underpowered animal ally
 

I need some assistance with a character that one of my players is building, she has made a "beast friend" character and has the speak with land animals advantage

she also wants an animal companion in that of a bird of prey

I have looked at the large falcon in gurps campaigns (pg 457) and when placed onto a character sheet, this comes to negative points.

How would you guys handle this? (ps, she does not want a "super bird" just a run of the mill standard animal)

Re: underpowered animal ally
 

GURPS Supers has Rules for Allies and Dependents of smaller % of the PC's point cost.

Re: underpowered animal ally
 

As an ally with a point total of 25% or less. Possibly use the rules from Supers for allies worth less than 25%. It may also qualify as a dependant.

To be honest though, what exactly is your issue? A negative point total doesn't mean underpowered. The thing has Brawling-16 and can fly. Sure, its only ST 3 so it should probably stay out of combats where it can't use its fast fly speed to its advantage. Probably best to use it mostly for that Acute Vision 3, have it act as a high flying spotter.

To be fair, the % for ally does set the ally's point total. So are you looking for suggestions on how to fill out those points without making the bird too good?

Re: underpowered animal ally
 

Charge 1 point for it, or make it simply a Feature (no points). In my short-lived zombie apocalypse game, a player wanted his character to have some dogs, which similarly work out to negative points (IIRC). I simply charged 1 point for each dog. A falcon is likely to be even less useful, so essentially just considering it a Feature (or piece of equipment, really) works out rather effectively.

EDIT: Of course, if the character has some sort of magical link to it (such as being able to use it for reconnaissance, as opposed to just hunting, message delivery, and possibly an alarm), charging a point or more may be appropriate.

Re: underpowered animal ally
 

Gurps power-up 2 have the pet perk,
described as basically a mix of a weak ally, weak dependent and signature gear.

It is for normal, small, ordinary pet animals.

The other way is to buy (or capture, find, raise,...) one.
It just cost money or time, but you don't have the minor plot protection.

Celjabba

Re: underpowered animal ally
 

I've increased the point value of a raptor ally by fleshing out the stats for the falcon on B457. Slightly increasing DX, HT, and Per isn't unreasonable, and adding Fit or Combat Reflexes might be appropriate for an especially healthy and alert - but otherwise normal - predator. You could make it Resistant to Acceleration (B81) so that its dives wouldn't incapacitate it. You could increase the falcon's Stealth Skill, and improve its Attack from Above (Brawling) technique.

Re: underpowered animal ally
 

Yup.

You don't pay points for a riding horse unless there's some kind of special bond for it- it's basically gear. Ditto for dogs. Spending points on something does represent how useful it is, to a certain extent (and I've run enough wolf-vs-pc combats to have a pretty good idea how useful a dog is going to be in combat), but mostly you're paying for plot protection.

Re: underpowered animal ally
 

This. It's surprisingly easy to spend points, even on animals.

If your campaign is Cinematic enough, you can do what I do to give them some plot protection. Unkillable 1 (Only while PC lives, -20%) [40]. Sometimes I'll give them Slow or Regular Regeneration with the same limitation. This gives you Allies that are Cinematic, very much like they are in many CRPGs, when they never really die while the PC lives. They mysteriously get back up after taking catastrophic damage. :-)

Re: underpowered animal ally
 

Could you buy it as Signature Gear? How much does a falcon cost?

Re: underpowered animal ally
 

Second the pet perk here. This is exactly what it's for.