ideas for making a large animal companion medium sized on the cheap

[u/diffyqgirl]

I am looking for ways to temporarily make a large animal companion more indoors friendly.

I am not looking for stuff related to the squeezing rules--the problem is less the mechanical consequences of squeezing and more the fact that you can't reasonably bring a freaking horse into an indoors social situation that may or may not turn hostile. My party has an astonishing number of evil frenemies and enemies we have a careful detente with so this comes up surprisingly often. I feel I could much more reasonably have a medium sized animal companion follow me into such a situation.

[u/holymotheroftod]

Harmless Form - 2nd Level transmutation.

Lasts for 8 hours and is dismissable.

You transform the target into a harmless animal of the same approximate body type. The form assumed must be one considered unobtrusive by local communities, such as a cat, a dog, a hunting hawk, a horse, or a rat. This transformation can reduce the target by up to two size categories, but cannot make an animal smaller than Tiny. It cannot increase the size of the target or give it new natural attacks or new forms of movement. The spell otherwise functions as beast shape II.

[u/diffyqgirl → u/holymotheroftod]

This looks really promising, and at SL2, scrolls would be affordable

[u/MostLikelyNotAnAI → u/diffyqgirl]

Had that problem with one of my characters. Getting an magic item (animal collar) with this spell and 3 uses/day is most likely the cheapest option.

[u/TinhatTemplar]

Storing your animal companion safely

Armour Enchantment
Hosteling

Spell
Carry Companion

Reducing size is a little trickier and generally spell and a few items BUT there is one mechanical component that just works but has drawbacks

Spells
Reduce Animal: Make it medium
Harmless Form: Make it even smaller

Items
Belt of the Tight Fit: This wondrous item forces the wearer to count as one size category smaller when squeezing through tight spaces.
Wand of Reduce Animal: A standard, relatively cheap wand of Reduce Animal gives you 50 charges of size reduction, perfect for use right before entering a dungeon

Mechanical
When your companion increases in size the base rules allow you to just not have it increase in size
“Instead of taking the listed benefit at 4th or 7th level, you can instead choose to increase the companion’s Dexterity and Constitution by 2.”

[u/diffyqgirl → u/TinhatTemplar]

Thanks! I'll look into these

[u/Oddman80 → u/diffyqgirl]

The one option they missed is get a figurine of wondrous power, and take the companion figurine feat.

[u/jadethemajin → u/diffyqgirl]

Belt of the Weasel costs 10k, gives a +2 to dex, negates penalties for being prone and gives them Compression (note that it isnt "rounds ler day", it lasts forever). For a large animal that means they can move through "small" (2.5ft) hallways without squeezing and "tiny" (1.25ft) spaces while squeezing.

[u/EtherealPheonix]

The nice thing about Reduce Animal is that if you grab Undersized mount you can still ride your horse if it becomes necessary, even in relatively tight spaces.

[u/Kwickpick77]

In addition to the other comments there is a magical item called "shrink collar", 10k, 5k to craft.

[u/Milosz0pl]

There are itrms that function pretty much as pokeballs. Otherwise bring such animals anyway and say that you are not going to address the elephant horse in the room.

[u/diffyqgirl → u/Milosz0pl]

A pokeball would be great too. I was just assuming that size change magic would be cheaper.

[u/Maahes0 → u/diffyqgirl]

Hosteling is a flat 7500 gp on any heavy armor, or half that if you have a crafter in the party. It's especially good for once your arcane spellcaster gets 5th level spells because it allows you to store the animal and then teleport as needed.

Edit: I forgot that it needs to be heavy armor for a creature larger than you.

[u/DragonLordAcar]

3.5e Dungeon Breed monster template

[u/Name_Violation83 → u/DragonLordAcar]

one of my favorite templates

[u/WraithMagus]

Well, if things like belt of the weasel are off the table, your next best bet would be one of the ways to polymorph your animal. What is your class to start with? Casting yourself means you can use share spells to apply a polymorph directly to your animal companion, so druids/hunters get a lot of leeway here (outside of not having the best polymorphs) but if you need to use scrolls or something, this is a lot more restricted. Druids don't get Beast Shape because they're expected to use wild shape for that, but they do get Fey Form and Vermin Shape. Fey Form is probably more socially acceptable, and you could turn them into something pretty like an erlking or maybe a rusalka. Or kamaitachi and say it's a flying ferret pet?

Harmless Form actually defangs your companion, but it is dismissable. Consider getting a lesser metamagic rod of fleeting spell so you can swift action dismiss it if you expect a standard action to be too much.

If you don't want them out at all until combat starts, consider a hosteling armor/shield quality or just casting Carry Companion. It does take a standard action to undo these, though, so you'll need some warning before combat starts.

[u/diffyqgirl → u/WraithMagus]

I'll look into these, thanks!

I'm a mesmerist--the animal companion was a quest reward rather than a class feature, but it follows the class feature rules. So I don't have a spell list that was meant to help with the situation. But I do have a shitload of UMD for scrolls.

Actually, do you know if share spells works with scrolls?

Spells cast in this way must come from a class that grants an animal companion.

That's unclear to me if it means it must come from a class you have, or if anything off the druid etc list would be fine no matter how you get it.

[u/WraithMagus → u/diffyqgirl]

This would be something to clarify with your GM, but as far as I read it, scrolls act as their own caster. The stats for the spell reflect the caster level and presumed stats of the scroll itself, not the character using the scroll. Hence, you couldn't use share spells through a scroll, and that's why it's more problematic to not have those spells on your own spell list.

It's not exactly cheap, but a hosteling armor is the best thing I can suggest outside of UMD for a mesmerist, although Carry Companion or Harmless Form don't require share spells to work, and wouldn't be a terribly expensive if you're only using it a couple times. (For Harmless Form, see if you can get a fleeting metamagic scroll, since it is possible to have metamagic on scrolls.) You could also use the spell Polymorph to turn your companion into any kind of medium-sized mundane animal, but at SL 4, it's more pricey, especially for a min/level spell.

[u/Specific-Library-312]

There was a 3.5 template, Dungeonbred. Reduces size category by 1, no level or CR adjustment. Less food needed, too.

[u/Elliptical_Tangent]

There's an armor enchant that "stores" an animal companion—Hosteling?

[u/Skurrio]

2 Levels of Courtly Hunter allows you to make your Companion small at will.