So my players are in the turranian steppes and were fighting two rukh. Then the beast,aster decided he wanted to make one a faithful companion.
So after one was knocked out I gave opportunity via an epic animal handling check, which the player made (1 rank faithful companions).
What are the raw concerning pets like these?
Granted, when the party enters the underground whatever, I am planning to have the rukh leave due to no direct control, since the rukh is a bird used to flying around naturally. The player will have control of it for two scenes.
A big part of the beast master build is their companions. I recommend against just having the pet leave if they spent on a faithful companion. As far as RAW what specifically are you looking for? Combat? RP? Typically I allow the player to control their faithful companions unless there is something significant I want to compensate with.
Having ruled that the PC can use their Animal Handling skill, and the Faithful Companion talent, on the rukh, it should remain under their control until its sad, sad demise. sob
However, from Horrors of the Hyborian Age, it states “For Animal Handling tests, an “animal” is any natural creature that can reasonably be supposed to have inhabited earth during and since the Ice Age. Creatures that inhabited the earth before this are considered “monstrous” and outside the scope of this skill, as is any horror from the Outer Dark.”
That means that a rukh (a legendary/semi-mythical creature) is probably not a valid target for the Animal Handling skill. Now, you made that an Epic tasks, so I’d probably have done the same since it’s effectively just a REALLY big bird, but rules as written, it shouldn’t have worked.
Dire wolves? Yeah, they were around in the last Ice Age (last one died ~9,500 years ago), so they’re “animals” for this purpose. So are sabre-toothed cats and mammoths and a large number of other nasty things.