Pets

Acquisition

There are several ways to gain creatures under your control. Some ways offer more variety or choice, but note that once acquired, a pet can easily be Polymorphed. Various temporary creatures can also be summoned by spells, but that's not our concern here; these are the ways to get permanent pets. Both temporary and permanent pets can be commanded to follow you, stay put, or attack a given target.

The only acquisition method that doesn't depend on a spell, is also the trickiest: a blessed wand of Create Monster has a 20% chance of producing a tame monster, which can be nearly anything from the Bestiary. A sufficiently nervy adventurer can use the wand repeatedly, killing or fleeing the results until they get a tame monster.

Summon Familiar: While it only costs 10 mana, it also consumes a quarter-level's worth of experience. Worse, if the resulting bat is killed, you suffer System Shock. Not a great bargain there, but some players may like the challenge of raising a familiar. This can be one of the earlier and safer ways to get a pet, and unlike a "natural" bat, a familiar does have magical ability.

Resurrect: This can acquire any creature you can kill, and which left a corpse -- even some of the bosses! The first drawback is that it's a tough spell: major prerequisites, it costs a whopping 50 mana and nicks 100 experience to boot. The second is that your servant comes back at 1 HP. Got some more mana to heal it up to survivable levels?

Raise Undead: The necromancer's workhorse, producing Zombies and Skeletons. Max HP will match whatever you animated, but the skeleton or zombie has no other special features.

Ghastify: Careful timing and luck can produce a more formidable servant -- indeed, a Ghast retains not only the spells and skills it had in life. It also has the full humanoid set of equipment slots, regardless of what it used to be.

Bind Soul: This spell can produce living slaves of any corpse-leaving species, and can also produce Stone Golems.

What use is a tame grid bug?

OK, you didn't get what you want, but it is tame. This offers several possibilities:

• Letting it play minesweeper, or having it distract a monster while you escape.
• You can try to Polymorph it until you get what you want. (See below for more details.) Tips from the "familiar" guide:
  • A Ring of Polymorph Control lets you control the results, but a random polymorph might get you a powerful monster you haven't met yet.
  • Once it's in a form you like, you can equip it with an Amulet of Unchanging, so it doesn't revert back.
  • Humanoids have boot and armor slots, are smart enough to use potions, and will pick up and change thier own equipment. However, they pick up everything they come across, even things you might have wanted for yourself, like a corpse while you were starving. They also throw things they pick up, which is bad, because they're liable to nail you with poison or greek fire, not to mention your own thrown weapons.
  • Golems have good slots and can be pretty tough:
    • Flesh Golems now regenerate (fixed in V115).
    • Stone Golems do not heal, but are available from Bind Soul (with Entomb).
    • Iron Golems are most powerful, but also do not heal. Also, they are prone to tossing around Lightning Bolts with little warning.
  • Elementals are powerful, but mostly dangerous to have around, and they don't heal themselves either. They also have varying numbers of slots.
  • Note that iron golems, and any elemental, can be taught Heal and/or Regenerate. They rarely use them when needed, but you can at least possess them and use their own mana supply for healing.
  • Dragons are powerful, but lack boot and armor slots. Again, friendly fire is a serious problem. (Green Dragons instead poison every corpse they kill.)
  • Ghosts are arguably the best. They're physical immune, phase through walls, can paralyze, and have good spells. Unfortunately, they have no equipment slots, so they can't wear an amulet of unchanging. or any protective items.
  • Regardless of what you get, remember that any powerful creature is going to get very little xp for kills. So if you go this route, be prepared to use a lot of your own xp on transfer knowledge, without getting much back from their kills.
• Kender's "Handbag" trick: If you have Possess & Petrify, you can use any (petrifiable) monster for a spare inventory, as follows:
  • Order the pet to "stay" put. Note that mice can't obey this order, you'll need to corner them or catch them as they pass by.
  • Drop the items you want to store in the "handbag" onto the floor.
  • Possess the monster, and have it pick up the items. (Note that a posses-see can automatically swap places with your brain-dead avatar.) If it's carrying something you want to retrieve, drop that and move off the pile. Release the possession.
  • Petrify the "handbag". This statue will occupy a single space in your inventory, with its own inventory hidden inside. Note that in this game, you have no limit to how much weight you can carry!
  • When you need to get at the items again, drop the statue, use the Stone to Flesh spell, rinse and repeat.

A friend is another I (Buffing your pet)

This page on familiars gives lengthy discussion of how to protect and "grow" your pet, focused mostly on the standard bat familiar.. I will only summarize here:

• The Possess spell is hugely useful, in many ways:
  • You can swap equipment back and forth, as with the "handbag" trick.
  • You can teach your pet skills and spells, by reading books while possessing them.
  • You can make them wear your spare rings, weapons, armour, etc. for protection or better attacks. Note that humanoids especially may have their own ideas about preferred equipment....
  • As a special case of this, you can use any form of Polymorph to polymorph them as above.
  • You can make pets heal themselves properly, eat corpses for resistances or mana bonus, or use their powers for your benefit.
  • Healing and Mana potions can provide a few critical points of max HP and MP to toughen up your "handbag" or familar. Suitable corpses can also be fed to boost a pet's mana limit.
• Pets can gain experience and levels over time.
  • You in turn get half experience for whatever your pet kills.
  • Some pets, notably kobolds and the "familiar" bat, will evolve into more powerful species when they reach target levels.
  • You can also contribute your own experience to their growth, with the Transfer Knowledge spell. This gives the target 250 points of your (current body's) own experience, but you get half of that back! This works the other way too, you can scum off the familiar's experience.
  • Note that a weak pet will gain (and share) far more experience when killing a tough monster. This can be exploited in all the obvious ways.

Common Hazards and Challenges

Pets do need to be supervised and kept out of trouble, with dangerous items taken away.

• They will often attack hostile monsters on their own initiative, regardless of relative strength. They can also be ordered to attack neutral or friendly monsters. after which they will continue fighting on their own.
  • Obviously, this can easily get them killed. If necessary, order them to "stay" on the next/last level.
  • Worse, pets also have a nasty habit of trying to shoot through you! Avoid giving them missile weapons, throwable potions, ray wands, or ranged spells. You may want to avoid taking pet dragons, or species that come with ranged spells.
  • Most pets are not very good at healing themselves, so you'll need to intervene regularly. They will not use healing or curative spells until the brink of death, and may not drink Cure Potions from inventory. They will use the Cure Poison spell, if you've taught it to them. Giving them a Ring of Regeneration may help, but will sharply increase their need for food. Golems and elementals will not heal naturally, and the ring won't help them.
• Many species will pick up items on their own, including items you wanted for yourself, or didn't want them to have, as above. Some will pick up everything they come across.
• Most pets need to eat just like the avatar, and can be crippled by hunger or starvation. Some have odd diets, but even others will avoid some (not all) of the dangerous corpses:
  • In general, they will eat food out of their own inventory before picking up corpses. Stocking them up with Mounds of Flesh can save quite a bit of trouble.
  • Item-eating species such as Gold Beetles or Gelatinous Cubes will continue in their usual habits, likely eating useful items.
  • Species with odd diets can be troublesome to keep up; Cave Trolls are particularly hard to feed, as they eat only stone items, and they can't pick up Boulders any more than you can.
  • If not poison resistant, they will avoid Green Snake and Scorpion corpses. However, only familiars will avoid corpses of monsters slain by poison, which can also kill off pets.
  • Creatures vulnerable to stoning will avoid Cockatrice corpses. Happily, as of Version 115, Water Elemental corpses no longer exist. They will eat Chameleons, which can be entertaining or aggravating.
  • Pets wearing silver items will avoid corpses which could inflict Vulnerable to Silver. This can stop them from swiping Lich corpses! The same goes for Allergic to Gold, but that's only an issue for cannibal Gold Beetles.
  • Any pet will happily eat acidic corpses, and may do so to unstone themselves.
• Keep an eye on your status with the gods: The upkeep spells for living pets will generally anger Tlosh, but please Pax, while working with undead will do the reverse. However, kills by your pets are considered "non-combat" (pleasing Tlosh), and your pet can slaughter innocents and the helpless (even on your orders) without angering Pax. Regardless, H'ruth won't be happy with all those spells!