Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 locke3 Sep 26, 2012 16:58:13	So basically I really like the flavor of the idea of a totemic druid / beastmaster / animal lord. More specifically, the feel of a guy whos all about bears, being a bear, and fighting with a bunch of bears. Haven't made the character yet, but I feel like this combination will give that result pretty decently. A question I had was in regards to the interaction between beastmaster and animal lord: beastmaster, for a second pet, is treated as being his level minus 4. Animal lord lets me treat an animal companion class as being its level + animal lord levels. So am I allowed to treat my beastmaster level for a second pet as bm-4+animal lord? and if I take the natural bond feat, does that improve the adjusted level of the beastmaster for that second pet? Lastly, is there a more effective way of going about this that I'm just not thinking of?
#2 locke3 Sep 27, 2012 20:02:26	The rulebook states "Other class levels in classes that offer an animal companion don't stack for the purpose of determining the power of a beastmaster's additional animal companions, nor do they allow her to choose additional animal companions from the alternative lists.", however animal lord isn't a class that offers an animal companion. In addition to that, animal lord states "If an animal lord has the animal companion class feature, he adds his animal lord level to his effective druid level for the purposes of determining his animal companion's bonus Hit Dice, special abilities, and so forth." So legally, it makes sense that it WOULD stack, but it seems like the rules are getting at the fact that they don't want other classes to improve the second pet level calculations...
#3 Kingreaper Sep 30, 2012 9:20:01	I would advise: It's obviously intended not to stack. HOWEVER, if you ask your GM whether you can apply the bonus to your second companion INSTEAD of to your first, they may well allow it. So if you want two equally tough bears, might be worth checking if your gm is up for that?