[PFS] Cold Blooded animals

[Koujow]

This is one of those logic vs rules kinds of question. Owning a pet iguana, I know that temperatures merely uncomfortable to us can be deadly to a lizard, but a friend and I were debating if this translates into the game in anyway. I could not think of any kind of special rules related to cold blooded animals, nor if they begin to freeze to death more quickly than warm blooded animals. But then again, we know they do.

The conversation began when I mentioned to them that I would like to play a character with a dinosaur companion one day and he mentioned that would suck since so many adventure's take place in mountains or tundra covered lands.

Of course, one could cast Endure Elements, but it is besides the point.

[Nefreet]

There are no Pathfinder rules for dealing with coldblooded creatures in cold climates (that I'm aware of, at least).

There are certainly no special Pathfinder Society rules regarding it.

[Cyrus Lanthier]

The verdict is still out on weather Dinosaurs were cold blooded, warm blooded, or something else entirely (warm and cold blooded are not exactly the preferred terminology at the moment). Birds (the closest things we have to dinosaurs, evolutionarily speaking) are what one would call warm-blooded in that they can regulate their body temperature much like a mammal can. Of course, if your GM says that dinosaurs are cold-blooded, I guess they are.

I would probably just give a penalty on saves against exposure to cold environments. -4 is quite significant but seems appropriate. It would be an ideal way to model what's happening, really, as taking any nonlethal damage from cold means that you're fatigued (no running/charging, which is pretty much a death sentence in the wild, over time). Maybe also call for a non-penalized cold-weather exposure save at a higher temprature than the normal rules call for (normally, you start making saves at 40 degrees or colder, maybe a crocodile has to start making saves at 55 degrees). All of this, of course, is house rules, but I don't think it's terrible house rules.

For more on environmental hazards (including the cold) try http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/environment/environmental-rules. It's in the core rulebook as well, but then you would have to dig for it.

Edit: Also, ninja'd. It's correct that there aren't any official rules on the subject at the moment, but I think that you both realized that.

[ellindsey]

You should point out to your GM that fossils of dinosaurs have been found in parts of the world that were at the time inside the Antarctic Circle. Also mention that many of them are now known to have feathers or other insulating body cover. Cold weather should not be a problem for having a dinosaur companion.