What's the worst rules abuse you've ever seen with an animal companion?

[Waldmarschallin]

Now, bearing in mind that my primary build is in no ways minmaxed- a low epic level Druid-Dread Pirate combo with some rather unorthodox feats, I've still abused the animal companion rules dramatically. This all depends on a liberal reading of the description of the "awaken" spell (though I can't remember atm if it's the core description or the MotW description) which in 3.0 reads that awakened animals are something like cohorts.

Cohorts gain xp

xp gets you levels.

Why would those just be more subpar monster hd?

Wouldn't being made one of a very few sapient animals leave you with spiritual questions and in want of clarity?

This how my king cobra (dire snake) animal companion "Ophiophagus" entered the clergy of ehlonna. The thing is that under 3.0 rules, the animal domain lets you do all that is required to get an animal companion, so he befriended another dire snake, who we awakened, and then began taking levels of wizard. She could have gotten a familiar, but I saw where this could go and stopped there. She did get a serious shot in the (arm? ummm snake body of cuteness perhaps) when he took the leadership feat (meaning he was entitled to a cohort of a certain level, and now the party is low epic level she's really useful. Meanwhile Ophiophagus himself is a powerful cleric who has adopted the "good leich" variant from Libris mortis. He actually served as Prime minister for 3 days, then lost a very close party leadership election which had only one real issue- whether or not we would break our constitution and institute a draft to fight the Deep Ones. He said no, now Prime Minister Auma said yes, she won. Ophiophagus has still done a lot, and currently adventures with the Waldmarschallin (forest marshall) of the Conservation Corps- basically the cabinet-level department of druids. He has killed two shoggoths, and will soon command one of our first ships of the line.

[Bad Wolf]

That was wild from start to finish.

[John Campbell]

I just feel the need to point this out:

An awakened animal gets 3d6 Intelligence, +1d3 Charisma, and +2 HD. Its type becomes magical beast (augmented animal). An awakened animal can't serve as an animal companion, familiar, or special mount.

My last 3.x character was a Pathfinder Ranger with a Large wolf animal companion/mount, and I was trying to figure out a way to get the wolf's Int high enough to take Combat Expertise as a prereq for Improved/Greater Trip, which due to the change in the way Improved Trip works in Pathfinder and a quirk in the AoO rules, would, in combination with the wolf's innate Trip ability, have allowed the wolf to juggle enemies, so that clause was personally very inconvenient to me.

(Wolf attacks. If the attack hits, the Trip ability grants a free trip attempt. If the trip is successful, Improved Trip means the target provokes AoOs, so the wolf gets to attack it again. And because AoOs resolve before the event that provoked them, that means the target is not yet tripped, and so the wolf can take its free trip attempt off that attack, which, if successful, provokes AoOs, rinse and repeat until the wolf runs out of AoOs (assume Combat Reflexes) or misses an attack or a trip attempt. Then all of the trips resolve at once and the target becomes very, very prone. And if I'm mounted with a melee weapon in hand, I get to take all the AoOs, too...)

(I did eventually figure out an alternate way to do it that didn't require somehow boosting a wolf up to 13 Int, but it required several otherwise useless feats (Improved Unarmed Strike! On a wolf with a natural bite attack!), and didn't allow me to take the AoOs too, so I decided it wasn't worthwhile.)

[Necrus Philius]

Mine would have to be my most recent level 4 dwarf druid. Due to campaign events, my chosen animal companion (a velociraptor) was transformed into goat. Since I had points in ride I decided to use it as a combat mount, and the dm allowed me to make indirect charge attempts since it's a goat and they tend to hop. (ie a mountain goat since it needed to be big enough to carry an unarmored dwarf).

[Waldmarschallin]

I just feel the need to point this out:


My last 3.x character was a Pathfinder Ranger with a Large wolf animal companion/mount, and I was trying to figure out a way to get the wolf's Int high enough to take Combat Expertise as a prereq for Improved/Greater Trip, which due to the change in the way Improved Trip works in Pathfinder and a quirk in the AoO rules, would, in combination with the wolf's innate Trip ability, have allowed the wolf to juggle enemies, so that clause was personally very inconvenient to me.

(Wolf attacks. If the attack hits, the Trip ability grants a free trip attempt. If the trip is successful, Improved Trip means the target provokes AoOs, so the wolf gets to attack it again. And because AoOs resolve before the event that provoked them, that means the target is not yet tripped, and so the wolf can take its free trip attempt off that attack, which, if successful, provokes AoOs, rinse and repeat until the wolf runs out of AoOs (assume Combat Reflexes) or misses an attack or a trip attempt. Then all of the trips resolve at once and the target becomes very, very prone. And if I'm mounted with a melee weapon in hand, I get to take all the AoOs, too...)

(I did eventually figure out an alternate way to do it that didn't require somehow boosting a wolf up to 13 Int, but it required several otherwise useless feats (Improved Unarmed Strike! On a wolf with a natural bite attack!), and didn't allow me to take the AoOs too, so I decided it wasn't worthwhile.)

Hmmm. I think it's different in 3.0 which is the system in which I originally made my characters- I recall it specifically says that the awakened animal sticks around unless you get another companion (and with the ability to build like that why would you?). Converting back and forth as we learn new stuff does get messy, maybe I should eventually go all 3.5. On this topic I might be wrong, or I might be thinking of an optional variant from MotW- my 3.0 ph is 300 miles away at the moment

Imagine the billing- ladies, gentleman, enemies of all ages, gasp in awe at Lupin, the juggling wolf! (primary character in striped ringmaster gear of course as wolf sends enemies flying with each limb and tail sweep, biting faster than the eye can see, perhaps in a cartoonish dervish). That would be awesome and I think you could do it under 3.0 rules

[Waldmarschallin]

Mine would have to be my most recent level 4 dwarf druid. Due to campaign events, my chosen animal companion (a velociraptor) was transformed into goat. Since I had points in ride I decided to use it as a combat mount, and the dm allowed me to make indirect charge attempts since it's a goat and they tend to hop. (ie a mountain goat since it needed to be big enough to carry an unarmored dwarf).

Ooh- you mean you got to charge in different directions? double speed but turning is pretty cool. (Now, is there anyway you can make that thing fly...) I would bet you got a pretty good charge/gore attack too right?


I've also heard great things about dire tortoises- apparently they always act in surprise rounds. For low levels I often recommend the dire badger because you get the size increase so easily.

Again I'm confronted with the wide difference between 3.0 and 3.5 animal companion rules- in 3.0 as long as you're willing to do a tiny xp transfer your animal levels up when you do, while 3.5 of course has a slower progression in exchange for paladin mount-like powers. Maybe 3.5 saw some of the problems with the awaken spell and its potential for this stuff

[Maglubiyet]

The OP's scenario sounds like the beginning of an apocalypse story - runaway awakened snakes awaken more snakes until the dimension is overrun.

In the immortal words of SLJ:
"I'm tired of these m*********** snakes on this m************ Plane!"

[Beleriphon]

The OP's scenario sounds like the beginning of an apocalypse story - runaway awakened snakes awaken more snakes until the dimension is overrun.

In the immortal words of SLJ:
"I'm tired of these m*********** snakes on this m************ Plane!"

Wow, Snakes on a Plane (of Existance). Maybe the Immortal SLJ (like Mystara Immortal, not immortal words immortal) can be an NPC.

[Waldmarschallin]

The OP's scenario sounds like the beginning of an apocalypse story - runaway awakened snakes awaken more snakes until the dimension is overrun.

In the immortal words of SLJ:
"I'm tired of these m*********** snakes on this m************ Plane!"

Cutest. Apocalypse. EVER!

[Stone Heart]

Worst or Best rules abuse?

In pathfinder, I recently saw a post about a guy who used the hunter class which has an archetype for gaining summoner eidolon evolutions on the animal companion to create a Winged, tentacled, Cerberus T-rex.

[Coidzor]

Worst or Best rules abuse?

In pathfinder, I recently saw a post about a guy who used the hunter class which has an archetype for gaining summoner eidolon evolutions on the animal companion to create a Winged, tentacled, Cerberus T-rex.

What do you mean abuse?