la on a winter wolf pc 3.5

[sage20500]

What would you guys recommend as a level adjustment for a pc that wants to be a winter wolf and is already taking their first 6 hit dice as a magical beast?

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Winter_Wolf

[Extra Anchovies]

Hm. Magical Beast HD aren't too shabby, especially with the WW's abilities... I'd say +2, or +1 without buyoff.

[atemu1234]

Danddwiki! Hissssssss!

[ZamielVanWeber]

Here you go. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/winterWolf.htm)
I would say +1 myself. The only worrying thing is their breath weapon, but it doesn't scale damage, so it will eventually turn into entangle fodder or nothing. Note that with buyoff he would still need ECL 10 to drop it. A +2 template on a normal race can be shed about the same time and some of those are scary.

[sage20500]

Also depending upon how high the la might be. For a gestalt character that wants to focus on grapple shenanigans would the player be better using a winter wolf as their race, or play an awakened wolf that has 4 hd in wolf to become size large, (so wolf overall would have 6hd as a wolf before taking class levels)

[torrasque666]

Danddwiki! Hissssssss!

Oh hush. It has the SRD tag, its legit. You only have to worry about the stuff that doesn't.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Awakened and gestalt? Consider Dire Wolf for triple good saves and massive str or Winter Wolf for the pile of well... everything. (I would go winter personally, although dire is pure awesome). Advancing wolf gets you nothing in this scenario.

[sage20500]

Awakened and gestalt? Consider Dire Wolf for triple good saves or Winter Wolf for the pile of well... everything. (I would go winter personally, although dire is pure awesome). Advancing wolf gets you nothing in this scenario.

The only reason they dont want to use dire wolf is because the tree that doesnt have the wolf is going for warlock eldritch grapple and claw shenanigans. The side that does include wolf they want to be able to take 2 levels of paladin of freedom and 1 level of battle dancer as fast as they can so they can add their cha mod to ac and saves. (The pc started with an 18 cha)

So the original idea to have 4 levels in wolf was to get size large and keep the wolf trip ability for only 6 hd. If they did an awakened dire wolf im pretty sure that would take up 8-10 hd i think...

[Urpriest]

+3. Cohort-only isn't going to give you higher LA, if anything it would give you lower LA.

Does it deserve an LA that high? Almost certainly not. But LA is in general inflated. Unless you're correcting it across the board, you shouldn't correct it for this one race, and if you are correcting it across the board you don't need our advice.

[ZamielVanWeber]

So the original idea to have 4 levels in wolf was to get size large and keep the wolf trip ability for only 6 hd. If they did an awakened dire wolf im pretty sure that would take up 8-10 hd i think...

An awakened dire wolf has 6HD. I am not sure where you are getting 8-10. I would not even LA it honestly. It is like a slightly worse fighter.

[sage20500]

An awakened dire wolf has 6HD. I am not sure where you are getting 8-10. I would not even LA it honestly. It is like a slightly worse fighter.

The awaken spell says the awakened animal gains +2 hd among the other things it does, thats why i thought it have 8 hd

[ZamielVanWeber]

The awaken spell says the awakened animal gains +2 hd among the other things it does, thats why i thought it have 8 hd

Oh wow I totally forgot that... Go for wolf then I honestly would not LA it. It is straight up worse than the equivalent levels in fighter.

Hold up, awakening would put you to 4 HD, would that count as advancement for the purpose to making you large?

[sage20500]

Oh wow I totally forgot that... Go for wolf then I honestly would not LA it. It is straight up worse than the equivalent levels in fighter.

Hold up, awakening would put you to 4 HD, would that count as advancement for the purpose to making you large?

It seems that my group has been misunderstanding how awakening worked. The way it had been treated was the extra 2 hd were as a magical beast not an animal. Have we been messing up?

[Urpriest]

Oh wow I totally forgot that... Go for wolf then I honestly would not LA it. It is straight up worse than the equivalent levels in fighter.

Hold up, awakening would put you to 4 HD, would that count as advancement for the purpose to making you large?

No, has to be actual advancement.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Thank you. In that case the LA free wolf would probably be your best bet. Magical Beast hit dice still make you a slightly worse fighter. You would just need your DM to concur.