Post/Author/DateTime	Post
sma 03-08-04, 12:17 PM	Hi everyone, Before ask my question, I´ll give you a little background. I´m playing a Druid druid type homebrew (no Animal Companion but Wildshape = Polymorph and beefed up spellcasting, probably overpowered, but I´m trying not to let it show:) ) character in a campaign with a rather high fluctuation of players. I.e we are a largish group (9 plus GM) but at any session only between 3 and 5 show up. This is all fine and dandy, but it means we´re nearly always running short on one type of character, most often a spellcaster. So I´ll be taking the caster route for my druid, also being the primary healer. But I don´t want to lose out on the fun that is tearing those evil minions to shreds and so I thought, why not get a nice Animal Companion, to lay the smackdown on those who would oppose us. Our GM is fairly lenient, and we have access to most of the Sources, and play a mix of 3.0 and 3.5. I´ll be getting the Companion at Lvl 9 through Divine Disciple and the Animal Domain. So the question is, do any of you have Ideas for Furry Melee type Builds ? I was thinking about Awakened Wolverine going Frenzied Berserker 1 Wolverine (Intimidating Rage swap for Alerteness or Thoughness) 2 Wolverine 3 Wolverine (Toughness, only one Feat swap) 4 Fighter (Power Attack) 5 Fighter (Cleave) 6 Barabrian (Destructive Rage) 7+ Frenzied Berserker I´d love a Wolf Paladin going Divine Might/Charge but am lost for a good build Thanks in advance, Sma :edited for lack of writing skills...
Centurion_stalker 03-08-04, 04:13 PM	Can your companion take class levels? hrrm? just wondering. if so, hell I have a lot to make up for. --;;
Prism 03-08-04, 04:21 PM	Originally posted by Centurion_stalker Can your companion take class levels? hrrm? just wondering. if so, hell I have a lot to make up for. --;; An awakened animal can as they are not your companion anymore once awakened. There is a bit of debate over the ECL of an awakened animal. Savage species provides guidelines of how to adjust for benefits but doesn't really cover the disadvantages of being an animal in game terms. The various werecreature templates give a level adjustment of +0 for the animal components even though they provide a huge increase to stats
Stormwind 03-08-04, 05:03 PM	Originally posted by Prism An awakened animal can as they are not your companion anymore once awakened. I believe that in 3.0 at least it is quite possible to retain an awakened animal companion. In particular in MotW in the section on animal companions it states specifically: Animal companions are an important part of a druid's (and to a lesser extent, a ranger's) power. The druid lacks some of the cleric's spellcasting versatility and casts fewer spells per day, but her powerful animal companions go a long way toward compensating . An animal companion can serve as a protector, tracker, scout, mount, and warrior-sometimes all at once. It can even be a friend capable of offering advice, thanks to the magic of awaken. This is further confirmed by the following phrase (also from MotW): ... an animal awakened by a druid remains her companion as long as she treats it with respect To return to the original question as to whether an awakened companion can take class levels: If an awakened animal can (and I see no reason why it couldn't), then an awakened animal companion should also be able to do so. I am aware that there are a number of changes in 3.5 but since MotW has not been superceded with a 3.5 version I see no problem in using the material within .... Of course in the end, regardless of what we think, it is your DM's call. I hope this is at least useful .... :)
sma 03-08-04, 06:29 PM	Sorry for the confusion, AFAIK Animal Companions (the non Awakened kind) never get class levels. In 3.0 you could take a companion advanced per the MM Guidelines giving it extra HD and associated raises (BAB, saves etc.). With 3.5 you´d have to go with the Animal Companion Table, and those extra HD would give your companion the same benefits as racial HD. There is a bit of a dilemma whether an Awakened naimal would still count as companion, as under 3.0 you bound using the Animal Friendship spell which had a target of Animal and Awaken changed the type to Magical Beast. This is contradicted in MotW as Stormwind kindly pointed out. The 3.5 version explicitly states that the animal goes free and isn´t considered a Companion anymore, I guess by the rules you´d have the get the cohort feat to keep it. But to get back to my original question, any Ideas for optimized melee animals ? I could just take the animal appropriate for the level, but I´d rather take something differentand not swap the companion every few levels.