Taking the Beast With You

[Larry Lichman]

Now that the Trial of the Beast is over, my players want to take the Beast with them now that they have cleared his name. On the surface, this seems fine, as the text at the Conclusion of the adventure indicates that the Beast indicates they are now his best friends. I'm wondering about downstream ramifications.

Has anyone else allowed the Beast to accompany the PCs through the rest of the Adventure Path? If so, what challenges did you face? Did you have to level up the Beast to keep him relevant? How did it impact the campaign?

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated!

[MurphysParadox]

Well, he's a CR 13 (pulling from memory), which means he's a serious powerhouse and the party is about half his level at the end of TotB. I suppose you could get rid of his Barbarian levels and drop him to a level 8 (I believe he's got 5 levels of barb).

He's immune to magic, he's a large creature, and he's a flesh golem. He won't be accepted by most people (townsfolk run screaming, guards attack on sight). His magic immunity means he can just walk up to casters and start punching them until they don't move any more.

However, you can still manage it if you want. Drop the barbarian levels, though make that his class of choice when he gains levels. Set his current level equal to his CR minus the stat block's barbarian levels. Make him very reluctant to go anywhere near settlements because of how bad things went lately (so he's just hanging out in the woods around the Lodge in book 3, for example, which could lead to fun conversations about a new target for a hunt by the huntsman, maybe even have Durnistag... Durasta... the werewolf hunter, try to get the players to hunt him down, heh).

Ensure the spell casters in the game have a few fire spells for the slowdown effect, because otherwise it won't be a very fast fight. Also ensure your players know that CLW doesn't work on flesh golems (you'd need to use electricity or, if you are generous, the mending spell).

As the party gains level, have him choose Barbarian. I'd suggest keeping him a level behind the players since he has so many other things going for him.

[IdiotDogBrain]

My wife did take the Beast with her. I asked her to take the Leadership feat. I also removed all the beasts class levels. We treated the Beast as a 7th level cohort. That was a bit to much for the characters at this point but since they where fighting werewolfes the next few sessions the beast did not matter to much. After her character was allowed to have an 8th level cohort she stared adding barbarian class levels.

The Beast is a fun cohort. Dumb enough so you can forgett about him in some scenes and always good as the comic reliefe character.

We are now in the midst of Ashes at Dawn and so far the Beast was not a problem power wise. He has some neat powers but also some major drawbacks- like not being able to heal through channels or cure spells. This way he always needs extra actions and preparation...

I also always play up the reaction of people meeting the giant Beast. My wife coped with that by specialising on the Disguise skill and comes up with better and better costumes the beast can wear.

[A Ninja]

Have him travel with the party, if he provides too much power have Count Caromarc use the Bondslave Thrall to call him back for some reason or another.

[JOHN DICKERSON]

The leadership idea is the only reasonable way to do this.

However, remember that the Beast has a very child like mind, so he probably not going to want to leave his father far behind him.

If you let the PC's take the beast, as written in the adventure path, with them, he will outshine all of them in combat, and the rest of the path will be signifigantly less fun.

Fighting werewolfs? The Beast can't be diseased.
Fighting necromancers? The beast is immune to thier spells.
Fighting undead? The Beast is immune to their status draining effects.

[Larry Lichman]

Thanks for the feedback, guys! I like the Leadership option. The Paladin has taken a shine to the Beast, and this may be a good way for him to "reform" the Beast.

Thanks for all of your suggestions.