Awakening an animal companion [Archive] - Wizards Community

Awakening an animal companion [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Magare
01-22-06, 06:17 PM I read in an errata somewhere that a druid can awaken its animal companion and still keep it as a companion. But I cant find it now. Any help?
Seeker95
01-22-06, 06:43 PM I don't think you will find it. An awakened animal companion is no longer an animal.

You could recruit your awakened former animal companion as a cohort.
Borris
01-22-06, 06:51 PM You can't.
An awakened animal can’t serve as an animal companion, familiar, or special mount.
An awakened animal will start as friendly toward the caster (maybe even helpful if he was your companion for a long time), but he can't be your animal companion anymore, and will lose all the animal companion bonuses, perhaps resulting in a weaker creature.
EvilVegan
01-22-06, 11:27 PM If you have a particularly lenient DM you could probably get away with it though. Animal companions are often underpowered, and having one that's intelligent doesn't really tip the scales too much, just removes the necessity for training/commanding the animal in combat, as you can just yell out commands.

I made a PrC for one of my players that made her awakened animal companion her cohort but it still got the druid animal companion bonuses. . . it required leadership as a prereq (among other things) and it made it so that she wouldn't attract followers, just a cohort. It was also a horribly broken PrC (combine arcane hierophant and shaper 3.0 and add in several bardic music abilities including, but not limited to, the ability to create hurricane force wind/rain storms while succeeding at DC 40 perform checks, and you're close), but she was new at the game so it didn't hurt anything.

And her pet had a lovely singing voice.

Plus there are a few WotC source feats that allow you to get an intelligent, magical beast animal companion. Exalted Companion in BoED for instance.

So see if you can get a feat. . .

Awakened Animal Companion
Prerequisites: Ability to cast awaken, animal companion
Benefit: You may retain the services of your animal companion once it has been awakened, even though they are no longer animals. It reatains all statistics of a typical animal companion, except that it no longer needs to know tricks to perform tasks.
Normal: Without this feat you lose your animal companion when it gets smart enough to talk.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Magare 01-22-06, 06:17 PM	I read in an errata somewhere that a druid can awaken its animal companion and still keep it as a companion. But I cant find it now. Any help?
Seeker95 01-22-06, 06:43 PM	I don't think you will find it. An awakened animal companion is no longer an animal. You could recruit your awakened former animal companion as a cohort.
Borris 01-22-06, 06:51 PM	You can't. An awakened animal can’t serve as an animal companion, familiar, or special mount. An awakened animal will start as friendly toward the caster (maybe even helpful if he was your companion for a long time), but he can't be your animal companion anymore, and will lose all the animal companion bonuses, perhaps resulting in a weaker creature.
EvilVegan 01-22-06, 11:27 PM	If you have a particularly lenient DM you could probably get away with it though. Animal companions are often underpowered, and having one that's intelligent doesn't really tip the scales too much, just removes the necessity for training/commanding the animal in combat, as you can just yell out commands. I made a PrC for one of my players that made her awakened animal companion her cohort but it still got the druid animal companion bonuses. . . it required leadership as a prereq (among other things) and it made it so that she wouldn't attract followers, just a cohort. It was also a horribly broken PrC (combine arcane hierophant and shaper 3.0 and add in several bardic music abilities including, but not limited to, the ability to create hurricane force wind/rain storms while succeeding at DC 40 perform checks, and you're close), but she was new at the game so it didn't hurt anything. And her pet had a lovely singing voice. Plus there are a few WotC source feats that allow you to get an intelligent, magical beast animal companion. Exalted Companion in BoED for instance. So see if you can get a feat. . . Awakened Animal Companion Prerequisites: Ability to cast awaken, animal companion Benefit: You may retain the services of your animal companion once it has been awakened, even though they are no longer animals. It reatains all statistics of a typical animal companion, except that it no longer needs to know tricks to perform tasks. Normal: Without this feat you lose your animal companion when it gets smart enough to talk.