I have a barbarian in my campaign who has been putting points into Handle Animal. He also took the Animal Affinity feat at first level. Part of his starting equipment included a guard dog that he had trained from a puppy. We're playing in the Age of Worms campaign, so as you can imagine, his puppy didn't last that long. Longer than I expected though (mostly because he kept it in his backpack 90% of the time).
Anyway, much time has passed and the group is now visiting a major city. The barbarian is currently 7th level, and he's looking to replace his lost puppy. Preferably with something already trained because he no longer has the time to train it. I will probably offer a couple of normal animals for him to pick through if he wants, but I was looking to reward him and the party for good play etc. So I searched for something with a little more wallop.
Enter the Gray Render. The description indicates that they sometimes imprint on humanoids. Perfect, I thought. Plus, it should be able to hold it's own more than a 5hp dog which doesn't really gain levels. My tentative plan was to reduce it to 4th level and a medium-sized (juvenile) creature. Then, I thought that the barbarian would be given a chance to imprint it by entering into a wrestling match. The Render would be dealing lethal damage of course. If the barbarian could pin it (for 3 rounds?) then it might imprint on a new Daddy. After that, my plan was to advance it as a cohort. It would grow as it aged and become a large creature at level 8 or 9. Eventually it could reach huge, if it lives that long.
Does anyone have any critiques or suggestions? I realize that the Render isn't actually an "animal". It's a beast. But, why not stretch the rules a little in the name of fun? It has an intelligence of 3, making it smarter than an animal, but still pretty dang stupid. What kind of tricks might it know already? Guard for sure. It seems to me that the trick might be getting it not to attack everything that it perceives as a threat...
How much would an amazing creature like this be worth? It'd probably be some sort of black market transaction, and I imagine that it's current owners are pretty interested in getting rid of it since it hasn't imprinted on anything and is probably wreaking a little havoc.
Anyway, thanks for helping me to fine tune this idea.
I'm surprised he didn't adopt the baby owlbear at the Land farm.
As far as choices for trainable animals, skim through the druid's animal companion lists for ideas. For an adventurer, purchasing an Int 2 animal pre-trained for the purpose of guarding, then training for the additional tricks attack all creatures and come is probably the most useful.
There's also something fitting about the idea of a barbarian with a pet dire wolverine...
Yeah, well, he was pretty interested in it at the time, but I was leery of adapting the owl bear to be trainableat that point int he game. This is my first time as a DM after all, and that was early in the process. Now that I have a few more months under my belt, I'm feeling a little more cocky and adventuresome. (Fool!)
Also, the player was pretty excited about the 3,000 gp price which he got for the little menace. Part of me admires the symmetry of charging 3,000 gp for the Render. Look! put your 3,000 gp into the DM-bank, wait for 6 levels and as many months, and presto! Your little owl-bear has turned into a ferocious Gray Render which will level up alongside of you! Cool bank.
However, I'm still concerned that I'm just making trouble for myself with the whole idea and that such a creature will be too powerful for the party. But the barbarian has devoted a number of skill points, a feat, and is willing to fork over some serious cash for this little side-plot. So I'm pretty happy to play along.
If you are not absolutely sure about things then don't. Don't have my books with me here so I can't check how powerful it is but I'd say rather don't then risk ruining your first campaign.
That and I have some bad experience with a DM gifting a Grey Render to one of our party. After he ate the rogue AND the next seven encounters alive, we got rid of him.
Director of Narrative
|
If you want to use a normal animal there are ways to advance them or just add templates like this.
There's nothing wrong with adding a monster to the party, but there are a few things to keep in mind. Rift brought up the most obvious one with the rogue appetizer example, and having a grey render in tow makes going into town more dificult without attracting the wrong kind of attention.
There's nothing wrong with adding a monster to the party, but there are a few things to keep in mind. Rift brought up the most obvious one with the rogue appetizer example, and having a grey render in tow makes going into town more dificult without attracting the wrong kind of attention.
Thanks for the link Daigle.
Yes, I understand that the Grey Render has challenges associated with it. "With great power comes a few headaches." That's part of the price and fun of having such a creature as part of the party - dealing with the repurcussions. Especially in the city. I have a feeling that it might not survive that long either, but we'll see.
As far as not being sure about it and therefore leaving it out...well I'm kind of not sure about any of this stuff! Hence the fun and the learning curve! I understand the sentiment behind the comment though. I'm willing to take a few risks as a DM, because I think that my players will support me if it all goes horribly wrong. I'm hoping though, that the collective wisdom around here will continue to help me avoid "horribly wrong". Thanks for the thoughts so far!
I've run Grey Renders a lot (personal favorite). With a savage species style breakdown of it's hit dice, you could easily keep it near the party in power level. Run it as a cohort: keep it 2 levels below the barbarian. Heck, I think they actually have a listed level adjustment as cohorts, so you're good to go.
Renders, once bonded, are amiable critters who defend their charges and provide them with meat every day. Play up that it might be challenging to get it to attack other creatures, but once another creature attacks the barbarian, the render is unstoppable. Literally. Renders don't back down. Consider making the "down" command suffer a -10 or even -20 penalty if the Render's bonded PC gets attacked.
Regarding training time, consult Arms and Equipment guide on training smarter creatures, along with Complete Adventurer. Perhaps the Render's bonded PC gets a +5 or +10 bonus to "push" it to do tricks it doesn't know yet.
As long as the render is capable enough in melee to not be a liability, and isn't so powerful as to overshadow the real melee PCs, it should work just fine.
But trust me, if the PCs find a suit of large heavy fortification +2 full plate, watch out. At high levels the AC is the only thing a render doesn't have going for it (besides the problems of natural attacks and DR).
I say run with the Render. I agree with most of Black Bard's comments, but disagree on the point of the Render's power at high level play. Assuming you are not advancing the Render as play advances, you'll run into the same problem with the Render that you had with a guard dog. When you hit later adventures such as Library of Last Resort, and those that come after it, the Render is going to get smoked like a joint in jail. And you cant put a Render in a backpack.
I'd advance the Render as play progresses and treat its power level to something akin to a cohort - tough enough to survive, but not tough enough to steal the spotlight from a real PC. Have the Barbarion sink more FEATS to accomplish this.