“What do you get when you mix a thousand-legged centipede, a skeleton butler, and an emotionally resilient owlbear cub? A Paul Hughes interview, of course.”
In this special episode of GGP, Inver and Josh are joined by Pets & Sidekicks co-creator Paul Hughes, longtime EN World writer and TTRPG monster crafter. Together, they delve into:
✦ The design philosophy behind scalable companions in Advanced 5E
✦ Balancing action economy with adorable, devastating pets
✦ The evolution of owlbears, undead stealth features, and companion mechanics
✦ Narrative tips for GMs and players using sentient sidekicks
✦ A few spicy skeleton jokes (because, obviously)
Whether you’re a game designer, monster-crafting aficionado, or just really into fantasy fur babies, there’s something here to chew on.
For you CR crunchers out there, Paul promises a future Deep Dive on CR calculations, action economy balancing, and high-level companion builds. Get ready.
🎙️ Audio Note: The sound quality in this one had a bit of a rough roll, but we promise the content is still legendary. Blame neither Paul nor Scott. All honor to our audio wizard.
And now, for the RELEVANT LINKS:
✦ Support Pets & Sidekicks on Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/enworld/companions-compendium
✦ Peek behind the curtain at Paul’s mad genius: blogofholding.com
—
And, you know, if you really love us... feel free to:
✧ Join our community Discord Server (http://bit.ly/goblinDiscord)!
✧ Listen to our sister show Quid Pro Roll (https://quidproroll.podbean.com/)!
✧ Find bonus episodes, early drops, and Deep Dives through our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/goblinsgrowlers)!
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