Dogs of D&D
UPDATE: If you'd like to have the Death Dog and other 5e canines in your party check out the Animal Sidekicks book on the DMs Guild and my Death Dog personality freebie!
Every dog is a doggo and every doggo is a good doggo!
If you don't believe these words then fight me cause they are true. As DMs we can't deny we love throwing wolves at our PCs as some easy combat encounters. But there are alot more Dog monsters available to us. In fact I think we don't give them enough love and attention. Seeing as how since they are fictional I can't go out and adopt every single one of them I'll just have to settle with giving you the run down on them, show you how to best use them in game, and maybe toss some fun tidbits at you. As this isn't a Monster of the Month post I won't be adding new ones to the list JUST discussing the existing ones.
So lets start off with a list. When I say dogs in reference to D&D I mean the following:
And I'll also be including the Faithful Hound despite it being a spell. It might be an invisible doggo but it is still a good doggo! Now this list focuses mainly on things from the 5e edition of the Monster Manuel so don't go flying off the hinge in the comments if I missed a doggo from another book. Just let me know and I am happy to add them.
You can see from the list that it is a very diverse cast of creatures we are dealing with. So we are going to break it down in a few ways and discuss how each need to be handled differently. First we are going to tackle the dogs from nature, those to exist on the Mortal Plane naturally. Which means we will be dealing with: Winter Wolf, Dire Wolf, Wolf, Mastiff and Worg for this topic. Pretty much mostly wolves. Now these animals all act just like that, animals. They are often kept as companions or pets and used for a purpose by another creature or monster. Take the Winter Wolf for instance, they are kept by Frost Giants to help guard and hunt because they have a wicked cone of cold ice breath to throw down on some unsuspecting adventurers.
If they have counterparts then we can assume that they are cooperative in nature, trainable, and reasonably intelligent if they can follow commands. So a domesticated version of these creatures comes with some harder hitting friends that the party will have to deal with as well, potentially altering what might otherwise be another boring encounter. Halflings and other small humanoids ride Mastiff's into combat, Worgs have Goblins who have Hobgoblins and Bug Bears. Don't be afraid to pull in the humanoids when building an encounter against doggos.
Now they don't necessarily need to be domesticated for us to use them in an encounter. Since they are all naturally from the Mortal Plane then there are wild versions out there. So we need to look at how they'd function in nature to see what an random encounter with these more wild versions would be. They are all pack animals, hunters, and meat eaters. So they'd hunt and track as a unit meaning that they'd encircle and try directing their prey where they'd like to take it. To trap it somewhere it can't escape it, circle around it and kill it. Maybe even drive it in a dashing panic so it gets disorientated and lost. Honestly I would even make a mixed pack of wolves in certain environments give the Winter Wolf the pack leader position, a few Dire wolf mates and a small pack of wolves that have proven loyal and useful. I'm not even saying under certain special circumstances it would be weird to see some combos for the packs. We see similar, and sometimes very dissimilar, creatures adopt pups all the time. Meaning I'd like to see a Dire Wolf pack with a Worg that things its a wolf.
We have some Fey related puppers in here as well with the Blink Dog and Yeth Hound. They have that little bit of extra magic and therefore are a little bit extra in what they can do. Being of the Fey they aren't meant to be on the Mortal Plane unless summoned, making them rare to be about without a purpose. A master of one of these hounds would have alot of uses for them. A rogue with a Blink Dog could go where they aren't suppose to be, while a Necromancer with a few Yeth Hounds can torment a village as they pick their next test subjects. Be very creative with these creatures since the Fey nature is one of myth, legend, magic and mischief. A Blink Dog might not be trying to kill a player but maybe its harassing the group in what it thinks is a game and keeps them from resting putting them at risk for levels of exhaustion.
For those yippers considered to be monstrosities mechanically you would quickly perish if you underestimated them. Worgs are cunning creatures , having their own language, who love to eat those it sees as weaker then itself. This includes any rider it deems to be unworthy of it no matter how long its been under their command. To me this speaks of an evil top predator that is extremely tactical. This would make them both dangerous and volatile as a pack as they try and attack any they think as weaker. But that means any pack of Worgs coming after you is terrifying news as only the best would be on even playing field with each other to peruse you as a unit. On the other hand the Death Dog is never alone with its two heads. Both of which can leave you with a disease that rots you if it can get its teeth into you. Death Dogs also take pleasure in killing the weak and watching the once strong rot before devouring them. A small group of these could easily over power a party for a tasty meal.
Now some of these beasts have natures that fall under the Good or Evil umbrellas. For evil we have the Hell Hound, Yeth Hound, Death Dog, Worg, and Winter Wolf. As an evil creature they are ruled by power, greed, devouring hunger. They are sadistic, malevolent, merciless, vengeful, hate and loathing filled creatures. To them an adventurer is a lightning rod for all of those feelings and they take great pleasure in enacting all of those upon them. Teasing their targets into a panicked frenzy that might cause a heart attack before the first bite if given the chance. The torture is just as important as the taste of flesh. While the good side we see the Blink Dog, not a huge team. They hunt to survive and tend to only attack to eat or if provoked. Think of them like a shark - if they bite you it might be because they are desperate, they mistook you as food, or they are warning you to go away. Gain a Blink Dogs loyalty and they are steady fast best friends. Most of our other pups (wolves, mastiff) are unaligned and act on instincts of protection and survival. If they are tamed they tend to take on the alignment of their master simply because they are following their instructions.
Some fun things to keep in mind when planning out any encounters with these that will probably delight the DMs and terrify the players. Any of these creatures in a cohesive group I would give Pack Tactics to.
has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the wolf's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.
This makes for a very aggressive encounter when stacked with multiple enemies working as a pack. It will quickly punch up an encounter where previously maybe your players blasted through them. Its also important to keep in mind that for any creatures hunting in packs they would try to go for an ambush, giving your players the Surprised condition.
Any character or monster that doesn't notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.
If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.
Meaning that the creatures get a full round of attacks on the group before they can do anything. Coupling this with Pack Tactics means alot of damage very quickly before any Action economy is available for us. Meaning your party might have to spend their first turns scrambling to heal themselves and stay up rather then dealing damage to their attackers. To even further dial things up these creatures are hunters, they are meat eaters. Meaning if they are in a group out hunting in a party they probably have some special tactics, call signs, and know the area especially well. In which case I'd give them advantage on Survival (tracking) and Stealth checks when stalking prey. Since their nature is that of a canine or hound I'd also give them advantage on Perception checks having to do with smell or sound. With these additives a pack of Worgs could hear a party tromping through the forest, catch their sent and lower into stalking their prey.
Okay so I gave you some pretty scary things to use against your players so Imma throw them a bone as well. What if they wanted one of these as a pet? How the halibut would that even work? Well those natural to the Mortal Plane are pretty easy. They would need to befriend the animal, gain its trust, train it, and over time tame the creature. Druids and Rangers are going to have the easiest time doing this since they have spells like Animal Friendship, Beast Bond, Dominate Beast, Locate Animals or Plants, and Speak with Animals. Makes it way easier for them to do it but in theory if your DM is up for it they can also have you do Animal Handling checks to work towards friendship and build trust if none of the party has access to those spells. We get into a little but of a weirder territory with the other candidates of adoption. Our Fey creatures, Blink Dog and Yeth Hound, could be summoned with the Conjure Fey spell if not just stumbled upon during game. Now once you have managed to have the Yeth Hound identify you as its Master it will always return to you based off of the lore given to us about them. Keeping the Blink Dog here after the spell ends though is alot more dicey and should be discussed with your DM. I suggest an anchoring spell/ritual of some kind that possibly involves Animal Handling and Arcana checks. Our monstrosity doggies shrug off any magical attempts to befriend or control animals and would either fight any Animal Handling checks (roll with disadvantage) to tame them or shrug them off altogether. Obviously we knew its possible with the Worgs but unless you get an already broken one it will be very hard to do. It is important to remember though that their alignment is important in this process. Trying to tame and control a creature whose alignment apposes your own is infinitly more difficult then an unaligned or similarly aligned one so choose carefully.
Before we end this ramble of cute dogs I just want to give a little spotlight to the spell Faithful Hound. For the moment I mean the OG spell and not the Mordenkainen one.
You conjure a phantom watchdog in an unoccupied space that you can see within range, where it remains for the duration, until you dismiss it as an action, or until you move more than 100 feet away from it.
The hound is invisible to all creatures except you and can't be harmed. When a Small or larger creature comes within 30 feet of it without first speaking the password that you specify when you cast this spell, the hound starts barking loudly. The hound sees invisible creatures and can see into the Ethereal Plane. It ignores illusions.
At the start of each of your turns, the hound attempts to bite one creature within 5 feet of it that is hostile to you. The hound's attack bonus is equal to your spellcasting ability modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a hit, it deals 4d8 piercing damage.
This is essentially the good spirit doggo, they guard you while you sleep or during a secret meeting. Personally in my head it autoflavors this as the caster manifesting a phantom hound because that is the ideal of a guardian to them. Its also an animal companion that will never die and can keep returning to the caster's aide much like a familiar.
With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.