Greenfield
Adventurer
My group is looking at the Awaken Animal spell, what it is, what it does, and Awakened animals as PCs.
Consider the Brown Bear.
It starts with six "Monster levels", represented by six hit dice, and is considered a Challenge Level 4.
Physically it's Large, though it only has a 5 foot reach. Str 27, Dex 13, Con 19, Int 3, Wis 12 and Charisma 6.
Base attack is +4, actual attack is +11 melee (Claws) and +6 Melee (bite). Ac is 15 (- 1 for size, +1 for Dex, +5 Natural).
The Awaken spell gives a +1D3 to Charisma, and a 3D6 roll for Intelligence. It also gives an extra two Hit Dice.
So how would you calculate the ECL on this, for player character purposes?
Seems like 8 dice of Monster, but no actual Level adjustment. I'd probably interpret him as having Barbarian as "Preferred Class".
As a fair note: I'm currently running such a character. I chose to forgo the two extra dice, running him instead as a straight 6 dice creature, advancing by level. As it is, he has three Barbarian levels, and seems more than a little broken.
Consider the Brown Bear.
It starts with six "Monster levels", represented by six hit dice, and is considered a Challenge Level 4.
Physically it's Large, though it only has a 5 foot reach. Str 27, Dex 13, Con 19, Int 3, Wis 12 and Charisma 6.
Base attack is +4, actual attack is +11 melee (Claws) and +6 Melee (bite). Ac is 15 (- 1 for size, +1 for Dex, +5 Natural).
The Awaken spell gives a +1D3 to Charisma, and a 3D6 roll for Intelligence. It also gives an extra two Hit Dice.
So how would you calculate the ECL on this, for player character purposes?
Seems like 8 dice of Monster, but no actual Level adjustment. I'd probably interpret him as having Barbarian as "Preferred Class".
As a fair note: I'm currently running such a character. I chose to forgo the two extra dice, running him instead as a straight 6 dice creature, advancing by level. As it is, he has three Barbarian levels, and seems more than a little broken.
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