Masters of the Wild: First Impressions

[Fast Learner]

Uh... what?

Player's Handbook, p. 173:

"At any one time, you can have only a certain number of animals befriended to you. You can have animal friends whose hit dice total no more than twice your caster level."

From the System Reference Document, under the "Animal Friendship" spell:

"At any one time, the character can have only a certain number of animals befriended to the character. The character can have animal friends whose Hit Dice total no more than twice the character's caster level. The character may dismiss animal friends to enable the character to befriend new ones."

I don't see where the PhB or the SRD discriminate between adventuring and non-adventuring druids in the Animal Friendship spell. The Druid writeup in the PhB and the SRD also say nothing about this limitation.

Where are you getting this from? As far as I can tell, this limitation is entirely a product of the "clarification" document.

From the Dungeon Master's Guide (not a "clarification" document), page 46:

"Druids and rangers can use the animal friendship spell to gain animal companions, which are something like cohorts. Use these rules of thumb when characters have animal companions.

While the spell allows for a character to have animals whose Hit Dice total double the character's caster level, that maximum assumes optimal conditions. The typical adventurer should be able to maintain animal companions who Hit Dice total half the maximum (caster level for a druid, half of caster level for a ranger). If the character spends most of her time in the animals' home territory and treats them well, she can approach and even achieve her maximum Hit Dice. If she spends most of her time at sea, in cities, or othewise in places that the animals don't like, her animals desert, and she will not be able to retain even half her maximum...."

So it's not the clarification document: it's core rulebook stuff. That's where it's coming from.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Uh... what?

Player's Handbook, p. 173:

"At any one time, you can have only a certain number of animals befriended to you. You can have animal friends whose hit dice total no more than twice your caster level."

From the System Reference Document, under the "Animal Friendship" spell:

"At any one time, the character can have only a certain number of animals befriended to the character. The character can have animal friends whose Hit Dice total no more than twice the character's caster level. The character may dismiss animal friends to enable the character to befriend new ones."

I don't see where the PhB or the SRD discriminate between adventuring and non-adventuring druids in the Animal Friendship spell. The Druid writeup in the PhB and the SRD also say nothing about this limitation.

Where are you getting this from? As far as I can tell, this limitation is entirely a product of the "clarification" document.

So does that mean that WotC druids are different from everyone else's druids?

Your confusion is coming from the fact that this didn't make it in the first printing of the PHB (I presume under one of those 1e style this is informations important for the DM to know not the PC, kind of things) But it has always been in the DMG, first printing included.


I do believe this was added to the second printing. So it's not an addition or a change to the rules, just wasn't stated in the first place you'ld look.

As for the SRD, It is in the SRD, under FamiliarsMounts, and Companisons, presented in the same DM only info, manner as it is in the DMG. So it is OGL, I'm sure it will be added to the spell when the spell pages are made official.

 

[Synicism]

Technically, Animal Companions which are Awakened are no longer Animal Companions, but sentient, free-willed beings. In fact, according to the MM (p. 5) they don't even qualify as animals any more. Also, see the Awaken spell description, second paragraph.

True, though Masters of the Wild changed that and made Awakened companions count against your hit die total for animal companions.

This brings up another question:

If a druid or ranger has Leadership, can he take an Awakened animal companion as his cohort and thus free up the hit dice it had for additional animal companions?

Which brings up yet another question:

Since Awaken adds 2 hit dice to the target of the spell, and since the awakened creature still counts against the character's animal companion total, what if those 2 hit dice bring the caster above his limit?

 

[Synicism]

While the spell allows for a character to have animals whose Hit Dice total double the character's caster level, that maximum assumes optimal conditions. The typical adventurer should be able to maintain animal companions who Hit Dice total half the maximum (caster level for a druid, half of caster level for a ranger). If the character spends most of her time in the animals' home territory and treats them well, she can approach and even achieve her maximum Hit Dice. If she spends most of her time at sea, in cities, or othewise in places that the animals don't like, her animals desert, and she will not be able to retain even half her maximum....

So the DMG *assumes* that the character's going to have a zillion? Why is it harder for an 8th level adventuring druid to support one 16 HD Legendary Wolf than it is for him to support 1 8 HD Dire Wolf? They're both just one creature, and the Legendary Wolf is smaller and (presumably) eats less.

In the context of having lots and lots of animal companions, sure I can believe the DMG's rule on animal companions. But what if the character only has one very, very cool animal companion, either by continually dismissing and seeking out new ones or by "upgrading" their hit dice as per the rituals available in MotW? It's still just one animal.

 

[Orco42]

IIRC, the regeneration spells in MotW only heal damage that is taken while the spell is active, sort of like the ring of regeneration.

Good point. I skimmed over that.

They still seem pretty tough.

 

[Fast Learner]

Perhaps because if you're a druid who's hanging around protecting a wilderness area then the 16HD animal would consider you worthy of friendship, but if you're galavanting around then such a creature would not find you worthy, and the best you could do would be an 8HD animal.

I don't see how the DMG assumes many animals. The wording applies equally well to one animal (since it's referring to hit dice).

 

[Pielorinho]

Since Awaken adds 2 hit dice to the target of the spell, and since the awakened creature still counts against the character's animal companion total, what if those 2 hit dice bring the caster above his limit?

MOTW addressed this: you can temporarily exceed your animal friendship limitations by awakening your friends; they remain your friends, a unique exception to the spell's rules.

There's a potential abuse that occurs to me. MOTW has a high-level spell, Mass Awaken. Imagine that a 20th-level druid gets 3 6HD bears and two 1HD eagles as companions, and casts mass awaken on them: her total HD in animal companions suddenly reaches 30HD.

Granted, this might not be terribly useful, but it does strain the rules a bit. HEck, if the druid cast mass awaken on 20 eagles, their total HD in companions reaches 60HD. I forget whether mass awaken can be cast on that many creatures; still, is this a problem?

Daniel

 

[Desdichado]

The PrC's are non-campaign specific and pretty much all look cool and useful. MotW is how all the classbooks should have been, which is frustrating, because it will probably be the least used/least financially successful of the classbooks, due to the more limited scope of the classes it represents. That said, MotW does try hard to break the stereotypical image of barbarians, druids and rangers, and I think it succeeds... but the beauty part is that most of the PrC's and even the feats can be used by just about any class. The book is really much more useful than I ever expected, and also for a wider variety of things than its cover implies. For once, I am completely satisfied with a WoTC classbook purchase... Now, if I could just get my players to become barbarians, druids and rangers, LOL.

I haven't read the whole book yet, but I didn't think it went too far to break the stereotype. In fact, the several pages of what races go with what classes and all that served to reinforce the stereotype, if anything.

Oh, and Wayne Reynolds seems to have disappeared from the splatbook scene, much to its detriment. Overall, though, I'd agree that the book seems pretty good.

 

[Desdichado]

Ohhh. Suddenly I can see a very cool concept my DM would never, never allow. A Lizardman Ranger in from a "Lost Land" with Animal Lords and Master of Beasts over his smaller dino buddies. Very cool.

No can do. Dinosaurs are not animals, so the animal lord PrCl doesn't apply to them.

 

[Rogue]

A question of Prestige...

IIRC, there was a PrC with the title of "Deepwoods Sniper," or something akin to that. What's the deal with this one? Does it specialize in bows, making up for the front-end loaded Ranger? Any information would be appreciated.

Rogue