Level adjustment for awakened wolf as henchman?

[zoroaster100]

I have a player with a 7th level druid character who really cares about her wolf animal companion. I want to switch over to the Player Handbook 2 shapeshifter druid alternate, which doesn't get an animal companion. Thus, I wanted to give her the option of keeping her wolf companion by using the awaken spell, and spending a feat on Leadership to keep her wolf as an awakened henchman.

The druid would have a leadership score of 8 at the moment, and so could have up to a 5th level henchman. An awakened wolf has 4 HD. Would she be able to have a 4 HD awakened wolf as a henchman at 7th level? What would be the level adjustment and ECL for a 4 HD awakened wolf? Are there any official rules anywhere? Has any FAQ or supplement covered this question?

 

[Musrum]

Not sure about the ECL stuff, but there is a Feat in d20 modern which is like Leadership without followers. The cohort gets +1 level. It would probably be a better fit for your druid.

 

[brehobit]

Wolves are actually the easiest of the awakened animals. Other than alighnment a Worg is pretty much an awakened wolf. Just use that.

Mark

 

[zoroaster100]

Good suggestion on using the worg to evaluate this issue. The worg had 4 HD and is fairly intelligent, and is considered ECL 5, so it has a Level Adjustment +1.

 

[Conaill]

Hi Zoroaster!

Check out the thread on Awakened animals in my sig, complete with LA estimates for various critters. Yes, the Worg is a decent comparison for an Awakened Wolf, so we put the LA at +1.

 

[Sejs]

That's a bit of a toughie.

Arguments could be made for LA +1 or +0.

LA +1: They have certain abilities in excess of the mainline norm.
LA +0: They sure as hell arn't using any gear you just find laying around. It's custom, it's of wide utility (like ioun stones), or it's nothing. Also... no hands.

On the whole I'd say play it safe and weigh 'em in at LA +1.

 

[DarkKestral]

That's a bit of a toughie.

Arguments could be made for LA +1 or +0.

LA +1: They have certain abilities in excess of the mainline norm.
LA +0: They sure as hell arn't using any gear you just find laying around. It's custom, it's of wide utility (like ioun stones), or it's nothing. Also... no hands.

On the whole I'd say play it safe and weigh 'em in at LA +1.

Depending on how you deal with their need for unusual items, a Worg w/ class levels in monk can be pretty devastating. A worg monk might actually be a bit stronger on average than a normal monk,since he can pretty much drop minimal points in racial bonus areas, because his bonuses are generally quite high (+6 STR, +4 DEX, +4 CON, +4 WIS and +2 NA) The Worg monk, especially, doesn't need anything major in the way of attack items, so he can focus very heavily on protection. His BAB is equal to an ordinary monk's, and while he loses out on some of the monk abilities, they generally aren't likely to be ones that will come up too often, except for Ki Strike (adamantine) and empty body. Additionally, he gets another attack, which is a lethal natural attack doing 1d6+4 and doing all three forms of attack damage at once.

EDIT: At LA+0, a Worg monk could actually get a 4th iterative, and ki strike (adamantine) giving him +16/+16/+16/+11/+11/+6/+1, and the ability to penetrate adamantine DR.

 

[Brace Cormaeril]

Just be sure that the caster of "Awaken" uses the intensify feat. 36 intelligence makes a wise owl indeed... er, intellegent owl... Something.