Non-combat warbeasts

[Curelomosaurus]

I've seen tons of references to how good the Warbeast template (MM3 I think?) is. It lets you buy any animal or vermin for barely over 50-75 gp per HD, letting relatively low-level characters get things like warbeast battle titans for just a few thousand GP. But in all my searching I haven't been able to find advice on using the template for things other than combat. Is there anywhere that talks about the best warbeast animals for things like triggering traps, stealing from people, or scouting (using speak with animals so they can report back)?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Well, using awaken to give an animal class levels would be helpful. Try to avoid spellcasting. Hard to dance the Macarena while singing "I'm a little teapot" and throwing poo at your enemies without hands, after all. Although psionics is fair game, since it doesn't have any of that. A friendly, talking wolf-lion who can run along walls and spit energy balls at enemies is always a good thing.

https://d2skuhm0vrry40.cloudfront.net/2020/articles/2020-04-25-09-45/final-fantasy-7-remake-save-editor-makes-red-xiii-briefly-playable-1587804313861.jpg/EG11/thumbnail/750x422/format/jpg/quality/60

For you, not for them.

[Curelomosaurus]

Am I missing any good base animals though? The best non-core thing I've found is a magebred warbeast rhamphyornycus rhamphyornicus rhamphorhynchus, for 25 Dexterity. Of course, the Paragon template is a viable base for warbeast, and that would increase all abilities by 15 IIRC, but that's a bit too much cheese for what I want.

...which is a weird thing to say, considering some of the stuff I've posted recently.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Maybe check out the various wild shape and polymorph/shapechange threads around?

Most animals are geared toward combat, and a lot of the critters with really unusual abilities (such as the barnacle that can chew through solid steel, the squid or octopus that can produce light and camouflage-color themselves, respectively, and the rat that can chew through concrete) don't really have their real-life abilities translated well into the game (or at all, for the barnacle).

There're a ton of animals with crazy abilities in the world. They're just not in the game.

The main abilities you'll find that are actually useful in the game are silk webbing (if you can manage to find a way to get a warbeast monstrous spider), blindsight/blindsense (echolocation), high land speed, burrow speed, climb speed, swim speed, flight speed, carrying capacity, poison, and pounce.

Yes, those are mostly combat abilities, but some of them also useful outside of combat.

[Hiro Quester]

Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Guide has a section on the Warbeast template (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VFFG89HGky597glps-AXSaqEtPjne1f5pNio9lAFzFk/edit#heading=h.a7s3qgz3ul1n), at the beginning of the guide to all the different animal companions a druid might use, and what purposes or activities they are good for.

[Curelomosaurus]

Thanks! The Animal Companion Guide was very helpful. I can't believe that I missed the fact that my halfling cleric's pet chordevoc gets blindsense 60! :smallredface:

Besides chordevocs, climbdogs and hairy spiders seem very useful, as does anything with poison. Is there anywhere I can find a list of animals or vermin with poison (for milking purposes)?

[Dimers]

@Hiro Quester: Duuuuude, that is one rockin' avatar! :smallcool:

Non-optimizing response to actual thread: I bought a warbeast mule for a game I'm in right now. Carries tons of gear, kicks butts of bandits who try to steal it while the PCs are in the dungeon. :smallsmile: