User:Cathartes/herbivorous pets
Herbivorous pets can be difficult to keep fed. This page discusses strategies for choosing and feeding your herbivorous pets.
Contents
Mechanics of pet hunger
Pets have a hunger timer, which is internally represented as a turn number.
When the hunger timer expires, the pet does not die immediately; instead, it becomes hungry, and is then willing to eat some food it would not normally eat. If the pet is hungry for 500 turns, it becomes starving, and its maximum HP is temporarily decreased to 1⁄3 and it becomes confused from hunger. After 250 more turns of starving (750 after becoming hungry), your pet dies.[1]
Every time a pet eats, its hunger timer is increased. If the hunger timer is in the past (the pet is hungry or starving), the hunger timer is set to the current turn number. Then, it is increased by the nutrition of the food it ate, multiplied by a number, depending on the pet's size: 8 for Tiny, 6 for Small, 5 for Medium, 4 for Large, 3 for Huge, 2 for Gigantic.[2]
New pets initially have the hunger timer set to 1000 turns (plus 3⁄4 of the nutrition of any food that was used to tame them, since they "devour" the taming food).
Strategy
Because the pet hunger timer is set to at least the current turn whenever it eats, you can give your pet up to 500 turns of "extra" nutrition (assuming you do not want your pet to experience starving and take the HP penalty and confusion) by feeding it when it is hungry. This may amount to more nutrition than the comestible itself. By delaying feeding your pet until it is almost starving, you can make your vegan comestibles last much longer.
Tamable herbivores
| Monster | Nutr. multiplier (size) | Base level | Max level | Speed | Attacks (avg) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| u pony | 5 (Medium) | 3 | Grows up | 16 | Kick 1d6, Bite 1d2 (5) | Very fast, can be tamed or pacified with food |
| u horse | 4 (Large) | 5 | Grows up | 20 | Kick 1d8, Bite 1d3 (6.5) | |
| u warhorse | 4 (Large) | 7 | 10 | 24 | Kick 1d10, Bite 1d4 (8) | |
| uuu unicorn | 4 (Large) | 4 | 6 | 24 | Butt 1d12, Kick 1d6 (10) | Very fast, but low level; can be pacified with gems (including rocks and glass) |
| q mumak | 4 (Large) | 5 | 7 | 9 | Butt 4d12, Bite 2d6 (33) | Strong attack, but slow |
| q titanothere | 4 (Large) | 12 | 18 | 12 | Claw 2d8 (9) | Average speed |
| q baluchitherium | 4 (Large) | 14 | 21 | 12 | Claw 5d4, Claw 5d4 (25) | Strong attack, average speed |
| q mastodon | 4 (Large) | 20 | 30 | 12 | Butt 4d8, Butt 4d8 (36) | Strong attack, high level, average speed |
| r woodchuck | 6 (Small) | 3 | 4 | 3 | Bite 1d6 (3.5) | Useless |
All tamable herbivores other than the woodchuck can be ridden, and have a nutrition multiplier of 4 (Large size) when fully grown.
Non-herbivorous alternatives
| Monster | Nutr. multiplier (size) | Base level | Max level | Speed | Attacks (avg) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| q leocrotta | 4 (Large) | 6 | 9 | 18 | Claw 2d6, Bite 2d6, Claw 2d6 (21) | Omnivorous, very fast, strong attacks; alternative to u monsters |
| C plains centaur | 4 (Large) | 4 | 6 | 18 | Weapon 1d6, Kick 1d6 (7+weapon) | Omnivorous, intelligent, can use weapon and some armor, alternative to u monsters |
| C forest centaur | 4 (Large) | 5 | 7 | 18 | Weapon 1d8, Kick 1d6 (8+weapon) | |
| C mountain centaur | 4 (Large) | 6 | 9 | 20 | Weapon 1d10, Kick 1d6, Kick 1d6 (12.5+weapon) | |
| H minotaur | 4 (Large) | 15 | 22 | 15 | Claw 3d10, claw 3d10, butt 2d8 (42) | High level, carnivorous, fast, can't be ridden; alternative to q monsters if not riding |
| J jabberwock | 4 (Large) | 15 | 22 | 12 | Bite 2d10, bite 2d10, claw 2d10, claw 2d10 (44) | High level, carnivorous, can fly; 50 MR, so taming likely takes multiple tries; alternative to q monsters |
| A ki-rin | 4 (Large) | 16 | 24 | 18 | Kick 2d4, kick 2d4, butt 3d6, spell-casting (20.5) | Inediate, high level, fast, can spellcast to heal; can't increase tameness by eating; 90 MR, difficult to tame |
Omnivorous or carnivorous pets can gain up levels above the maximum by eating wraith corpses, up to base level+15. In addition, the centaurs can quaff potions of gain level to gain more levels, up to the maximum of 49 (if you can find enough potions).
Omnivorous or carnivorous pets may spend a lot of time eating corpses at inconvenient times, preventing you from changing levels with them. Herbivorous pets will not spend nearly as much time eating, so you will not have to wait for them as much.
In 3.7, monsters can gain intrinsics by eating corpses. Since intrinsic-granting meaty corpses are more common and often have better chances of granting than vegan corpses, carnivorous pets have an advantage in gaining intrinsics. Herbivorous pets obviously cannot gain disintegration resistance because the only source of that is black dragon corpses; less obviously, they also cannot gain shock resistance and sleep resistance because the only vegan source is gelatinous cubes, which pets will not eat due to the acidity. Fire resistance is only obtainable with a 3% chance from red mold corpses.
