Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Curtcleancut 08-09-07, 08:50 AM	Ok, so I'm sorta helping my buddy out here, while addressing a problem. He wants to have an army of animals while still being able to polymorph. Does anyone know how to go about this? Are there feats that he can take? Can he take animals as cohorts? How do pets work? How many pets is he allowed? Currently he has a Dire Bear, two Dire Boar and his blink dog is his companion. Is this even possible? He has also taken Vow of Poverty just to spice things up... After the game session we're addressing his overpowered animal companion. He's sixth level and has a Dire Bear. How does that work? It had over 100 hp?! Is that possible? It single handedly wrestled a hydra to the ground. A HYDRA! We players feel sorta underpowered compared to the druid. I shoot magic missles while his animal is do 40+ damage per hit. I forgot to mention that we're only sixth level...
wolf_man007 08-09-07, 09:51 AM	I would suggest rereading the Druid entry in the PHB, specifically regarding animal companions, all your answers can be found there. (read: you're doing it wrong)
Kouk 08-09-07, 09:56 AM	Anything is possible if the DM is being dumb. The level 6 Druid can have a single animal companion; he has a Blink Dog. A Blink Dog is not a legal choice for a straight Druid of any level, because it is a Magical Beast, and not an animal. So there's one thing. If, for some reason, you could have him adequately explain why a Dire Bear is following him around (by the way, a Druid could have a Dire Bear as an animal companion -- at level 13), and why it has been trained, and who he bought it from or where he found it... never mind, your DM is being an idiot. It doesn't matter how he got it, he shouldn't have it. A Dire Bear has 12 HD, you are a level 6 party, so you have 6 HD each. The Dire Bear alone is a CR 7, so your party, if it was to all gang up on him, would still have a bit of a hard time taking him down. The Dire Boars are the same thing, they have 7 HD, and are CR 4. Your Druid friend, including his pets, would be about an EL 9 encounter. This doesn't translate directly into character power, but if the rest of your party was to take on the Druid and his menagerie, he would most likely kill a couple of you. I imagine the DM isn't requiring Handle Animal checks either, because manipulating a "pet" takes actions. To make a pet do one specific thing (such as, "attack") requires a Move action. So at most, he could direct 2 of his pets, and his animal companion to attack something (free action to handle a companion), but he could do nothing else himself that round. Were these creatures even trained properly? Did the Druid have to make checks to teach them Tricks? If he bought them, let's see... I will use the 3.0 Arms and Equipment Guide as reference, because that was the last book I know of that handled the "sale" of exotic creatures. To purchase a Dire Boar would cost 400gp, and to have him trained by someone else costs an additional 75gp. To purchase a Dire Bear would cost... well there isn't a price for that. Using other creatures as examples though, it would probably cost over 1,000gp to purchase. Where did he get all these pets? Basically, the DM has to put his foot down and remove this army of creatures the Druid has. Once that is under control, you can suggest this feat, Wild Cohort: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a as a way to get more animals under your control. The "Beastmaster" PrC allows 2 animal companions, it can be found in Complete Adventurer.
qwerty1 08-09-07, 10:01 AM	Unless he's using D&D 3.0 where the rules are different. But i still think its too many HD of ACs. Maybe they can use Leadership Feat not too sure though.
Grogmir 08-09-07, 11:37 AM	So yeah - As has been pointed out the Animal Companion is way over what he should be having. Plus the beastmaster PrC can give you that army. It gains an extra Animal Comp every 3 levels (Note AT A MUCH LOWER LEVEL - before your Druid starts running around with 5 Dire Boars. Have a word and sort it out! Grogmir.