PC CHR design help: Tarzanlike Druid w/ strong companion

[Tonguez]

What the player wants is for the companion to be at a higher level than him. Sort of like Tarzan and his ape. The player wants the druid to be low level and the Ape to have high hit dice to 'even out" the difference between his pc and the rest of the party.

Um other as a child when was Tarzan lower level than his ape companions? Tarzan is always portrayed as more intelligent than the Mangani, incredibly strong and agile and able to use strategy and speed to overcome the superior strength of his opponents.

Personally I think the current rules on Ape companions works fine for a Tarzan-esque character. Of course if your doing Tarzan during his adolescence then I'd definately say cool concept

 

[silentspace]

Maybe you could allow a special leadership cohort/companion. Sort of like the example cohort/mounts in the DMG

 

[DonTadow]

Um other as a child when was Tarzan lower level than his ape companions? Tarzan is always portrayed as more intelligent than the Mangani, incredibly strong and agile and able to use strategy and speed to overcome the superior strength of his opponents.

Personally I think the current rules on Ape companions works fine for a Tarzan-esque character. Of course if your doing Tarzan during his adolescence then I'd definately say cool concept

He wants the druid to be young and very adolesence. I take no credit for the concept. I thought it was awesome too and I rarely get excited about my player's backup characters. (whenever they see a big bad coming I get a flurry of backup pcs concepts). This one was real unique though. I've never had a player say "I want to play a very very very weak character whom is still in training by an animal companion. I also don't want him to speak common but some type of uniform hand language"

I just thought this was cool. Too cool not to encourage him to develop.

 

[Thrash]

I like the awakened idea except that the spell states
An awakened animal can’t serve as an animal companion, familiar, or special mount.

But so far I like some of the suggestions

 

[ragboy]

I like the awakened idea except that the spell states
An awakened animal can’t serve as an animal companion, familiar, or special mount.

But so far I like some of the suggestions

But it is 'friendly to you,' so the DM could treat it like any other NPC.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I like the awakened idea except that the spell states
An awakened animal can’t serve as an animal companion, familiar, or special mount.

But so far I like some of the suggestions

Maybe I wasn't clear. I wasn't suggesting that the animal serve as a companion. I was suggesting that the awakened animal take the Leadership feat and have the druid as his/her cohort.

I've been completely jazzed about the idea.

KS.

 

[Conaill]

Sounds good. Please do check out my Awakened Animals thread for more details for how actually to implement an awakened animal character. We even have some LA estimates for you.

Awakened Ape should be around LA+2, making it an Equivalent Character Level of 6 (similar to a Minotaur). It also gets one extra feat (one every 3HD), and that one could very well be Leadership.

[Correction: an Awakened Ape would be ECL 8, not 6: 4HD Ape +2HD Awakened +2LA = ECL 8.]

 

[Tonguez]

You know the Mangani (Tarzans Apes) were portrayed as being more intelligent than a gorilla (Bogani) - they even had their own language! So you could make the 'Ape' Int 3 (or 4) and run it as a straight NPC attached to the underage PC.

 

[Thrash]

So....why not just awaken the Dire Ape (lvl adj -6) give him the Leadership feat and a lvl 2 druid. Effect character level 8?

 

[DonTadow]

Dire Apes are Neutral too. For some reason I assumed a lto of the dire beasts were either chaotic or evil.