Any rules about aging-effects and animal companions beyond the obvious?

[UrielAwakened]

Our DM has us fighting ghosts and our ranger has a wolf.

If the wolf fails a save against the ghost's aging effect....it just dies, right? There's nothing we're missing here?

If so what's the next step for the Ranger in terms of having a new animal companion?

[nickl_2000]

Our DM has us fighting ghosts and our ranger has a wolf.

If the wolf fails a save against the ghost's aging effect....it just dies, right? There's nothing we're missing here?

If so what's the next step for the Ranger in terms of having a new animal companion?

Wolves live 5-6 years (according to a quick google search and Google response) and there is nothing in either the regular Ranger or Revised Ranger about increasing the lifespan of the animal companion. So, yes it dies and couldn't be brought back with cleric raise type spells since it died of old age.


The Ranger Subclass tells you how to deal with beast death though.

PHB Beastmaster (phb pg. 93)

If the beast dies, you can obtain another one by spending 8 hours magically bonding with another beast that isn’t hostile to you, either the same type of beast as before or a different one.


UA Revised Ranger Beastmaster has more options

If your animal companion is ever slain, the magical bond you share allows you to return it to life. With 8 hours of work and the expenditure of 25 gp worth of rare herbs and fine food, you call forth your companion’s spirit and use your magic to create a new body for it. You can return an animal companion to life in this manner even if you do not possess any part of its body.
So new body, therefore it is no longer aged.

Or you can get a new one with 50 GP and 8 hours of time.

[hymer]

I think wolves can live to be 20 (though life expectancy is a fraction of that if they live in the wild), and they reach maturity in as little as a year. So with a low enough roll, the wolf may well survive.

[UrielAwakened]

Neat. Also hilarious. Thanks.