So I’ve run into this a couple of times, once as a GM and once as a player. How do you guys handle the hound’s pet during combat? Since she’s an expert hunter, but doesn’t really have any skirmish ability, I kind of think the best way is to use them in a group hunt activity, similar to how a dog is used during a fox hunt, ferreting people out from cover, perhaps grabbing and tackling they quarry to the ground if the pet is the one with the highest role in the group action (and therefore setting up the next role against an adversary). It feels a little cheap though, given that the pet doesn’t really have a skirmish ability.
Am I just picturing pets as too large and capable? Do you guys allow pets to use hunt during combat?
I don’t think it sounds cheap. It sounds pretty appropriate.
While it’s true that a pet doesn’t have a skirmish ability, bear in mind that it doesn’t actually have ANY abilities, just a Quality. For that matter, unless you’re actively participating in the tackling, you aren’t likely rolling Skirmish either, but Command (since in general you’ll be DIRECTING your pet to attack)
The fiction will determine what that Quality can be applied to, and will also build in restrictions on use.
So for example, if you pet is a tiger (large and capable) then yes, it makes perfect sense that you should be able to use it to tackle an enemy to the ground as part of a Group Action, whether your leading character is rolling Hunt or Skirmish. It would not make sense if you picked a falcon or a ferret for your pet.
If that feels overpowered or cheap, bear in mind that there’s a fictional trade-off on all that. You can take your falcon pretty much wherever you want without getting a second look. Regardless of the strict mechanics of Load, you aren’t going to blend in walking down the street with your pet tiger.
The pet is a expert cohort with the type hunter. As per the cohort rules, an expert gets to roll dice equal to the crew’s tier +1 when engaging in an activity related to its type. The expert can roll alone, or as a group action with another PC. That PC can either roll the same action as the expert or can roll command. Since combat is definitely related to the pets type, they get to roll tier +1 dice during any combat they engage in.
If you’d like to see this in practice, check out the Rollplay Blades series on youtube. The Whisper has done a ritual to get a hunting that is the same as a Hounds, and Myth the devil-dog is one of the most deadly combatants in a crew of deadly combatants (both as a function of the rules and also because the dice are kind to him).
Thanks Mike, that helps a lot. Good thoughts all around.