Animal companions and dungeons

[RaFon]

I was wondering how gms handle animal companions and dungeons, small tunnels, ladder, holes, etc.

I have a player with a wolf companion and the had to go down several ladders, so they just tied a rope around the creature and lowered him down.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

[Wargamer94]

me and my group tend to play a more kick in the door style play... so provided the one who "owns" the companion has a decent handle animal and such... and the ropes and a basic intelligence it just gets glazed over... also most companions will be hard to drag into dungeons without getting the come or heel tricks...

[Reynard_the_fox]

The spell Carry Companion or Hosteling Armor are your friends here. A Belt of the Weasel is great for squeezing large and huge creatures around dungeons too.

If it's early levels, though, you're probably leaving your horse outside. Medium animals can be carried when necessary assuming there's at least one strong character around.

[Damanta]

For non-flying animal companions who have to go down somewhere:

Spider Climb is always a great option, as is Air Walk provided there is room to descend at a 45 degree angle.

As for small tunnels:
Reduce animal is a fairly good one to use, as are the aforemented Carry Companion and Hosteling Armor.

It might also be an idea to have the companion invest 1 rank into acrobatics and take the Narrow Frame as not every animal has access to a belt slot.

[Devilkiller]

Seeing a DM ask how to help get animal companions into adventure sites instead of how to keep them out is kind of refreshing.

My halfling Paladin had a block and tackle to lower his "wargoat" into dungeons. Medium animals generally aren't that heavy, so moving them around needn't be a big challenge. Heck, a lot of times you practically have to lower and raise spellcasters in and out of dungeons until they get the magic to do it themselves. Speaking of magic, a wand of Levitation can be very helpful for moving animals though you might want to roleplay some Handle Animal checks for keeping the animal calm.

[Charon's Little Helper]

If it's a large animal companion - the Squeeze feat can be handy. My samurai's mount Maximus (yes - in roll20 I even use a pic of the horse from Tangled as his token) is going to take it next level. Though he still can't get everywhere. Of course - that's why I went samurai instead of cavalier - they don't lose nearly as much when their mount isn't about. (And resolve points are awesome. One saved me from being murderous commanded to full attack the party's squishy caster last night.)

[The Human Diversion]

I have a 10th level halfling shining knight paladin in PFS, and he jacked up his UMD and got a wand of spider climb and scrolls of fly for when the mount just can't get places on her own. Thankfully the mount is intelligent, so no need to use handle animal to do weird movement.