Four Legged Friends

What is this mod? Four Legged Friends (not a reference to Orwell's Animal Farm, really!) is a collection of animal companions I put together for everyone to use as they wish. It started as a pair of dogs I created after seeing the Tactical Guard Dog in Monster Wars and my photostory/fanfic character declared she needed one too.

Xaranth pointed me to Caprius' Advanced Compaion Creation Guide that I learned a lot from, but the real breakthrough happened when I passed the guide on to Se7enraven after merging some mods for him and he provided me with a mod that had a companion implemented and functional that was mine to do with as I saw fit. From there I went nuts merging and copying to make the mod what it is now.

This mod adds (at the moment) six companions to the game that can be hired from the beginning of the game. You are free to use the names and backstories I (or the creator of the character) have imagined for them or make up your own to do with as you please. I'd love to hear about your stories with your pets and see pictures if you're inclined to share any.

This mod is not aimed at being perfect, it is intended to be functional and I don't care if it is in perpetual "beta quality". It costs me nothing to share the time and effort I've put into these companions with you so I'm putting my "money" where my mouth is.

Details: (Now with support from JIP Companions Command & Control thanks to jazzisparis check out all his excellent mods!) The companions can be found in the Goodsprings schoolhouse; I recommend you leave the mod inactive when starting a new game until you've cleared the schoolhouse or they will kill the mantises before you can. You've been warned; I don't want to hear it.

Currently the companions are not scripted to heal after combat, but they have ten thousand (10,000) hit points and are marked as essential. If this does not sit well with anyone they are free to change it (I'll even be thrilled to host different versions of the mod right here!) or pass on using the mod. Again, I'm not interested in hearing about it if you don't like it.

I'm also aware that the dialog tree is messed up and there's no "goodbye" option. Most anything you may want to do with your companions can be accomplished through the companion wheel and the dialog does work even if you might need to be creative in getting the option you want. You guessed it, I'm not interested in hearing about anybody not liking it. If someone wants to help fix it, I'd be extremely grateful and, of course, give credits in the mod description.

I currently do not have the skills to add inventory items th