Thane/Companion Questions (CoE / rgs3)

[jrw]

Hello all. I was hoping someone could please help me understand the companion rules a little better.

1) Can a dweller use more than one companion at a time? Is there a hard limit to the number of allowed companions, either per dweller or per group? Several archetypes have a companion in their starting equipment. The book lists costs for common companions (page 194) implying that they can be bought by any dweller (or denizen). It would also make sense in play that anyone who needed a horse could buy and use one. That makes it seem like multiple companions are fairly common.

2) On page 192 (under “Level”) it states “The Level/QR is then spent on the table on the right in order to acquire attributes for the Companion. As the Companion gains levels, they increase/acquire more attributes.” If an already established dweller (say for example, level 21) were to buy a new horse, would they immediately gain the +11 QR to add the to the base hobby stats, or would they use the base hobby stats until they hit level 23, at which point they gain their first +1 QR for their companion? I guess I'm trying to understand whether a new companion should auto-level to catch up with it's dweller.

3) If a dweller has no skill in riding (page 422; which states “may be tried freely”, instead of requiring one rank) how would that impact the stats of their horse? Other than the more difficult skill check, would it impact the gain of QR in any way?

4) As companions have a QR like an item (and handle damage like items) do they also count against the four item limit listed on page 166 (under “Limit of 4”)?

5) Which of these two below rules should take precedence? The companion rules state that any rune will counter, however normally a dweller or denizen can be required to use a specific type of rune-

Taking Damage (page 193), “If a Companion is going to take on a negative Condition, you can pay a rune of any Trait to Counter. During Upkeep a rune may be played to reduce a Condition’s intensity by 1 (1 per rune played).”
OR
Counter (page 181), “... Condition is being applied via a Talent, typically a specific Trait must be played in order to Counter. In those cases they will be listed in the Talent’s description in the form “[Counter Trait]”. So if it states [Counter S], it means a Spiritual rune must be played to Counter 1 intensity.”

I tried to group all my confusion on the topic in one post so to make for an easier search for anyone who comes later with the same questions.

Thanks in advance to anyone who could shed some light.
-J

[bubblemonkey42]

Bumping this because I am also pretty confused about pretty much all these things. Especially 4. While companions clearly scale and can be customized for versatility, they don't seem as useful as a magic item. And in a lot of cases, they require level investment, making the commitment cost much higher. So I'm very curious to know if they count against the item limit or not.

[Panjumanju]

Hello there. I'm the guy who wrote the companion rules for Children of Eriu. Sorry that I only just saw this.

>>>1) Can a dweller use more than one companion at a time? Is there a hard limit to the number of allowed companions, either per dweller or per group? Several archetypes have a companion in their starting equipment. The book lists costs for common companions (page 194) implying that they can be bought by any dweller (or denizen). It would also make sense in play that anyone who needed a horse could buy and use one. That makes it seem like multiple companions are fairly common.

Yes, a Dweller can have more than one companion at a time. That was intentional. You could be riding a hobbie with a hawk flying above you and a pack of hunting dogs following behind. Andrew might have to put a cap on that at some point but I see no problem with it!

>>>2) On page 192 (under “Level”) it states “The Level/QR is then spent on the table on the right in order to acquire attributes for the Companion. As the Companion gains levels, they increase/acquire more attributes.” If an already established dweller (say for example, level 21) were to buy a new horse, would they immediately gain the +11 QR to add the to the base hobby stats, or would they use the base hobby stats until they hit level 23, at which point they gain their first +1 QR for their companion? I guess I'm trying to understand whether a new companion should auto-level to catch up with it's dweller.

Auto-level to catch up. That was also intentional, because we didn't want to penalize someone starting at a higher level from having a relevant companion. However, I'll point out that just because you have a horse and you're riding it does not mean they're a Companion. Some Archetypes obviously start with Companions because they're integral to the character concept, but it's not like whenever a PC buys a horse out of the blue you break out the Companion rules. Mechanically, you have to shift the position of the tame mount from Neutral to Friendly in order for it to be a Companion. If the horse is just your fuzzy motorcycle then it's not a Companion, but the point at which your character has formed a reasonable bond with it and you can expect the animal or ghost or whatever it is to act in the interests of the PC, that's the point at which it's a Companion.

>>>3) If a dweller has no skill in riding (page 422; which states “may be tried freely”, instead of requiring one rank) how would that impact the stats of their horse? Other than the more difficult skill check, would it impact the gain of QR in any way?

Riding does not impact QR until you Rank Up the Skill. Riding does not change the Stats of the horse, because Riding is something *your character* has, not the horse. If you don't have Riding, that's fine; you can still have a mount Companion. It just puts you in not as favourable a position if a Riding Skill check is forced by the GM. It's hard to convince your mount to do things they don't want to do (like jump a gap) if you don't have the Skill to convince them. Also, if you hit 4 AV your Companion mount would get to make more Actions in a turn, which is a pretty big game changer. I tried to set it up so that you could invest the time and play attention into your Companion as you saw fit, and its ability to do things in-game would scale with your interest as a player.

>>>4) As companions have a QR like an item (and handle damage like items) do they also count against the four item limit listed on page 166 (under “Limit of 4”)?

No, it does not. Their mechanical behaviour is in many cases *like* an item, but they're not items, and do not count against the item limit.

>>>5) Which of these two below rules should take precedence? The companion rules state that any rune will counter, however normally a dweller or denizen can be required to use a specific type of rune-

Taking Damage (page 193), “If a Companion is going to take on a negative Condition, you can pay a rune of any Trait to Counter. During Upkeep a rune may be played to reduce a Condition’s intensity by 1 (1 per rune played).”
OR
Counter (page 181), “... Condition is being applied via a Talent, typically a specific Trait must be played in order to Counter. In those cases they will be listed in the Talent’s description in the form “[Counter Trait]”. So if it states [Counter S], it means a Spiritual rune must be played to Counter 1 intensity.”

The first one. It was very intentional that a Companion should be able to use ANY trait to Counter with, because it balances a lot of other considerations. I wanted to avoid the old player warning of "Don't have a companion in the game, the GM will just kill it" by giving them as much help as possible to stay alive and useful.

>>>I tried to group all my confusion on the topic in one post so to make for an easier search for anyone who comes later with the same questions. Thanks in advance to anyone who could shed some light.

No problem. Happy to help.

James Kerr

[jrw]

When I had originally posted these questions I was still getting the hang of the rules; Since then I've had ideas which way some of these should have been read, but it's cooler to see the creators insight on them, and I was never sure about the answer to question #5. Awesome, and thanks!

[Panjumanju]

Hey I'm just sorry I didn't notice the boards sooner. I do haunt the Discord quite frequently though, if you have any other questions. //James Kerr