underpowered animal ally

[SuedodeuS]

Originally Posted by Leofric

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)

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.

[Celjabba]

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

[rosignol]

Originally Posted by SuedodeuS

Charge 1 point for it, or make it simply a Feature (no points).

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.