These rules are for players who would like their character to have a pet and train them during downtime to have a mechanical impact on the game. A trained pet will be able to help you both in downtime and in adventuring time. If you would like to have a pet exclusively for narrative reasons, your pet will—subject to the DMs’ approval—be considered untrained.

In a game session, you will be expected to control your pet, but remember that they are an independent creature and not automatically under your command like a familiar or animal companion. An untrained pet will follow their instincts rather than your instructions, and will immediately flee from a dangerous situation. Training a pet to follow certain commands, using the rules set out in this section, enables you to tell the DM that your pet follows those commands – within reasonable limits. If DMs think your pet is not behaving in a plausible way, they may overrule you. You will be expected to keep track of which commands your pet has learned and to know the rules about what effects those commands have.

Which creatures are capable of creating bonds with other species and becoming pets is ultimately at the DMs’ discretion. Only beasts of up to size medium can become pets.

Trained and untrained pets should be manageable to live with so creatures that are large in size or bigger cannot normally become pets. However, not all medium or smaller beasts make for suitable pets. You must also reasonably have the facility to house your pet. Most medium or smaller creatures may be able to share a room with you but when considering a pet, consider what requirements that creature may need. A Frog, for example, will need access to non-salt water to live effectively.

Pets also differ from mounts, which are more akin to beasts of burden. Horses and creatures generally used for travel or work purposes should not be considered pets. The Pet Examples table provides some examples of common pets in Kantas.

Obtaining a pet will usually require you finding (or in some cases purchasing) the creature first, unless you brought it to Kantas with you. If you have something particular in mind, speak with the DTDMs to see if it can be established how you found your pet.

Pets Examples

Bonding and Standing

The bond between you and your pet determines the quality of your relationship with them. If your bond is strong, training a pet becomes an effortless extension of the time you spend together. If your bond is weak, training will be a constant uphill battle.

Meeting the Pet and Initial Standing

First impressions are important, and the conditions under which you meet your potential pet will determine your initial Standing with them and affect the speed at which you form a bond. At any time, you have five possible Standings with a potential pet, as described below.

Loved

If you meet the creature in dire need of help and provide it, it may imprint on you. For example, you might rescue the creature from dangerous conditions such as a natural disaster or an abusive tamer.

Friendly

If you meet the creature in difficult circumstances or extreme hunger and provide help, it will be friendly.

Neutral

In conditions that do not tend towards hostility or friendliness, a creature will likely regard you with neutral curiosity.

Disliked

If your first interaction with the creature is aggressive, such as laying a trap to capture it in the wild, it will be suspicious of you and guarded.

Hostile

If you meet the creature under hostile conditions, such as the middle of a battle, it will see you as a threat. If the creature is a predator by nature and has not eaten recently, it might tend towards hostility; if the creature is usually prey, it might consider you a threat, and be easily frightened. If you have hurt the creature or a creature of the same species within their line of sight, you are automatically hostile.

Pets that are hostile when you meet them are likely to run away from you until they are fully bonded. If you manage to initiate a bond with a hostile pet, your first interaction with it must be to try and improve your Standing or the DTDMs might call for an Wisdom (Animal Handling) check to see if the pet runs away. The DTDMs might also call for the same check at any point if your standing becomes Hostile after the bonding process is complete.

Initiating the Bond

After you meet a creature and at the first opportunity when you can spend time with it, you must try to start the bonding process.

Resources

Initiating bonding requires 1 Light DTA Slot or 1 short rest if you are adventuring when you meet the creature. The Initiating the Bond DTA can only be attempted once per pet.

Resolution

You can initiate the bond with your pet by making a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. The DC is determined by your current Standing with the animal (see the Pet Bonding and Standing table). Animals of a higher Intelligence score tend more towards pack behaviour, and bond with others more easily, but also make better assessments of threatening behaviour, and are more difficult to win back over once you have lost their trust.

Succeeding in this check signals that the bonding process has progressed. Succeeding by 5 or more also means that your initial Standing goes up by one category. Failing the check means the bonding process has not progressed yet.

Failing the check by 5 or more also diminishes your initial Standing by one category.

Strengthening the Bond

After you spend enough time in close contact with your pet, you can try to strengthen the bond you have with them.

Resources

Strengthening the bond requires 1 Light DTA slot.

Resolution

You can strengthen the bond with your pet by making a new Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. The DC is determined by your current Standing with the animal (see the Pet Bonding and Standing table).

Completing the Bond

The bonding process is completed once you have passed three Bonding Checks (as the result of Initiating the Bond and Strengthening the Bond activities). Once the bonding process is completed the creature has fully become your pet.

Improving your Standing

You can also try to improve your standing with your pet by spending quality time with them.

Resources

Improving your standing requires 1 Light or Taxing DTA slot.

Resolution

You can improve your standing with your pet by making another Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. The DC is determined by your current Standing with the animal (see the Pet Bonding and Standing table). Add a +2 bonus to the check if a Taxing DTA slot is used. If you succeed, your standing with the animal improves by one category. If you fail, your standing stays the same.

Standing Modifiers

Alignment

A pet’s alignment is important and can affect the relationship with their owner. Most beasts are unaligned, meaning that they have no particular moral bearings, and can become pets of a creature of any alignment. However, some creatures may tend naturally towards an alignment, and thus will be more difficult to bond with and train, if the trainer does not share their alignment.

If a creature is unaligned or neutral, the DC of the checks required for bonding and improving your standing is unaffected. If the creature has a particular alignment that you do not share, then the DC is increased by 3. If you and the creature share alignment, then the DC is reduced by 3.

Training

Once the bonding process with your pet is completed, you can start teaching them specific commands. When teaching a command requiring multiple DT weeks, you can take one week off without hindering your progress. Stopping the training for more than one DT week will however invalidate all the progress made up to that point teaching the command.

Training Costs

Training comes with increased cost to account for extra food and treats to aid in the training process, the purchase or hiring of equipment, treating any potential injuries, and in some cases, paying for any damages your pet may have caused. Each week of training will cost 3gp on top of the regular upkeep costs.

Teaching a Command

After you spend enough time with your pet, you can try to teach them a command. When teaching a command over multiple DT weeks, you can take up to two consecutive DT weeks off without hindering your progress. Stopping the training for longer will however invalidate all the progress made up to that point teaching the command.

Resources

Teaching a command requires the DTA slots specified in the command description. Only one Light DTA slot can be spent teaching the same command during one DT week.

Resolution

You can make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check to attempt to teach your pet a command. Each command has a Difficulty Class assigned to it in the command description. If you succeed on the check, your pet learns that command. If you fail, your pet does not learn the action, but the difficulty of learning that action is reduced by 2, as they retain pieces of the time you spent training together.

The Difficulty Class of the roll to teach a command is also modified by your Standing with the pet as detailed in the Pet Training table. If your standing is neutral, the difficulty is unchanged.

A character performing a DTA with a pet trained in a specific command might receive a bonus to represent the help and support provided by their pet. See the command description for details. The DTDMs ultimately determine if the bonus is granted based on the circumstances.

Pet Training

Command List

Sit / Lie-Down

Requirement: 1 Light DTA slot
Learning Difficulty: DC 7
Downtime: +1 to DTA Checks for Carousing
Combat: Yes

Command your pet to stop what it is doing and sit in place or lie down. This will generally be used to help promote good behaviour and stop wandering around or will be followed up by another command.

Stop / Move

Requirement: 1 Light DTA slot
Learning Difficulty: DC 12
Downtime: +1 to DTA Checks for Bardic Performance
Combat: Yes

Command your pet to stop whatever it is currently doing and pay attention to you or to move to a specified location they can see within their movement speed—including returning to you. This command is typically something you would teach your pet to help control their actions and prevent them from getting into trouble or wandering. It is also something you may want your pet to do so you can protect them if used in combat. For flying pets, this command can be used to recall them back to you.

Make Noise

Requirement: 1 Taxing DTA or 2 Light DTA slot
Learning Difficulty: DC 12
Downtime: +1 to DTA Checks for Bardic Performance
Combat: No

Teach your pet you make an audible noise on command. In response to a command word, your pet will make a loud noise if they are capable (barking for dogs, meowing for cats, etc.). Aside from being a neat trick, this may potentially be helpful if you need to locate your pet if they are not in sight or for use in narrative situations.

Wait

Requirement: 1 Taxing DTA or 2 Light DTA slot
Learning Difficulty: DC 14
Downtime: +1 to DTA Checks for Carousing; bonus for Relaxation DTA applies to the next two saving throws
Combat: Yes

Command your pet to wait where it currently is up to 20 minutes or until you say otherwise. In contexts where initiative is tracked, your pet will wait for up to 4 rounds after the command is issued. If left waiting, your pet may become bored or distracted and want to move or do something again. You can repeat this training to double the time your pet will wait before becoming bored.

If your pet should be harmed in any way while waiting, the command will end. Your pet is also unlikely to stay somewhere they do not feel safe.

Recognise Places or People

Requirement: 1 Taxing DTA or 2 Light DTA slot
Learning Difficulty: DC 16
Downtime: +1 to DTA rolls for Tailing and Scouting and Crime
Combat: Yes

You can spend time training your pet to recognise a specific place or person and have them seek out that place or person. The first such lesson has to be a ‘home’, your pet can return. Additional locations or people will require separate periods of training each. As this relies on the pet acting alone and away from you, training will need to be very efficient to help prevent your pet getting lost. If your pet cannot find the designated target, they will return home and wait for you.

This can be combined with other commands such as Deliver to enable your pet to deliver an object to a target they cannot currently see.

This command can also simply be used to send your pet home while on an adventure if you are concerned for their safety. Your pet must reasonably be able to undertake this task. If you have sailed away as part of the adventure you are on, they will not be able to get back without you!

Carry/Deliver

Requirement: 1 Taxing DTA or 2 Light DTA slot
Learning Difficulty: DC 16
Downtime: +1 to DTA check for Building a Shelter and Work
Combat: Yes

You can spend time training your pet to to carry something for you. The object they are carrying must be something they can realistically carry. The DMs determine how long the pet can realistically carry an object before becoming too tired.

This command can also be used to have your pet take something to someone for you. They must be able to carry whatever they are taking must be able to see the target when the instruction is given or the target must be one they are trained to recognise (see the Recognise Places and People Command).

Push/Pull/Open

Requirement: 1 Taxing DTA
Learning Difficulty: DC 16
Downtime: +1 to DTA Checks for Work and Religious/Civil Service
Combat: Yes

You can spend time training your pet to push or pull something within sight of you and your pet that they would reasonably be able to move. You can also have your pet use this to help you with Strength checks requiring you to push or pull something. Bonus to the check is determined by the size of your pet:

This command can also be used to have your pet open doors or containers with simple mechanisms, like a door handle. Your pet cannot carry out this action on doors or containers requiring keys or something that would reasonably be impossible for them to open.

Find/Retrieve Command

Requirement: 2 Taxing DTA
Learning Difficulty: DC 16
Downtime: +1 to DTA rolls for Tailing and Scouting and Crime
Combat: No

Instruct your pet to find something in a designated area. Your pet will be unable to find something on a verbal description alone so you must have something for your pet to use as a reference (such as something they can smell or an object they would be able to recognise). Without this, your pet will either find something that they consider interesting or nothing at all. Once your pet has had time to smell or view the reference material you have provided, they will need to make a Wisdom (Survival) or Wisdom (Perception) check using their stats + your proficiency score with advantage to find what you have requested. DMs to set the DC for this check depending on the nature and location of the search.

You can use this command also to have your pet collect and bring an object to you. The object should be something they are capable of carrying and within sight of you - if they have not found it themselves already.

Issuing a Command

Once your pet has successfully learned a command, you can instruct it to carry out the associated action. Pets will not carry out commands while their Standing is Hostile. Only some commands can be carried out by pets during combat, as specified in the command description.

Pets in Combat

Here combat is defined as being in initiative order.

You have two options:

• The pet counts as an extension of your body. In-game, this could be represented by the pet being kept in a bag or on a leash. The pet does not get to act. Area of Effect and fall damage still affect them. No other damage does. Fall damage can be avoided if they are safely carried. They still abide by suffocation rules.

• If the pet knows commands that can be used in combat, you may decide to have it count as an ally and act on your initiative count. You can never have more than one pet active in combat as an ally. On your turn, you can use a free action to issue a command to your pet for it to undertake. If no command is given on a turn, the DMs may choose a suitable course of action for the pet.

Pet Maintenance

Your work does not end when your Standing is good, and you have taught your pet every command. Every relationship requires maintenance to stay healthy and strong.

Upkeep Costs

There is an associated cost with keeping a pet in the form of making sure you have food available, basic grooming equipment, toys and housing costs. The upkeep costs for a pet each week is as follows:

Neglect

Once the bond is established, you will need to spend quality time with them to ensure they do not feel neglected. If you do not regularly spend time with your pet your Standing with them will begin to diminish. 

Maintaining your Standing can occur in multiple ways. The first being through carrying out DTA’s with your pet present (i.e. Relaxing in Fort Ettin, or Crime and Punishment in Port Ffirst). This includes DT activities that use up a Light slot or Taxing slot. Even if only a Light slot is used, this is enough each week to negate neglect. Teaching your pet a command will also prevent neglect for the duration of the training.

Another way is through bringing your pet with you on adventure, it may be dangerous but it’s still dangerous quality time with your pet.

Narrative quality time with your pet can also be declared as a way to prevent neglect. This can be achieved through narrative DTA logs or through general narrative reasoning for your character spending quality time with your pet. If you leave them alone in town for weeks on end, no amount of narrative reasoning will negate neglect!

For every 3 DT weeks without at least 1 Light DTA slot spent with your pet or narratively declaring quality time spent with your pet, your standing will diminish by 1 level. You can always improve your standing with the Improving your Standing DTA.