Good characters with Monstrous Humanoid Companions

[mireigi]

Hello DMs,

Is it allowed to play a Goodly aligned surfacer Ranger or Cleric (Animal Domain) with a Monstrous Humanoid companion, RPing it as the companion following the character while learning to better their ways?

Monstrous Humanoid companions are usually regarded as Evil by everyone on the surface, so there will be a lot of IC consequences, not to mention RP as the character attempt to protect their companion and make others see that their companion isn't all that bad.

[DM Narshe]

Animal companions have an intelligence score of 2 across the board. With few, if any exceptions.

2 intelligence creatures don't have the capacity for morals. They don't change their ways or even view things as right or wrong.

Monstrous Humanoids, however, can have intelligence scores even greater than their master. Since it's not mentioned whether these creatures particularly have a mind of their own, but only that you have to meet them and persuade them to a friendly disposition (charm works). You can then assume that once the bond is made, the empathy and disposition they have reflects your own. That isn't to say that other players still won't smash the gobbie, just that your monstrous humanoid companion is already changed.

All that said, it is unrealistic for good characters to convert normally hostile races. A chance encounter with one of these creatures is unlikely to produce a suitable companion. So this option should probably be kept for Underdark players, whose characters otherwise would never have met most of the other animal companion types.

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http://www.realmshelps.net/cgi-bin/feat ... _Companion

[mireigi]

Thanks for the answer Narshe.

What I was thinking of when I came upon the idea, was something along the lines of Deekin from NWN1. The Monstrous companion is following you of their own accord and might leave at any time they so choose.

Since the companion have a meaningful intelligence score and morals of their own, the player will essentially have to RP two characters at the same time, with a self-imposed loyalty measurement between the PC and the companion. If they move too far from eachother, the companion may leave or get abandoned.

I'm unsure whether or not the Stockholm Syndrome can be applied in this case, but I could imagine a goodly character sparing a single terrified goblin, who didn't fight, out of mercy or some personal code. The goblin might initially hate the character, and is only following along because there is nothing left of their former home, yet eventually grow to admire or respect the character.

[DM Narshe]

He's more of a cohort than a druid-bonded companion.

Having something like him would be a Leadership-feat related thing.

[mireigi]

Then let me rephrase the question

Can a Monstrous Companion be RP'ed as a cohort? Would the Leadership feat make a difference in terms of making it valid RP?

[DM Narshe]

Since the Monstrous Humanoid Companion changes as it levels up with you, I'd say it's a bad idea to base roleplay around the idea of keeping a singular one throughout development.

[Passiflora]

I know that in the past it was enforced that ONLY evil races and UD race would have access to monstrous humanoids.

I even had someone RCR their character once.


I don't know if it changed recently, I didn't really look into it.

Worg
Hellhound
Goblinoid (for UD and EVIL RACES)
Arctic Wolf
Snow Leopard
Dog

[mireigi]

Since the Monstrous Humanoid Companion changes as it levels up with you, I'd say it's a bad idea to base roleplay around the idea of keeping a singular one throughout development.

Ahh, that's right. I forgot about that. Only way to do it then, would be to not use the MHC until level 30, which is kinda silly and bending the rules / lore a bit too much for my tastes.

Would have been fun RP'ing a deranged ranger who for some reason thought the goblin at his side was actually his dog, and for some reason he could talk with it and it would answer using the goblin tongue, but to the ranger it would be as if it was a special language only he understood.

[NegInfinity]

Would have been fun RP'ing a deranged ranger who for some reason thought the goblin at his side was actually his dog, and for some reason he could talk with it and it would answer using the goblin tongue, but to the ranger it would be as if it was a special language only he understood.

You can roleplay deranged ranger with hellhound. Hellhounds can understand infernal language and possess human level intelligence - at least int 6, but can't speak. According to source books human-level intelligence starts with int 3.

Also, as far as I remember, bond between character and his animal companion is looser than bond between wizard and familiar. (described in master of the wild) At least that's how it worked with druids.

[Hawke]

As I mentioned before, there should be a Neutral or Good aligned version of Humanoid Companion. For those of us who would rather have a npc "student" or a wookie with a life debt.