User:SARAH3/Sandbox

Here's where I'll be trying stuff out instead of breaking pages and hoping to fix them in one shot.

Animal Companion

The Animal Companion spell allows a ranger to summon and befriend an animal as a permanent companion. The ranger can tell their companion to do a number of actions including attacking creatures or defending the ranger, although the companion will respond faster if it has a good relationship with the ranger and slower if not. A ranger can gauge the quality of the relationship by gazing at the animal companion and the relationship is established or improved by feeding, petting, casting helpful spells at or otherwise interacting with the animal companion in a positive fashion.

When a companion has been selected and befriended, it should be told to leave before the ranger retires from a hard day of adventuring or upon gaining a level and can be summoned again by preparing and casting 630 again, then telling the companion to return. Failure to tell a companion to leave before retiring from adventuring means the companion will forget new things (including improvements to the relationship and gear added to the companion) and failing to tell an animal companion to leave after achieving a new level means that the animal will not level with the ranger.

In addition, once a ranger learns this spell, using sense while outdoors will include a list of potential animal companions in the area.

>sense
You scan your surroundings, considering the various flora and fauna found here (and noting those which are absent). The indications of the temperate climate and the deciduous forest are clearly evident. You quickly note the signs of a black-tipped forest tiger, a white-footed woodland jackal and a black-nosed mottled ferret having recently been in the area. Circling overhead is a fan-tailed branch peregrine. You also see a steep path.

There will always be one of each type of animal companion (canine, feline, avian, rodent) in every outdoor room, but the exact animal noun (e.g. tiger, puma, ocelot) will depend on the location, with some animals being exclusive to certain cities and its descriptor (e.g. black-footed, amber-eyed) will depend on the terrain type in a particular room.

Summoning a Companion

Summoning a new companion is relatively straightforward. First, one finds the desired companion using sense, then one prepares 630 and summons the desired animal. Failure to specify a particular animal will summon a random animal in the room.

Example:

>sense
You scan your surroundings, considering the various flora and fauna found here (and noting those which are absent). The indications of the temperate climate and the plain dirt environment are clearly evident. You quickly note the signs of a black-tipped orange tiger, a white-footed drab jackal and a black-nosed mire ferret having recently been in the area. Circling overhead is a fan-tailed dusky peregrine. You don't see any other paths leading away from the area.
>prep 630
>summon tiger
You open your senses wide and allow the desires and feelings of the areas denizens fill your mind. At the very edge of your perceptions, you feel a bright glow of curiousity tinged with wariness. Concentrating, you focus your desire of friendship and camaraderie towards that bright spot. At first the wariness holds but it is soon followed by a sharp peak in curiosity as if a decision had been made.
A black-tipped orange tiger prowls majestically forward!

Companion Mechanics

All four companion types are capable of attacking creatures (or players) and they do either slash (feline, avian) or puncture (canine, rodent) damage. In addition, they each have different special attacks. Animal companions will attack when told to do so and will also attack automatically when the ranger is stunned or killed.

Include examples

Bard

To be added...

Very Generalized Ranger Training Suggestions

The goal of this section is to go through what I believe to be the most general possible ranger training guide.

Core skills

These are the very basic things that every ranger should train in each level. Here, Cost refers to the training point cost expressed as (MTP/PTP).

#	Cost	Skill	Reasoning
1x	4/0	Physical Fitness	Necessary for full Hitpoints, as a cheap defense for maneuvers, good for redux.
2x		Weapon Skill	Whatever the weapon choice, the training should be maxed out.
1x	0/17	Spell Research	Learning new spells, improving the effectiveness and duration of others.
1x	0/5	Harness Power	Should be exactly at the character's level for 3 mana at each level.
1x	1/1	Survival	It's cheap, helps skinning, helps foraging, helps move around in tricky places.
1x	0/2	Perception	It's cheap, provides maneuver defense, helps rangers be even more amazing at foraging.
1x	2/1	First Aid	It's cheap, helps skinning and allows more effective wound tending.
Total	7/26

The total cost of this training does not include weapon training since it is meant to be very generalized. Weapon training for a single weapon can vary from 9/3 for edged and ranged to 21/6 for polearms (if there are actually any rangers who hunt with polearms).

Depending on weapon choice and hunting style, a ranger will want to train in different skills each level as well. For example, an edged weapons user may wish to double train in Shield Use for an additional (15/0) training points and single train in dodge for (7/5) training points. Archers will typically want to double train in perception (+0/4) and train in dodge if they prefer to hunt in the open or single train in ambush (3/3) and stalking and hiding (2/1) if not.