Natural Bond

[Thorindale]

Lets say I have a 7th level Druid with this feat, and decide to get a Brown Bear for an animal companion. What level should I use to determine the bear's benefits? I believe it would be 4th: 7th level -6 (Animal Companion) + 3 (Natural Bond). I have a friend that believes that Natural Bond is really effective if the Druid is multi-classed (much like how Practiced Spellcaster works). Who's correct?

 

[Sound of Azure]

By my interpretation you've got the right idea, due to the use of "Effective Druid Level" in both the Animal Companion text and the text of the Natural Bond feat.

So, your example 7th level Druid's Brown Bear companion would receive the bonuses due to a 4th level druid's companion, because both effects modify the effective druid level, and the effective druid level does not exceed his character level

 

[Thorindale]

Thanks. That's exactly what I was thinking.

 

[Sound of Azure]

No worries. I was a little unsure myself until I checked it out again (I couldn't quite remeber if the druid text included "Effective Druid Level" or not). The feats is pretty nice for Rangers (especially at lower levels) and characters taking Beastmaster levels too (or any class with the animal companion feature).

 

[Hypersmurf]

So, your example 7th level Druid's Brown Bear companion would receive the bonuses due to a 4th level druid's companion, because both effects modify the effective druid level, and the effective druid level does not exceed his character level

That's exactly how I read it, but there are definitely those who disagree

-Hyp.

 

[Sound of Azure]

That's exactly how I read it, but there are definitely those who disagree

-Hyp.

Yeah, that doesn't surprise me much. I can see where they're coming from, but I don't think it's game-breaking to interpret it this way seeing as you've spent a feat on it.

 

[Thorindale]

IMO, game-breaking, no. But you should see this bear - it's more effective at combat than our fighter-types.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Yeah, that doesn't surprise me much. I can see where they're coming from, but I don't think it's game-breaking to interpret it this way seeing as you've spent a feat on it.

The counter position to that is "If a brown bear at -6 is balanced with a wolf, then why can the druid use Natural Bond with the bear but not with the wolf?"

-Hyp.

 

[Jack Simth]

I'm more fond of using it on Dire animals, myself, primarily because they get monk-saves. That, and non-dispellable flying, all day, at 4th (Dire Bat), is really neat. Underground, the ability to leave behind a useable tunnel (Dire Badger) is also really neat.

And as Reduce Animal is a druid-2 spell, lasting hours/level, you can shrink them down to reasonable size readily enough.

Letting Natural Spell work for them, though is... well...

At 7th, you can have:
A Wolf with 4 bonus HD (bringing it to 6), +4 natural armor, +2 Str/Dex, some tricks, Evasion and Devotion; giving it an AC of 17, Bite +15 for 1d6+2, and 39 HP (average)

Or a Dire Wolf with 0 bonus HD (6 total), AC 14, bite +11 for 1d8+10, and 45 HP.

If you let natural Bond work for such, that Dire Wolf now has 2 bonus HD (8 total), AC 17, Bite +14 for 1d8+12, and 60 HP. At 7th, no buffs, no items.

My 3.0 DMG has the NPC Fighter-7 at AC 22, bastard sword +12/+7 for 1d10+6, and 57 HP (with equipment). And the Dire Wolf will have better saves, and Evasion.... if you allow Natural Bond to work that way, that is.

So yes, he could easily seem to out-pace the Fighter for some levels if you permit Natural Bond to cover the Level Adjustment for the stronger animal companions, or if you put equipment on your animal companion.

 

[Thorindale]

Funny that you should mention that - yes, the bear also has armor/barding.