Any thoughts on how to make an ability to get animal companions, without being overpowered? I'd like to have a way to use abilities like this, but not sure how to implement it w/o either success being inevitable (rolling until you manage to win one over), or limiting its frequency and it becoming a random chance of having an NPC with you each adventure. Anyway, happy gaming!

I see a couple of options.

The first is just to use facts to create people to come along with you. The thing is that they will then be normal creatures controlled by the GM. As such, you don't have control of them, and are just giving the GM an incentive to throw more monsters at you. I don't see this as empowering at all. Such creatures are as likely to hide behind you as you are to be able to hide behind them.

Second, you can create them like loot. Then the abilities that they have, just add to yours normally. If the ability is one-shot, then the creature will die from stray missile fire or monster claw attacks moments after using this ability. If it's more permenant, the only way to lose the ability is for a monster to attack and damage that ability.

Thus, if I use magic to aquire a familiar it's like looting to find an ability like "See From Familiar's Eyes" which is used normally. As I train the creature I can add abilities.

Does that work?

Mike

Another way to create an animal companion. Since other than color, a companion is really just a group of game effects, why not create one like a magical ability defined by a set of appropriate words?

A companion can be a major ability ,starting at 4 words (this reflects a companion that is an important part of the character's identity, like Trigger or Cheetah...) a normal ability will start with two words reflecting one that is less important.

Example: The Danger Ranger has his fateful companion Sierra the wonder coyote. He wants to use Seirra to fight,track bad guys, hunt food in emergencies, and be really good at dealing with humans.

Seirra, Wonder Coyote 4:fight,track,hunt,communicate

My first thought regarding animal companion abilities is that you would first need an animal in order to use it. Thus, you'd have to wait for the GM to throw one in, or use an ability to find it.

My second thought is that it's the GM's job to complicate your facts. So if someone uses his "Find Wolves" ability as a precursor to using his "Charm Wolf" ability to make it friendly, the GM could very easily complicate the situation (the wolves are running from a dragon, or they're hungry, etc).

And, finally, I remember there being a magical way to summon creatures like demons or golems, where, once summoned, you still have to control it (which requires its own ability). This fits exactly into the paradigm used with "Find Wolves" and "Charm Wolf" abilities. So a charmed wolf is really no different from a controlled demon. And, if you had the right magic words, you could summon a wolf as easily as a demon.

There's really two ways to go about having an animal companion:

- In order to just charm an animal, and leave it under GM control, just use your abilities to do so. The GM can run the animal like a normal NPC.

- For a fun time, though, "find" one like it was a magical item. Treat it mechanically like a magical item in all respects. Bryan's idea to use it like a magical ability is a great one, or you could just give it bonuses to your own abilities. (Owl: +2 magical damage, described as it scratching at opponent's eyes every time you hit them.)