Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Spike_Fightwicky 01-25-06, 11:40 AM	I tried this thread out on the monster thread, but I think it might have been the wrong place for it. If anyone has any comments, please let me know! If I get Raise Dead cast upon either my animal companion or special mount, he's losing a Hit Dice. So.... Can the creature gain back that Hit Dice through adventuring? Creatures typically don't partake in XP gain, but what if I'm doing it specifically to bring my animal companion/special mount back up to full strength?
Spike_Fightwicky 01-26-06, 11:44 AM	Anyone? The idea doesn't seem too far fetched... No one's ever tried this or has any input on how to handle it?
Dark1ord 01-26-06, 11:48 AM	well, the description of Raise Dead states that you cannot gain back the loss by any means - so, your mount can't catch up. feel free to house rule something else though. ;)
Lady Maedhros 01-26-06, 02:09 PM	He's not losing a Hit Die because it's not his hit die to begin with. So long as he is the druid's animal companion/paladin's mount (let's just stick to the druid here to make life easier), he recieves the bonus hit dice granted to him by that template. They are part of a class feature, not inherent, and can be lost when the druid loses levels, thus they are not a function of anything that happens to the animal companion itself. Additionally, they are bonus hit dice, and bonus hit dice, like bonus hit points, are lost first. So, an animal companion who dies and is resurrected via raise dead loses a bonus hit die (because bonus hit dice are lost first), and then immediately gains it back, because he always has his base hit dice plus the bonus dice granted by the druid's class ability. Since he hasn't lost base hit dice, he's the same as before. Note that the animal companion does not recieve extra feats for advancing in hit dice either. It's a screwy sort of system, isn't it? Why does it work this way? Because if the druid doesn't want to blow money or a friend's XP on raise dead, she can just call another animal of the exact same type twenty-four hours later, name it the same thing, and it will be exactly the same as if her companion had never died at all. This is not at all in the spirit of druidity, and therefore to be discouraged. Likewise, the paladin could do the same after thirty days, and that's most certianly not in the spirit of paladinhood.
Thubby 01-26-06, 02:48 PM	dismiss him, or use the 9th lvl res, no lvl loss, by the way, a raised mount/companion/etc. are considered to be the friend of a lower level char, hence you will get a hit
Dark1ord 01-26-06, 03:25 PM	hey I just looked at the "special mount" section for a paladin... when the mount dies, it just disappears... no subject to target "raise dead" with in the first place, then. I thought mounts/companions were treated as regular party members for this sort of thing. as for the mount, I should've remembered the 3.5 changes... is there any sort of official ruiling available for this sort of thing? to me it seems to make sense that you can bring a fallen animal back to life again - albeit under the same restrictions as would normally apply...
Jack Greylock 01-26-06, 05:05 PM	I think the thing to remember here is that the Animal it self has no levels and it’s bonus hit dice are based purely on your Druid/Ranger/Paladin’s level. Personally I as a DM would allow you to use the standard 24 hour prayer ceremony to bring the same companion back from the dead if the player wanted. Here is what the SRD says: If a druid releases her companion from service, she may gain a new one by performing a ceremony requiring 24 uninterrupted hours of prayer. This ceremony can also replace an animal companion that has perished. I mean a DM could say that it has to be a new one as the word replace seams to imply, but since it makes no real stat differences and is really just story based, any decent DM would allow this