Awakened Bear

[Regissoma]

I am planning on Awakening my brown bear cohort obtained from Wild Cohort which kicks in around level 10 to get it, but I need some help finding out what to do with said bear. I know that now its been awakened it could possibly take feats or maybe even class levels, but what does everyone else think. My character will be starting at level 18 so I have supposedly level 8 times since I awakened said bear. Background story fluff wise I found this bear cub while hunting with my father around age 10 and has raised him since, and when I got fed up with town life I went traveling and the bear came along. It be nice to use him as a mount as well, but I have hardly done anything related using animal companions and any cohort of the kind as all my DMs have said no to leadership and wild cohort and that I usually traded off my animal companion when playing other classes. Any help would be appreciated.

[IAmTehDave]

http://funnydndstories.com/apps/blog/show/5750289-mr-bearington/

Give him levels in rogue.

(Alternatively, Fist of the Forest3/stoneblessed3/Deepwarden2. And then he's the important middle part of Bearfist Fistbear.)

[Regissoma]

Ofcourse xD, how could I forget about that build, but how many levels would he be then... Time to do some math.

[torrasque666]

Man.... now I want to see if I can find a DM who will allow me to play an awakened animal.... like an awakened T-rex. or a Roc.

[IAmTehDave]

If you can manage to fit the bear into Stoneblessed first, you meet the BaB requirement for the other two. Skills and Feats are going to be a PITA though. You can do Rogue or Factotum 1 (or 2) for some skill points, then Stoneblessed 3/Deepwarden2/Fotf (1 or 2, depending on if you took 1 or 2 levels of Rogue/Factotum) and have 8 class levels. Although you would really be cutting it close on skills, if not needing to cheat (or take the Open Minded feat)

Of note: this build is probably suboptimal. Would be really fun though. (And FotF's "Primal Living" requirement becomes a joke. You're already a bear.)

[IAmTehDave]

Man.... now I want to see if I can find a DM who will allow me to play an awakened animal.... like an awakened T-rex. or a Roc.

Savage Species has the character creation rules for playing an Awakened animal.
Caveat Emptor: 3.0 rules, and (IIRC) many people have picked them apart as vaguely unsound. Your mileage may vary. An Awakened Bird of some sort would make an excellent spellcaster. Though I'd love to see a T-Rex Unarmed Swordsage.

Edit: Nevermind, those are Anthropomorphic. Awakened I'm not sure if there's rules for LA for awakened animals as characters.

[Regissoma]

Well with a quick google search, it seems other people say that awakened creatures should be treated as LA 0-2 depending on the animal on this case being a brown bear. What do you guys think? I just want a guideline or just a general consensus I can show my DM on this matter.

[Bronk]

I am planning on Awakening my brown bear cohort obtained from Wild Cohort which kicks in around level 10 to get it, but I need some help finding out what to do with said bear. I know that now its been awakened it could possibly take feats or maybe even class levels, but what does everyone else think. My character will be starting at level 18 so I have supposedly level 8 times since I awakened said bear.

Well, once you awaken the bear, that overrides anything from the Wild Cohort feat and you would have to treat it as a regular NPC.

The Wild Cohort feat isn't quite as stringently written as the druid's animal companion is, but it does say that you obtain a wild animal, and later tells you to use the base animal's stats to level it up. Once the bear is awakened, it becomes a magical beast, and it also becomes too smart to direct with the 'handle animal' skill.

You do have a pretty great back story, but maybe say you did indeed raise it, had it awakened, then kept it around as a cohort from the Leadership feat. That would take care of it.

As your official cohort, you could level it up in pretty much anything. You could also try to have the 'awaken' spell maximized and/or empowered, then have them level in a spellcasting class. A druid bear who can wildshape into a different bear, and cast spells while you ride it? Maybe a fangshield substitution level to wildshape into humanoid, but bearish, form?

Something to think about anyway.

[Regissoma]

Alright, I will look into that. Like I said I hardly have experience with any cohort, leadership, animal companion in the span I've played D&D. So are there any suggestions by RAW to improve said bear should I not awaken it?

[Donny_Green]

I am planning on Awakening my brown bear cohort obtained from Wild Cohort which kicks in around level 10 to get it, but I need some help finding out what to do with said bear. I know that now its been awakened it could possibly take feats or maybe even class levels, but what does everyone else think. My character will be starting at level 18 so I have supposedly level 8 times since I awakened said bear. Background story fluff wise I found this bear cub while hunting with my father around age 10 and has raised him since, and when I got fed up with town life I went traveling and the bear came along. It be nice to use him as a mount as well, but I have hardly done anything related using animal companions and any cohort of the kind as all my DMs have said no to leadership and wild cohort and that I usually traded off my animal companion when playing other classes. Any help would be appreciated.

Get the bear to take a vow of poverty, and let the fun begin.

[Donny_Green]

Alright, I will look into that. Like I said I hardly have experience with any cohort, leadership, animal companion in the span I've played D&D. So are there any suggestions by RAW to improve said bear should I not awaken it?

warbeast template.. I think it's in MM3

[Inevitability]

Get the bear to take a vow of poverty, and let the fun begin.

You don't have to awaken it for that. Just take Exalted Companion yourself, and then Dark Chaos Shuffle it to take the vows.

[Invader]

you do know an awakened animal can't be used for an animal companion, familiar, or mount right? I'll assume if you can't take leadership he won't let you treat it as a cohort either.

[Donny_Green]

You don't have to awaken it for that. Just take Exalted Companion yourself, and then Dark Chaos Shuffle it to take the vows.

Yes but then said character would need to choose VOP or magic items on gold.. as to were an awakened bear looses nothing and gains everything from the feat.

[Bronk]

Alright, I will look into that. Like I said I hardly have experience with any cohort, leadership, animal companion in the span I've played D&D. So are there any suggestions by RAW to improve said bear should I not awaken it?


Okay, so you're level 18 to start, so this should be easily doable. My suggestion is to do a number of things in your character's backstory, and make sure your character can make the necessary rolls if asked.

You haven't said what your character is, but make sure you max out the 'handle animal' skill and use any wealth by level you get to get a magic item and a masterwork item to boost the skill.

Then, say that yes, you found this brown bear as a cub and hand reared it (handle animal DC21 (15+6HD)) to make it domesticated... At this point you can treat it as if you had bought a dog.

Then, later, you decided you wanted to ride the bear, which is admittedly awesome, so you took six weeks an taught it to be a combat mount (handle animal DC20).

At this point, you can just use the bear as a big friendly bear horse!
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm#handleAnimal

If you decide to leave it there and not take it as an animal cohort, you can take an additional two months to train the bear as a warbeast, for an additional 1HD and boosted stats (handle animal DC26 (20+6HD)).
http://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/templates/warbeast.shtml

Now it is a finely trained beast even more suitable for aiding you in combat, including definitely being able to wear armor and such.

If you do decide to take the Wild Cohort feat, you can say that you took the feat first (so it was on the approved list) then trained it as a warbeast.

At this point, it will already know a number of 'tricks', and the feat will allow you to teach it more. Technically, everything you will ever want it to do will need to be conveyed using the 'handle animal' skill, and hopefully your DM will just hand wave that away, but if not you'll be ready for it because of your high skill.

As for improving your animal beyond that, you can load it up with magic armor and as many magic items as you can afford. It has all of the same magic item slots as a person, although it needs armor shaped for a large quadruped.

Especially good magic items include the 'amulet of mighty fists' or even better, a 'necklace of natural weapons' from savage species. Actually, here's a list of interesting enhancements for natural weapons I copied from somewhere...

Edit: You might want to consider using "Polymorph Any Object" to turn your brown bear into a more powerful bear like a dire bear or dire polar bear when you get to high enough level...

**************

The Amulet of Mighty Fists is three times as expensive as it should be, so it is only worthwhile if you have 3 or more natural weapons. The Necklace of Natural Weapons from Savage Species is cheaper to enchant and offers more options than just enhancement bonuses, but only applies to one natural weapon unless you pay a straight multiplier. The break even point between the two is at 3 weapons or more when the AoMF becomes cheaper. The NoNA does have the advantage of allowing +equivalent enhancements (like Wounding) and can reach a +10 total enhancement like a manufactured weapon, which the AoMF does not offer, if you are willing to pay the extra cash.

The Fanged Ring (Dragon Magic) grants INA and deals 1 Con damage on a critical hit, which is a pretty useful property to have. Only costs 10,000 gp.

The Ring of Adamant Touch (MIC) makes all your weapons overcome DR as if they were Adamantine for 6,000 gp.

Bracers of the Arcane (MIC) allow you to overcome DR silver and magic.

Jaws of the Dragon (Draconomicon) grants a bite attack as a creature one size larger for 40,000 gp.

Wyrmfang Amulet from the MIC is 1350 vs the 2500 for the one in Draconomicon.

Bands of Blood Rage from the MIC will boost all of your natural attacks for 2600 gp.

The Ghost Shroud from the MiC costs 5,000 gp and will grant you a +1 deflection bonus to AC and give your attacks the Ghost Touch property, allowing you to bust ghosts.

The best method for enchanting is probably the Kensai, which can enchant all of its natural weapons for XP. It’s not even a bad class for melee types. Failing that, if you're a Druid or have access to a Druid, casting Superior Magic Fang will give an enhancement bonus to all of your natural weapons.

Dragon magazine 334 has claw extenders, which might help. They can be made masterwork and then made into magic weapons.

Page 49 of Savage Species has an item name Beast Claws that gives bonus claw damage (I checked: beast claws are spiked gauntlets (usually medium sized) that gives you a claw attack if you don’t have on and is +1. However, if you already have a claw attack, it becomes +2 and you get to make you original claw attack plus an additional 1d6 damage.)

[Dalebert]

like an awakened T-rex.

You'd have to get a special harness made to have your spell component pouch on your chest so you can reach it with your tiny arms.

[Regissoma]

Alright thanks for all the help Bronk. The DM has yet to get back to me on the matter of the bear outside of saying yes to Wild Cohort if I want to take it, but I will pass this by her.

[Bronk]

Good luck! I'd be interested to hear how it turns out!

[Regissoma]

So far my Dm has implied yes that Wild Cohort can be used in place of leadership for my awakened bear, and I have done the math that he will gain 9 class levels. Now to make a 9 level build for this bear. I am tempted to give it vow of poverty to save on my WBL.

[Bronk]

Cool! The 'touch of golden ice' feat would go great with that.

[Donny_Green]

Cool! The 'touch of golden ice' feat would go great with that.

there's also sanctified natural attack feat, after that it might get a little tricky....

Remember everything but the exhaulted feats are retro active. So if you figure 1st HD feat is sacred vow, and 3rd HD feat is VOP, you start getting bonus feats at level 4.

I've got a VOP companion, and he's tough as nails.

Also think about adding the warbeast template, now you can ride the bear into battle. Put enough ranks in your own ride skill, and you can dismount as a free action.

[TmasterT]

just remember all exalted feats are (su) supernatural abilities and are suppressed in an antimagic zone. if you awaken the bear hes fine, if you keep him as a companion with the vows and exalted companion feat and stumble into an AMF, they lose all their abilities till they leave it. At 20th level this could be a concern as your "tough as nails" companion could be returned to regular bear mode pretty easily

[Bronk]

Riffing on that, I'd like to point out that since the 'touch of golden ice' feat is a supernatural ability, the save DC scales using the following rule:

DC = 10 + 1/2 the creature's HD + CON modifier

It can be easy to miss because the ravage is listed in a table as a flat DC of 14 for the kind you can buy, but the rules for the scaling DC because the feat gives it to you as a supernatural ability are in the Monster Manual and the Rules Compendium.