Animal Companions

[Zorinar]

I noticed in the help files that Rangers get the animal companion skill. Druids should also be getting this skill, They have specific spells for this skill, heal animal companion, magic fang spells and animal growth spells.

I asked around about animal companion and I was told it is largely unimpressive. Animals get too tired to keep up, die very quickly and contribute little to adventure except adding to the burden of having to try to keep them alive. I suggest adding the skill to the druid list and changing the skill. Make the companion like a summoned animal that stays for a limited time then goes back off to whatever it normally does when the duration ends. In this way we can simulate both the animal companion and the summon animal spells that both rangers and druids should have.

[Ungtar]

Ungtar approved!

I dislike the conjuring of elementals as they are too magical and not "nature-ish" enough.

What I would like best of all is to see a permanent companion of some sort that is good for roleplay and lore.

[Lirith]

Animal empathy/claim is also on the druid skill list if that is what you mean by animal companion.

I think the tiredness factor is a side effect of the code for movement that affects all PCs, NPCs, animals, monsters, etc. The lower the con and effective level, the harder it is it get around on foot and I'm not sure that a lot can be done about that with it being hard code and a deliberate choice.

I do like the idea of animals that are claimed with the skill choosing to then go off and do their own thing after a time. I guess I can see both sides of it, in that I like that they would not be "owned" as such, but some people may want to keep a particular animal that they have claimed through this route and RP forming a stronger bond. In the meantime it can be achieved by using the dismiss command for claimed animals, although use that with caution.

[Ungtar]

Animal empathy would need to be recoded, I think. I'm talking just from observation here and without any knowledge of how it actually works, but you seem to gain skill increases only through the initial acquisition. So you're going to end up claiming and dismissing a few thousand squirrels before you can grab that epic bear that you've been wanting. That's not great in the roleplay department.

A strong pet would certainly be more desirable and useful early on in the nature folk's careers than later. A bear or mountain lion when you're fighting kobolds and goblins is a significant companion, but not so much when you're taking down stone giants and such.

I wonder if there's not a way some sort of epic companion quest could be put together. Would that not be pretty cool? In addition to having the pet, you'd also get a little ego shine from having done that quest.

[Lirith]

You are right that the skill can only increase from the initial claim, so yes, a TON of squirrels would be needed before anything much larger than that could be claimed. It would be nice if it was somehow linked to the order command or "order smote" specifically even, so that through RP with the animal there might a chance to increase the skill in other ways.

You know what I'm going to say about a quest. If you want it and like what it would offer, write one. It needn't require a whole new area it could be an addition to an existing one. There are places in game where you can buy a pet that might be considered as a stronger animal companion, but that doesn't mean a quest to earn the right to buy or adopt something cool isn't a great idea. There are similar quests to earn the right to buy certain mounts so why not for certain types of pets too?

[Ungtar]

A quest would be good. I have some ideas.

To be fair, I would want it to be one of the quests where it has two sides to it ... help this side get access, or help this side and get access. That way we don't end up with yet more Mielikki-only or Malarite-only quests. Duplication of labor sucks.

Lemme think and then I'll put forth an app for it with some details.

[Zorinar]

Well, I found by accident while surfing the help system the command "companion", which rangers have and is said to summon an animal for them. This is in addition to the claim animal skill. Since claim animal is so locked down in terms of the animal being locked down to a specific area even after claiming them it kind of leaves the skill rather useless. The idea of claiming hundreds of small animals then releasing them over and over and over brings dread boredom to mind. But, both druids are rangers, are largely defined by their companion and I think this topic is a good start towards healing these ability-heavy classes that actually lack many of their abilities.