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BobVosh
2009-10-07, 05:24 PM
In a fight against a druid the wizard casts limited wish and wished the animal companion to be awakened.

1. Does this cause the animal to lose all the bonuses from being an AC. (HD, ac, etc...not talking about shared spell)
2. Does the wish take 24 hours as normal?
3. Are my players just silly for seeing this as a viable solution to a high level druid wrecking their faces with his animal companion?

Volkov
2009-10-07, 05:25 PM
Nope, that's perfectly viable and there are no penalties associated with it.

Dragonmuncher
2009-10-07, 05:55 PM
It's definitely "outside the box" thinking, but it works RAW, and even makes a kind of sense.

An animal companion is a wild animal that has a certain bond with a druid/ranger. Suddenly, it gains intelligence. It's thinking for itself, questioning the world... it might still be loyal, or at least friendly, to the druid, but granting it sentience has moved it away from the wild world, and thus deprives it of its AC abilities.

At least, that's how I'd flavor it...


So, the animal would lose the AC benefits, but probably still fight with the druid due to its years of friendship. It would also fight more intelligently, if possible.

Volkov
2009-10-07, 05:58 PM
Many druids I know awakened their animal companions, familiars, or special mount or other type of special minion. This gave their helpers intelligence very early on, intelligence I ruled would stack with the Int progression for normal helper animals/undead/magical beasts/whatever.

Volkov
2009-10-07, 06:00 PM
One Lizardfolk druid I knew had an awakened Megaraptor as a familiar, and he never left Megaraptor form, and his cohort was also always in Megaraptor form and also had an awakened megaraptor animal companion and the cohort's cohort was also a druid who never left mega-raptor form and had an awakened megaraptor companion and the cohort's cohort's cohort was again a lizard folk druid who stayed in megaraptor form and had an awakened megaraptor companion. So his foes were typically cut to ribbons in moments.

Rixx
2009-10-07, 06:03 PM
One Lizardfolk druid I knew had an awakened Megaraptor as a familiar, and he never left Megaraptor form, and his cohort was also always in Megaraptor form and also had an awakened megaraptor animal companion and the cohort's cohort was also a druid who never left mega-raptor form and had an awakened megaraptor companion and the cohort's cohort's cohort was again a lizard folk druid who stayed in megaraptor form and had an awakened megaraptor companion. So his foes were typically cut to ribbons in moments.

*boards up his windows*

Volkov
2009-10-07, 06:05 PM
The epic level mob of raptors ambushed, and tore a red dragon with 18 age categories to pieces in 2 rounds. They pinned him down and sliced him open before he could even pull off a single spell.

Volkov
2009-10-07, 06:14 PM
He also managed the impossible, he slaughtered a epic level wizard. Pretty much he used epic level free action magic to dispel any epic spells the wizard has on him, then he pins him and coup de gras him. Because of his masterful feat selection, he could do this to plants, elementals, constructs, and undead and had an pretty much unbeatable grapple check, and because my house rule says that multiple people's grapple checks will stack if allies attempt to assist each other, he could use grapple related cheese to coup de gras everything from Pandorym to a mouse. Heck, he even went out an got a feat to allow him to coup de gras as a free action.

I still keep the rule since that very same player is in my group.

Gorbash
2009-10-07, 06:21 PM
One Lizardfolk druid I knew had an awakened Megaraptor as a familiar, and he never left Megaraptor form, and his cohort was also always in Megaraptor form and also had an awakened megaraptor animal companion and the cohort's cohort was also a druid who never left mega-raptor form and had an awakened megaraptor companion and the cohort's cohort's cohort was again a lizard folk druid who stayed in megaraptor form and had an awakened megaraptor companion. So his foes were typically cut to ribbons in moments.

Yo dawg, I heard you liked Megaraptors...

Volkov
2009-10-07, 06:24 PM
Yo dawg, I heard you liked Megaraptors...

Bleh, I preffered my restatted version of Tyrannosaurus rex. I made it powerful enough to defeat even mature adult dragons in purely physical combat the majority of the time to reflect that it was a awesome predator. Generally, in my games, dinosaurs other extinct animals are generally much stronger than the WOTC versions. The Tarrasque though, remains one of the most deadly monster in the game since I beefed him up to immense levels.

Thurbane
2009-10-07, 06:36 PM
Just on a tangent - it is feasible for a Druid to awaken a companion, then use the Leadership feat to attract it as a cohort (assuming it falls within his level limit), then gain another animal companion?

Forbiddenwar
2009-10-07, 06:37 PM
In a fight against a druid the wizard casts limited wish and wished the animal companion to be awakened.

1. Does this cause the animal to lose all the bonuses from being an AC. (HD, ac, etc...not talking about shared spell)
2. Does the wish take 24 hours as normal?
3. Are my players just silly for seeing this as a viable solution to a high level druid wrecking their faces with his animal companion?

1) After the spell takes effect, yes. (I think) "An awakened creature cannot be a animal companion."
2) Wish only takes 1 standard action to cast, vo matter the spell it duplicates.
3) Not silly, but it does come at a cost. Wish requires 5,000 XP in cost, and the caster needs to succeed on a will save. (DC 10+Animal HD+12AC HD+ Epic AC HD) If the caster fails the will save, he still pays the 5,000 XP and wasted the wish spell.

4) there could be divine retribution for this action, would make for an interesting twist if Nature permanently removes all spell casting ability of the caster for trying.

Godskook
2009-10-07, 06:40 PM
One Lizardfolk druid I knew had an awakened Megaraptor as a familiar, and he never left Megaraptor form, and his cohort was also always in Megaraptor form and also had an awakened megaraptor animal companion and the cohort's cohort was also a druid who never left mega-raptor form and had an awakened megaraptor companion and the cohort's cohort's cohort was again a lizard folk druid who stayed in megaraptor form and had an awakened megaraptor companion. So his foes were typically cut to ribbons in moments.

What...why...who...where...argh!!!! **BRAIN EXPLODES**

Am I the only one that thinks of the movie The Lost World when reading this?

Volkov
2009-10-07, 06:46 PM
What...why...who...where...argh!!!! **BRAIN EXPLODES**

Am I the only one that thinks of the movie The Lost World when reading this?

It was definitely leadership cheese, he's a real pioneer in it. And no you are not the only one.