Animal companions effecting spawns

TheImpossibleDream · June 25, 2009, 10:47:41 PM

At the moment animal empathy effects the spawns on quests, this is fine as you can animal empathy giant beasts, the spawns will be absolutely impossible for your group to kill even with the beast at your side, but still thats well and good.

However animal companions (NOT AE'd ANIMALS) seem to have an incredible effect on spawns, I'm not sure how it works but they seem to count as either 3-4 extra pc's or several levels higher than their master.

I would not mind but it makes doing a quest without a HUGE party almost impossible as the spawns are overwhelming, even the easiest quests become a supply guzzler because of this silly pet beefing spawns to the max.

Should they effect spawns? Maybe. Are they effecting spawns to accurately to what they contribute to the party? No absolutely not.

Personally I would prefer if they had no effect on the spawns a party will encounter, as a mage casting bulls strength on a warrior does not seem to beef up the spawns, yet it is quite a lot more useful than an animal companion.

Edit: This is under bug reports because it SEEMS like a bug, if its not then maybe suggestions might be better.

N/A · June 26, 2009, 03:10:42 AM

It is a punishment for bringing the poor animals to battle. :(

VanillaPudding · June 26, 2009, 03:48:44 AM

^ Truth

TheImpossibleDream · June 26, 2009, 03:49:21 AM

To clarify for example a level 5 and a 6 along with a panther got >/= spawns to a level 9 barbarian and 9 monk on Purple crystal cave. But its not isolated to these quests.

Also you two above me should be ashamed of such shameless post count +1!

+1

N/A · June 26, 2009, 04:18:38 AM

A tamed animal would not really charge into battle with you anyways. It is a regular, wild animal, not some brutal, warrior thing that will fearlessly charge into battle.

Mort · June 26, 2009, 04:51:06 AM

Absolutely nothing we can do about that outside of redesigning the encounter system as a whole.

TheImpossibleDream · June 26, 2009, 05:10:48 AM

Quote from: AfroMullet;132758A tamed animal would not really charge into battle with you anyways. It is a regular, wild animal, not some brutal, warrior thing that will fearlessly charge into battle.

Animal companions are far from "tamed" animals, thats what animal empathy is, an animal companions is a companion, a friend an equal to you.

They are your friend and they will defend you with their life. The person I play with rarely ever even unsummons his animal companion even if it is in mortal danger. He treats it much the same as a pc, healing it when its hp gets low.

What ~is~ lame, is the people who only summon up a familiar or animal companion for the purpose of buffs or when they want to show it off like its some kind of "pet"

To summarize, animal companions = NOT pets, they are companions

The Crimson Magician · June 26, 2009, 05:22:02 AM

Quote from: NagaThey are with your friend and they will defend you with their life, the person I play with rarely ever even unsummons his animal companion despite when its in mortal danger he treats it like a pc and tries to keep it healed and tries to make it act independently on its own.

Bad! That is very bad grammar, creating such a paragraph-long run-on sentence!

I am ashamed of you.

Pfeh.

+1

TheImpossibleDream · June 26, 2009, 06:00:16 AM

Quote from: The Crimson Magician;132763Bad! That is very bad grammar, creating such a paragraph-long run-on sentence!

I am ashamed of you.

Pfeh.

+1

Nonsense. Anyway sad this can't be fixed. Best to lock this so none of us feel obligated to respond to everything said!

Caster13 · June 26, 2009, 08:12:45 AM

Quote from: Mort;132761Absolutely nothing we can do about that outside of redesigning the encounter system as a whole.

Would summoning your animal companion after entering the QA be a work around to this problem?

Cruzel · June 26, 2009, 08:45:32 AM

It wouldn't since most QA's everything doesn't spawn as soon as you enter the area, because of lag issues. Stuff spawns as you go along, so unsummoning would not work!

Drakill Tannan · June 26, 2009, 01:51:21 PM

How about reducing the effective class level of animal companions? make them count as a level 1 bard rathar than a level 5 fighter.

N/A · June 26, 2009, 04:31:06 PM

QuoteAnimal companions are far from "tamed" animals, thats what animal empathy is, an animal companions is a companion, a friend an equal to you.

They are your friend and they will defend you with their life. The person I play with rarely ever even unsummons his animal companion even if it is in mortal danger. He treats it much the same as a pc, healing it when its hp gets low.

Unfortunately, per NWN implementation, they function exactly like dominated creatures. Whereas in PnP, the DM controls the animal, in NWN the animal would do things that, despite being your best friend and life companion, it would otherwise not do.

They will defend you with their life, but they are still animals. Yes, different from a normal animal, but they still react accordingly in certain situations. And in NWN, they do not. They function exactly like dominated creatures, control wise.

So the extra spawns should be a payment for receiving the enormous bonus of controlling an animal companion as if it were dominated, mechaic wise.

Drakill Tannan · June 26, 2009, 05:44:58 PM

Have animal companions been updated yet? because otherwise that "enormus" bonus is like.. a level 1 summon.

EDIT: Right i exagerated, a level 2 summon

N/A · June 26, 2009, 08:32:47 PM

Quote from: Drakill Tannan;132798Have animal companions been updated yet? because otherwise that "enormus" bonus is like.. a level 1 summon.

EDIT: Right i exagerated, a level 2 summon

And apparently, aside from exaggerating, you did not read properly either.

I mentioned that being able to control them, as if they were dominated, was a rather large bonus. In PnP, the animal companions are controlled by the DMs.