Albions_Angel
2015-09-05, 04:30 AM
Hi all.
I have sort of messed with the awaken rules a bit for my campaign with regards to animal companions.
Here is the thing. As a druid, the natural advancement of an animal companion sort of has 3 components. The first is hit dice, the second is stat increase, and the third is bond strengthening.
The increase in HD I would think is a physical process. Higher level druids can attract physically better specimens as animal companions, and through care, can increase their hit dice while the animal is bound to them.
The stat increase (Str, Dex and Nat Arm) is somewhere between a physical change (better care leads to better muscle growth) and a mental one (the animal companion is trained to hit harder or to roll with the punches), with a little bit of bond thrown in (the druids own actions are picked up by the AC and acted upon in battle).
The bond improvements are magical or derived from the bond of animal and human.
Here is where I ruled things. When you awaken an animal companion, it makes sense for it to lose its bond. It may still feel loyalty, but it can now think for itself, second guess decisions, etc. It doesnt have that blind compulsion to do whatever its master wants.
Similarly, the stat increases should go (though I am on the fence about this) as it starts to second guess its training.
But the hit dice. Hit dice means a bigger, stronger animal. Awakening that animal doesnt make it smaller and weaker. So what I said was that additional HD are kept, but converted from Animal Companion Extra HD to MM Advancement HD, along with the perks of every 4 being a stat increase, etc. In addition, with its new intelligence, it can take feats every 3 additional HD, and can take levels in a PC as though it was multiclassing as an animal of its level (so a Dire Bear with 4 extra HD has 16HD. Its a 16th level bear, therefore. To become a first level druid it must reach level 17).
What do you think? Does that make sense? I know I am the DM, I can do more or less whatever I like, but I want to stick to the books as I am still learning, and to me, this makes both physical sense and is within the wording of the spell, if only by omission.
I have sort of messed with the awaken rules a bit for my campaign with regards to animal companions.
Here is the thing. As a druid, the natural advancement of an animal companion sort of has 3 components. The first is hit dice, the second is stat increase, and the third is bond strengthening.
The increase in HD I would think is a physical process. Higher level druids can attract physically better specimens as animal companions, and through care, can increase their hit dice while the animal is bound to them.
The stat increase (Str, Dex and Nat Arm) is somewhere between a physical change (better care leads to better muscle growth) and a mental one (the animal companion is trained to hit harder or to roll with the punches), with a little bit of bond thrown in (the druids own actions are picked up by the AC and acted upon in battle).
The bond improvements are magical or derived from the bond of animal and human.
Here is where I ruled things. When you awaken an animal companion, it makes sense for it to lose its bond. It may still feel loyalty, but it can now think for itself, second guess decisions, etc. It doesnt have that blind compulsion to do whatever its master wants.
Similarly, the stat increases should go (though I am on the fence about this) as it starts to second guess its training.
But the hit dice. Hit dice means a bigger, stronger animal. Awakening that animal doesnt make it smaller and weaker. So what I said was that additional HD are kept, but converted from Animal Companion Extra HD to MM Advancement HD, along with the perks of every 4 being a stat increase, etc. In addition, with its new intelligence, it can take feats every 3 additional HD, and can take levels in a PC as though it was multiclassing as an animal of its level (so a Dire Bear with 4 extra HD has 16HD. Its a 16th level bear, therefore. To become a first level druid it must reach level 17).
What do you think? Does that make sense? I know I am the DM, I can do more or less whatever I like, but I want to stick to the books as I am still learning, and to me, this makes both physical sense and is within the wording of the spell, if only by omission.