Companions

A companion is a beast that is yours for good. It stays until it is slain, and there is no sending it away. You have at most one at a time. A ranger starts with one; anyone trained in Handle animal can tame one.

A companion is an ally like any other, with the same orders, the same side, and the same share of its kills. The messages call it by its name, drawn when it becomes yours (“Snel bites the kobold.”, “Snel comes to heel.”, “Snel dies.”). The status bar says how it fares (“Snel: unhurt”, or “Snel: with you” while it travels with you on the overworld). Look mode names it (“Snel, your hound”), and the Character screen lists it under your class.

A companion always comes along. Wherever it stands when you take the stairs or leave an area, held fast, holding its place, or not, it arrives beside you (“Snel comes with you.”). It rides with you unseen across the overworld, and steps out beside you at the next place (“Snel follows you in.”). Nothing but death keeps it from you. When it dies it leaves a corpse like any creature, and nothing else happens to you: find another to tame.

Beasts that hunt by scent have a nose. Within so many cells (see the Nose column of Creatures in numbers), your companion smells a foe of yours however dark it is, even through a closed door, though never through a wall. It goes for the foe when its eyes find nothing. When it scents something you cannot see, it growls once (“Snel growls at the dark.”). A door it cannot open keeps it from what it smells, so open it.

The collar

A beast you keep, a companion or a familiar, wears one thing, on its neck. Give, in the Allies group, fastens something of yours that goes on a neck, such as an amulet, on the beast beside you. It takes the time wearing it would take you (What takes time). You give one of a stack, and it is taken off you first if you wore it. With two beasts beside you, you are asked which way.

Whatever the beast wore before falls to the floor beneath it. The magic works on the beast as it would on you: its resistances, its armour, its eyes. You learn nothing about what you give by the beast’s wearing it.

You cannot take a collar back. Give another and pick up the old one, or find it among the beast’s remains. Goods you have not paid for stay with you.

Starting companions

The ranger’s Animal companion (level 1) puts a beast at their side from the first turn. It is one of their race’s kinds, drawn by chance as the run begins, or rarely one of the rares that any race may begin with. The story of how it came to be yours is told with the rest of your background.

At 50 in a thousand (5.0 %), any race’s ranger begins with one of the rares instead, each as likely: wolf (4), black hound (5), great boar (6), panther (6). The beast’s level is in brackets; the ranger’s starting beast is at least their own level from the first turn (see the growth table below).

Taming

Anyone trained in Handle animal may tame a beast, at any level. Choose Tame in the abilities menu and the direction of a beast next to you.

Only some kinds can be tamed: see the Tameable column of Creatures in numbers. The beast must also not be your foe (wildlife, or an animal a Beast-friend has calmed), or must not have seen you (asleep, say).

You crouch beside it for a while, holding out food if you carry any. If you are hurt, or it leaves your side, or someone comes into view, you stop, and nothing is lost but the time. Then one check decides:

• If you make it, the beast comes to your hand and is your companion, named, at your level.
• If you fail, it snaps at you and backs away. A beast that was your foe has seen you now.

Try again as often as you like: time is the only price. While you have a companion you cannot tame another. The ranger’s Animal companion makes them a little better at it. The exact check and the chances:

A try is 10 turns beside the beast, then one check: 2d12 + your Willpower modifier + Handle animal’s taming bonus (+5 at 50, +10 at 100, +20 at 200), +2 if you carry food (one of the first food you carry is eaten) + the ranger’s Animal companion bonus, against 10 + 2 × the beast’s level. A natural 2 always fails and a natural 24 always succeeds. The chance of a try, by the modifier:

How a companion grows

A companion’s level is yours. Whatever its kind’s own level, it is raised to your level when it becomes yours and every time you gain a level (“Snel grows stronger.”), and it never falls.

Above its kind’s level it gains hit points every level. Now and then it also gains a surer bite, more damage and another die of it, natural armour, and Strength, Dexterity, and Toughness. Its tougher hide is its body’s Protection at its level, as the hide rule gives every creature. Its speed, senses, size, and resistances stay its kind’s. Summons do not grow: their power is their spell’s. The exact table, as the game computes it:

From level 18 the ranger’s Pack tactics makes the two of you hunt as one. A creature beside you both is flanked: your melee attacks and your companion’s at it get +2 to hit, and your companion shares your favoured prey bonus.

Hunter’s bond

From level 25 the ranger’s Hunter’s bond lets them share what their companion has. It works while the companion stands on the same level, not while it rides with you across the overworld.

• Shared sight. You see every cell it sees, by its own eyes: as far as its kind sees, in the dark as its vision allows, and around the corner you cannot see past. You also see the cell of every foe its nose finds, however dark, even through a closed door, but never through a wall. These are seen cells like any other: you remember them, can look at them, and can aim at them. It finds no hidden trap or secret door for you, and smells nothing of a disguised mimic. Being dazzled leaves its view untouched.
• Shared buffs. A buff that lands on either of you lands on the other too, at the same strength, and each of you wears it off alone. This is any status that a buff spell lays or a potion lends, whatever laid it (“Snel is bark-skinned too.”). It reaches your companion on the overworld too. A hex, a harm, or a cooldown never crosses.

From level 40, Sic ’em sets your companion on a hostile creature you see within 10 cells. It costs 5 focus and the time of a wait. Your companion goes for that creature before any other, and follows it as long as it sees or smells it.

It is also Savage: half again as fast, and each of its next three hits is a critical with no confirmation roll. Each hit spends a degree; otherwise a degree wears off each minute. Give it another order and the chase is over. Savage is its own: it never crosses to you.

The companion’s rules

See also: Allies, the ranger, and Familiars.