|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've got a player who's a Ranger with a little animal companion -- he really wanted a ferret, so I statted up one based on the weasel animal stats, adjusted to approximate the standard small animal companions.
The problem, is, he almost never actually uses the little guy. The party is level 6, meaning the ferret only has 3 HD (for a whopping 16 hp), and he's too afraid that the little sucker will get killed. It doesn't really do much damage, either -- bite +6 for 1d4, big whoop. But the ranger really *likes* the ferret, and wants to use him more often.
So the obvious idea is that he needs to use him for more non-combat stuff. Here's where I need some advice: what are some things that I could suggest for him to do? Scouting seems good; the Ranger can prep speak with animals and send the little guy off to scout. Are there any other things that could be cool?
Rename it "slayer of familiars" and teach it what is needed.
Watch Beastmaster. See everything he does with his ferrets. Let your player's ferret do those things?
But here's other things they can do: Steal/retrieve small items, deliver written messages, cut through ropes/straps.
While it gets the ferret into combat, if you actually made it a tiny creature and gave it lots of AC due to size, you could allow it to distract an opponent that it shares a square with while not attacking. basically let it be a flanking buddy without actually attacking... high dex, tiny size, and have the 'distract' be complete defense for even more AC.
Watch Beastmaster. See everything he does with his ferrets. Let your player's ferret do those things?
But here's other things they can do: Steal/retrieve small items, deliver written messages, cut through ropes/straps.
While it gets the ferret into combat, if you actually made it a tiny creature and gave it lots of AC due to size, you could allow it to distract an opponent that it shares a square with while not attacking. basically let it be a flanking buddy without actually attacking... high dex, tiny size, and have the 'distract' be complete defense for even more AC.
If you let a character/npc utilise total defence, there is no threat from the character as it's only actions is defence: no attacks of opportunaty, nor threat to provide a flank bonus. You could still use fight defensively for more AC.
|
Boon Companion can bring it up to full strength - it still probably won't be great on offense, but at least it won't die in one hit.
How about a custom item: the Ferret's Handysack. A little handy haversack that he can fill with alchemical items and command his ferret to use. Between that and loosening restrictions on tricks and whatnot he should be able to find plenty of utility for his little buddy.
IT can also use the Aid another action if he trains it with the Aid trick from the Animal Archive. You could tweak the Aid Trick to have it Aid on skill checks or saves, like giving a nip when someone gets Charmed to help snap him out of it.
The Deliver trick is a neat one too, let the ferret shuttle potions around to others in combat.
dotting this for ideas! Great ones!
I've been interested in the 'Flee' and 'Bombard' tricks especially. Though the latter requires flight.