Companions

Companion's are creatures or allies that are under the control of players or other characters. Generally they are unlocked via Talents and can follow basic commands and orders. They are always loyal and dedicated to the owner of the Talent. Often the Companion will be controlled by the GM and use it's skills and combat abilities to the best of the Companions ability and based on the orders given.

A companion does not follow standard Character or NPC rules. They have a unique set of constructions rules. Most stats will be upgraded and not apply bonuses which another character may benefit from.

Ability bonuses are never applied to attacks or damage, or to CMD, CMD, AC, Touch AC, or any other base stat aside from Skill checks and Constitution still affects Wounds.

The Defenses category includes CMD, AC, and Touch. Each one is purchased separately

A Companion can start out with 1 Script capacity. A Script is a set of instructions a Companion can follow without direct commands being actively given. Generally a command Script shouldn't be more then a few lines or sentences. Companions are you ally and will do their best to follow the orders in a meaningful way and understand the intent behind it for the most part, so it doesn't have to plan for every situation. If some thing unexpected happens the Companion will have to use it's skills and abilities to make the correct decisions. It is up to you and the GM to determine what is a suitable Script for a Companion.

It takes One Minute to update, change or create a Script for a Companion. It is a Free Action to swap Scripts if your Companion has multiple known Scripts available.

An Order is anything outside of an active Script. As a Half action you may direct your Companion to perform a task, including Attack, Heel, Stop, and Move. What falls into an acceptable order outside of that will come down to yourself and your GM's best judgement. The list of acceptable Orders would be a long list of options. As an example, if a Companion has the Heal skill it can likely be Ordered to Stabilize a dying character. However, Ordering a Companion to to a complex long term objective like tracking would either required continued use of Half Actions or a new Script to follow.

Many Companions will not be sentient; this means while they can understand many things the full comprehension will be lacking. For example you can have a Wolf Companion with ranks in Knowledge Nature, which would allow a Script such as “Guard this area and bark if you see any Bears or other Wolves.” That way you won't be alerted if a Rabbit or Deer comes by. With Knowledge Local they could even differentiate a Bandit from a farmer, if sufficiently skilled. Remember, this wouldn't prevent them from being tricked by a disguise or similar Con check. That would require the Companion to roll an opposed Perception or Sense Motive. Often a non-sentient creature cannot make full use of many skills, but that does not prevent them from putting ranks in it. These limits are generally obvious but can result in some confusion. If a discussion about a Script arises, often making use of Skills is the best way to represent how well a Companion can adapt and make the best choice in a situation.

A Companion can make use of Harvest without Sentience, but it requires the Owner to be present and fully concentrated on their Companion. The Owner cannot being doing any other activity while the Companion is Harvesting.

A non-sentient Companion cannot roll Craft checks to create new items. In some cases they may be able to assist another creature with a craft (such as passing tools or some other niche task), when this is the case the Aid Another bonus is limited to +2.

When a Companion is sentient and physically able to Craft, it requires the Owner to be present and solely focused on the Companion. The Owner is unable to perform any other activities while the Companion is crafting. If used to Assist another with Crafting, the previous limit may be ignored, so long as proper tools are available for the primary Crafter and the Assistant.

Other extended tests generally require the Owner to be present and focused on the Companion as well. These include but are not limited to: Survival, Profession, Search, and Repair. In some cases a GM may rule a task can be performed by the Companion on it's own with a suitable Script.

Everyone starts with a Capacity limit of 1. There are way to increase this capacity via Talents. Generally these Talents stack with themselves or similar Talents from other Paths. However, often many Companions can become disruptive to game play and a GM may opt to limit Combat encounters to one active Companion, in which case the Companion Capacity rules will not be used. You may have as many Companions as you would like but must select which one will participate in combat encounters. You may discuss with you GM when swapping active Companions is appropriate.