I know it's a bit early (way too early?) to be asking for this sort of thing, but does anyone have any ideas regarding implementing Talent Trees that represent "pet" type companions? Waaaaaaaaaay back in d6 I played a kid (literally, the template "The Kid") who eventually had a pet monkey lizard. I can imagine other, similar things where something might be an assett that directly effects gameplay, but not warrant a character sheet of it's own… an armory droid, maybe even an astromech. That sort of thing.

I know there are a lot of logistical issues here ("but what if the storm trooper wants to shoot your droid?"), but it seems like something that a community as smart as I've typically found the RPG community to be could work out, unless I'm the only one who cares about this sort of thing (because I already know I'm not savvy enough to do it on my own, or I wouldn't be asking you all)

Seems Legit. The old d20 Revised edition has a Prestige Class in the back of Ultimate Alien Anthology where you basically get the equivalent of a familiar, animal companion, and mount all in the same class! It would make sense to have rules for “pets” or “mounts”.

What if you have a pet tauntaun, a kybuck , a hawk-bat, or a Correlian sand panther… The Ultimate Adversaries book had a whole section on wild life throughout the galaxy. Nothing wrong with wanting to have an advanced mount that won’t die after a single blaster shot!

Hey, for EotE what if you had an Emperor’s Hand or Black Sun Vigo with a vornsker “pet” who helped you interrogate/torture Force users? I’d be all for it.

Ahh, Vornskrs… Yet another invention for one story that suddenly get back dated into the rest of the EU… When they first appeared in the Zahn Trilogy they were unknown elsewhere as were the Ysalamari that they hunted (why they would remain force sensitive when hunting force nullifying creatures is beyond me…).

Kallabecca said:

LOL It does seem a little redundant now that you mention it. Though, other authors have used both to great (or at least interesting) effect, especially when the Yuuzhan Vong created the Voxyn. Scary scary stuff!

I know that WotC had two approaches to "pets" in Saga Edition, those being the Follower talent trees in the Clone War Campaign Guide (which had the added problem of gobbling up the controlling PC's actions to let their Follower do things), and the Droid Protocol system in Scavenger's Guide to Droids, a really freaking cool concept which enabled PCs to have droid companions but didn't equate to giving the PC an extra set of actions (which is typically the problem with PCs controlling the actions of multple characters).

Using the EotE talent tree approach to having a follower is interseting, though admittedly not something I'm interested in pursuing as a home-brew concept at the moment (still rather busy with my Jedi/Force stuff). Perhaps one talent tree for type of compainion, such as a droid companion tree, a creature companion tree, and so on?

Warhammer's version of EotE had a pet system in place that might work nicely with some modiciation. There were concepts such as your Bloodhound giving you a bonus die when attempting Perception checks. This allowed the GM to interpret successes caused by the extra bonus into things such as, "Suddenly Rover sniffs the air, looks to the brush ahead, and barks rapidly".

Donovan Morningfire said:

I think it would almost have to be seperate talent trees, since there are so many different potential types and purposes.

So Donovan and Stern, you're both saying that while companions wouldn't act on their own, they would affect the PC by adding a Boost die, upgrading to a Proficiency die, or removing a Setback die? If so, that's actually pretty freaking cool.

What about mounts, though? Like a war-horse equivalent or predatorial beast? Would they get an attack, or just give you an additional maneuver without the strain, maybe?

Locrious said:

The question, at least as far as I'm concerned, is whether the effect you want to add is roughly equivalent to an existing talent, or if you want it to do something that talents usually won't.

Here is an example of a pet from Warhammer…

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=981

Pets could give bonuses to combat, not just mundane skills.

I don't recall how a pet could get killed. Someone else may.

I liked the concept of pets and mounts not having to be kept track of like a seperate NPC. It was something that strengthened your character, not another character. For some pets I think treating them as a seperate entity would actuall be required. If you have a pet Mynock, it gives you some bonuses. If you have a pet Krayt, it's a seperate entity.

Sturn said:

Heh, that entry for the SBVD is awesome.

I'd say use the Aid Another rules,where if the pet had a higher ability or skill rank, that could be subbed for the owner's skill/ability numbers. Also, give the pets set species characteristics that give bonuses or penalties to the owner when they're around.

Garrett

I am pretty sure that when a pet took damage, its obedience was reduced by 1. If its obedience was reduced to 0 it runs away or dies or something.