Blink Dog Animal Companion

[KillerKodiak69]

My DM has allowed me to take a Blink Dog as my animal companion due to my character's background, but since that's not a standard choice it isn't available for the revised ranger rules. I'd like to add it myself but I've never done it before and I can't figure out where animal companions get added or locate blink dog at all in the existing data files. Would anyone be able to help me out?

[Mergon]

Under gear, go to Add new Mounts and Hirelings.
- Scroll down to Hireling and add one.
- Click on the Customize icon on the Hireling and select Blink Dog as a Race.
- Customize name and other options as agreed upon with the DM.

[KillerKodiak69]

Originally Posted by Mergon

Under gear, go to Add new Mounts and Hirelings.
- Scroll down to Hireling and add one.
- Click on the Customize icon on the Hireling and select Blink Dog as a Race.
- Customize name and other options as agreed upon with the DM.

Ok, but then the issue becomes that the animal companion gets added automatically upon hitting level 3 so I have a hireling and an animal companion. I was hoping to find the location of animal companions in the editor and add a bootstrap or something so that Blink Dog became available as a race for the animal companion.

[Mergon]

Ah, I didn't realize you wanted to do this in the editor. Best thing is to find and copy an existing animal companion.

I haven't added Animal companions personally, but what you may want to try is creating a copy of the Blink Dog and add Beast to its NPC Racial Types. I think that would allow your copy to show up on the Animal Companion list.

[dungeonguru]

That's part of an eval script in the COM_5ePack_PHB - Classes.user file on a Companion Type with the id: c5CRgrComp

The 1st script has this in it:

      var searchexpr as string
      var excrace as string

      excrace = "& !thingid.rApe & !thingid.rBlackBear & !thingid.rCrocodile & !thingid.rGiantGoat & !thingid.rGiantSea & !thingid.GiantWasp & !thingid.rReefShar & !thingid.rWarhorse & !thingid.r5CJaculi & !thingid.r5CALGtHGo"

      searchexpr = "((hasbootstrap:tpBeast) & (RaceSize.Tiny12 | RaceSize.Small11 | RaceSize.Medium0) & !SwarmSize.?)" & excrace

      minion.childfound[Totals].field[tRaceExpr].text = searchexpr

In basic form, it looks for anything with the right size of type beast and excludes a couple of low level beasts that don't meet the criteria.

In order to include a blink dog you would have to modify the searchexpr string to be something like:

searchexpr = "IsRace.rBlinkDog | ((hasbootstrap:tpBeast) & (RaceSize.Tiny12 | RaceSize.Small11 | RaceSize.Medium0) & !SwarmSize.?)" & excrace

But keep in mind that whenever the next community file is released it will overwrite your changes to that file. You can make your own copy of the ranger subclass and companion type and save it in your personal files though.

[KillerKodiak69]

Thanks guys, I actually JUST figured that out on my own! I should be all set!

[KillerKodiak69]

Originally Posted by dungeonguru

But keep in mind that whenever the next community file is released it will overwrite your changes to that file. You can make your own copy of the ranger subclass and companion type and save it in your personal files though.

In this regard, would I need to make a copy of the whole Revised Ranger Data File, or is it enough that duplicated the Companion Type thing and gave it a new unique ID? This is my first foray into editing the data files so I'm not sure. I suppose I could just copy the file into a separate directory and then... what? Move it back in after an update?

[dungeonguru]

Originally Posted by KillerKodiak69

In this regard, would I need to make a copy of the whole Revised Ranger Data File, or is it enough that duplicated the Companion Type thing and gave it a new unique ID? This is my first foray into editing the data files so I'm not sure. I suppose I could just copy the file into a separate directory and then... what? Move it back in after an update?

I would make copies of 3 things (in parenthesis is where these are located in the editor) into a NEW file, just hit the New (Copy) button on the tabs you'll be visiting and it should be fine. Give your file a name like "My-Custom-Stuff.user", it will remain independent of the community files no matter what.

1. the Companion type - c5CRgrComp (General Tab - Companion Type)
2. the 3rd level Ranger's Companion ability of the ranger - c5CRgrRanC (Class Tab - Class Special)
3. the Ranger subclass - Beast Master - c5CRgrBeaM (Class Tab - Custom Ability)

What is happening is that #3 bootstraps #2 and #2 bootstraps #1.
So in your copy of #3 (Beast Master) you'll want to replace where it bootstraps #2 (c5CRgrRanC) with whatever the ID is of your copy of #2.

You do the same with your copy of #2, make sure it bootstraps your copy of #1.

I would suggest maybe renaming the Ranger Subclass something like "Fey Beast Master" so you can easily tell them apart.

[KillerKodiak69]

I'm having some trouble with this. It looks like the Companion Type is actually bootstrapped by the Companion Bond class special, which is then bootstrapped by the Beast Conclave ability...

When I set that up though with the eval script in Companion type set up, and I select Beast Conclave (Fey) from the subclass options, Blink Dog is no longer appearing.

I can just edit the script like I did before, but I'm worried about what will happen to my portfolio if I import an update to the community pack.

EDIT: Alright, I figured it out. Somehow I missed changing the Beast Conclave (Fey) bootstrap from the default Companion Bond thing to my custom one.