The Animal Companion Problem

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by Gaear, Jan 30, 2013.

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  1. Mouldyrye

    Mouldyrye Member

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    My animal companion recieved an additional hit die at level 10 but not level 11 on a multi-classed druid 10d/1f. I'm pretty sure my druids AC gained 1HD at 9 but not at 10. A brown bear that went from 57 to 66.
     
    Mouldyrye, Feb 6, 2013
    #31
  2. The Royal Canadian

    The Royal Canadian Established Member

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    Hi Folks
    If you check d20srd, you will find all the info on Animal Companion "Levels". You do NOT have to dismiss and then "recall" an Animal Companion for it to "Level Up". In fact doing so, causes your Animal Companion to start over as if you were a 1st Level Druid. To put it simply, assuming that a Druid summoned an Animal Companion and kept the same companion throughout his/her adventures, the Animal Companion would get 2 extra Hit Dice, +2 to Natural Armor Class, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity at 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th and 18th Levels. At 3rd Level, an Animal Companion gains the "Evasion" feat. At 9th Level an AC gets the "Multiattack" feat, and at 15th Level the AC gains the "Improved Evasion" feat. As you can see, if you can keep them alive long enough ( I admit they require a LOT of "Babysitting" at the lower levels ), Animal Companions can become powerful "supporting characters".
    The Royal Canadian
     
    The Royal Canadian, Feb 6, 2013
    #32
  3. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Woot! The ACs finally work. :)

    I've only seen two bits of oddities with the new routine:

    1. Fairly often, when an AC approaches an injured party member to guard, after he gets there he will sort of stumble around a bit like he's looking for a place to lay down, lol. ;) This doesn't really seem to have any adverse effects, although I suppose if it was in a populated area he might provoke AoOs.
    2. Once when an AC approached an injured party member to guard, after he got there, he took a nip at him. No idea why but I only saw it once and on his next turn he was friendly. He never did actually turn hostile/red.

    At any rate, I think I'm satisfied. Thanks again for all the help. :thumbsup:

    [edit]

    Guess I should post the final rundown ...

    • ACs will approach an injured party member (less than 50% HP and not dead) of their own choosing if they are not already adjacent to an injured party member. The next turn after they arrive, they will guard that party member (ready vs. approach). This is not entirely foolproof, as they choose their own position adjacent to the injured party member. e.g., they may choose to stand guard in a location that is not between the injured party member and his foes, and thus may not actually guard him or her very effectively if they are approached by an enemy. Still, at least they are trying.
    • ACs will guard an injured party member until they are dead. So if the injured party member falls over unconscious or dying, the AC will stay with them until they hit -10 HP. At that point, they will either choose another party member to guard if there is one, or they will switch to guarding themselves.
    • ACs may at their own discretion choose different party members to guard if more than one is injured, assuming they are not already adjacent to one. There seems to be little pattern to this that I can see. Sometimes they seem to select the most severely injured to guard, other times they seem to select the highest in party order, etc. They will however stay with whomever they choose initially, unless you move that character away from the AC. At that point they AC will again 'decide' who to guard if more than one is injured.
    • If no one is injured, the AC will guard (ready vs. approach) itself.
    • If the party falls below 40% HP overall, the AC will switch to melee and attack the nearest enemy.
    • The AC will not blindly run into battle and try to flank opponents and get AoOed to death.
     
    Gaear, Feb 8, 2013
    #33
  4. zugschef

    zugschef Established Member

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    i would have prefered this solution, too. as long as the master is conscious you can control them.
     
    zugschef, Feb 8, 2013
    #34
  5. General Ghoul

    General Ghoul Established Member

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    When and where will this be released? I'm willing to take a party of 6-8 druids out and test it out thoroughly, and test different ACs, even the chicken, and see how they do.
     
    General Ghoul, Feb 8, 2013
    #35
  6. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    7.7, end of February.

    There is no charmed flag.
     
    Gaear, Feb 8, 2013
    #36
  7. J'allan UlDragos

    J'allan UlDragos Dragon Warrior

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    awesome! sounds great! can't wait to try it out
     
    J'allan UlDragos, Feb 8, 2013
    #37
  8. speedy

    speedy Member

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    Nice idea and try, but it is really useless for me at its current state. I use summong often if I have many enemies at same time or harder bosses. Animals at current version (7.7) do almost nothing. They mainly just stay with "action reload" or at least move one step forward and one step back. You say they gurad. No, at most cases they do not attack, even if enemy is one step from them or they are attacked. After many tries, I noticed that possibility that they will attack is maybe about 25%. Another thing is, that enemies often just passed them and are going to attack your party members.
    I hope it is possible to turn off this in some file. If yes, then let me know where.

    EDIT: Anyway, if we are going for more realistic in the game. Animals should react like animals.
     
    speedy, Mar 3, 2013
    #38
  9. guinness22

    guinness22 Nexus of the Crisis

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    guinness22, Mar 4, 2013
    #39
  10. LionXavier

    LionXavier Werelion Monk

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    Hello folks,

    Speaking of animal companions and ways to improve their usefulness, here's something from d20 RSD that, if implemented, could benefith greatly the wolf companion:

    This isn't the usual trip mechanic we know from ToEE. To implement it faithfully, one must consider the following:

    1-The trip attempt can only be made after a successful melee attack (no touch attack, so no ignore target's armor nor provoke attacks of oportunity.)
    2-The wolf has a +1 modifier on the trip attempt.
    3-The target cannot make a counter-trip attempt against the wolf.

    If it cannot be implemented with those conditions, maybe it can be somewhat emulated using the existing trip mechanic from the game. In any case, I think that at least the 3rd condition (counter-trip not allowed) should be implemented to make it something useful, since a technique that made our wolf being rendered prone every now and then after trying to trip every creature it attacks would make it an even more useless team member than it is now :no:. I don't know, maybe the "untrippable" label some creatures in the game have (like the flying ones) can be assigned momentarily to the wolf when making the trip attempt... but I better leave the workaround thinking to our modding experts :)

    Regards.
     
    LionXavier, Mar 4, 2013
    #40
  11. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    sirchet, Mar 4, 2013
    #41
  12. zugschef

    zugschef Established Member

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    but it's not. improved trip only makes your melee touch attack not provoke an aoo and lets you make a free melee attack after successfully tripping your opponent (and the opponent can't trip you on a failed attempt).

    Trip (Ex) needs no touch attack in the first place.
     
    zugschef, Mar 4, 2013
    #42
  13. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Thanks for the suggestions, but at this time I have no intention of doing anything further with ACs. I'd like to see how well they are working now - from as large a sample as possible - before either sticking with the changes or scrapping them.
     
    Gaear, Mar 4, 2013
    #43
  14. ConjurerDragon

    ConjurerDragon Established Member Supporter

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    Are the changes to the animal companion behaviour valid for the familiars too?
    e.g. when a familiar is summoned when the party roster is already full it´s not under the control of the player and acting on it´s own just as an ac.
    Or are your current changes only for ac and familiars are unchanged?
     
    ConjurerDragon, Mar 4, 2013
    #44
  15. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Only the ACs are affected.
     
    Gaear, Mar 4, 2013
    #45
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