Purchased Guard Dog Advancement

[Gizmo5579]

Ok, so I've seen many posts on what stats to use for guard dogs/riding dogs based on price and what not (I've come to the conclusion that a guard dog at 25gp uses regular "dog" stats with the guard training package and riding dog at 150gp uses the "dog, riding" stats with the riding training package) but I want to know what the consensus is on advancing a purchased dog. Do they increase HD and subsequently increase stats over time? And if so is it based on your CL or does the animal gain exp too and level up that way? For example, as a druid or ranger increases their levels, that in turn increases the stats and abilities for their animal companion. So, a lvl 6 druid who has had his animal companion from level 1 will add 4 bonus HD as well as 4 to nat armor. If I bought a guard dog (as a character from any class) and kept it from my first level up to level 6, would it still run off the base stats for a dog and still only have 1HD or does it gain HD at the same rate I do as I lvl?

Also, if they do level up with you, would you consider the bonus HD for an animal companion to be in place of normal leveling, or in addition to? i.e. If the same lvl 6 druid had a wolf animal companion from lvl 1 all the way to lvl 6, would the wolf have 6HD (2HD Base +4bonus HD for Druid lv) or would it have 11HD (2HD Base + 4Bonus HD + 5HD for leveling)?

It seems that adding bonus HD plus leveling HD might make an animal companion a bit excessive, but not allowing purchased animals to advance is a waste of money later on. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to make sure I was clear and specific.:smallsmile:

[Cog]

Neither animal has an Advancement entry, so they don't gain HD or abilities at all. You need an ability like Animal Companion or Wild Cohort to pull that off.

[Thurbane]

Hmm, never noticed that dogs don't have an advancement listed in their statblock. Odd. Most other animals do...although a few others share the dog's dilemma. Actually, double checking now, it seems to be mostly the domesticated animals that don't get HD/size advancement options...I guess that was a deliberate decision by the designers.

[pres_man]

Here is a house-rule I put into affect in my own games.


IMPROVING ANIMALS

Animals can be improved using the handle animal skill.
To improve (advance) an animal it requires:
1. Handle animal check DC 20 + (New HD)
2. Cost of 100 gp x (New HD), if a person trains the animal themselves the costs is 1/2 as much.
3. Three weeks of training time, with at least two hours a day dedicated to training, for non-feat obtaining HD. If the increase in HD would allow a feat then it takes four weeks.

Improved animals are difficult to handle and do not respond to handlers/riders who do not have at least 2 more HD than the animal. Druids and Rangers can use this to improve their companions but the difficulty to control still applies.

If in the animal entry, an increase in HD is associated with a larger size, then the animal enlarges as it is advanced. This can be used on animals that would not normally be allowed to advance in the MM. An animal with a fractional HD can be advanced to a full HD, just use the above rules for 1 HD (note it will only take 3 weeks to train, since the animal should already have a feat).

An animal can only be improved by one hit die at a time.

[Cieyrin]

The only way I can think of is to train them into the Warmount template from the Monster Manual 2, which gets 'em a HD. Otherwise, you'd be better off, at least by RAW, going through Wild Cohort or one of the many base or prestige classes that have companions, though the best option for what you're suggesting is Beastmaster (Complete Adventurer), which I saw somebody in Living Greyhawk use as a Hound Master, taking each of his animal companions as riding dogs/wolves.