Wolf LA

[dman11235]

Just curious, what LA would the community give to an awakened wolf?

Personally, I'm thinking a +1 at the most.

[DementedFellow]

considering how an awakened beast has two magical animal hit dice (assuming said wolf was awakened by a druid) then I would agree with it.

[bosssmiley]

+0. No opposable thumbs (so no wielding weapons, scrolls, wands, lock picks, holy symbols, etc.), the cost of custom-made equipment and natural humanoid prejudice against "that talking dog" = major disadvantage.

[dman11235]

Two things: one, it'll have 4 magical beast HD, so yeah, that's a lot of racial HD, and two, you can easily get around the no weapon thing. Gloves of Man (SS), monk, etc. And you have a bite. Though I might change my mind to a +0. If it is a +1, it's a weak +1. Stupid racial HD. Custom equipment is a valid point though.

[Bag_of_Holding]

I think it'd then depend on the mental ability scores you get from rolling 3 3d6s. If you *maximise* them, then it'd be something along LA +5/+6 (+8 to all mental ability scores, yay). Although if you take the average value (10-11) then it'd be more like LA +0/+1 at the most.

[dman11235]

Uh, only the int is rolled. Cha is a mere +1d3, and wis stays. And I was thinking of taking average, as the campaign I might do this for is PB.

[LibraryOgre]

Uh, only the int is rolled. Cha is a mere +1d3, and wis stays. And I was thinking of taking average, as the campaign I might do this for is PB.

Technically, Wisdom can be considered to be 3D6 as well, if its a character. The racial Wisdom of a wolf is simply its average.

[Bag_of_Holding]

Uh, only the int is rolled. Cha is a mere +1d3, and wis stays. And I was thinking of taking average, as the campaign I might do this for is PB.

Oh, so it's different from Awaken Construct then. Oh well, I think it'd work well as LA +0 then.

[Chronos]

The racial HD aren't as bad as they might be, since magical beasts get full BAB progression and a d10 HD. So a martial character at least isn't falling behind on that score. And you do get that nifty trip ability, which is worth about as much as a feat. Four fighter levels would get you two feats, so you're effectively gaining some nice ability score adjustments (Str +2, Dex +4, Con +4, Wis +2, Cha -2) for the cost of a feat and opposable thumbs.

[dman11235]

Fighter's not exactly the best thing to compare stuff to. If you're going to compare power wise, do it to a ranger or barbarian. Or a binder. Or for more powerful options, the ToB classes. And less powerful, Monk, Fighter, and Paladin. Oh, and fighters get three feats in the first four levels. Though you do bring up some valid points.

[Chronos]

Well, I was comparing a Wolf RHD 4/fighter 2/X (barbarian or whatever) to a fighter 6/X, since many martial builds take a dip in fighter anyway, so it's only 2 feats for the levels, not 3. And I know that fighter isn't the most powerful class, but it is the easiest to compare to. You could certainly do a lot better than magical beast RHD, but you could also do a lot worse.

[Jack Mann]

The racial HD aren't as bad as they might be, since magical beasts get full BAB progression and a d10 HD. So a martial character at least isn't falling behind on that score. And you do get that nifty trip ability, which is worth about as much as a feat. Four fighter levels would get you two feats, so you're effectively gaining some nice ability score adjustments (Str +2, Dex +4, Con +4, Wis +2, Cha -2) for the cost of a feat and opposable thumbs.

They're augmented animals. That means they still get the features of the animal type, so d8 hit die and average BAB. They gain darkvision, but lose low-light vision.

[Chronos]

Oh. Well, that sucks then. At least it's only 4 HD, so you only lose one BAB.

[dman11235]

Somebody brought this up, the Worg has +1 LA and is exctly like the awakened wolf, except for the fact that it has far superior stat adjustments. +0 LA it is!

For those curious, the build is Super Wolf! He's three times the wolf of normal wolves! Taking both wolf totem barbarian variants.

[Chronos]

While you're at it, you could toss in some Totemist for wolfish soulmelds. Worg Pelt, Winter Mask, and Blink Shirt come to mind.