IQ 5 Wolf - Pet, Ally, or Familiar?

[Trainik]

Hey everyone!

One more question for today (I hope). One of my characters has two wolfdogs as pets, and both have had their IQ raised to 5 (genetic engineering). They're extremely loyal and obedient, but not linked (technologically or magically) to him in any way. Under signature gear the rulebook says: "It is up to the GM whether to treat android companions, faithful steeds, custom vehicles, etc. as equipment (with a cash cost) or characters (with a point cost)."

What would be the difference between equipment or characters in this case? In either case I think I play as the wolves (he doesn't get to control them). There are obvious differences (frequency of appearance), but assuming that those are all equal, what ends up changing rules-wise?

Bottom line: I know it is up to me, but I'm not sure what each choice will entail.

Thanks!

[Tinman]

A Familiar grants abilities ect... - The Wolf is not that.

I would say that the Wolf is an Ally. If it was gear it would be interchangeable with any-other one of the same. Compare 'a pet dog' to 'Lassie' or a horse to 'Silver' (the Lone Ranger's horse).

Also, a wolf is not a typical pet. If it was a rotwiler or german shepard thats one thing. However, a wolf is a non-domesticated animal.

An ally should have much better stats than typical of the species & it will improve as the character does. A generic pet wolf will not.

There are some good profiles for animal allies in DF-5.

Hope all that heleped.

[Ulzgoroth]

Familiar is a subset of Ally, so there's not really anything to say about that.

An Ally promises a degree of reliability, plot-protection, and trustworthiness. A pet may be reliable and trustworthy, but is not guaranteed to be so, and the GM owes you no particular apology if you come home one day and find out somebody spiked their dogfood with cyanide while you were out.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Trainik

Bottom line: I know it is up to me, but I'm not sure what each choice will entail.

First, Familiars are just Allies. With special powers, but still Allies.

Pets are bought with money, or points traded for cash. They gain no special "plot protection" and are subject to death, theft, or puking in your shoes much like your PCs cellphone is subject to breakage, theft, or malfunction. Pets behave only as well as their IQ, their training, and your Animal Handling let them behave, along with other traits on both characters of course.

The PC generally needs to put significant time into care and maintenance of trained pets in order to maintain training and the master-pet authority relationship. Everyone's seen the dog that doesn't listen to his owner and just goes running off with the Frisbee in the dog park, and you can totally be stuck as that owner if you just pay money and use Animal Handling at default.

Pets don't get any better without money spent on training, cybersurgery, or whatever. They're just pets.

Allies are bought with character points. This buys you a lot of guarentees.
1) It guarantees a good relationship between you and the Ally. You should know enough about your Ally's species as to not abuse them through ignorance, but the GM may give that away for free for the cost of the Ally itself. As long as you treat the Ally in good faith, you aren't going to alienate them.

2) It guarantees a certain amount of "plot proofing", withing the boundaries of the frequency of appearance anyways. An Ally is going to be treated with more care by the GM than random gear, and if you take responsible actions to recover the Ally, should generally be returned to you in good condition by the GM in case of the occasional separation by events in the game. IOW, theft, sickness, etc might happen, but only rarely, and if you do due-diligence, won't be crippling.

3) It guarantees your Ally will progress in point value with you. They get better just as you get better.

[Bruno]

Note that you risk loosing CP if you send your Ally callously into danger. Regular old equipment pets can be used for mine detectors if you really want to waste the money on them, with no CP penalty.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Note that you risk loosing CP if you send your Ally callously into danger. Regular old equipment pets can be used for mine detectors if you really want to waste the money on them, with no CP penalty.

I assume you mean comic detection as in walk over there, and if there's a trap you will explode. Rather than realistic mine detectors as war dogs have been legitimately used for since WWII.
Losing the CPs spent on the ally only, and likely not getting any for the session for poor roleplaying.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I assume you mean comic detection as in walk over there, and if there's a trap you will explode. Rather than realistic mine detectors as war dogs have been legitimately used for since WWII.

Yes, sorry - was referring to the old D&D joke about using pets and hirelings as trap detectors.

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Losing the CPs spent on the ally only, and likely not getting any for the session for poor roleplaying.

The loss of that CP you otherwise would have earned, yes - it's more than "likely", it's part of the advantage description. It's not even generic "poor roleplaying", it's in the text and it's worded pretty strongly.

The GM will not award you bonus
character points for any play session
in which you betray, attack, or unnec-
essarily endanger your Ally.

I can't think how "Orders Ally to walk down death-trap filled hallway" wouldn't count as betrayal and/or unnecessarily endangerment :D More prosaically, "sending them callously into danger" in ways like sending them to attack an armed and armoured foe while you stand safely back is really pushing up against that "unnecessarily endangering".

Police dogs probably are equipment, not Allies. As much as their handlers are fond of them, one of the dogs main roles is to risk physical combat instead of having an officer do it. Of course, the dog is often a more effective choice because people usually have no clue what to do when threatened by a dog, where your average gang member can handle human threatening behaviour without completely going to pieces. Not many people with phobias about knives or guns get into violent conflict with cops. Some people with phobias of dogs do.

[Flyndaran]

There's also the disturbing issue that even criminals know that if a human cop abuses you violently, they might be able to sue. But if a dog cop bites thier genitals off, there isn't going to be a darn thing they can do about it.
That makes for some legitimate fear.

[roguebfl]

For it comes down to this Will the wolf just do animal handling trick like come when called, or will it fetch ma and pa when Timmy down the well, or come into a burning build to drag your unconscious ass out of the building.

If it's the former then it's a pet. If it's the latter then it's an ally. (It can call also as been pointed out be a depended at the same time)

Note I would call Diefenbaker from Due South Constable Benton Fraser's ally

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I can't think how "Orders Ally to walk down death-trap filled hallway" wouldn't count as betrayal and/or unnecessarily endangerment :D More prosaically, "sending them callously into danger" in ways like sending them to attack an armed and armoured foe while you stand safely back is really pushing up against that "unnecessarily endangering".

...I presume this doesn't apply to expendable summonable ally types...