Animal companion actions

Remove all ads!

I note that several of the Animal Companions have special abilities like Stealth which supposedly makes them good scouts etc. But how do you actually get the animal to use their powers? For example, how do you get your Dire Rat or your Hawk to scout ahead? I can’t seem to find any options to do that.

 

Rangers and druids can't unfortunately possess their companions in the same way as mages.

In the expansion(s?) as well as more recent user mods there's an option in the right-click radial menu to toggle stealth on/off for familiars and henchmen, just as there is for spellcasting and detect mode - there are also dialogue options to do the same thing with more detail, iirc... e.g. "Stay stealthy until I initiate combat."

But these aren't in the OC as they were implemented with HotU (or SoU, I forget) and are module-specific rather than general changes.

I agree with Tal though, they're mostly a waste of time, only useful for dedicated role-playing.

 

It all depends on your style of play I suppose. I am a rogue at heart, so scouting is in my blood and I enjoy it. A pixie familiar under the wizard's control can scout a large portion of the map (if not all) in stealth mode, disarm or flag traps, and open locks before you charge in. I enjoy taking my time doing this, because I think this saves a considerable amount of time in the long run (all chests already opened, all traps disarmed...), and allow the wizard and company to just go in and kick some butt.

But as said, this is not implemented for the animal companions, which make them less useful... other than to be better meatshields.

 

So, animal companions not only steal XP from you, but they're useless as well. Great. Another blow to the Druid character.

 

Actually I think Druids are the best class in the game, pre-epic.

The key to success is to not kid yourself that the game is built for anything but hack n' slash. So if you're a druid, get the bear companion. Memorize long lasting buff spells, and when you can, healing spells. Early on in the game use summons too, but later on you'll basically ignore those in favor of better buffs and mass destruction. Don't even bother with any of the provided henchmen (no matter the campaign).

Basically, you take the most combat ready pet you can get (bear), and buff it to the gills, stoneskin, bulls strength, magic resistance, and (most importantly) greater magic fang, just make it indestructable, and watch it destroy, everything. Everything. Just watch its health, and if it starts to get low, hit it with a healing spell. Don't even bother getting into the fight, until you can change into elemental form that is.

In the OC, my pet bear killed Aribeth (twice), Maugrim and Morag without me ever lifting a finger. He took down Morag without the benefit of even killing one of those vulnerbility creatures. Heck, he was even able to kill the "indestructable war golems" without killing the wizards that control them.

Druids are *fine*

Edited to add: I also forgot, Empowered Awaken is something else.

[ June 14, 2005, 00:04: Message edited by: ArtEChoke ]

 

But the animal companion steals some XP from you. If you're going to hack and slash, why not just get a warrior class? Druid seems a waste if his only job is to buff and heal his animal. So you're saying that Dire Rat is a waste of time?

Off-topic, on the subject of henchmen, at least the SoU henchmen don't die every 5 seconds like they did in the OC.

 

well, personally, I get sick of clicking things to death, so winding up my animal friend and letting him go haywire was refreshing for me. Yeah, they take a little xp, but consider that different classes get different xp, I *think* even with an animal companion, druids get as much or more than a single fighter. They don't just buff and heal their animal friend, although that's a big part of it, when they get an over abundance of spells, they spend some quality time nuking enourmous groups of enemies (empowered call lightning), smaller groups of enemies (empowered flame strike), finger of death... whatever. Also once they get elemental wild shape, they're good to go in melee combat, I particularly like the earth elemental shape.

Yes the dire rat is a complete waste of time, In fact as far as I experimented with the Druid, they all sucked except for the bear. Even the dire wolf doesn't really get better as it levels up (relatively speaking).

In so many words, all I'm saying is, the druid is fine, it doesn't play the same as a warrior, or a wizard, its different.

The animal friend engages the enemy - a little lightning over here, a heal over there, you got too close, so you get a finger of death, etc.

Its like being a conductor. I found it more engrossing than a straight up, "click this guy, wait till he gets hit enough and dies, click the next one" kind of character.

Mine always did. Dorna yowling, "I need to be healed!" in the middle of every fight gives me willies. I don't think the half-orc guy ever survived a fight, he had to be the worst npc of all time, yeah, even worse than Boddyknock.

 

It's just a shame that the low level Druid spells are so useless. At least a low level Arcane caster gets Magic Missile and Chromatic Orb. The Druid gets Light (ooh) and Virtue (wow - 1 hit point!)

 

What?

light and virtue are 0 (zero) level spells. The Arcane casters get those too.

The druids first level spells (which they can cast at first level) are:
cure light wounds, entangle, grease, sleep, summon creature 1, ultravision, camoflauge, magic fang

if I had any complaint about the spell list, its that its too much like the arcane spell list.

Are you thinking of bards? They get 0 level spells at first level.

 

I don't really have much use for those level 1 spells either. My Druid has reached level 4 and the only spells he has ever used are Barkskin and Bull's Strength (on himself).

 

So you're playing him... like a fighter that can cast barkskin and bulls strength?

 

Um, yeah, I have so far. I’ve been trying to work out what to do with a Level 4 Druid, given that his Dire Rat is more trouble than its worth. His offensive spells aren’t worth much, and with 10 Dexterity, he’s no good with a sling. What else can I do with him other than have him poke at kobolds with his spear?

Actually, the coolest thing about him is his ability to have amusing conversation with animals that he meets.

 

Yeah, I liked the bear that wants (iirc), "a nice safe place to sleep, and warm, soft halfling to chew on."

If you're not too horrified by the xp loss, you can use your animal empathy skill to dominate local wildlife to help you out in fights instead of the animal companion. I seem to remember in SoU there's a powerful brown bear near the kobold caves that I used for the entire chapter.

 

I don't really have enough skill points to put into Animal Empathy. Mainly because I like being able to identify stuff as soon as I find it so it all goes into Lore, Concentration, and Spellcraft.