Making a K9 Handler

[blackjack50]

I don’t know much about animal handling. I am curious how one would go about making a character that can effectively use a canine. Something for combat and searching for things. What class and at what level do you think this would lose effectiveness?

[Undyne]

I don’t know much about animal handling. I am curious how one would go about making a character that can effectively use a canine. Something for combat and searching for things. What class and at what level do you think this would lose effectiveness?

Animal handling is like Persuasion, but for animals. Its used to calm down a horse, convince a lion to look somewhere else for food, or have a monkey grab something in a tree.

[Man_Over_Game]

I don’t know much about animal handling. I am curious how one would go about making a character that can effectively use a canine. Something for combat and searching for things. What class and at what level do you think this would lose effectiveness?

Officially, you'd have to use the Beastmaster Ranger to do something like effectively using a combat pet.

Animal Handling, and most other skills, don't provide enough oomph with the core rules to really provide any combat advantage. The core rules would require several months to train a pet to be combat ready, and the stats of a standard dog wouldn't look so good. It'd be more efficient to go adventuring and just buy replacement dogs, as dark as that sounds.

Additionally, most players would say that the core Beastmaster Ranger is a bit underpowered. You could look into the Conclave Ranger, which most would say is a lot more useful and powerful, but most of the benefits of that Ranger stop after level 5. A good DM would be able to work with you to parse the benefits of the Conclave Ranger and divide it more evenly across the 20 levels.


Alternatively, you could also be a Shepherd Druid and just summon your pack of hounds. Shepherd Druids are notoriously powerful starting at level 5, but they don't have persistent companions.

[Giggling Ghast]

A lawman and his faithful beast. A bond forged by battle and bloodshed.

[Ventruenox]

If you go by the Class Variants UA (https://media.wizards.com/2019/dnd/downloads/UA-ClassFeatures.pdf), Beastmaster Ranger is a lot more viable.

If you don't mind your canine being Roborex, then the new Artificer in the Eberron book is pretty spectacular. If you choose a small race, you can even use it as a mount.

[Vogie]

If you draw from more well-known homebrewer, Matt Colville's Ranger (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59b345e82994caee6bd4c397/t/5c521b3640ec9a228d21151d/1548884790815/Matt%E2%80%99s+Ranger.pdf) that is used in his "The Chain of Acheron" online series, where Copper has a Displacer beast as an animal companion.

Otherwise, mixing up to 7 Beastmaster Ranger levels with Inquisitive Rogue would probably work

[MagneticKitty]

Paladin. Reflavor warhorse as your first dog (find steed), and find greater steed has dire wolf or saber tooth cat you can reflavor. Bonus points if you take magic initiate find familiar and use cat or rat stats as a puppy. Then he has 3 forms. Any of which you can resummon when he dies. Spell sharing makes him good later.
Bard can also do this with its spell poaching.
Might work better with a cat but you could still do it
Familiar cat > panther reskin > sabertooth tiger

Otherwise revised ranger ua beast master is decent. The new ranger ua might be usable.. haven't tried it.

Other option might be shepherd druid.
Flaver all as dogs. Main ones being wolves, dire wolves, and maybe bears reflavored as giant wolves. Dog sharks (a dog only in name, but an actual thing).
Blink dog. May have to work at flavoring the other fey as dogs. Elemental summoned can be dog shaped and behave like dogs.

Other things that give a companion include the new wild fire druid. Maybe the ghost of a former pet that died in a fire :(

[Talionis]

Agreed, I would go Lore Bard. http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?506610-The-College-of-Legendary-Steeds-A-Bard-Guide-by-StarStuff