Get a complete guide to how mounts in 5e work, and how an adventurer bonds with their pets. "Mounts and Pets" is packed with new mechanics, items, feats, NPCs, and countless new monsters that are adorable in their own ways.
Essentials is a series of system-focused supplements for 5E, created to take parts of adventuring that are often handled with a handful of rolls and turn them into complete, immersive experiences. Every volume focuses on a different aspect of adventuring. Previous volumes explored monster hunting, organized crime, and dungeon delving... and now we are moving beyond.
Each book asks what happens when a familiar part of the game becomes more than a side activity. What if hunting a monster requires knowledge, preparation, and specialized techniques? What if pulling off a crime involves elaborate tools and careful planning? What if dungeon delving becomes a discipline of its own? Making 5E more immersive is the philosophy at the heart of Essentials.
Each volume introduces new mechanics, character options, equipment, creatures, and GM tools built around its theme. These systems are modular: build an entire campaign around them, dedicate an adventure to them, or simply take the mechanics, monsters, spells, items, and character options you want and add them to your existing game.
For players, Essentials provides new ways to specialize through classes, subclasses, feats, spells, equipment, crafting systems, and other options. For GMs, it provides new creatures, NPCs, organizations, challenges, rewards, mechanics, and ideas for building adventures around each volume's theme.
Essentials Vol. 1: Monster Hunting explores the profession of tracking, hunting, and harvesting monsters. Across 88 pages, it provides monster harvesting, knowledge about different creatures, philosophies of monster hunting, an organization dedicated to the profession, new monsters, and tools for creating hunts and campaigns.
Essentials Vol. 2: Masterminds of Crime turns crime into carefully planned operations. Across 91 pages, it expands poisons and crafting, locks and Thieves' Tools, Thieves' Cant, criminal character options, deities and avatars, city guards, spells, relics, and other tools for adventures on either side of the law.
Essentials Vol. 3: Dungeon Delvers takes the series underground. Across 113 pages, it introduces the Dweller class, 12 dungeon-focused subclasses, trap crafting, dungeon generation, Group Tactics, new skills, feats, spells, magic items, and more.
Together, the first three volumes contain 250+ pages of additional 5E material, covering three classic traditions of fantasy roleplaying: hunting monsters, committing impossible crimes, and exploring forgotten dungeons.
Now, Essentials Vol. 4: Mounts & Pets turns its attention to the creatures that travel, fight, and grow alongside adventurers with its 100+ pages content. It introduces a complete companion system for obtaining, customizing, and leveling companions, alongside Companion Templates and more than 20 ready-to-play companions. It also features expanded mounted combat, 12 companionship-themed subclasses, new backgrounds, feats, spells, magic items, monsters, and much more.
Whether you want a trusted pet at your side or a powerful mount beneath you, Mounts & Pets makes companions a meaningful part of both roleplaying and combat.
Essentials Vol. 4: Mounts & Pets is a 100+ page, 5 × 8 inch supplement for 5E, packed into a compact format made to sit comfortably at the gaming table. This volume puts the spotlight on the creatures that accompany adventurers on their journeys, introducing a complete system for obtaining, customizing, and leveling up companions. Discover 20+ ready-to-play companions, customize them further with Companion Templates, and explore expanded mounted combat rules. The book also includes 12 companion-themed subclasses, new backgrounds, feats, spells, magic items, monsters, and much more, giving both players and GMs new ways to make mounts, pets, and the bonds formed with them a meaningful part of their adventures.
Backgrounds: Are you someone who forms bonds with your companions, or do you see them merely as objects? With these two new backgrounds, you can adapt your character to the world of companions much faster!
Companions: Who doesn't love having little friends by their side to support them? Companions can add new dynamics to both roleplaying and combat! With the detailed guide included in the book, you can learn how to obtain, customize, and level up your companions, as well as explore many different companion mechanics. You can also further customize your companions with new Companion Templates! With more than 20 companions included in the book, you can find and play with the companion that best suits your playstyle!
Feats: You can shape your characters with 10 new feats, which affect your gameplay experience in different ways, both with and without companions!
Magic Items: With 20 new magic items, you can protect your friends, create different synergies with your companions, and shape the way you acquire them! Usable both with and without the companion mechanic, these magic items allow you to further customize your gameplay!
Monsters: In addition to companions, you can face 10 new challenging monsters in intense battles, creating dangerous combat situations for both you and your companions!
Mounted Combat Mechanics: New mounted combat mechanics allow you to further refine and expand your mounted combat.
New Condition: Rabies: If there's one thing more terrifying than most things for you and your companions, it's rabies. This new condition allows GMs to introduce a far deadlier, more dangerous, and stealthier threat that secretly consumes characters from the inside.
Partic - Deity of Companions: With Partic, you can learn about the believed history of your companions while also incorporating their origins and deities into your world.
Spells: Essentials provides 20 new spells that can be used with or without companions. Combining support and offensive abilities, these companion-themed spells are designed to remain effective even when you don't have a companion!
Subclasses: With 12 new companionship-themed subclasses, you can either fully support your companions or weaken your enemies! Plus, expand your gameplay options with subclasses that function differently with and without companion mechanics!
We’ve kept our pledge levels on the more reachable and affordable side for one simple reason; we want you to get your books as fast as possible.
When the project is complete, all physical rewards will be fulfilled through DriveThruRPG’s print-on-demand (PoD) service. Every backer will receive a unique PoD code, which they can redeem directly on DriveThruRPG to order their books. This means you’ll pay the print and shipping costs directly to DriveThruRPG when placing your order, allowing you to choose the most convenient and cost-effective shipping option for your region.
This system ensures transparency and speed. You’re only pledging for the creative work, writing, design, illustration, and layout, not for warehousing or global shipping. By removing those extra costs and complexities, we can focus entirely on crafting the best possible product while you enjoy a smoother, faster fulfillment process. We believe this is a fast and efficient way to handle the Essentials Series.
In short: you support the creation, we handle the making, and DriveThruRPG prints and delivers your book right to your door; simple, fair, and fast. You can check out DriveThruRPG to see estimated print and shipping costs for your country.
