5e Companion to Monsters

[BerzerkerUnit]

I wrote up the Companion/Overlord a few years ago. More of a writing exercise at the time.

I recently had the great opportunity to be part of a playtest forum for a similar class (part of a now wildly successful Kickstarter) and it made me want to revisit my old work with some of the inspiration I felt as part of that playtest.

Note: the concepts I’m working with here are so wildly different from what I saw in that playtest it’s like potato chips and cupcakes. Sure both junk food but not in the same way at all.

Here’s a link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-iamK_BbB523_VihXbsu0QIXZzPXQNSy1o9eRFnj-9Y/edit

Pardon the formatting. Working from my phone, I’ll pretty that up later.

So here’s the gist:
You’re a PC, you can make monsters into pets.

Once you catch one it gets 1 of 3 templates to normalize bonuses to hit, saves, and HP. Actions from the original carry over as does AC. You choose the template from Sentinel/Vanguard/Support
Edit: the 3 roles are now a feature you grant the pet.
Standardized statblocks are out.

Sentinel gets tanking stuff.
Vanguard gets a damage boost +prof 1/turn
Support boosts perception and grants “Elven Accuracy” when it provides the Help action.
Edit: sentinel gets the perception buff, Support gets superhelping.

There’s pact magic at 2, but it uses a Paladin progression (except for number of slots which stays the same). Subclasses are based on how many pets you can have and/or use at once. Spell slots are used only for healing unless you get a pet with spellcasting, then you can fuel their spells with your slots (keeping pixie nonsense off the table until ~15th level).

Pack Lord can have a few pets and use a few at once. Rewards having pets with big single attacks over multiattack. Easier to heal them all to full up. Despite the weaker monsters it should have a higher damage potential.

The Pet can have 1 at a time but its big and kind of immortal. It’s like an Urban Legend that thinks it’s your mom.

The Menagerist can have a lot by comparison. Level+Int mod total, but no way to conveniently heal them all so you’re supposed to constantly cycle through. They also get commands, I’m trying to work out how the action economy works on those. I think they’re mostly bonus action unless otherwise specified. Gets an Okay nova at 14.

Any feedback is appreciated.

[BerzerkerUnit]

After revisiting the idea I’ve realized the bonding rules are such a beast on their own.

Given the role animals played in all of human development I’ve decided to instead shift gears a little and write up bonding with a creature as a sort of core mechanic akin to Spellcasting. That opens the door to a feat for a dabbler as well as facilitating subclass design for other classes.

Some brainstorming:

Bonding with Creatures
Throughout history intelligent creatures have found collaboration to be a superior path to survival. Some follow an evil path, like the Neogi, denying freedom to other intelligent species and forcing them to serve or fight on their behalf. Other such bondings are more mutually beneficial, such as the long history of humans and canines.

Such a bond can be forged in an instant. Sometimes by fate, sometimes with painstaking care. Among beasts and most creatures that lack language, dominance must be asserted and once one submits the you can expect a lifetime of loyalty. Some creatures may be too fierce or proud to enter a bond in a such a way, choosing death to servitude. But occasionally such a creature may find itself in dire straits and compassion felt in that moment of weakness might cement such a bond.

Forging the Bond
A bond can generally only be forged with willing creatures whose overall power the character exceeds by some margin. The feature that allows you to forge such a bond will dictate the maximum CR of creatures with which you can form such a bond. That willingness cannot be compelled with magic but it may be coerced through threat of violence or bribery. Doing so is never a good act but circumstances and intent will dictate whether it was explicitly evil.
For non humanoid creatures with intelligence scores of 5 or below that lack a language, if they are near death, they may choose to engage in a display of submission, a wolf might expose its belly, a bull will lower its head and lay down. In those moments someone with the talent or training can form a bond. The creature can attempt to resist this bond with a Charisma saving throw calculated like a Spell DC, 8+Ability Score modifier+Proficiency bonus. The feature that allows the character to form a bond will determine which Ability score is used to determine the bond DC. If the target succeeds it will attempt to flee at the first opportunity, but if it fails, it is Charmed by the character and will follow them.

For intelligent nonhumanoid creatures that can understand a language, they can choose to enter into such a bond willingly, no saving throw required, they otherwise automatically succeed on the save. As mentioned above, they may be coerced into willingness with bribes or threat of violence.

Once bonded a creature’s statistics change in the following ways:
-It uses the character’s proficiency bonus instead of its own.
-Its hit points are recalculated as: 5 + Constitution bonus + Proficiency bonus, The feature that allows the character to form a bond will determine how many additional hit points the creature gains according to their class level.
-It retains any Spellcasting feature but loses the ability to cast spells
-It loses any Multiattack action
-It uses the character’s Spell Attack bonus and Spell DC for any of its attacks.
-If the creature has any persistent effect such as the gaze attack of a Basilisk or the wail of a Banshee, targets of the ability become immune to such effects for 24 hours after succeeding on the saving throw.
-If the creature has an action with a recharge rating it can be used a number of times equal to its proficiency bonus. It regains all uses after a short rest.

Immediately following the bond the creature will serve as a mount or share any food they successfully hunt or gather. In combat they share the character’s initiative but take their turn immediately after. As long as the creature can see or hear the character, they can be given a command as a bonus action but if they do not share a language it has to be very simple such as attack, help, or flee. After a long rest enough of a rapport is established for the bond to transcend language and the creature can be given a command to perform any task of which its able.

The feature that allows the character to forge such bonds will determine when the bond ends should they die otherwise the character can end the bond as an action. The Charmed condition on the creature ends and its attitude will reflect however it was treated for the duration of the bond.


Possible feat:
Companion Bond
You have learned the basics of bonding with creatures you’ve encountered. Choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma, this Ability determines the Save DC to resist your bond. You gain a +1 to this ability score. You may only be so bonded to one creature whose CR is equal to your level divided by 4 or less. The creature gains 1 additional hit point for each of your class levels.