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Pets

"The cat doesn't fight. The cat knocks the goblet over so you'll look up."

Role: Non-humanoid companions. Cats, dogs, falcons, lizards, exotic beasts. They don't take wages, they don't talk back, and they don't count toward your party cap.

At a glance
Where to find Pet vendors (per-town) + biome wild-tame sites
Cost Small fee for vendor stock; time + skill for wild-tame
Best paired with Any class. Beastmasters get a deeper bond tier
Persists across Save / travel / run - until they die or you release them
Party cap Pets don't count toward the 2-follower limit

The kinds

Cats. Independent. Wander a bit, return when fed. Good for tavern ambiance + occasional rat-killing. Some breeds spot hidden things (perception bonus when adjacent).

Dogs. Loyal, trainable. Tracking dogs follow scent, guard dogs warn at night, herder dogs are non-combat utility. Best general- purpose starter pet.

Falcons / hawks. Aerial scouts. Send them ahead to map a location's exits before you enter. Beastmasters get directional sense from them.

Lizards. Hardier than they look. Cold-blooded - sluggish in winter, fierce in heat. Some breeds carry venom on bite.

Wolves & bigger. Wild-tamed only. Require Beastmaster track or a deep Animal Handling rank. Real combat presence; the people you walk past treat you very differently with a wolf at heel.

Exotic / regional. Each town vendor stocks one or two biome-keyed exotics. The Greenweald edge has fox kits; the docks have parrots; Darkhollow has things you should not, perhaps, bring home.

How it works

  1. Buy or tame.

    • Buy from a pet vendor in any of the five cities. They stock starter-tier animals (cats, dogs, common reptiles) at moderate prices. Bonded mounts and exotics cost more.
    • Wild-tame in a biome that supports the species. Requires Animal Handling skill and patience. Beastmaster track makes this dramatically faster.

  2. Bond mechanics. Pets carry a bond stat that grows with shared experience. Higher bond = more reliable, more useful. Beastmaster's signature Bonded Companion perk caps far above what other classes can reach.

  3. Mood + hunger. Pets need feeding. Feed them well and mood stays high. Skip feeding and they'll wander or refuse commands. Some pets eat what you eat; others have specific diets (cats love fish, lizards want insects). Check the pet's detail card.

  4. Commands. Most pets recognize basic command verbs: come, stay, seek <target>, hunt, home. Higher bond unlocks more (e.g. find <item> for tracking dogs, scout <direction> for falcons).

  5. Death is permanent. Pets don't revive. A pet killed in a fight is gone for the run. Beastmasters get a one-time bond- revival ritual; everyone else mourns and moves on.

  6. Release. If you can't keep a pet (long dungeon dive, hostile biome), release <pet> sends it back to a safe holding location typically the vendor you bought from. You can pick it back up later.

Why bother

  • Combat presence without the wage drag.
  • Information advantage - a falcon scouting ahead changes how you approach a scene.
  • Roleplay weight. A character with a half-trained wolf at heel reads differently to every NPC in town.
  • Pets don't count toward party cap, so they stack with your two human followers.
  • Beastmasters reach perks no other class touches.

See also