D&D: ‘Beastheart & Monstrous Companions’ Adds 5E Pets!
Wanna have a D&D pet? For any class, not just the Ranger? What about an entirely new class-based all-around pet? Check out Beastheart.
Animal Companions are one of the best parts of fantasy adventures. Play D&D long enough and I guarantee you’ll adopt some horrifically monstrous beast. One flash of a pettably-soft underbelly and you’ve got yourself an extremely exotic fantasy pet.
Can You Officially Have a Pet in D&D?
But what if you want to have one for your character? Some folks might tell you to play a Ranger, but even with the new fixes that’s still not always what you want to do.
Why can’t your Wizard have a pet dragon? Or your Rogue have a basilisk bud who’s fun to be around?
Beastheart & Monstrous Companions
MCDM Productions’ latest release is aimed right at your heart. Yes, Beastheart & Monstrous Companions is a new splatbook that adds rules for adventuring alongside “a wild companion”. It gives DMs the tools they need to let any creature befriend a party of adventurers.
And not just the usual beasts, either. In Beastheart & Monstrous Companions you’ll find rules for fifteen sample companions. This includes ferocious creatures like an Owlbear, a Dragon, a Bulette. Even the pet you’ve definitely thought about but never quite managed: a Mimic.
How Does it Work?
In a nutshell, you select someone to be the caregiver of a companion. That character gets access to a monstrous companion, which is a curated stat block that has actions who level up along with you. As you gain levels, they gain access to different actions.
But each action comes with a “ferocity” cost. Ferocity is a new resource that fuels your monsters abilities.
Your pet generates ferocity every round based on enemies near it, and this ferocity is spent to use abilities. As you generate more and more ferocity, the companion might go on a rampage.
If it starts a turn with 10 or more ferocity, it goes on a rampage and attacks the nearest creature. Unless you make a successful animal-handling check.
So you’ll have to manage that carefully. But that’s just monstrous companions. There’s also an entirely new class dedicated to monstrous companions.
The New Monster Class
This new class can use your monstrous companion’s ferocity to power your own abilities. You can also gain a mystic bond with a pet, and do all sorts of primordial, beastmastery kind of things.
The class looks pretty incredible, and unlike the other MCDM productions, this is easy to drop into any game. You don’t have to focus on Strongholds & Followers (though those books are fun). You can just play a Beastheart or have a Monstrous Companion in any campaign.
For the time being, you can even get your hand on miniatures of five of the monstrous companions, including a deinonychus with a knife.
And an owlbear with a teddy bear:
These are limited in number, but available now.
Beastheart & Monstrous Companions – $15
Leap into adventure alongside a ferocious friend!
MCDM’s Beastheart and Monstrous Companions codifies the fantasy of adventuring alongside a wild companion. This supplement presents rules for companions: wild creatures that any character in your 5e game can befriend and bring along on adventures. They aren’t always easy to control, but having a basilisk bud is totally worth it.
The Beastheart class then builds on those rules, letting a character work in maximum harmony with a companion. This new class presents a hero who is never without their faithful friend, and who shares a supernatural bond with a companion that allows both to perform incredible feats fueled by primal power.
Monstrous Companions
In battle, your companion builds ferocity, a new resource they can spend to use special actions like Earthshaker, Slime Shower, and Owlie Oop. But beware: if your companion builds up too much ferocity, they can enter a rampage and might just attack you instead!
Fifteen companions are included:
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- Basilisk
- Blood Hawk
- Bulette
- Deinonychus
- Dragon Wyrmling
- Earth Elemental
- Gelatinous Cube
- Giant Spider, Giant Toad, & Giant Weasel
- Hell Hound
- Mimic
- Owlbear
- Sporeling
- Worg
The Beastheart Class
The Beastheart is a brand-new class that uses the companion rules to create an adventurer with a wild partner. [It’s] presented with five new subclasses:
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- Ferocious Bond
- Hunter Bond
- Infernal Bond
- Primordial Bond
- Protector Bond
Extras
We’ve also added eight new magic items made for companions and their caregivers, and an original piece of fiction from Matt Colville, “The First Meeting”.
Let’s get wild!
Grab the Beastheart Minis Here
Happy Adventuring!
