Houndmaster

[Stranger]

The Houndmaster perk is currently unpopular. I believe that this is for two reasons.

a) The dog dies. It dies a lot, and every death is permanent. This is emotionally devastating. It is so bad, I am convinced that players would prefer to lose XP each defeat if it meant the dog could respawn.

b) The dog has been difficult to balance, either too weak or too strong; the current edition is widely considered to be the former. It must be feasible to use the dog to be brought on hard, dangerous quests.

Allowing the dog to respawn, with a small message to the Houndmaster that their companion has been wounded (and an XP cost tied to the dog's progression) would prevent significant turmoil. It should not be possible to dismiss the dog while in combat. Also useful, a badly deleveled fighter could remain relevant and continue to indirectly participate despite a series of deaths. That will make the perk more attractive to players who are not particularly skilled at EFU. It would not take anything away from a player skilled enough to stay a high level, as they'll get to be a high level fighter on top of whatever their dog can do.

The exact mechanics of the dog are unimportant. It should be tough, however. It needs to be capable of surviving the same content that its fighter is going through. That means things like A Sandy Crypt, Three Fang Keep, and A Distant Shore at maximum potential. Fully trained. Fully buffed.  If there is a concern that it might become too powerful, it is better to curtail its damage instead of its survivability. Experience costs on defeat will make their PvP use uncommon in any case.

[Howlando]

I would support adjusting this perk to be more viable and new-player friendly.

[Talir]

Not sure I would label any perk pertaining controlling more characters/buffs as new player friendly.

What amount of saves, AC and HP do you guys think are needed to survive these hard quests? Before buffing.

Survive, not thrive.

I don't think a XP cost is something most want. You guys dread it on all animal companions and familiars to begin with. Having the cost be like it is now hurts - but in a different way.

The perk itself not being superpopular I am completely fine with. It is not meant to be. Too many pets running around would be silly.

[One_With_Nature]

Why not have the hound like the ooze companion and if it dies it loses XP rather then "It dies for good". It would be weird scaling the hound back to a smaller model, so perhaps if you get to the larger model and it dies, just give it the old stats but same model.

For a companion at maximum level, 60-70hp, 17-18ac (Unbuffed) would probably be alright.  Saves- probably 10fort / 6-8reflex/6 will would be acceptable.

[ByVraccas]

Some tamable npcs, Namely Stone Lizards, have upwards of 23-24 unbuffed AC at level 6, if memory serves. That'd be equal to a fighter of similar level.