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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other Templates on animal companions and familiars



Greenflame133
2018-01-20, 03:40 PM
This is little homebrew I liked using. The principle is simple players are allowed to put template on animal companions reducing they effective class level by same amount, so for example druid can have a winged wolf at effective druid lv (-2). For familiars tax is doubled, so Toad winged has effective class lv (-4).

What do you guys thing? is that blanced? is the rule book with rules for that?

rferries
2018-01-20, 04:37 PM
Cool idea, though it would probably need approval on a template by template basis (LA often doesn't correlate to power level). I'm surprised the penalty is doubled for familiars - they're much weaker than animal companions so it seems harsh to restrict them even more. Though I suppose the "familiar HD = master's HD" aspect allows for SLA shenanigans via the half-celestial/fiend template.

Greenflame133
2018-01-20, 05:07 PM
Cool idea, though it would probably need approval on a template by template basis (LA often doesn't correlate to power level). I'm surprised the penalty is doubled for familiars - they're much weaker than animal companions so it seems harsh to restrict them even more. Though I suppose the "familiar HD = master's HD" aspect allows for SLA shenanigans via the half-celestial/fiend template.

there is alternative class feature allowing to replace familiar with animal companion of half the familiar lv. (while I think it was made for Sorcerers and Wizards, I don’t see any reason to not apply it anywhere else). This means (in a perfect world) that they take half the power budget. Anyways as pre templates it would focused on adding abilities to familiar, for example at 20lv wizard I would use: Half-Dragon(for breath weapon), winged (for fluff and ease of travel) or Multiheaded (adding one extra head to drake familiar). Templates shouldn’t bring familiar below effective wizard lv 13 since Scry on familiar if powerful but nothing much happens after that.