Animal companion 3.5

[Sploggle1]

I was wondering if their is any negatives go getting rid of your animal companion in 3.5. In the players handbook it does not say much about it. When I switched over to the 3e players handbook it was much the same accept that you can have more than 1 companion. Then I opened the 3e masters of the wild and it gave me a touch more saying it would be evil if you abandon them leaving them in dangers way. (Dungeons, wild territory, exc)

I was wondering if their was a loss in experience, magic, or something else that they left out in the books I have. What books would I find them in?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

It's perfectly fine to dismiss your current animal companion in an area that could be considered the creature's natural habitat. For a domesticated animal such as a riding dog or horse you would probably need to turn it over to someone who would look after it well. You get a penalty for dismissing a familiar, but with an animal companion there's no mechanical drawback at all.

[Sploggle1]

Okay I see. I was getting the familiar confused with the companion.

[heavyfuel]

Losing both a Familiar and a Special Mount (paladin) gives you a penalty. The familiar's master loses XP and can't get another one for a whole year, and the paladin receives -1 on attack and damage for up to 30 days. There is, however, no written penalty for having you Animal Companion die, except the 24 hours you have to spend to bind with another one.

At our table, we found that the Familiar's penalty is too steep, and that the AnC penalty is non-existant. So we made both of them equal to the Mount's penalty (except Familiar's Masters lose one highest level spell per day during the 30 day or until they reach a new level instead of -1 to attack and damage)