How To Get An Animal Companion 5e

Many Dungeons & Dragons players love animal companions for their characters, only the game's fifth edition suffers uneven support for the archetype. Only specific grapheme builds proceeds access to pets, and creating a grapheme with an constructive companion oft requires a deep understanding of the game. For instance, of all the game'due south class archetypes, the Beast Master ranger earns the nearly criticism for being as well weak. To make beast masters able to hold their own, players must make some canny choices. More on that at the end.

The best route to an fauna companion depends on what you want your companion to practice. The more capable the pet, the more limited your options. A friendly mascot for your adventuring party hardly requires annihilation, but a pet capable of battling alongside a higher-level character confines you to just a few character options.

Inquire yourself what y'all want from your pet. This postal service tells how to find the right creature companion.

For a friend or mascot, befriend and train a fauna. In a tweet, D&D atomic number 82 designer Jeremy Crawford writes, "Desire your D&D character to have a pet or companion? Hither's a little cloak-and-dagger: You don't need special rules for this. Through roleplaying and ability checks (most likely Beast Handling or Persuasion), yous can accept a buddy, as long as your DM is OK calculation a animal to the group."

Dungeon masters: When players come across hostile animals, the characters may endeavour to make friends instead of fighting. Players honey turning an aroused beast into a mascot or companion to the party. Players attracted to this strategy love seeing it succeed. Treat the creature as a non-player grapheme. Equally with whatsoever tag-along character, the best such creature companions prove useful, only never surpass characters.

Update: This simple arroyo poses one problem: After the party befriended a creature, the party leveled upwards to meet greater threats while the friend remained the same fragile creature. At just level 5, most characters survive a flameskull's fireball, but an 11 hp wolf needs boggling luck to live, and a 5 hp tressym goes to see Sharess, goddess of cats.

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything offers a remedy: The sidekick rules offer an easy way to add a special companion to a group of adventurers. "A sidekick tin be any type of creature with a stat block in the Monster Manual or another D&D book, simply the challenge rating in its stat block must exist 1/two or lower." This means that sidekicks could range from that wolf or tressym, to a bullywug rescued from a monster who enjoys frog legs, to the kobold Meepo, hereafter dragonlord.

Whenever a group's boilerplate level goes upward, the companion gains a level in a sidekick grade of warrior, expert, or spellcaster. They gain the boosted abilities and striking points required to survive and contribute without always overshadowing the rest of the political party.

For a equus caballus or similar mount, play a paladin. At level 5, paladins gain the ability to cast Find Steed which summons a spirit that takes the shape of a horse or similar mountain. At level 9, Find Greater Steed brings a flying steed such as a Griffin. This mount lasts until you dismiss it or until it drops to 0 hitting points. You lot and your mount can communicate telepathically.

The Find Steed spells share a feature and flaw with many of D&D's pets. Rather than gaining a live companion worthy of an emotional attachment, the spell brings a spirit. The spiritual steeds avowal the intelligence of Maximus, the adamant horse in Tangled, just I wish for personality to friction match also.

In an interview, D&D Designer Mike Mearls said, "Some people really like the feeling that a companion animal is a flesh and claret creature, but at that place are a lot of advantages to presenting it every bit a spirit companion or something similar." In fifth edition, the designers mainly chose the advantages of spirit companions.

Withal, zilch says your spirit mount tin can't show personality. Perhaps particularly brave and true horses serve in the afterlife as a paladin's steed. Now I want to play a paladin who struggles with temptation paired with a horse whose spirit mission includes dragging my hero out of the tavern earlier he has i too many.

For a scout, helpful lark, or spell conduit, acquire Find Familiar. I've seen plenty familiars in play to witness their utility, but before researching this post, I however underestimated their ability. For the price of learning a mere 1st-level spell, Wizards proceeds a scout, an extension to all their touch on spells, and a battlefield helper. If players made meliorate apply of familiars, the spell would count equally broken.

Observe Familiar lets you summon a spirit animal in a variety of forms: bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, lizard, octopus, owl, poisonous ophidian, fish, rat, raven, sea equus caballus, spider, or weasel. Just most every animated sidekick matches something on the list of familiars. Want to play like an animated Disney hero with a wise or comical critter for a companion? Sadly, familiars tin can't talk. The designers really missed an opportunity hither. Fifty-fifty players who claim they can't practice voices can do a toad vocalism. It'due south and so fun.

Even so, your sidekick can help. Try these uses:

Use your flying, creeping, or swimming critter to picket, while you picket through its eyes. My players used a familiar to explore five levels of the Tomb of Ix Gods while the party stood safely in the first hall. Doors stopped the animal, simply and so much of that dungeon stands open up.
Use your flying familiar to perform the Aid activeness on the battleground, giving allies advantage on attack rolls. Eventually, an annoyed monster will smack down your bird, only that's one less assail on friends, which may salve a l gp healing potion. Re-summoning the familiar costs 10 gold, which counts every bit money well spent.
Use your flying familiar to target touch spells from a altitude. For clerics who heal through touch, gaining a flying familiar might justify the cost of a feat. Play a grave cleric with a raven familiar.
Use your familiar to channel damaging spells like Dragon'due south Breath. Familiars can't attack, but with help, your niggling toad tin spew acrid in a 15-pes cone.

To gain a familiar, select i of these options:

Magician: Acquire Find Familiar
Warlock: Choose the Pact of the Chain
Warlock: Choose the Pact of the Tome and the Book of Aboriginal Secrets invocation. You go ii level 1 rituals, plus the ability to inscribe any class ritual.
Bard: Choose the Lore archetype and use the Magical Secrets characteristic to larn the Notice Familiar spell at 6th level. Or at level 10, any bard can utilise Magical Secrets to learn the spell.
Any Form: Take the Magic Initiate feat to get a 1st-level spell.
Any Course: Take the Ritual Caster feat to get whatsoever ritual spells.

For a more dangerous familiar, play a Pact of the Chain warlock. Warlocks who opt for the Pact of the Chain tin choose an imp, pseudodragon, quasit, or sprite as a familiar. These hardly count every bit animal companions. But unlike brute familiars, these creatures tin assail—although after level 9 their bites and stings and tiny arrows amount to lilliputian. All these creatures wing and well-nigh plow invisible, and then they make particularly good spies and spell conduits.

For an unusual mount, play a Beast Primary ranger and a pocket-size character. Neither a familiar nor a paladin's steed count as true animals. For a mankind and blood animate being companion, opt for the Brute Primary ranger archetype.

A small animate being master such as a halfling or gnome tin ride their medium fauna companion as a mount. Ride a wolf for its pack tactics, twoscore-human foot speed, and cool factor. Ride a giant wolf spider for its climb speed, toxicant bite, and creep cistron. Ride a giant poisonous snake for its brazenly phallic implications.

For a partner in boxing, play a Animate being Chief ranger and a creepy, crawly beast. Beast masters' brute companions earn a reputation for weakness. At level three, when the companion arrives, the poor animate being has but adequate hit points. As the party levels, the brute volition have fewer hit points and worse AC than the wizard, despite having to fight in melee. Meanwhile, the wizard's familiar makes a improve lookout man.

The Creature Companion class description suggests taking a hawk or mastiff as an animal companion. D&D designer Dan Dillon says that such choices set players up for failure. Beast masters should not take beasts with a challenge rating below 1/4. If you want such a pet, follow Jeremy Crawford's suggestion and train a brute to exist your friend. Or spend a feat learning Find Familiar.

Unfortunately, warm, fuzzy, charismatic beasts like lions, tigers, and bears have size and challenge ratings that disqualify them as animate being companions. If you desire a furry friend, wolves rank every bit decent and panthers as acceptable. Just the very best companions brand some folks say ick. For a pet that makes an able boxing partner, choose one of these options:

A flight snake offers a lx-pes fly speed, flyby attack, and toxicant damage.
A giant crab brings decent AC, Blindsight thirty ft., grappling, and a swim speed. Plus, I understand such companions perform calypso-flavored musical numbers.
A giant wolf spider boasts Blindsight x ft., a climb speed, and poison.
A giant poisonous ophidian offers Blindsight 10 ft., a swim speed, and poison.

Dungeon masters: Every bit special non-player characters, allow rangers' animal companions to autumn unconscious and roll death saving throws when reduced to 0 hit points.

With the D&D rules as written, fauna companions lack the armor proficiency required to vesture barding without suffering disadvantage on attacks, checks, and saves. Nonetheless, I dubiousness allowing a few actress points of AC breaks anything. As well, cats in armor look adorable.

Update: To enhance the beast primary archetype, Tasha'south Cauldron of Everything presents 3 key companions typed for country, ocean, and sky. Beastmasters tin can summon these primal beasts as a companion instead of befriending the creatures in D&D's monster books. You can choose to describe your animal as a hawk or mastiff or anything that fits a type, without the take chances of selecting a creature besides weak to testify effective.

Rangers tin can spend a bonus action to command the central beasts to attack or to take an action other than the dodging they do on their ain. This marks a big improvement from archtype'due south original companions, which typically required an activeness to command.

The fundamental beasts offer effective companions that tin feel warm, fuzzy, and charismatic. The fundamental companions tend offer more hit points than real creatures. Plus, if these spirt beasts drib to 0 hit points, you lot can revive them for the price of a spell slot. Equally spirit creatures, you can summon new and different beasts after a long balance.

Source: https://dmdavid.com/tag/dds-animal-companions-and-familiars-choosing-the-right-pet-for-your-character/

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