Topic: Question about animal companions

[Ruffie]

Greetings,

A member of our group is an elven dabbler who at char creation got himself a wolf animal companion. All was fine and dandy and we used the stats for wolves in creatures and monsters. Now however he is wondering if there is a way to levelup as his own character gains ranks. He is quickly approaching level 10 and the overal powerlevel of enemies is growing. His wolf is near death most of the time now and becoming useless.

How would you handle this situation?

[Cory Magel]

I might create a sort of basic profession template or just have the GM control how the creatures various numbers improved over time, but I would find a way to keep the animal companion relevant to the level of the campaign (so long as it wasn't overpowering that character).

If I ever find the time and decide to try to formally work up an idea for another companion I've been toying with forever (for Rangers, Druids, etc) you also just gave a perfect idea for more content.

[rdanhenry]

In RMU, I'd say just level up the wolf when the character does. Technically, you could do this in RMSS (or RM2), but the effects were relatively minimal, and the rules never even addressed things like the wolf's Stealth skills or perception skills (and not having a wolf companion be a tracker is kind of a waste of a wolf companion). For RMSS, I'd have been house ruling stuff from the beginning to cover basic non-combat skills and would level the animal as seemed appropriate.

[jdale]

You should definitely write that.

My feeling is that the player should be making some kind of investment. That could be a spell list, for example I have a list in my game that is like Animal Bonding (from the Mentalism Companion) and Familiar Mastery (Essence Companion), but there are spells at various points that increase the total number of levels of bonded creatures. I've let the player decide whether to increase their existing companion's level or add a new companion (so far they have always picked the former). In between those advancement points there are spells for communication, sensing, casting through, healing, etc through/of the companion. (I might have posted it somewhere but I couldn't find it, so maybe not.)

In RMU, you could also treat it as a talent where the tier is the creature's level. It could either be a fixed level (e.g. level = tier) or relative (e.g. level = the PC's level minus X plus the tier). RMSS doesn't really have a mechanism for spending DP on things that are not skills as you advance in level but you could do it anyway.

If the companion level is lagging the level of the PC by maybe 3-4 levels it probably won't create many issues to let it advance for free, but if it is closer to the PC level it is a big advantage. Likely you had it start above the level of the PC so leveling to stay ahead or even just equal the PC level is really a huge benefit.

But it's definitely true that an animal companion that doesn't level will gradually become irrelevant.

[RandalThor]

You could go with the idea that it wasn't actually a wolf, but mystical wolf-creature and if they (the PC) do/get/learn something they can "awaken" the true nature (i.e. level it up). This could be just improving of existing abilities, gaining whole new abilities, or (my preference) both. Have fun. It's a magical world out there.

[MisterK]

In my opinion, you first have to decide whether it is something natural, or triggered by the character.

If it is something natural, it means all animals tend to evolve and improve over time. I would then suggest to use a variant of the Level Chart found in section 2.2 of the Creatures and Monsters, that would determine advancement, plus possibly a constitution increase as per table in section 2.4. In this case, the creature gains no special ability, but you still have to determine its *natural* abilities (such as tracking by scent for a wolf) and improve them accordingly.

If it is something triggered, I would go with JDale's suggestion : come up with a spell list that does that. I would personally make it work like an alchemy list, in that when you have a spell to improve the bonded creature (let's say, a spell that increases its level, or improves its defenses, or gives it a special ability), you have to cast the spell every day for X days before the effect becomes imbued in the creature. As JDale proposed, other spells on the list could be used to interact with the creature (communicate, heal, borrow senses, sense through, share natural ability...). In this case, the animal becomes an enchanted creature after the first imbuing spell has been completed.

[netbat]

You might want to rethink what the animal companion is and how it is used. While at low levels animals may be as good or better than frontline fighters, I don't think an animal companion should be thought of that way. Think of it more like an NPC hireling healer, tracker,  or sage as part of the party, someone to use for their special skills and otherwise protected and kept out of the way. The animal is the characters companion/friend and will want to help when able(for a wolf that might be bringing in meat, warning of dangers, tracking foes, and maybe harassing opponents when a flank or rear attack is possible without drawing attention), but is generally not going to go charging in to attack in a berserk rage like many PCs :-).

The ideas above about increasing non-combat skills and senses are also good.

[Majyk]

100% agreed.

While early levels depended upon the Wolf Companion as a Battle Tank, now in its dotage it should be used more for its other substantial tracking/perception abilities.

Nowhere does it say they have to level but if you wish to do so, I’d temper that with mere Level Boni from a Profession Template vs actual development points and full on PC development:
+2 to +3 / lvl Level Boni is good enough for skills only(no stat gains) so it doesn’t become an actual PC vs the sidekick it should remain as, but I’m a curmudgeon for anything that isn’t PC-centric, heh.

You might want to rethink what the animal companion is and how it is used. While at low levels animals may be as good or better than frontline fighters, I don't think an animal companion should be thought of that way. Think of it more like an NPC hireling healer, tracker,  or sage as part of the party, someone to use for their special skills and otherwise protected and kept out of the way. The animal is the characters companion/friend and will want to help when able(for a wolf that might be bringing in meat, warning of dangers, tracking foes, and maybe harassing opponents when a flank or rear attack is possible without drawing attention), but is generally not going to go charging in to attack in a berserk rage like many PCs :-).

The ideas above about increasing non-combat skills and senses are also good.

[farseer22]

I was in a campaign years ago and one of the other players had a companion Warg. The GM had him create a character sheet for the warg as a barbarian and he gained experiance with the rest of the party. I think there were some limitations on the skills he could get. If I recall correctly the PC and warg had a telepathic comunication thing going on.