Animal companions, familiars, and 0 hit points

[Colette Brunel]

Do animal companions and familiars go dying at 0 hit points, as if they were PCs, or do they simply fall over and die at 0 hit points like any other NPC?

It looks like the "dying rather than dead at 0 hit points" stipulation is an exception, rather than the general rule. Is there a general rule that animal companions and familiars are classified as PCs for this purpose?

[panpear]

We had some questions about this while running a made up combat this weekend.

We assumed that the animal companion was treated like PCs, so started the 'dying' process for an animal companion that took a critical hit that immediately reduced it to 0 hit points.

The rules state that your initiative is moved ahead of the creature that knocked you. Cool. But the animal companion moves on the player's initiative - does that mean the player whose companion gets hurt would move their initiative? Or would there be an exception for companions?

We decided to keep the initiative as is, since the ranger immediately moved and healed their animal companion (as we presumed the goal of moving the initiative would be to give people time to get heals to their friends).

As for treating animal companions like NPCs, I don't think that would be the best idea. This animal companion dropped really quickly for a character that is commonly found in the fray of battle, so it would be a pain to go have to get a new animal companion all of the time with no way to recover one from death.

[The-Last-Rogue]

Was this answered?

[nogoodscallywag]

bump

[Themetricsystem]

Bumpity Bump

[Davick]

Is there a general rule? No. But it does say NPCs at the GM's discretion are treated like PCs.

[stacktdeck]

Are Animal Companions considered NPC's in 2E? They have the "Minion" trait, making them somewhat unique in terms of mechanics. For the sake of my players who (understandably) get as attached to their AC's as they do to their chars, the Devs really need to clarify this question: what happens to an Animal Companion it is reduced to 0 hit points?