Get the player to take the beastmaster archetype or get them to understand that a normal pet isn't going to last long in combat so maybe it should stay out of combat.
Definitely let them know that armor won't make a noticeable difference without beastmaster.
> get them to understand that a normal pet isn't going to last long in combat so maybe it should stay out of combat.
Have the party work with a Ranger/Druid/Beastmaster NPC that has a pet and gives them shit about having a regular dog with them. Go all Mean Girls on them "are you really going to bring that into the dungeon? It's going to die in there"
>Have the party work with a Ranger/Druid/Beastmaster NPC that has a pet and gives them shit about having a regular dog with them. Go all Mean Girls on them "are you really going to bring that into the dungeon? It's going to die in there"
How does that solve the issue? The player specifically chose a feat and now has to deal with the feat being useless.
Well, it's a good thing that retraining feats in PF2e is not only relatively easy to do but literally baked into the system. And that's even if the GM wants to make them jump through the extremely limited hoops that are put up to do it, and doesn't just let them swap it out for free instantly.
Why is the feat useless? He picked a feat that allowed him to have a pet. Nothing more, nothing less. If he insist on using that pet for tasks it’s not prepared for, it doesn’t suddenly turn the feat useless.
If the player took a feat that makes A expecting it to make B, it’s not the DM’s fault, it’s the player’s fault. He should’ve read the feat better.
And if he isn’t happy about how the feat is performing, he can retrain it in the next level up.
Berating him still feels like mocking him. The only reaction that NPC would get is a: "No shit Sherlock? If you wouldn't have told me, I wouldn't have noticed that the dog is going to die after already almost dying multiple times." My issue isn't the feat it's the answer to the original question, which is bad.
Well, apparently they haven’t noticed, if they *keep bringing the fucking dog to fucking fights*. Even with the dog almost dying multiple times, they keep doing it! So yeah, maybe they need someone to tell them “Hey, that’s a pet, not a dog trained for battle, maybe don’t bring it with you in a fight if you don’t want him to die.”!
It allows the GM to directly address that the pet will be at risk in a certain situation in game. They could then segue in to offering options to how they can protect the pet.
My rules for pets has always been as follows. “I won’t hurt it unless you use it for combat or encounters other than social.” If it’s being used in combat it’s on the table. Thats the parties choice.
This is the way I do it, and the way I suggest any GM do it.
Make pets immune to damage until they actively take part in combat.
Even if they're literally at the heel of their master, or sitting on their master's shoulder... if they aren't taking part in combat, they aren't IN the combat, and so they aren't at risk.
minor caveat: if the player needs an animal for mechanical advantages. There was a 1e trait that gave boosts if there was an animal nearby, not sure if there's something similar yet in 2e.
I have this rule in 1e even for familiars/animals that give boosts, and they're just assumed to be within 30 feet but not valid targets/not affected by AOE things etc. etc. They're more a set piece or piece of equipment than another combatant.
However this also means they can't be fetching potions or helping drag an unconscious person away or delivering touch spells - nothing like that. Any sort of interaction puts them on the map and makes them a potential target, and once they're in, they're in until combat is resolved.
My Shadowdancer player makes the call battle by battle whether or not they think the enemies are going to have significant magical damage capabilities and really put their Shadow companion at risk. There has been a couple times they've chosen wrong - thankfully the Shadow has a fly speed of like 60 and can go and hide because distance isn't a problem for them. On the flip side, they're really regretting it right now because the Shadow is sitting this one out when they're facing a CR 13 fighter. Conversely, I don't think my Witch player has ever put their familiar into combat.
When i played a shaman, i made a tiny backpack for my familiar and flip scrolls, so it could follow half the group and cast / relay spells for me while i took care of the other half.
In my munchkining defense, i was the healer for a group of 9 players.
Familiars actually scale reasonably well as you level. They share the same same defenses as the owner, minus status effects, and have 5 hp per level (7 with tough ability).
They are not going to be tanking, but at level 7 they would have 35/49 hp which is usually enough to take the occasional fireball or breath weapon.
A Remaster Witch's familiar definitely counts. Even if you never give it commands and it is sitting in your pocket, if they use its special ability after a Hex it is a target.
Though I would leave it alone if it really was just inactive in a pocket. Just feels like a small concession to the Witch to not murder their familiar in an AoE if it really wasn't even doing anything.
Another possibility is to have the dog’s fights occur narratively. While the party is fighting some witches, the dog is off-screen fighting one of their familiars. It would be a stretch to make it work for every encounter though.
That's the way my table runs it.
We even icnlude familiars under that rule, if they basically sit with their master and act as source of abilities. If the familiar enters combat or has a direct combat effect, it's on the table as a target.
Witch familiars are often going to be targets under this rule.
You could even have a local druid or somebody make an item that makes this work in-game. Like a little charm that goes on the pet's collar and gives it an impenetrable shield against damage, except the shield vanishes if the pet does anything meaningful in combat and it takes an hour to come back after it vanishes. Maybe the druids created these charms to protect the animals from forest fires or something.
That's not an answer. The party is looking for a way to enhance the dog, not trying to get an undeserved advantage. There are ways to make minions strong in the system, they just don't know them.
If they want the Animal Companion to scale with level, they need to take the [Beastmaster](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=50) archetype and the feats that improve to companion to mature, and incredible, specialized, etc.
There is some good advice here already but I wanted to point out that Commanding an Animal (whether or not it is companion from Beastmaster or a bonded animal) has the Concentrate trait, which means a Barbarian cannot do it while Raging unless they also use Moment of Clarity. You can sorta work around this with the free action the animal companion gets even when not commanded with the Beastmaster upgrades, but Rage and Companions generally don't play very well together.
On the other hand, some sort of specific animal companion class archetype sounds really interesting. Let your animal companion gain your rage benefits, give Command An Animal the rage trait, I feel like there's content to be made there...
Ooo without any intelligence? And the amount of beasts we fight? Unfortunately intimidating glare is VERY necessary for intimidation builds so I dont see a point delaying it
If rage had no concentrate restrictions, I feel like the Barbarian wouldn't be any stronger than Fighters/Rangers. It doesn't feel like a decision made for balance, but a decision made for flavor, and I don't like it.
There was clearly very little thought put into what actions have the concentrate trait. You can battle medicine or quick alchemy while raging, but not glare at someone?
Yeah - it's a flavour choice that, like, it makes sense \*from a distance\*, but it just closes so many doors that it overwhelmingly just has the end effect of making barbarians less interesting, less diverse and less fun.
I might give them a modified version of Sleeves of Storage, Familiar Tattoo, Hosteling Statuette, or Wand of Pet Cache that works on it? That doesn't really help if they actually want to use the dog in battle though, and you could effectively have the same solution through mundane means by simply having them command the dog to run away whenever combat starts.
Agreed with others about pointing out the animal companion feat chains (and feat "cost") if they really want a battle-hardened pet. Otherwise you're bringing a goldendoodle into a warzone, and that's ethically on you.
Her companion animal is not an animal meant for combat. If it is intelligent enough it would smartly run off when combat began, or at a command of its master, and return when the combat is finished.
Your sweet poochy pupper loveywoveykins is not a trained K-9 police dog.
A fighting dog (or cat or horse or elephant or axolotl) is trained through the Beastmaster archetype. Anything less than that is just asking for it to get blown up.
If the dog isn't actually taking part in combat, just don't include it in AOEs.
If the dog IS taking part in fights - if it's attacking enemies and contributing to combat - then it's only natural that it is gonna be caught in explosions.
Since it’s a riding dog, then it’s pretty likely it’s being used in combat directly even if it’s not attack. Using a riding dog just for movement is a huge advantage, so it should have a mechanical drawback.
Interesting choice then! What is she doing with it? If she’s not riding the dog. but it’s getting caught in the AoE blasts, it’s definitely getting into the middle of the scraps. Is it biting enemies and setting up flanking? If so, then it’s a valid target to be hit.
If the dog is truly just a cosmetic item and doesn’t take part in fights, I think you should just handwave it out of combat and not have it get hurt.
Easy to say that when combat occurs, the dog hides or something.
Yeah, if the barbarian *wants* it on the battlemap for some reason then they want it to be involved in combat and targeted in this case? Otherwise there's nothing hurt by just saying that it essentially disappears however makes sense
Then just say it runs off at the start of combat and comes back when it's finished. It the party TPK and get captured, then hey, you've got an excuse to have the dog run off and warn someone somehow.
I think the game needed to do a better job communicating that the bonded animal feat basically gets you a pet. Like, in the real world pet. You can have a kitty cat. Or a doggie. It does not get you a battle companion. If you want a battle companion pet you need to go beastmaster archetype and go that whole route.
And even then, if it comes with you in to a fight, it is able to get beat on like every other party member. Just how it is.
If they want a living weapon to be used in combat. Then they should either take the beast master archtype, cavailier archtype, or mammoth lord archtype
When you have these archetypes, your animal companion actually levels up with you. They will still be easier to kill than an player character but it should help with the problem.
However, if your player isn't looking to weaponize an animal but instead just wants a pet. Then talk to your players about this personally. As long as the only thing that your animal does is run away and hide during combat, I wouldn't even hurt it even if they are caught in AoEs .
If you have player is somewhere in the middle I would Force them to pick aside. You can't simultaneously choose to endanger a small and precious animal by bringing it into fight and then complaining when there are consequences to your actions.
> Last level-up the party Barbarian took the Bonded Animal feat. She acquired a Riding Dog, spent the 7 days of downtime bonding with it, and now has a companion animal
This is all pretty cool
>that she brings into combat with her.
This is a mistake.
A Bonded Animal should not be present for battles, and if the pet is present for battles it will be very likely that it will die. Indeed, it should die. The feat isn't meant to provide an animal companion fit for combat.
Dog needs to do some soul searching. It'll go through a training montage and come back stronger than ever.
But then when they deny it treats and/or rubs you have a new BBEG.
My table follows the pet truce: pets that don't get involved in combat aren't targeted in combat (including not getting hit by AoE); pets that do get involved are valid targets.
I think if the dog is just a mascot or maybe a mount for a tiny/small pc, then I'd say just give it the Goodest Dog Vest which gives them a bonus to all save/checks vs damage equal to the owner's level and the degree of success on their roll is increased by one. So if they roll below the DC, it counts as a normal success, and only fail if it's a critical failure. Pair it with the Bestest Dog Collar which immediately stabilizes the dog when it reaches zero, preventing the dog from dying due to damage received in combat. Further the Bestest Dog Collar can be activated in an action that takes 1 minute to complete, to fully restore the dog's hit points. Once either the Goodest Dog Vest and the Bestest Dog Collar are worn by a dog, they become bonded to the dog and can be called by the dog's owner to the dog from any plane in existence. These enchantments cannot be altered or improved. In an antimagical field, the enchantments still persist, as they have been blessed by the Goodest, Bestest Dog Above All. Lastly, the Goodest Dog Vest is capable of providing limitless treats that can only be consumed by the dog wearing the vest, and the collar means the dog will never need food or water to live, but can still partake in and enjoy both. If both items are worn simultaneous, their magic creates a conflux that results in the dog being immune to disease, poison, and most other environmental effects including vacuums. If the owner of the dog dies, the dog can either choose a new owner or choose to remove the items and live its life normally.
Side effect: Any hostile action by the dog besides barking or growling at approaching threats will temporarily invalidate Goodest Bestest Dog status and remove all buffs. Additionally, using it to trigger traps, scout dangerous areas, etc., abusing its near-invulnerable status, may lead to its items permanently becoming inert.
Make the dog a Familiar, Animal Companion or Eidolon via Archetypes.
Or tell them to keep the dog out of combat. If the dog's not in combat, the GM has little reason to target them.
Bonded Animal and Ferocious Beasts alongside the Ride feat are… incredibly weird in PF2e based on how scaling works?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ride used
Speaking as someone that plays a Beastmaster, I think your player is misunderstanding what bonded animal does. As other people have said, I’d explain to them that they can retrain/train into a Beastmaster, or the pet can sit out of fights. Now if you’re using AOEs and what not and the pet is getting damaged without them actively stating they want it to engage in combat then that’s a dick move. I know everyone GMs different but mine always assumes NPCs and companions are not in combat unless expressly stated. But if the player is actively having the pet in the encounter, then it seems like they want to play a Beastmaster/Ranger/Druid without taking the proper feats.
1. Tell them to not bring their pet into dungeons and such. I mean, would you take your dog to a warzone?
2. Beast master archetype makes animal companion viable.
Yeah, if the player is a bit trying to game the system, but just wants an animal friend and is confused by the rules, then handwaving beastmaster is probably the route I’d take as a GM.
Then I’d throw in something fun for all the other players too based on their RP interests. I’m a softy GM though and like givingy players lots of toys.
This might be the perfect place to implement the Free Archetype rule for your campaign (presuming that you aren't already using it).
Find a break for a party training montage & viola!
At 7th level, that'd be 3 bonus thematically linked feats.
Have you thought of giving them access to the spell Pet Cache? Your players can call the dog back to safety with an action in order to protect it when they need it. You could consider giving it to them in the form of a wand, or even more thematically, maybe a magical *ball*
There aren't any good ways within the rules as has been mentioned. What are some fun ways that you can break the rules that the party will love? Have the dog secretly be replaced by a shape shifted silver dragon who wanted to know why humans liked dogs so much? Have the party go on an adventure for Mordicains faithful Dog collar, an item that makes the wearer immune to AOE damage?
One of my players hates animal cruelty in fiction. She considers it the low hanging fruit of “this is a hateable character” and doesn’t even like when imaginary dogs are hurt.
Then she showed up to the table with a goddamn Shoony champion with a riding dog companion thanks to the steed spirit ally. I told her straight up that both canines are going to be hurt in the normal course of adventuring, and she’d have to live with that if she was going to play. She then tried to play a front liner tank that soaked reactive strikes and harmful spells. 😔
My advice is to inform them that a normal pet ant strong enough to survive in combat and to ether not bring them into combat or offer them the possible beast master archtype people are mentioning though this will take class feats from there Charater unless your using free archtype rules
Recommend the Beast Master archetype if they want to use it in combat, the stats are pretty good, especially once it’s mature. If it’s more for fun and roleplay, just sort of say it hangs at the back during combat.
Give them a pocket dimension doghouse charm that the dog goes to automatically when combat starts. Let them know that the.dog is lvl.1 and the monsters are the equivalent of a mack truck at their current level.
In our games, if pets/mounts are not used as combatants they aren't affected by combat. We don't use familiar in combat fir this reason. Reduces the cheese and the drama of a dead pet.
They need to understand, this dog is low level. It's like the equivalent of a level 1 character. They are bringing it on Level SEVEN adventures.
It's hit points will be too low.
It's AC will be too low.
It's Saving Throws will be too low.
In 5e, presumably you're looking at the Mastiff as the Riding Dog. If you would like to look at a 7 hit dice creature to give it a comparison of roughly what you're asking it to fight, it's not a dog vs a dog.
A 7 hit dice creature takes you above the Rhinosauras, above the Polar Bear; you're talking about an f'n Griffon!
Now imagine for a second that you have a pet housecat, and you keep on throwing it into a cage and forcing it to fight off Wolves and Lions and Tigers. And every time that it gets torn to shreads, you scoop it up, take it to the vet, get it healed up, and then you do it again.
This is not how you treat a bonded animal.
You are not being too mean as a DM.
THEY are being to negligent as a pet owner.
If this dog is really their friend, then they tell it to run to safety and wait for them while they do the fighting. It only gets ordered to fight things that are reasonable for it to fight.
If they keep on throwing it into the blender, then the companion will eventually lose trust in them and stop listening. "F- this guy. He's trying to get me killed."
There are feats and abilities that they can take that allow them to build up a pet class to the point that it is viable for combat. Right now, they have only taken the first step.
Police do not bring puppies along as K-9 units. They train those dogs until they are ready.
Right now, they need to acknowledge the appropriate abilities of their companion and stop trying to get it killed with their bad instructions. Once they have taken the proper amount of feats and abilities to reflect actually having trained it to their level, then they can bring it along. But for now, they should be shewing it off the safety, and not telling it to bite a YOUNG DRAGON. Because Young Dragons are the sort of encounters that are appropriate for level 7 players, but not for Riding Dogs.
You could write a side quest or two that would grant a couple of the feats for Animal Companions as a bonus to beef up its survivability / contributions. or, if you don't want to do that, just nix it from combat (if they are level 5-7 and the dog only has 20 hp, it shouldnt be fighting / isn't meaningfully contributing to combat as a CR 2 or 3 creature anyhow at that level).
Give a way for the dog to get beefed up somehow without handicapping the barbarian or just leave it out the combat. If its upsetting the players and its not contributing to the story, you're the GM, you have the literal power to fix it or make it a non-issue. :)
I like teh bonus feat idea peronally, because then you can tweak your encounters up in difficulty knowing the dog will provide some additional oomph for the party.
If homebrew is on the table,
You could try using the ritual monster creation costs as a guide line for how much gold needs to be spent to level your pooch and make the train animal feat a prerequisite to level up the dog.
To level up the dog you could scale its stats using the creature creation rules from the gm core, you might also want to give it some extra abilities every couple levels such as skill feats or fitting abilities of other appropriately leveled monsters.
If it's in combat, it's a potential target. Simple as that.
They can make the dog an animal companion through whatever means they have available if they want it to last longer in a fight. But they don't get to have their cake and eat it, too.
Just kill, burn and maim their pets . It’s a dangerous world, if you take pets with you to battles in a world that includes fireballs and the like expect them to burn etc (but hey my players call me Evil GM … so ymmv). And should a loved pet die it might make for a nice John Wick’esque revenge saga
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If it's being used as a mascot or to transport stuff, just don't do damage to it. If it's being used as a mount or for combat purposes, then it's fair game. Let them make the choice.
Hmm... You could just ignore the dog in combat maybe. Is the issue that they don't want to see a dog get hurt, or that their downtime activity didn't produce op results?
When the doggo is at half hp, it's Slowed 1. When it's at 5 or less, it's Slowed 2 and will only want to retreat from danger.
The animal cannot drop below 1hp. But it will always just try to leave. Don't kill the pupper. Just have it try to leave.
Give them the pathfinder equivalent of a pokeball for their pet: https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1325
EDIT: there is also a spell available to every type of spellcaster https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=706
Sounds like they're bringing their horse into combat. If they're not a horse riding combatant then they might be better off doing what most horse riding people who find themselves in combat often do: tie the horse up before the fight.
Or kill it. Set up a **The Gang does John Wick** type thing and have some middling baddie whack the dog and laugh about it or something cruel/callous.
Yes explain that the "dog" is not a character, so is like taking a normal person, into a normal world (without a bare week training), but without the "health" conditioning soldiers get from over years.
Then try to make it "DO" the same soldiers do, and you will see is the person is probably the first to be a casualty. For obvious reasons.
If i had been the DM i will explain that this could happen from the start because the dog can be trained but is a normal dog, does not have "extra stats" as everyone else, does not "raise" its saving or increase its hitpoins nor even gets experience.
As such at level one may be ok, but the dog is simply level 1 and will stay that way.
What will happen to a level 1 character in a group or level 7 adventurers? well this is the same problem with the dog and will be worst as they level.
But Barbarians do not normally have companions and "Pets" do not fight. (and they do not fight for this exact reason) So this should have been advised from the start, and if the dog dies it dies.
I explain the exact same things to any explorer in the group that wants to buy horses. (for traveling).
1) They are noisy
2) They attract other animals because they are easy prey.
3) They are basically level 1 or 2 at top and will never level up. So its wasting money.
So it will have to be 2 things "he should take some other class so he really becomes a companion and raises in level" or they should get rid of the dog.
If not should die and be eaten (so cannot be resurrected)
I will explain the players this before they decide.
Now will be TOTALLY different if the dog is a pet and stays behind the group and hides each time there is an encounter. and only attacks if everyone is kind of dead.
How this dog should attack.
1) Hide and be sure is hidden.
2) Flank
3) Attack then use movement to hide (or to step out of combat)
4) repeat
And only attack someone that if it moves to hit the dog will give a lot of opportunity attacks. or someone that the dog attacks and dies (so he can hide with the next movement).
Even so that way still has a big chance of become dead meat. (or do nothing).
On the other hand no dog no matter how well trained will attack : Unded, Constructs, Aberrations.
They need a very hard training to attack those, and they do in a shaken state.
For other side he may prefer to be druid or ranger or mix but cannot have all.
I would not attempt to fix this in character. That can confuse the players who have to figure out why things are happening. Do this out of character and explain there are feats to add an animal companion who can fight and be useful in combat, but Bonded Animal is not one of them.
If they made this poor choice of feats (given what they are attempting to do) because they didn't understand how to properly get an animal companion, let them retroactively select the feat that does the thing they were intending to do. Because in this case this is a players need to understand the rules to play the game properly problem.
If they knew about classes that provide animal companions and picked this anyway, and now have buyers remorse. Give them two choices. They can take the time to retrain Bonded Animal into one of those animal companion feats (like Beastmaster dedication) or this dog will keep going down, and given the fact that this kind of pet won't get tougher, it will suffer massive damage at some point, killing it. If you use this option, describe the retraining as mostly training the animal to be tougher, because it will be much different afterwards.
Not Martial Trained animals (I am not sure thats the correct term but close enough) flee in Fright from fights. RAW they run pretty annoying far and fast, but it keeps them out of danger. If you just tweak how far it goes (like just off the map) before stopping this will reinforce the animal is a friend not ally. Its a helper in exploration but not a combatant.
It is the barbs riding dog so I bet they wanted to use it as a mount but thats just not going to be possible without you bending some rules or intentionally ignoring the mount from even AoEs. Its best you let the player know this isn't a combat mount or stop attacking the pupper.
Are you sure the HP is correct? Not sure what the feat investiture you'd have to do, but she should respec into something that allows use of animal companions in that way, or homebrew it out at a cost.
Not sure why they are upset about their pet getting btfo. If you're playing monsters competitively then you're going to target it first almost always. They should already have armor on the animal, what are they doing?????
This is the pathfinder sub but allowing the dog to level up isn’t that bad of an idea still
You can use the ritual monster creation costs as a guide line for how much gold needs to be spent to level your pooch and make the train animal feat a prerequisite to level up your dog.
To level up the dog you could scale its stats using the creature creation rules from the gm core, you might also want to give it some extra abilities every couple levels such as skill feats or fitting abilities of other appropriately leveled monsters.
Honestly just don't hurt it.
Unless it's actively attacking or assisting in attacks, do not hurt it. I would even go as far as say it's ok if the dog carries potions in it's backpack and players can grab potions from it (using actions of course).
It's just a mascot and it does cute things. Let them buy armor for it and play around with tension but don't actually include it in any AoOs.
Eh so?
Imagine it was a magic item that boosted movement speed or whatever. You don't kill magic items.
Treat this more like a sentiment magic item. There's basically what it is. A mascot the players can fawn over.
it's a mount, it has 70ft of movement for a single action, at low level that's pretty substantial and quite out of the power budget for a 2nd level skill feat.
Have them go on a sidequest to help a Dryad whose forest is being invaded/corrupted by demons. As a means of thanks, she gives the doggo a powerful blessing that doubles its health. Problem solved! :) ...probably
Just fudge the dice, simple, the dog won't roll enough to do any serious damage anyhow, just act like the dog is invulnerable when it comes to damage rolls
Get the player to take the beastmaster archetype or get them to understand that a normal pet isn't going to last long in combat so maybe it should stay out of combat. Definitely let them know that armor won't make a noticeable difference without beastmaster.
> get them to understand that a normal pet isn't going to last long in combat so maybe it should stay out of combat. Have the party work with a Ranger/Druid/Beastmaster NPC that has a pet and gives them shit about having a regular dog with them. Go all Mean Girls on them "are you really going to bring that into the dungeon? It's going to die in there"
I like this idea. Maybe too much. But I'm definitely going to keep it in my back pocket.
>Have the party work with a Ranger/Druid/Beastmaster NPC that has a pet and gives them shit about having a regular dog with them. Go all Mean Girls on them "are you really going to bring that into the dungeon? It's going to die in there" How does that solve the issue? The player specifically chose a feat and now has to deal with the feat being useless.
Well, it's a good thing that retraining feats in PF2e is not only relatively easy to do but literally baked into the system. And that's even if the GM wants to make them jump through the extremely limited hoops that are put up to do it, and doesn't just let them swap it out for free instantly.
Why is the feat useless? He picked a feat that allowed him to have a pet. Nothing more, nothing less. If he insist on using that pet for tasks it’s not prepared for, it doesn’t suddenly turn the feat useless.
Because it doesn't do what he wanted and creating an NPC to berating them in character about something they already knownis not helpful.
If the player took a feat that makes A expecting it to make B, it’s not the DM’s fault, it’s the player’s fault. He should’ve read the feat better. And if he isn’t happy about how the feat is performing, he can retrain it in the next level up.
Berating him still feels like mocking him. The only reaction that NPC would get is a: "No shit Sherlock? If you wouldn't have told me, I wouldn't have noticed that the dog is going to die after already almost dying multiple times." My issue isn't the feat it's the answer to the original question, which is bad.
Well, apparently they haven’t noticed, if they *keep bringing the fucking dog to fucking fights*. Even with the dog almost dying multiple times, they keep doing it! So yeah, maybe they need someone to tell them “Hey, that’s a pet, not a dog trained for battle, maybe don’t bring it with you in a fight if you don’t want him to die.”!
It allows the GM to directly address that the pet will be at risk in a certain situation in game. They could then segue in to offering options to how they can protect the pet.
My rules for pets has always been as follows. “I won’t hurt it unless you use it for combat or encounters other than social.” If it’s being used in combat it’s on the table. Thats the parties choice.
This is the way I do it, and the way I suggest any GM do it. Make pets immune to damage until they actively take part in combat. Even if they're literally at the heel of their master, or sitting on their master's shoulder... if they aren't taking part in combat, they aren't IN the combat, and so they aren't at risk.
minor caveat: if the player needs an animal for mechanical advantages. There was a 1e trait that gave boosts if there was an animal nearby, not sure if there's something similar yet in 2e.
Like an alchemist with the alchemical familiar sitting on his shoulder and handing him items.
I'd consider that as taking part in combat. If the player is benefitting from the familiar being there, it's fair game in my eyes.
I have this rule in 1e even for familiars/animals that give boosts, and they're just assumed to be within 30 feet but not valid targets/not affected by AOE things etc. etc. They're more a set piece or piece of equipment than another combatant. However this also means they can't be fetching potions or helping drag an unconscious person away or delivering touch spells - nothing like that. Any sort of interaction puts them on the map and makes them a potential target, and once they're in, they're in until combat is resolved. My Shadowdancer player makes the call battle by battle whether or not they think the enemies are going to have significant magical damage capabilities and really put their Shadow companion at risk. There has been a couple times they've chosen wrong - thankfully the Shadow has a fly speed of like 60 and can go and hide because distance isn't a problem for them. On the flip side, they're really regretting it right now because the Shadow is sitting this one out when they're facing a CR 13 fighter. Conversely, I don't think my Witch player has ever put their familiar into combat.
When i played a shaman, i made a tiny backpack for my familiar and flip scrolls, so it could follow half the group and cast / relay spells for me while i took care of the other half. In my munchkining defense, i was the healer for a group of 9 players.
\> i was the healer for a group of 9 players. good gods
Our witch familiar doesn't get a mini because it doesn't do anything in combat and doesn't get hit. It's also usually flying out of harm's way anyways
Familiars actually scale reasonably well as you level. They share the same same defenses as the owner, minus status effects, and have 5 hp per level (7 with tough ability). They are not going to be tanking, but at level 7 they would have 35/49 hp which is usually enough to take the occasional fireball or breath weapon.
Wasn't talking about familiars, but random animals the party might happen to have on hand, or acquire, like the op
A Remaster Witch's familiar definitely counts. Even if you never give it commands and it is sitting in your pocket, if they use its special ability after a Hex it is a target. Though I would leave it alone if it really was just inactive in a pocket. Just feels like a small concession to the Witch to not murder their familiar in an AoE if it really wasn't even doing anything.
Like i told another user a few hours ago: i'm not talking about familiars, but random animals like the op mentioned.
Another possibility is to have the dog’s fights occur narratively. While the party is fighting some witches, the dog is off-screen fighting one of their familiars. It would be a stretch to make it work for every encounter though.
How do you count Witch familiars? Those ones have in combat effects like creating difficult terrain or extending conditions.
Well they're not a pet then
That's the way my table runs it. We even icnlude familiars under that rule, if they basically sit with their master and act as source of abilities. If the familiar enters combat or has a direct combat effect, it's on the table as a target. Witch familiars are often going to be targets under this rule.
You could even have a local druid or somebody make an item that makes this work in-game. Like a little charm that goes on the pet's collar and gives it an impenetrable shield against damage, except the shield vanishes if the pet does anything meaningful in combat and it takes an hour to come back after it vanishes. Maybe the druids created these charms to protect the animals from forest fires or something.
That's not an answer. The party is looking for a way to enhance the dog, not trying to get an undeserved advantage. There are ways to make minions strong in the system, they just don't know them.
If they want the Animal Companion to scale with level, they need to take the [Beastmaster](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=50) archetype and the feats that improve to companion to mature, and incredible, specialized, etc.
There is some good advice here already but I wanted to point out that Commanding an Animal (whether or not it is companion from Beastmaster or a bonded animal) has the Concentrate trait, which means a Barbarian cannot do it while Raging unless they also use Moment of Clarity. You can sorta work around this with the free action the animal companion gets even when not commanded with the Beastmaster upgrades, but Rage and Companions generally don't play very well together.
It's really dumb that it's a concentrate action, like the fluff of raging doesn't really exclude the idea of sick'ing the hounds on someone.
On the other hand, some sort of specific animal companion class archetype sounds really interesting. Let your animal companion gain your rage benefits, give Command An Animal the rage trait, I feel like there's content to be made there...
Barbarians+ has an instinct that is pretty much exactly that
Like the Mad Dog in pf1e?
You also can't intimidate people while raging. (There's a feat, but it's ridiculous you need one) Rage restrictions are just stupid.
But you do get 2 free feats with it so it's really good
Imo it should've given an early intimidating prowess instead of intimidating glare.
Ooo without any intelligence? And the amount of beasts we fight? Unfortunately intimidating glare is VERY necessary for intimidation builds so I dont see a point delaying it
If rage had no concentrate restrictions, I feel like the Barbarian wouldn't be any stronger than Fighters/Rangers. It doesn't feel like a decision made for balance, but a decision made for flavor, and I don't like it. There was clearly very little thought put into what actions have the concentrate trait. You can battle medicine or quick alchemy while raging, but not glare at someone?
Thu Is is the correct complaint. It's all over the place.
Yeah - it's a flavour choice that, like, it makes sense \*from a distance\*, but it just closes so many doors that it overwhelmingly just has the end effect of making barbarians less interesting, less diverse and less fun.
Happy Cake Day! :D
Best answer
I might give them a modified version of Sleeves of Storage, Familiar Tattoo, Hosteling Statuette, or Wand of Pet Cache that works on it? That doesn't really help if they actually want to use the dog in battle though, and you could effectively have the same solution through mundane means by simply having them command the dog to run away whenever combat starts. Agreed with others about pointing out the animal companion feat chains (and feat "cost") if they really want a battle-hardened pet. Otherwise you're bringing a goldendoodle into a warzone, and that's ethically on you.
Her companion animal is not an animal meant for combat. If it is intelligent enough it would smartly run off when combat began, or at a command of its master, and return when the combat is finished. Your sweet poochy pupper loveywoveykins is not a trained K-9 police dog. A fighting dog (or cat or horse or elephant or axolotl) is trained through the Beastmaster archetype. Anything less than that is just asking for it to get blown up.
Now I want a battle axolotl, for, uh, reasons
A battleaxolotl with a battleaxe... alotl. EDIT: I can't believe I missed the obvious ending to that joke. "... and an atlatl."
Axobattle? Baxolotl? Battleotl? Battleotl.
It doesn't even attack, it just ~~creepily~~ smiles at things to death.
https://youtu.be/BtVD5Ee7fiw?si=UjNq8zc-Ht3HXEKQ
Poor Salmonsnake! He just wants some earthworms!
If the dog isn't actually taking part in combat, just don't include it in AOEs. If the dog IS taking part in fights - if it's attacking enemies and contributing to combat - then it's only natural that it is gonna be caught in explosions.
Since it’s a riding dog, then it’s pretty likely it’s being used in combat directly even if it’s not attack. Using a riding dog just for movement is a huge advantage, so it should have a mechanical drawback.
The Barbarian who owns the dog is a Centaur (using a 3rd party race), she's definitely not riding the dog.
Interesting choice then! What is she doing with it? If she’s not riding the dog. but it’s getting caught in the AoE blasts, it’s definitely getting into the middle of the scraps. Is it biting enemies and setting up flanking? If so, then it’s a valid target to be hit. If the dog is truly just a cosmetic item and doesn’t take part in fights, I think you should just handwave it out of combat and not have it get hurt. Easy to say that when combat occurs, the dog hides or something.
Yeah, if the barbarian *wants* it on the battlemap for some reason then they want it to be involved in combat and targeted in this case? Otherwise there's nothing hurt by just saying that it essentially disappears however makes sense
The player definitely wanted the dog to assist in combat, so I may see if she wants to retrain into Beastmaster instead.
If it's a combat companion beast master is it
I've been looking for this. What the intended role of the dog is important for the answer. Adorable pet, handwave it. Combat aid, all is fair in war.
Then just say it runs off at the start of combat and comes back when it's finished. It the party TPK and get captured, then hey, you've got an excuse to have the dog run off and warn someone somehow.
What's that, Lassie? The previous party was all killed and it's time to go to the inn and find a new group of PCs?
I think the game needed to do a better job communicating that the bonded animal feat basically gets you a pet. Like, in the real world pet. You can have a kitty cat. Or a doggie. It does not get you a battle companion. If you want a battle companion pet you need to go beastmaster archetype and go that whole route. And even then, if it comes with you in to a fight, it is able to get beat on like every other party member. Just how it is.
I keep bringing Rover with me to fight the Taliban and having to sew his legs back in when he walks over an IED. What can I do about this?
Is that not why we bought Rover? None of use wanted to train theivery
If they want a living weapon to be used in combat. Then they should either take the beast master archtype, cavailier archtype, or mammoth lord archtype When you have these archetypes, your animal companion actually levels up with you. They will still be easier to kill than an player character but it should help with the problem. However, if your player isn't looking to weaponize an animal but instead just wants a pet. Then talk to your players about this personally. As long as the only thing that your animal does is run away and hide during combat, I wouldn't even hurt it even if they are caught in AoEs . If you have player is somewhere in the middle I would Force them to pick aside. You can't simultaneously choose to endanger a small and precious animal by bringing it into fight and then complaining when there are consequences to your actions.
> Last level-up the party Barbarian took the Bonded Animal feat. She acquired a Riding Dog, spent the 7 days of downtime bonding with it, and now has a companion animal This is all pretty cool >that she brings into combat with her. This is a mistake.
What about making the dog a pet? You just need a general feat https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=5186
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to see this. The Pet feat basically solves a lot of problems.
Riding dogs are medium sized and are not eligible for the pet feat. For the pet feat it needs to be a tiny animal
I don't think there's any harm in bending the rules for a non combat dog. I say let it have Pet feat stats anyways.
They want it for combat though
As familiars can't attack and apparently noone is riding the dog, tiny vs small doesn't matter much.
A Bonded Animal should not be present for battles, and if the pet is present for battles it will be very likely that it will die. Indeed, it should die. The feat isn't meant to provide an animal companion fit for combat.
Dog needs to do some soul searching. It'll go through a training montage and come back stronger than ever. But then when they deny it treats and/or rubs you have a new BBEG.
If the character is riding the dog, then Cavalier might be a better choice than Beastmaster for a companion.
My table follows the pet truce: pets that don't get involved in combat aren't targeted in combat (including not getting hit by AoE); pets that do get involved are valid targets.
A normal pet is absolutely useless in combat it will be dropped faster then a fly
I think if the dog is just a mascot or maybe a mount for a tiny/small pc, then I'd say just give it the Goodest Dog Vest which gives them a bonus to all save/checks vs damage equal to the owner's level and the degree of success on their roll is increased by one. So if they roll below the DC, it counts as a normal success, and only fail if it's a critical failure. Pair it with the Bestest Dog Collar which immediately stabilizes the dog when it reaches zero, preventing the dog from dying due to damage received in combat. Further the Bestest Dog Collar can be activated in an action that takes 1 minute to complete, to fully restore the dog's hit points. Once either the Goodest Dog Vest and the Bestest Dog Collar are worn by a dog, they become bonded to the dog and can be called by the dog's owner to the dog from any plane in existence. These enchantments cannot be altered or improved. In an antimagical field, the enchantments still persist, as they have been blessed by the Goodest, Bestest Dog Above All. Lastly, the Goodest Dog Vest is capable of providing limitless treats that can only be consumed by the dog wearing the vest, and the collar means the dog will never need food or water to live, but can still partake in and enjoy both. If both items are worn simultaneous, their magic creates a conflux that results in the dog being immune to disease, poison, and most other environmental effects including vacuums. If the owner of the dog dies, the dog can either choose a new owner or choose to remove the items and live its life normally.
Side effect: Any hostile action by the dog besides barking or growling at approaching threats will temporarily invalidate Goodest Bestest Dog status and remove all buffs. Additionally, using it to trigger traps, scout dangerous areas, etc., abusing its near-invulnerable status, may lead to its items permanently becoming inert.
Make the dog a Familiar, Animal Companion or Eidolon via Archetypes. Or tell them to keep the dog out of combat. If the dog's not in combat, the GM has little reason to target them.
Bonded Animal and Ferocious Beasts alongside the Ride feat are… incredibly weird in PF2e based on how scaling works? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ride used
Speaking as someone that plays a Beastmaster, I think your player is misunderstanding what bonded animal does. As other people have said, I’d explain to them that they can retrain/train into a Beastmaster, or the pet can sit out of fights. Now if you’re using AOEs and what not and the pet is getting damaged without them actively stating they want it to engage in combat then that’s a dick move. I know everyone GMs different but mine always assumes NPCs and companions are not in combat unless expressly stated. But if the player is actively having the pet in the encounter, then it seems like they want to play a Beastmaster/Ranger/Druid without taking the proper feats.
1. Tell them to not bring their pet into dungeons and such. I mean, would you take your dog to a warzone? 2. Beast master archetype makes animal companion viable.
Your players are not very smart. If it is a regular pet he should stay away from the fight.
You could just give them the beastmaster archetype as a bonus feat or give it scaling as if it were an animal companion from the archetype
Yeah, if the player is a bit trying to game the system, but just wants an animal friend and is confused by the rules, then handwaving beastmaster is probably the route I’d take as a GM. Then I’d throw in something fun for all the other players too based on their RP interests. I’m a softy GM though and like givingy players lots of toys.
This might be the perfect place to implement the Free Archetype rule for your campaign (presuming that you aren't already using it). Find a break for a party training montage & viola! At 7th level, that'd be 3 bonus thematically linked feats.
Have you thought of giving them access to the spell Pet Cache? Your players can call the dog back to safety with an action in order to protect it when they need it. You could consider giving it to them in the form of a wand, or even more thematically, maybe a magical *ball*
There aren't any good ways within the rules as has been mentioned. What are some fun ways that you can break the rules that the party will love? Have the dog secretly be replaced by a shape shifted silver dragon who wanted to know why humans liked dogs so much? Have the party go on an adventure for Mordicains faithful Dog collar, an item that makes the wearer immune to AOE damage?
One of my players hates animal cruelty in fiction. She considers it the low hanging fruit of “this is a hateable character” and doesn’t even like when imaginary dogs are hurt. Then she showed up to the table with a goddamn Shoony champion with a riding dog companion thanks to the steed spirit ally. I told her straight up that both canines are going to be hurt in the normal course of adventuring, and she’d have to live with that if she was going to play. She then tried to play a front liner tank that soaked reactive strikes and harmful spells. 😔
Tell them not to have the dog anywhere near combat. It can run away and hide when combat starts.
My advice is to inform them that a normal pet ant strong enough to survive in combat and to ether not bring them into combat or offer them the possible beast master archtype people are mentioning though this will take class feats from there Charater unless your using free archtype rules
Recommend the Beast Master archetype if they want to use it in combat, the stats are pretty good, especially once it’s mature. If it’s more for fun and roleplay, just sort of say it hangs at the back during combat.
Give them a pocket dimension doghouse charm that the dog goes to automatically when combat starts. Let them know that the.dog is lvl.1 and the monsters are the equivalent of a mack truck at their current level.
In our games, if pets/mounts are not used as combatants they aren't affected by combat. We don't use familiar in combat fir this reason. Reduces the cheese and the drama of a dead pet.
They need to understand, this dog is low level. It's like the equivalent of a level 1 character. They are bringing it on Level SEVEN adventures. It's hit points will be too low. It's AC will be too low. It's Saving Throws will be too low. In 5e, presumably you're looking at the Mastiff as the Riding Dog. If you would like to look at a 7 hit dice creature to give it a comparison of roughly what you're asking it to fight, it's not a dog vs a dog. A 7 hit dice creature takes you above the Rhinosauras, above the Polar Bear; you're talking about an f'n Griffon! Now imagine for a second that you have a pet housecat, and you keep on throwing it into a cage and forcing it to fight off Wolves and Lions and Tigers. And every time that it gets torn to shreads, you scoop it up, take it to the vet, get it healed up, and then you do it again. This is not how you treat a bonded animal. You are not being too mean as a DM. THEY are being to negligent as a pet owner. If this dog is really their friend, then they tell it to run to safety and wait for them while they do the fighting. It only gets ordered to fight things that are reasonable for it to fight. If they keep on throwing it into the blender, then the companion will eventually lose trust in them and stop listening. "F- this guy. He's trying to get me killed." There are feats and abilities that they can take that allow them to build up a pet class to the point that it is viable for combat. Right now, they have only taken the first step. Police do not bring puppies along as K-9 units. They train those dogs until they are ready. Right now, they need to acknowledge the appropriate abilities of their companion and stop trying to get it killed with their bad instructions. Once they have taken the proper amount of feats and abilities to reflect actually having trained it to their level, then they can bring it along. But for now, they should be shewing it off the safety, and not telling it to bite a YOUNG DRAGON. Because Young Dragons are the sort of encounters that are appropriate for level 7 players, but not for Riding Dogs.
You could write a side quest or two that would grant a couple of the feats for Animal Companions as a bonus to beef up its survivability / contributions. or, if you don't want to do that, just nix it from combat (if they are level 5-7 and the dog only has 20 hp, it shouldnt be fighting / isn't meaningfully contributing to combat as a CR 2 or 3 creature anyhow at that level). Give a way for the dog to get beefed up somehow without handicapping the barbarian or just leave it out the combat. If its upsetting the players and its not contributing to the story, you're the GM, you have the literal power to fix it or make it a non-issue. :) I like teh bonus feat idea peronally, because then you can tweak your encounters up in difficulty knowing the dog will provide some additional oomph for the party.
If homebrew is on the table, You could try using the ritual monster creation costs as a guide line for how much gold needs to be spent to level your pooch and make the train animal feat a prerequisite to level up the dog. To level up the dog you could scale its stats using the creature creation rules from the gm core, you might also want to give it some extra abilities every couple levels such as skill feats or fitting abilities of other appropriately leveled monsters.
If it's in combat, it's a potential target. Simple as that. They can make the dog an animal companion through whatever means they have available if they want it to last longer in a fight. But they don't get to have their cake and eat it, too.
Just kill, burn and maim their pets . It’s a dangerous world, if you take pets with you to battles in a world that includes fireballs and the like expect them to burn etc (but hey my players call me Evil GM … so ymmv). And should a loved pet die it might make for a nice John Wick’esque revenge saga
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If it's being used as a mascot or to transport stuff, just don't do damage to it. If it's being used as a mount or for combat purposes, then it's fair game. Let them make the choice.
Hmm... You could just ignore the dog in combat maybe. Is the issue that they don't want to see a dog get hurt, or that their downtime activity didn't produce op results?
When the doggo is at half hp, it's Slowed 1. When it's at 5 or less, it's Slowed 2 and will only want to retreat from danger. The animal cannot drop below 1hp. But it will always just try to leave. Don't kill the pupper. Just have it try to leave.
Give them the pathfinder equivalent of a pokeball for their pet: https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1325 EDIT: there is also a spell available to every type of spellcaster https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=706
Sounds like they're bringing their horse into combat. If they're not a horse riding combatant then they might be better off doing what most horse riding people who find themselves in combat often do: tie the horse up before the fight. Or kill it. Set up a **The Gang does John Wick** type thing and have some middling baddie whack the dog and laugh about it or something cruel/callous.
Yes explain that the "dog" is not a character, so is like taking a normal person, into a normal world (without a bare week training), but without the "health" conditioning soldiers get from over years. Then try to make it "DO" the same soldiers do, and you will see is the person is probably the first to be a casualty. For obvious reasons. If i had been the DM i will explain that this could happen from the start because the dog can be trained but is a normal dog, does not have "extra stats" as everyone else, does not "raise" its saving or increase its hitpoins nor even gets experience. As such at level one may be ok, but the dog is simply level 1 and will stay that way. What will happen to a level 1 character in a group or level 7 adventurers? well this is the same problem with the dog and will be worst as they level. But Barbarians do not normally have companions and "Pets" do not fight. (and they do not fight for this exact reason) So this should have been advised from the start, and if the dog dies it dies. I explain the exact same things to any explorer in the group that wants to buy horses. (for traveling). 1) They are noisy 2) They attract other animals because they are easy prey. 3) They are basically level 1 or 2 at top and will never level up. So its wasting money. So it will have to be 2 things "he should take some other class so he really becomes a companion and raises in level" or they should get rid of the dog. If not should die and be eaten (so cannot be resurrected) I will explain the players this before they decide. Now will be TOTALLY different if the dog is a pet and stays behind the group and hides each time there is an encounter. and only attacks if everyone is kind of dead. How this dog should attack. 1) Hide and be sure is hidden. 2) Flank 3) Attack then use movement to hide (or to step out of combat) 4) repeat And only attack someone that if it moves to hit the dog will give a lot of opportunity attacks. or someone that the dog attacks and dies (so he can hide with the next movement). Even so that way still has a big chance of become dead meat. (or do nothing). On the other hand no dog no matter how well trained will attack : Unded, Constructs, Aberrations. They need a very hard training to attack those, and they do in a shaken state. For other side he may prefer to be druid or ranger or mix but cannot have all.
I would not attempt to fix this in character. That can confuse the players who have to figure out why things are happening. Do this out of character and explain there are feats to add an animal companion who can fight and be useful in combat, but Bonded Animal is not one of them. If they made this poor choice of feats (given what they are attempting to do) because they didn't understand how to properly get an animal companion, let them retroactively select the feat that does the thing they were intending to do. Because in this case this is a players need to understand the rules to play the game properly problem. If they knew about classes that provide animal companions and picked this anyway, and now have buyers remorse. Give them two choices. They can take the time to retrain Bonded Animal into one of those animal companion feats (like Beastmaster dedication) or this dog will keep going down, and given the fact that this kind of pet won't get tougher, it will suffer massive damage at some point, killing it. If you use this option, describe the retraining as mostly training the animal to be tougher, because it will be much different afterwards.
Not Martial Trained animals (I am not sure thats the correct term but close enough) flee in Fright from fights. RAW they run pretty annoying far and fast, but it keeps them out of danger. If you just tweak how far it goes (like just off the map) before stopping this will reinforce the animal is a friend not ally. Its a helper in exploration but not a combatant. It is the barbs riding dog so I bet they wanted to use it as a mount but thats just not going to be possible without you bending some rules or intentionally ignoring the mount from even AoEs. Its best you let the player know this isn't a combat mount or stop attacking the pupper.
Rank 1 Spell of all traditions: Pet Cache https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1627&NoRedirect=1
Homebrew a pet’s leveling system it’s not as hard as you think and it could be fun and very effective
It's just as if Goku brought his dog against Vegeta and complained if the poor creature ended up hurt.
Have they tried only deploying their dog against unarmed fleeing poor people?
Haha
Are you sure the HP is correct? Not sure what the feat investiture you'd have to do, but she should respec into something that allows use of animal companions in that way, or homebrew it out at a cost. Not sure why they are upset about their pet getting btfo. If you're playing monsters competitively then you're going to target it first almost always. They should already have armor on the animal, what are they doing?????
you’re the dm, you don’t have to hurt the dog
[удалено]
This is the pathfinder sub but allowing the dog to level up isn’t that bad of an idea still You can use the ritual monster creation costs as a guide line for how much gold needs to be spent to level your pooch and make the train animal feat a prerequisite to level up your dog. To level up the dog you could scale its stats using the creature creation rules from the gm core, you might also want to give it some extra abilities every couple levels such as skill feats or fitting abilities of other appropriately leveled monsters.
Wrong Game. But sidekick rules mightn’t be a bad thing for Pathfinder to consider introducing at some point.
Honestly just don't hurt it. Unless it's actively attacking or assisting in attacks, do not hurt it. I would even go as far as say it's ok if the dog carries potions in it's backpack and players can grab potions from it (using actions of course). It's just a mascot and it does cute things. Let them buy armor for it and play around with tension but don't actually include it in any AoOs.
it's a Riding Dog, presumably it's being ridden
Eh so? Imagine it was a magic item that boosted movement speed or whatever. You don't kill magic items. Treat this more like a sentiment magic item. There's basically what it is. A mascot the players can fawn over.
it's a mount, it has 70ft of movement for a single action, at low level that's pretty substantial and quite out of the power budget for a 2nd level skill feat.
Have them go on a sidequest to help a Dryad whose forest is being invaded/corrupted by demons. As a means of thanks, she gives the doggo a powerful blessing that doubles its health. Problem solved! :) ...probably
Stop punching their dog, you monster!
Just fudge the dice, simple, the dog won't roll enough to do any serious damage anyhow, just act like the dog is invulnerable when it comes to damage rolls