Hey! I'm wanting to make a playbook based around animal companions, I'm currently calling it "The Tamer". I am just really curious as to what sort of aspects/features ya'll would like to see in this type of class? Anything from status effects, specific animal abilities, gear, etc. I'm really excited to make this as it will likely be put into a ttrpg I'm creating! I want it to be appealing to others and not just me :). Thanks ya'll!
I'm thinking just one, but didn't even consider multiple! I'm also wanting them to be focused on primarily status effects, secondarily damage. Multiple companions sounds complicated, since having the player to have access to too many status effects at once could be OP, but maybe there is a way to work it?
Neat! I'm actually working on a similar thing for one of my games; I'd love to know more!
To think about your question on 1 vs many companions, the solution I've found is in power. So basically you could have say a Tiger which can deal moderate damage, cause bleeding and cause fear. OR you could have a Bat, a Rat and a Cat which all cause minor damage but also cause bleeding, illness and superstition respectively. They're about the same power level, just spread out more which has its pros and cons.
Hope this helps!
Shadowsandbag's idea is pretty solid. For each type of animal, you could say a number to roll for how many appear... 1 bear, 1d2 lions or tigers, 1d4 hawks or falcons, 1d6 wolves, 1d8 domestic cats or dogs, 1d10 rats, 1d12 bats, 1d20 tarantulas or scorpions, or a d100 swarm of insects. Also, make sure there is a different reason for the player to want to choose that animal over the others. If they are all just combat aides, everyone will just summon a bear or some lions. There should be good incentives to use them all. Consider choosing one special ability for each that gives it a completely unique reason to choose it, or ways that the player character can synergize with them.
For example, the bats could have an ability called Echolocation where the player can listen for their shrieks and use them to triangulate the location of an enemy in the dark, mitigating some of the penalty for low visibility.
Having special abilities for each of them was always the goal! However, I was struggling to deal with the power imbalance between them. I thought I'd make some more defensive or fast than others to balance out a lack of attack power, but just having a different number of them is such a simple and effective solution! of course, I will definitely still integrate stat differences but this solves so much. I can't believe I didn't consider this myself, thank you! This is my first playbook ever, and everyone who has been responding has had excellent perspectives!
