Advice for a character sleep schedule

[Aod43254]

Ok so first off, if you are in my party I know you are gonna end up thinking I am just complaining because of the situation.

Ok so I need some advice, I am GM'ing for a group of friends and recently one of them who's character died decided to roll a Druid, nothing wrong with that. The thing I need advice with is the player is basically using his animal companion, an ape, to stand guard at night and sleep during the day, I had nothing wrong with that when he informed decided to try it. But here is where the issue comes in, the ape is woken up for every encounter thus interrupting its sleep, so it is effectively staying up all night taking a nap then getting up exerting itself then going back to sleep until next encounter or night when it will stand guard for the sleeping party.

It strikes me as the ape should be fatigued unless it gets a full 8 hours of sleep, but I haven't found anywhere that it states the 8 hours need to be straight and can't be spread out like the player is doing. How would yall handle this situation, I asked the player to give me a write-up of his ape's sleep schedule and am hoping he has something for me tomorrow (well actually later today, Friday) but am doubtful. And I know I am the GM so my word is ultimately law but if the sleep can be spread out then I don't want to just say he can't do what he is doing just because I don't like it.

~Aod43254

[Magicdealer]

Well, assuming the ape is up all night, roughly eight hours, it's got sixteen hours to sleep. Some of that is interrupted by combat, true, but that seems like plenty of time to sleep. Going from exhausted to fatigued requires just one hour of sleep. It's common to sleep for six hours, and be active the rest of the day. I'd say as long as the ape has some way to sleep without being disturbed *excepting the few minutes each day spent in combat*, he should have plenty of time to get his rest.

What if the player couldn't have his ape stay up all night and fight? Then the players would rotate watch schedules, and nothing much would change except for an ape that's awake during the day to add to the perception rolls.

Worst case, have the ape be fatigued during combat. That is, if you really just don't want the player using his animal companion to guard him while he sleeps.

[MC Edgar Allan Floe]

Here's some thoughts having nothing to do with fatigue that you may or may not have considered:

As animal companions have low int and limited ability to communicate through normal means, you might want to take a look at what tricks the ape is trained in. If he doesn't have the 'guard' trick (IIRC that's what it's called), the druid should have to make a handle animal check just to get the ape to do what he wants to do. And that's just at night for the watch. I don't think there is a clear precedent on ordering an animal to sleep, so that's up you as far as a Handle Animal check DC. I realize that druids and companions are extraordinarily close, but wouldn't trying to tell an adrenaline-fueled ape who just got out of battle "OK, time to go back sleep now" be pretty challenging? Also, how are they packing him around?

On the other hand, you could just handwave all this because what your player came up with isn't gamebreaking. I'd bet the druid might just be trying to streamline things at the table, and is accepting some disadvantages to do so by having one ally vulnerable during ambushes and traps.

If you really wanted to be devious, you lull your PCs into a false sense of security by letting this setup work without a hitch for a while, and then catch them off guard with a nasty nighttime ambush. It can't be that hard to come up with something that could thwart one animal on guard with low int, low will saves, no ability to psychically communicate like a familiar and no darkvision. Then the PCs are at your mercy, unless they have some other protection like an alarm spell.

Edit: Changed wording to reflect that the companion was an ape, not a guerilla. Although I suppose that depending the tactics of your party, it is possible that he is both an ape and a guerilla. ;)

Also, I'm pretty sure the DC to order an animal to sleep would be 25, or 27 if it was injured. That's feasible even at low levels with the druid's bonuses to handle animal, but not a given until higher levels.

[karkon]

To extend on Jason's idead;

1st it is likely trained to guard as the combat suite includes guard and most AC have the combat suite. Still check that it has guard.

2nd if you do night time encounters I am fairly sure the Ape's perception will stink. AC have limited skills. In fact you might want to check the write up of the AC before trying to call for a skill check. Also ape's have low light vision but is likely standing in an area of light meaning that creatures with any vision will have an easy time seeing the camp but the ape will have a hard time seeing them.

3rd Once the Ape is one "guard" it follows what the guard trick says "Guard (DC 20): The animal stays in place and prevents others from approaching." So the Ape will not wake people up or make alarm sounds. It will just attack and try to keep them away. Of course if it fails its perception check then it does not even act.

If something outside the trick occurs then it will do nothing. For example a wizard stands away from camp and starts casting a spell. If the wizard is not approaching then the trick does not make it attack.

In summary, the ape is a poor guardian. If they want to let it guard then be sure to remember its limitations.

If the Ape has 3 intelligence it might make a slightly better guardian but I would not let it figure out an ambush or other intelligent tactics.