Obtaining a new animal companion

[HunterOfJello]

How do you guys handle a player getting a new animal companion as a DM? Do you have the person go stand out in a forest and whatever they're looking for appears to them after 24 hours, as if they were a wizard? Or do you make them go to a region in which the region in which that sort of animal actually lives in before allowing them access to it?


I doubt there's any rules on this sort of thing and it likely only makes the game a bit slower if a player is highly insistent on getting a specific animal companion, but I thought it was a good question. Right now I'm DMing a campaign in Forgotten Realms. The PCs are in the north of the Sword Coast, but one of the players has lost his fifth badger in a row and just hit level 4, so he wants an Ape companion. I'm pretty sure there are no apes anywhere near that area, so I've been considering how I want to play this out. Any perspectives on this would be appreciated.

[molten_dragon]

I've seen both done in the past. Mostly, when I'm DMing, I just handwave it and allow the player whatever animal companion they want.

I've been in campaigns where the DM required me to actually go find the animal I wanted though. Some it was as simple as a trip to the area it lived and a survival check to track one down. Others it ended up being a whole side adventure in and of itself.

If your player REALLY wants that ape, don't be surprised if he's willing to derail the campaign to go get one if you want him to actually go find one.

[GenghisDon]

The animal MUST be in the area, or else the PC must travel to a region they are. If time's an issue, I'll strongly recomend taking an available companion (backed by the group's will NOT to go off the baliland to find a melanistic panther).

Then I usually hand wave it away, although I probably assume a week to a month+ passes; finding, bonding & training the AC.

If pressed for exact time, I'd do encounters, make track, survival, knowledge: nature rolls, & maybe search checks. Then reaction/wild empathy & some handle animal checks.

[PinkysBrain]

Look what a little dumpster diving turns up ... from Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast, page 125 :

"The Call for Assistance can be preceded
by an attention-getting ululation—
a high-pitched chattering scream or
swooping two-note warbling something
like a continuous repetition of the sound
small boys make while beating their
chests and pretending to be a bull ape
from the jungles of Chult (the most common
caged animal seen in the cities of
the Sword Coast)."

Apes might not be common in the woods, but that doesn't mean they can't be found.

[Jeff the Green]

I kinda just go by RAW:

If a druid releases her companion from service, she may gain a new one by performing a ceremony requiring 24 uninterrupted hours of prayer. This ceremony can also replace an animal companion that has perished.
I assume that someone powerful enough to turn into a lion is also powerful enough to have one appear, Shadowfax style, out of the mist even where lions don't appear normally.

[Mnemnosyne]

I agree that there has to be some logical way the companion could potentially reach the druid. If he wants an exotic animal companion, he should have to track it down.

Now, as PinkysBrain noted, animals in the wild is not the only potential source of animals, though. If the druid wants an exotic animal and performs the ceremony, perhaps they form an initial bond with some animal that is currently in captivity and owned by someone. In this case, I'd give them a hint as to where their new companion is, and make them track down the animal that is unable to come to them. Then he'd have to either negotiate with or steal it from its current owner.