Animal Companion

Requires: Trained in Animal.

You are accompanied by an animal companion, which is a loyal and intelligent creature that provides support in various ways. It does not have its own turn in combat, nor does it have a separate presence on the battlefield. Instead, its aid is represented through its abilities and your relationship with it.

Your animal companion will have a number of statistics chosen based on the type of animal companion you have, and how it is trained.

When you select this trait, you must first choose what sort of animal companion you have. This can be any normal animal, or with the Director's permission, you can choose a magical animal. Once you have selected your animal companion, you must decide which of the following categories it falls under.

Clever: Your animal companion is smarter than most animals, having some reasoning skills, a better memory, and possibly even decent manual dexterity. Your animal companion starts knowing the Assist trick.

Domestic: Your animal companion is a domesticated animal. They get along better with people than other types of animal companion. Your animal companion starts knowing the Protect trick.

Large: Your animal companion is considerably larger than yourself, suitable for a riding animal. Accordingly, your animal companion begins knowing the Ride trick.

Magical: Your animal companion has some magical talent, or is noted for its connection to some mystical source. Your animal companion may select one Magical trick.

Savage: Your animal companion is particularly wild, and is known for its ability to fight. It starts knowing the Attack trick.

The following table gives the Instinct, Power and Reason for each type of animal companion, as well as the number of Tricks your animal companion begins knowing.

Description: The animal’s instincts reflect its primal nature and how it reacts to stimuli. While animals can be highly intuitive, their instincts can also hinder you at times, especially when certain situations require careful reasoning, diplomacy, or precision.

Whenever you attempt to Calm a Foe, Gather Information, Make a Request, Make an Impression or Perform an Investigation, you suffer a penalty to your skill check equal to your animal companion's Instinct. When you attempt to Help Another, an ally who takes a die from you suffers a penalty to their skill check equal to your animal companion's Instinct.

Power represents the physical or magical strength of your animal companion. Some of your animal companion's tricks will grant a bonus based on their Power.

Reason reflects your animal companion’s intelligence and problem-solving ability. The higher the Reason, the more the animal can assist you in situations requiring insight, logic, or strategy. Some of your animal companion's tricks will grant a bonus based on their Reason.

Your animal companion will begin knowing one trick based on its type, plus one or more additional tracks. No animal companion may have the same trick more than once.

Assist: Your animal companion is clever enough to hold things and pass them to you. You may add their Reason to any Sleight of Hand skill check you make.

Attack: Your animal companion is trained to attack in co-ordination with you. When you successfully strike a foe in combat, add their Power to the damage you inflict.

Defend: Your animal companion will interfere with an enemy's attempts to attack you. Add their to your passive Reflex defence against any weapon or unarmed attack.

Growl: Your animal companion can sense when you are asserting your dominance, and will back you up. Add their Power to any Intimidation skill check you make.

Harry: When you have a target in your sights, your animal companion will try to cut it off and interfere with its movements. Subtract their Reason from the base speed of any foe that you have Marked. If you do not have the ability to Mark a foe, then for the purposes of this trick, the last foe you attacked is considered Marked.

Hunt: Your animal companion is a skilled tracker with keen senses. Add their Reason to Perception checks to find a creature and to skill checks made to Track a Creature.

Pack: Your animal companion is trained to bear some weight. You may carry a number of additional pieces of equipment equal to your animal companion's Power.

Protect: Your animal companion will attempt to interfere with attacks made against you. Whenever you are struck for damage, subtract your animal companion's Power from the damage that you take.

Ride: You can select this only for a Large companion. Your animal companion is trained to bear your weight. Add your animal companion's Power to your Speed when travelling overland.

Magical creatures have a number of interesting powers, that they can use to enhance your abilities. Some are of assistance to spellcasters, but others can aid any person. A Magical animal companion will start with one trick from this list, but you cannot otherwise select from this list.

Anti-Magic: Your animal companion tends to deflect magic away from them. Add their Power to your saving throws against magical effects.

Arcane Sense: Your animal companion can sense the presence of magic in the environment. Add their Reason to any skill checks made to detect magical auras or hidden magical objects.

Aspect: Rather than frighten those around you, your animal companion tends to draw attention. Decrease your animal companion's Instinct by one, to a minimum of zero.

Channel: You can draw additional magical energy from your animal companion. Add their Power to your spellcasting skill checks.

Invisibility: Your animal companion can turn you partially invisible. Add their Reason to your Stealth checks.

Teleport: Your animal companion has an innate ability to phase through space, whisking you along with them. Once per turn, you may choose to take a two-second action to teleport a distance of three meters plus your animal companion's Power. You must be able to see the location that you are teleporting to.