Animal Friendship questions…

[FlimFlam]

Animal Friendship questions…

There has been a dispute in my group with the reading of the Animal Companion spell. Here is the problem we have, from the SRD:

“The character can have animal friends whose Hit Dice total no more than twice the character's caster level.”

So we have a level 6 caster, which means he can have an animal friend of 12 HD? Well that is how I am reading the SRD anyway.

I thought it was 12HD worth of creatures, but each creature can not succeed the caster’s level in HD. So he can have 2 6HD creatures, or any other division as long as the HD of each creature doesn’t exceed 6. This is my interpretation, and I think this comes out of the PHB. I think the PHB has more of a description than the SRD, but I don’t have the PHB on me nor do I have an exact quote.

Now in the DMG (again, I don’t have it on me so no exact quote) there is a section describing Animal Friendship. It basically mentions that (not an exact quote) “when you are out of the animal friends home territory, you can only have a total hit dice equal to half the casters level of animal companions”.

Ok, this is gonna be hard to dissect without the exact quote, but I remember that from the exact quote you can read this one of two ways.

1) A single animal companion’s hit dice has to be half the caster’s level.
A) Does this mean half the hit dice they can control (in this case 12. So half that would be 6)?
B) Half the caster’s current level (so his HD would be 6, half that is 3).
So taking this interpretation, this means that if you had 2 creatures of 6 HD, only one would stay with you and the other would return home (if you follow the logic of A). Or only a 3 HD creature would stay with you (taking the logic of B).

2) The total for all the animal companions hit dice has to be half the caster’s level.
Now taking this interpretation means that if you could control 12 HD of creatures, each one cannot be more than 6 HD. So he would be fine with both 6 HD creatures.

I hope someone can look up the exact quote in the DMG and help me out with this =)

 

[shilsen]

This was clarified in MotW. An adventuring character can have an animal companion with HD equal to his caster lvl. So a 6th lvl Rgr (casts as a 3rd lvl caster) could have a 3 HD creature, while a 6th lvl Druid could have a 6HD creature. A non-adventuring character staying in one place can have twice the caster lvl, but I believe an individual animal companion cannot have more HD than the caster lvl. So a Drd6 could have up to 12HD of animal companions, but none of more than 6 HD.

 

[Pielorinho]

Re: Animal Friendship questions…

This is an oft-discussed question. Here's how it works -- I don't have the cites nearby, but you can piece it together from the SRD if you want:

1st level druid: can have 2hd of creatures, whether or not she adventures.
2nd and up level druid: can have double her class level of creatures in HD if she stays put (2nd-level = 4 hd of critters). Can have her HD of creatures if she moves around (2nd-level = 2 hd of creatures).
Rangers: Can have half their class level of creatures if they travel around (since they can have up to their caster-level if they move, and their caster level = half their class level).

Exceptions to the rules: a druid who casts awaken animal may temporarily exceed her allotted HD, but she may not gain new creatures under the spell until her level again exceeds the friendly critters' HD. Example: a 9th-level adventuring druid has nine 1HD eagles as friends. She inexplicably casts awaken on all nine of them; she now has nine 3HD eagles as friends, for a total of 27 HD of creatures. Until some of them leave, or until she reaches 28th level, she can gain no new animal friends.

Daniel

 

[Pielorinho]

This was clarified in MotW. An adventuring character can have an animal companion with HD equal to half his caster lvl. So a 6th lvl Rgr (casts as a 3rd lvl caster) could have a 1 HD creature, while a 6th lvl Druid could have a 6HD creature.

Shilsen, I don't think this is correct. Half of a 6th-level druid's caster level is 3, not six .

The rule is that an adventuring character can have animal companions with HD equal to his caster level. For a 6th-level druid, that's 6HD; for a 6th-level ranger, that's 3HD.

This is half the maximum creatures, which may be what's confusing you.

Daniel

 

[Crothian]

I'd just stick with double the caster level in HD as the spell says. It's simple and it works well.

 

[Pielorinho]

I'd just stick with double the caster level in HD as the spell says. It's simple and it works well.

As a player of a druid, I disagree. At sixth level, a brown bear is a formidable ally; two brown bears are amazingly tough. In fact, two brown bears (CR 3 each) are EL 5, almost as tough as an encounter with any single sixth-level character.

Adventuring PCs should only have up to their caster level in creatures.

Daniel

 

[Crothian]

Adventuring PCs should only have up to their caster level in creatures.

Daniel

Animals really start to lose their abilities when facing CR 6 and higher. Animals might have good damage, but their AC is terrible and they really are a one trick pony. Once you go up against smart opponetns with a variety of power the Bears will cease to matter.

That and limited it to caster level really negates this ability for a ranger.

 

[Pielorinho]

Animals really start to lose their abilities when facing CR 6 and higher. Animals might have good damage, but their AC is terrible and they really are a one trick pony. Once you go up against smart opponetns with a variety of power the Bears will cease to matter.

That and limited it to caster level really negates this ability for a ranger.

Again, I'm not so sure about this. At tenth level, my animal companion (an advanced tiger) is doing just fine. We slap a cat's grace and a mage armor on the varmint each day, upping its AC into a respectable range. A greater magic fang makes it formidable in combat -- especially with pounce and improved grab. If we're fighting spellcasters, she gets popped with a protection from evil spell -- no mind control on her! And for big battles, animal growth turns her into an almost unstoppable force.

These are a lot of buffing spells. If we wanted to, we could instead purchase special equipment for her -- but honestly, the spells are well worth it, and the only time I've seen a companion die was in a TPK situation.

Daniel

 

[shilsen]

Shilsen, I don't think this is correct. Half of a 6th-level druid's caster level is 3, not six .

The rule is that an adventuring character can have animal companions with HD equal to his caster level. For a 6th-level druid, that's 6HD; for a 6th-level ranger, that's 3HD.

This is half the maximum creatures, which may be what's confusing you.

Daniel

Thanks. It wasn't confusion, but sheer laziness (not rereading before posting). <Smacks own head>

 

[Stalker0]

Again, I'm not so sure about this. At tenth level, my animal companion (an advanced tiger) is doing just fine. We slap a cat's grace and a mage armor on the varmint each day, upping its AC into a respectable range. A greater magic fang makes it formidable in combat -- especially with pounce and improved grab. If we're fighting spellcasters, she gets popped with a protection from evil spell -- no mind control on her! And for big battles, animal growth turns her into an almost unstoppable force.

These are a lot of buffing spells. If we wanted to, we could instead purchase special equipment for her -- but honestly, the spells are well worth it, and the only time I've seen a companion die was in a TPK situation.

Daniel

I agree, with the MOTW's suggestions about improving animal companions and the right buffing spells, I think the companions are fine with having your caster level as the number.