I Gave the Party a Pack of Dire Dogs

[cranewings]

In my last game, read about it here the party got a pack of 4 big dogs that they were repeatedly warned were very dangerous. People told the party on more than one occasion that they were territorial and dangerous, and when the party walked up to them, their handler ran at the group and stopped them.

As it is right now, the party barbarian rolled a natural 20 on his handle animal and has been feeding them, and there is a DMPC they just picked up who is used to handling them, but he is just a first level boy while the party is 4-5th level and the dogs are all 2+ hit dice.

The game ended right after the party took possession of them. Any advice on how I handle it? The party owns a keep and while they have some land, they also have a lot of peons around that could get eaten by these things.

[Phasics]

depends

if you feel like screwing with your character begin a string a mauling murders that happen every few nights. The dogs are blamed but thier pen is undamaged and no blood is found on them in the morning.

The town starts demanding the animals are put down the PC's no doubt will want to prevent that and thus must solve the murders which could either be some other wild critter or some bbeg who is teleporting the animals out of their pens whipping them into a frenzy against some poor villager and then returning them before morning. Perhaps even leaving illusions in their place to fool the PC who stay up to watch the pens.

Either way the PC need to work to keep them as the villagers are turning against them for keeping them and they can't risk brining them out of the pen lest the villagers mob and try to kill them.

Of course it doesn't even need to stop there you can have family members of killed villager trying to frame the dog even after the real culprits are caught etc etc

no such thing as a free lunch in Pathfinder ;)

[aech]

firstly, a natural 20 doesn't equal a critical success on skill checks (they can't crit fail or succeed) so unless 20 plus his handle skill equaled your DC modifier they aren't 'handled'

secondly, do you want them to keep the dogs? If you want to include them in the story or see your players use them advise them that they're dangerous wild animals that need to be properly caged, maybe see an animal trainer in town etc to find out specifics.

if, however, you don't want to keep the dogs then just have them escape, eat the stable hand and whoever gets in their way on the way out of town. wild animals kill things, that's why adventurers go out and kill them

[aech]

Phasics wrote:

if you feel like screwing with your character begin a string a mauling murders that happen every few nights. The dogs are blamed but thier pen is undamaged and no blood is found on them in the morning.

The town starts demanding the animals are put down the PC's no doubt will want to prevent that and thus must solve the murders which could either be some other wild critter or some bbeg who is teleporting the animals out of their pens whipping them into a frenzy against some poor villager and then returning them before morning. Perhaps even leaving illusions in their place to fool the PC who stay up to watch the pens.

no such thing as a free lunch in Pathfinder ;)

also this, this is also good

[Jak the Looney Alchemist]

uh... ask the party if they want to keep them or not? If so have them roll handle animal checks to train them to not eat the peons. If the boy can handle them then he could possibly do it himself. The answer to that depends really on what you want to do with the dogs and what the party wants to do with them. If you want to bring them into another plot point then go for it. If they want to make them guard hounds I don't really see a reason why they couldn't.

The way the handle animal rules are written they aren't really going to be useful in combat so it isn't like you've given them anything other than a nice bit of party background unless you rule it otherwise.

[cranewings]

I would like them to keep the dogs, or at least I don't care. They seem really into the idea.

The dogs have already been trained by their previous dead owner. They can defend, heel, retrieve, stay, but their nature is to be difficult and wild. They won't stay without supervision and they will attack anything that violates their territory or appears threatening.

[Jak the Looney Alchemist]

Hmm. That is a toughie. They could go about trying to get the dogs familiarized with everyone on the land/keep. They really need the down and guard tricks and possibly a permanent minder. If their intelligence is two they could be trained with those and that might solve the problem. That would probably take weeks of training and then you'd still have to watch out for them mauling the proverbial milk man if their minder isn't present. If the dogs aren't hostile to the party they could always bring them along while out of town and build a large kennel for while they're in town. No chance anyone is interested in becoming a packlord druid?

[cranewings]

I think a 2 INT is fair for the dogs.

[Crowe]

aech wrote:

Phasics wrote:

if you feel like screwing with your character begin a string a mauling murders that happen every few nights. The dogs are blamed but thier pen is undamaged and no blood is found on them in the morning.

The town starts demanding the animals are put down the PC's no doubt will want to prevent that and thus must solve the murders which could either be some other wild critter or some bbeg who is teleporting the animals out of their pens whipping them into a frenzy against some poor villager and then returning them before morning. Perhaps even leaving illusions in their place to fool the PC who stay up to watch the pens.

no such thing as a free lunch in Pathfinder ;)

also this, this is also good

I think so too, specially if perhaps the real perps are Barghests