The Animal Companion Problem

Personally, if you are able to achieve this, i think that would be a wonderful solution!

Maybe 2 more variables, if possible? is there one to cause the animal companion to flee from imminent danger? instead of guarding with 1HP, it retreats...

Also, for the larger combatants like the Bear, Giant lizard, Jackal, wolf and Attack dog - could they still be offensive minded until a certain HP threshold is reached, where they then become more defensive as you proposed?

 

Could you just flag an AC as charmed? Wouldn't that allow the pc the ability to control it?

 

Can I haz my riding dragon plz?

 

@ General Ghoul: Saga of Old city is the one with the druid and barbarian at the end. One of the greatest books of my teen years. Written by the master himself Gary Gygax, and it even had the characters 2nd edition stats in the back of the book.


On the topic of animal companions, my 9th level druid has:

black, brown and panda bears
giant lizard
wolf
jackal
chicken
dire rat
attack dog

 

Animal companions in pnp get Share Spell, which allows the druid to buff herself AND the AC up the wazoo without having to prep two castings of each buff. The result in pnp is that druids when they get to higher lvls and can shapechange into some useful shapes, can leave a tremendous wake of destruction in their wake next to their ACs. It's like getting a full caster (if you have natural spell feat) and 2 fighters in one PC; fully buffed with stuff like barkskin, stoneskin, mage armor from the party wizard's scrolls, Armor of Faith from the cleric, the two of them can take on entire fights by themselves.

I can't recall whether Share Spell is in TOEE, but either way I really don't think it's urgent that animal companions get help. If they're rushing into battle then there's always the option to buff them early on instead of your druid (barkskin, mage armor, and stoneskin all last a very long time), or else there's the option to use the formation (F) key and shove them towards the far back so they don't jump in suicidally as frequently.

 

Me too, I would like an Azure one, please. And thanks for the suggestion Ted!

(let the games begin...) :evilgrin::twisted:

 

With regard to the AC being unable to identify specific PCs (unless 'flagged' by being injured/ on negative hp or similar): would it be possible for the PC to be identified by a specific item in inventory that appears when the animal is summoned? AC stays next to PC with its favourite stick and does ready vs approach if not in combat.

 

Since you can summon another animal companion with only one day's rest, and then name it the same thing as the last one, isn't spending hours refining the AI for what is basiclly sentimental reasons going a bit far? I understand wanting to make things work more like PnP, and possibly make druids a more appealing class. But, other than having to deal with the RNG of the hit points of the AC, I have completely gotten over the need to save Ol' Yeller when he charges into an extraplanar death trap.

Is it possible to have a small set of dialogues that you could build in so people could have their druid, or maybe any PC, tell the AC to stay, heel, or attack? Can you make three simple, dialogue triggered AI options rather than one "optimized" for all occasions? I'm not sure if it's possible to arrange a way to allow a PC initiated conversation in combat. Could the animal trigger a dialogue every round with the nearest PC to get instructions?

A few brainstorms just in case you are too far down the coding rabbit-hole.

 

It is certainly worth it. If you can keep them alive, they will increase in power and HPs over time. You haven't seen anything until you have seen a 5th level Enlarged Chicken walk into the Welcome Wench.

 

I've kept the same jackal and brown bear through level-ups and have not seen any increase in HP. I guess I assumed that they were not correctly gaining power. Do they gain extra health every other level, or every three levels?

@ Gaear: That answers my question.

 

Hi
According to d20SRD, Animal Followers gain Hit Dice, Strength Points, and improvements to AC about every 2 - 3 Levels. In the PnP version, the A.C. would also learn a new trick or so, every once in a while.
The Royal Canadian

 

In NWN2 you have to dismiss your companion and re-summon it to gain it's level boosts.

I' not sure how it works in TOEE, due to not using an animal companion very often myself.