Awaken question

[Beholder Bob]

My war horse was awakened against my wishes (don't ask!) – it gains 2 hd, base attack increase is as per fighter (I assume for all of its hd), gains d3 charisma, and a 3d6 intelligence. It is now a magical beast.

As a magical beast – does it also gain dark vision?
Does it gain skills for its intelligence for all its hd, or only the 2 new hd?
It gains a language – but does it gain the ability to speak, or just understand?


BB

 

[Hypersmurf]

As a magical beast – does it also gain dark vision?

From the Monster Manual:
Augmented Subtype: A creature receives this subtype whenever something happens to change its original type. Some creatures (those with an inherited template) are born with this subtype; others acquire it when they take on an acquired template. The augmented subtype is always paired with the creature’s original type. A creature with the augmented subtype usually has the traits of its current type, but the features of its original type.

Something has changed your horse's type, so it's now a Magical Beast [Augmented Animal]. Thus, it has the traits of a magical beast, but the features of an animal.

Traits: A magical beast possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).
Darkvision out to 60 feet and low-light vision.
Proficient with its natural weapons only.
Proficient with no armor.
Magical beasts eat, sleep, and breathe.

Features: An animal has the following features (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).
d8 Hit Dice.
Base attack bonus equal to 3/4 total Hit Dice (as cleric).
Good Fortitude and Reflex saves (certain animals have different good saves).
Skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die.

So yes, it gains darkvision.

Does it gain skills for its intelligence for all its hd, or only the 2 new hd?

Just the new ones - bonus skills for Intelligence are never applied retroactively.

It gains a language – but does it gain the ability to speak, or just understand?

From the spell text: "An awakened tree or animal can speak one language that you know, plus one additional language that you know per point of Intelligence bonus (if any)."

-Hyp.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

From the spell text: "An awakened tree or animal can speak one language that you know, plus one additional language that you know per point of Intelligence bonus (if any)."

Note that the "you" in this case is the spellcaster of the Awaken spell.

 

[Beholder Bob]

The caster were some rude fey - made my life damn miserable, too! Among other things, I end to change my horses name. It had be named 'Stupid'. Boy was it pissed about that. It insisted that I rename it. It now answers to 'Montague'. It also insisted that I stop trying to ride it to death.

My gut reaction/assumption was that:

It would not gain dark vision (its body isn't changed, just its mind)
It would gain the base attack
It would gain the d10 hd
Its mouth does not change - it understands common, but doesn't speak it.
It would gain the skills retro - its a new brain, in a way - but the skills had to be ones that would reflect its experience. It would gain knowledge nature and survival, but not much else.

So much for my initial guess.

BB

 

[Conaill]

Sorry for the late reply.

Hypersmurf covered most of the basics already. For more details, come check out the Awakened Animals thread in my sig! We also had a discussion of Level Adjustment for an Awakened Warhorse over on the Wizard's boards.

A few additional notes:

- If your PC is a Paladin, the horse can no longer serve as your mount (but you could get Leadership and keep it as a cohort).

- One of the "traits" of the Animal type includes armor proficiency for animals trained for war. By the Rules As Written, your Awakened warhorse loses the Animal traits, and thus would actually lose his proficiency with barding! That doesn't really make sense to me since it's more a learned than inherent ability, so I'd rule it keeps its armor proficiency.

- Because the Awakened Warhorse increases in HD, it may also gain an extra feat and/or ability increase. The Light warhorse goes from 3HD to 5HD, so gains one ability increase at 4HD (one ability increase every 4HD). The Heavy warhorse goes from 4HD to 6HD, so gains one extra feat at 6HD (one feat every 3HD).