Animal Companions

[Trellian]

I have some questions regarding animal companions..

1. Did the max HD compared to level change in the transition to 3.5? I would like to use other animals than the ones listed in the PHB, but don't know where to draw the line. Is there a HD or CR limit to each of the categories (7th level, 10th level and so on?)

2. My girlfriend decided to make her first character a Ranger 6 / Fighter 3 / Beastmaster 3... what effective level for animal companion will such a character have? The Beastmaster class says that the effective level is Beastmaster class +3, but that it can include ranger or druid levels. Since ranger levels must be divided in half to calculate animal companions, will this characters effective level be... (6/2)+3+3 = 9?

3. Lastly, having a newbie as a character means that they ask you for a lot of things you won't hear from seasoned players... like "I want to have a magical ring that can charm people.." and ... "I want a tiny, highly poisonous snake as a familiar"... now, in the real world, there are plenty of small, highly poisonous critters (snakes, spiders, scorpions), but in D&D most of the highly poisonous animals are large. Are there any small poisonous snakes with a high DC?

 

[shilsen]

I have some questions regarding animal companions..

1. Did the max HD compared to level change in the transition to 3.5? I would like to use other animals than the ones listed in the PHB, but don't know where to draw the line. Is there a HD or CR limit to each of the categories (7th level, 10th level and so on?)

No. There is no max HD limit where animal companions are concerned. Just use the chosen animal and apply the HD increase as per the animal companion sidebar in the PHB.

2. My girlfriend decided to make her first character a Ranger 6 / Fighter 3 / Beastmaster 3... what effective level for animal companion will such a character have? The Beastmaster class says that the effective level is Beastmaster class +3, but that it can include ranger or druid levels. Since ranger levels must be divided in half to calculate animal companions, will this characters effective level be... (6/2)+3+3 = 9?

Correct.

3. Lastly, having a newbie as a character means that they ask you for a lot of things you won't hear from seasoned players... like "I want to have a magical ring that can charm people.." and ... "I want a tiny, highly poisonous snake as a familiar"... now, in the real world, there are plenty of small, highly poisonous critters (snakes, spiders, scorpions), but in D&D most of the highly poisonous animals are large. Are there any small poisonous snakes with a high DC?

As you say, in D&D the virulence of a creature's poison increases with size. So a larger version of a small creature will have a higher poison DC. Maybe some non-core book has particularly poisonous small snakes, but I don't know of one.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Not sure if snakes get feats or not, but if so you could give it the monster feat that increases the DC of a special ability by 2 (I forget the name at the moment).

 

[shilsen]

Not sure if snakes get feats or not, but if so you could give it the monster feat that increases the DC of a special ability by 2 (I forget the name at the moment).

Ability Focus.

 

[Trellian]

Is the ability focus in Savage Species?

 

[Lord Pendragon]

3. Lastly, having a newbie as a character means that they ask you for a lot of things you won't hear from seasoned players... like "I want to have a magical ring that can charm people.." and ... "I want a tiny, highly poisonous snake as a familiar"... now, in the real world, there are plenty of small, highly poisonous critters (snakes, spiders, scorpions), but in D&D most of the highly poisonous animals are large. Are there any small poisonous snakes with a high DC?

The reason seasoned players won't ask for such things is often because they know they're unbalanced. There should be a cost for having an extra-poisonous snake as a familiar. The feat Improved Familiar comes to mind.