Pet survivability

[Velorien]

How difficult is it to keep a pet alive? Are they an early game bonus you're meant to give up on eventually, or is it possible to take one all the way to the endgame without having to specifically build around it?

[YoAmoElTacos]

The big issue is that Qud has effects that instantly kill you if you don't move. If you take your pets to anything that deploys these, your pet is highly likely to meet an instant death. Space time vortices are also bad news bears.

It's also extremely painful to try to manage an early game pet to endgame because anything you can start with at low level won't scale at all (except a beguiled legendary baboon or snapjaw). Usually late game pets are recruited at the mid-late game.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by YoAmoElTacos:

It's also extremely painful to try to manage an early game pet to endgame because anything you can start with at low level won't scale at all (except a beguiled legendary baboon or snapjaw). Usually late game pets are recruited at the mid-late game.

What exactly do you mean by this? They keep getting XP, levels, HP etc and you can give them equipment to increase their strength. What they don't do is spending mutation, skill and attribute points by themselves, but everything else scales up normally when they level up, quickly giving them a lot more XP than they start with.

[Velorien]

I was actually thinking of the DLC pets, though this is good to know too.

[Coffee]

I wanted my pet not to die, too.

Someone here suggested using Wish to create a life loop and then use Wish to "swap" with them and have them equip it; with the life loop, instead of dying, the loop would break and they'd be transported to a room that you can enter later down the main quest. Initially, I did this and also used "swap" and Wish-for-stats to megabuff their stats. But having a truly immortal sidekick felt imbalanced.

HOWEVER, there is also an awesome mod called companion's pact that (1) revives a dead pet after a week of in-game time, and (2) allows you to teleport the pet to you in case it gets lost (e.g. through a space-time vortex). The big downside is it doesn't work on saved games. I restarted my roleplay-mode game just to have it, though. I really like having a pet.

Even if both life loop and companion's pact would feel too cheaty, I recommend getting the clever girl fork mod because it just adds the option to let you tell the pet how to spend their skill points, and it also gives an option for the pet to start grabbing and equipping loot (although that one feels a little cheaty where the pet is, say, a pit beetle).

[Synthetic]

If you don't mind using the console, swap to your pet and have them spend their level up points and mutations. I did that for man opener and shes the scariest monster in the game now. The only that that truly scares me right now is the idea of a cloneling cloning her.

[Synthetic]

Originally posted by Coffee:

and it also gives an option for the pet to start grabbing and equipping loot (although that one feels a little cheaty where the pet is, say, a pit beetle).

If you give them gear normally, they will equip it. My Man Opener is wearing my leftover full plate and hand me down boots.

It can be a pain in the ass, because if they decide that "woolen steel boots" are better than "folded carbide boots" if you don't want to use the swap command, theres nothing you can do.

[Coffee]

Originally posted by Synthetic:

Originally posted by Coffee:

and it also gives an option for the pet to start grabbing and equipping loot (although that one feels a little cheaty where the pet is, say, a pit beetle).

If you give them gear normally, they will equip it. My Man Opener is wearing my leftover full plate and hand me down boots.

It can be a pain in the ass, because if they decide that "woolen steel boots" are better than "folded carbide boots" if you don't want to use the swap command, theres nothing you can do.

Okay, awesome! If they'll canonically wear gear, then that sounds like fun. Pit beetle fashion show it is.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by Coffee:

Originally posted by Synthetic:

If you give them gear normally, they will equip it. My Man Opener is wearing my leftover full plate and hand me down boots.

It can be a pain in the ass, because if they decide that "woolen steel boots" are better than "folded carbide boots" if you don't want to use the swap command, theres nothing you can do.

Okay, awesome! If they'll canonically wear gear, then that sounds like fun. Pit beetle fashion show it is.

Most creatures can wear gear, which is one reason whey they can easily be more powerful as players. All those tanky enemies usually are completely naked and you can put an armour on top of those big crabs. Tortoises have a carapace however and many creatures do not have hands/missile slots.