there is nothing listed under "Advancement," so I'm thinking that might not work. It wouldn't really make sense anyway, since this would kindof hedge out the uniqueness of a familiar or animal companion. That, and most dogs don't last too long in a life of fighting - even the best rarely win more than a dozen hard fights.
And now the player wants to raise / train fighting dogs. Is there anything a player could reference for making "bigger badder" dogs, or is the only option out there right now the two dogs listed in the Monster Manual? I know Handle Animal allows characters to teach animals tricks, but it seems the alternatives won't give him much leeway. Any pointers?
Alternate canines, and templates. The following creatures could possibly be disguised as merely extremely aggressive, savage dogs (if nothing else, a collar of disguise that functions similarly to a hat of disguise could facilitate such a deception):
* Barghest (A contract might be struck with such an evil creature)* Blink Dog
* Dire Rat
* Hell Hound (see Barghest)
* Krenshar
* A Weredog, Wererat, or Werewolf
* Shadow Mastiff
* Worg
* Yeth Hound (see Barghest)
* Hyena (like the riding dog, but faster and thinner-skinned, and can be advanced a bit)
* Wolf (very similar to the hyena)
* Legendary Wolf (Monster Manual II and a few other sources. FTW)
* Monster of Legend (Monster Manual II. A dog of legend with frightful presence, greater damage, and haste, would also be the win)
* Warbeast (Monster Manual II. Makes an animal better at combat.)
* Spellwarped (Monster Manual III. Even if spells don't get cast at your dog, it's still a heck of a lot more powerful. But now it's an evil aberration with a 6 Int, so you'll have to do some convincing to get it to fight for you)
* Magebred (Eberron Campaign Setting. Great for tweaking animals. It's like warbeast but with more variety)
* Horrid (Eberron Campaign Setting. Can be applied to any dire animal to make it dire-er)
* Gravehound (Miniature's Handbook - requires a Cleric to control it)
Most of the creatures I just listed have Intelligence scores of 6 or higher, so the potential gambler must do some bargaining.
Dog fighting is the main attraction at the Feral Dog, presumably where the PCs are most likely to run into/track down Kullen and his gang. The PCs in my group chose to go there early on in the Whispering Cairn adventure before they were even aware of Kullen's connection.
I don't know all the mechanics involved in 3.x edition but I do know that your average dog is not just sacrificed in the dog pit. Owners train the dog to fight (and specifically to fight other dogs). Even an ill-tempered heavily-muscled beast is going to fare poorly against a trained scrapper. It's a little like boxing, I could defend myself sufficiently in a bar fight or something but I'm going to get my *ss handed to me if I entered the ring with a trained fighter.
I actually used your system last night to simulate the dogfights at the Feral Dog. Two of my PC's jumped right in and started betting (frequently against each other). The other two players didn't participate, but they were working on their character sheets, anyway. It wasn't the most interesting thing we've ever done, but it added flavor and helped me kill some time since I wasn't prepared for the evening anyway.
Oh, and 'Willie' (named after Patton's sissy dog) upset 'Growler' (the local champion) in the semifinal, then beat Lassie to win the championshio. Lassie had to first get by 'Taco' the chihuahua in the semis. Taco and Willie were the only two dogs to score 'kills' in the contest.
Here's the matchups, if anybody cares:
Name HP AC Attack Dmg
Growler 6 16 4 d4+1
Snarl 9 13 4 d4+1
Fang 9 13 3 d4+1
Willie 6 16 2 d4+1
Rex 8 14 3 d4+1
Lassie 7 15 4 d4+1
King 6 16 1 d4+1
Taco 7 15 3 d4+1
Dog fighting is the main attraction at the Feral Dog, presumably where the PCs are most likely to run into/track down Kullen and his gang.
I must have glossed right over that part. I'll have to read it again when I get home.
Adding my two coppers :
I will also take into account the training the dogs receive from their masters by granting a +1 circumstance bonus to melee attacks to the animal whose master wins an opposed Handle Animal skill check.
Bran.
The feat Augment Summoning provides the creatures summoned with a +4 STR and CON for the duration of the spell. I think it would be reasonable that someone could take a "Dog Fight Trainer" feat and animals they successfully trained would get the same bonus when in the ring.
Sean Mahoney
Maybe the best trained dogs have maximum hit points, or possibly Con and Str increases as well?