Do I have a Prime Dog or a Plane Dog?

[Montleberry]

In game are animal companions and familiars consider extra planar creatures coming from the planes when called? Are they normal animals born on the prime? RP of either acceptable?

I ask over a recent RP quandary. Edmund is in the Crystal Cave and realized two Orglashes at once are going to be a handful so he blasts a dismissal at them. Worked on one...but also "poof" there goes Elmer the dog who failed his will save.

I have bio-wise and RP wise assumed he was a dog born on Ed's farm. A real dog from the prime. The spell dismissal is mechanically intended to dismiss animal companions. RP-wise I am unsure how to incorporate that reality...Elmer is a plane-dog? A prime dog that panics sometimes when hit with a flashy purple light and runs off?

I tend to RP the occasions if I get him killed that he either ran off, collapsed unconscious, or died and was raised by Ed

(as RPing pet permadeath would mean I suddenly have an identical dog of the identical level named Elmer I somehow found, and since Ed can and would raise him assume that is what happens if he dies....unless lore says raise doesn't work on animals? Assume Chauntea is one of the more likely gods to allow such a thing?)

with the understanding he is just dog. If he is an extra planar dog spending his off time bounding around Mount Celestia I guess that would solve the RP dilemma of death/dismissals.

(I guess papa dog was an extra planar visitor making time with Ed's lady farm dogs in that scenario? )

Opinions?

[DM Narshe]

I answered something similar in the past. It might be helpful.
http://www.bgtscc.net/viewtopic.php?f=7 ... 5&p=499031

It's an extraordinary ability, meaning you're not summoning anything from another plane. You are simply calling it. You can resurrect it. It is always the same companion until it dies (assuming you don't revive it) or you send it away permanently and spend the 24 hours praying to replace it with another (also in the event that it dies..) It does not disappear when slain. A lost animal companion can be immediately replaced by the 24 hour prayer for another.

A familiar is similar to an animal companion in many regards. It is a normal animal until bound to a spellcaster, then it become a magical beast. It is still native to the plane and does not disappear when slain. A slain familiar cannot be replaced for a year and a day and also requires 24 hours to replace. It can also be raised from the dead.

An animal companion cannot be chosen as your familiar if you have class combinations that allow for both.

Game mechanics just make the animals and familiars poof into existence when summoned, rather than them travelling to wherever their masters are. Similarly, Dismissal spell likes to target a lot of things that are summoned in that way. I don't think it's so much a failing of the spell as it is we didn't bother going through all the various familiars and animal companions at all their level progressions to make them immune to it. One of those low priority things.