animal companion 3.0 or 3.5 [Archive] - Wizards Community

animal companion 3.0 or 3.5 [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Redmoon
02-10-06, 11:39 PM I really liked how the animal companion worked in 3.0 2x your class level worth of hit dice of animal companions. What I liked about it was that you could say.. have an entire herd of wolves follow you around and assist.

Anyway.. In 3.5, I really don't like how your animal companion gains abilities. For a wizard, or sorcerer, it would make sense. But, in my eyes, a druid or ranger's animal companion should be a natural friend- the equivalent of a Leadership skill.

So, why was this changed in 3.5? Was it deemed unbalanced, or was it an unpopularity thing? Does anyone still use the 3.0 version? Is there any way to balance the 3.0 version, so that a druid/ranger can merely befriend normal animals?

Thanks
DrakaraGM
02-11-06, 02:25 AM It was changed for balance reasons -- at higher levels regular animal companions were just too vulnerable to getting killed in many encounters of an appropriate CR for higher level characters -- even companions that had been enhanced in some way. And many players' characters were attached to their animal companions, going through a lot of effort to try to keep them viable as the character outpaced its companion.

So they decided to make the animal companion scale up in capabilities to be able to keep up (more or less) with the druid or ranger, just as a paladin's mount or a wizard's familiar gained in capabilities.

I expect that your GM would happily allow you to use the 3.0 animal companion rules. But remember that an adventuring druid was supposed to be limited not to double his HD but to his HD in animal companion(s) travelling with him. And animal capabilities scale with Hit Die more like NPC classes than PC classes, hence the fact that even if their hit dice match their master's a 3.0 animal companion often has little ability to impact a high-level encounter. Personally, I like the idea of a truly special companion -- like a familiar, only infused with the power of nature itself rather than some kind of familiar spirit.
Redmoon
02-11-06, 07:57 AM Ah, I see...
I never saw it as underpowered. Animal companions always seemed pretty strong to us. But, then again, we almost always start out at lower levels, and rarely make it to high levels.

Thanks for the input.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Redmoon 02-10-06, 11:39 PM	I really liked how the animal companion worked in 3.0 2x your class level worth of hit dice of animal companions. What I liked about it was that you could say.. have an entire herd of wolves follow you around and assist. Anyway.. In 3.5, I really don't like how your animal companion gains abilities. For a wizard, or sorcerer, it would make sense. But, in my eyes, a druid or ranger's animal companion should be a natural friend- the equivalent of a Leadership skill. So, why was this changed in 3.5? Was it deemed unbalanced, or was it an unpopularity thing? Does anyone still use the 3.0 version? Is there any way to balance the 3.0 version, so that a druid/ranger can merely befriend normal animals? Thanks
DrakaraGM 02-11-06, 02:25 AM	It was changed for balance reasons -- at higher levels regular animal companions were just too vulnerable to getting killed in many encounters of an appropriate CR for higher level characters -- even companions that had been enhanced in some way. And many players' characters were attached to their animal companions, going through a lot of effort to try to keep them viable as the character outpaced its companion. So they decided to make the animal companion scale up in capabilities to be able to keep up (more or less) with the druid or ranger, just as a paladin's mount or a wizard's familiar gained in capabilities. I expect that your GM would happily allow you to use the 3.0 animal companion rules. But remember that an adventuring druid was supposed to be limited not to double his HD but to his HD in animal companion(s) travelling with him. And animal capabilities scale with Hit Die more like NPC classes than PC classes, hence the fact that even if their hit dice match their master's a 3.0 animal companion often has little ability to impact a high-level encounter. Personally, I like the idea of a truly special companion -- like a familiar, only infused with the power of nature itself rather than some kind of familiar spirit.
Redmoon 02-11-06, 07:57 AM	Ah, I see... I never saw it as underpowered. Animal companions always seemed pretty strong to us. But, then again, we almost always start out at lower levels, and rarely make it to high levels. Thanks for the input.