A new Dungeons & Dragons supplement provides players with 40 different animals that can act as sidekicks, including one noticeably white and foul-tempered goose. Earlier this year, Dungeons & Dragons introduced the Sidekick mechanic as a way to provide parties with additional NPC characters that level up along with the party. The Sidekick mechanic was seen as a way to make 1-on-1 campaigns (that is a campaign with a single player and a DM) easier, or to provide a foundation for NPCs that stick around with the party and don’t eventually become a burden as the party grows without them.
While Dungeons & Dragons provided only three types of sidekicks for players, the Animal Sidekicks supplement adds 40 new sidekicks that include a mix of mundane and magical animals. The new supplement, produced by Adam Hancock with contributions by over 30 different creators, contains common animals like cats, horses, and rats that grow with your party, along with more fantastical creatures like awakened plants, displacer beasts, and owlbears.
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One of the new sidekicks is a certain bad tempered goose that greatly resembles the protagonist from Untitled Goose Game. The goose starts off with a simple beak and wing beating attack, but it eventually gains the ability to honk at opponents (causing them to become scared) and to hiss at foes to make them have disadvantage on attacks. We’re sure that some intrepid DM can even add a steal ability to the goose, granting it a mechanical way to take objects from enemies and then brandish them to great effect.
The supplement not only provides players with that animal companion they so desperately want, it also provides a balanced template for making that companion a contributing member of the party rather than a novelty. Whether you want a goose to terrify your foes or a bear that doesn’t burden your party, Animal Sidekicks is a fantastic supplement to check out.
Animal Sidekicks is available on the DMs Guild for $12.95.
