Awakened Animal and Skill Points

[kmdietri]

I'm with Hypersmurf I don't see where it says that mounts and familiars become magical beasts. I've heard that before and never looked to see where it comes from. The same applies to an awakened animal. Where does it say that it becomes a magical beast. Or is it simply based on the fact that all three (mounts, familiars, and awakened animals) have higher then 2 Int

 

[Mr Fidgit]

Paladin's Mount: "is a magical beast, not an animal. It is superior to a normal mount of its kind and has special powers..." etc.

that's straight out of the PH

familiar and the Awaken spell description don't mention 'type' changes

familiars 'are magically linked to their masters'

awaken 'to a humanlike sentience'

that's all i could find

 

[Mr Fidgit]

i should add that in Tome & Blood, all familiars (except improved familiars) are listed (in their stat blocks) as magical beasts

(improved familiars retain their own 'type')

 

[Crothian]

Animals by definition have an Int score of 1 or 2. Magical Beasts can have Int higher then 2, and it covers the talking ability Awakened Animals recieve.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

An awakened animal doesn't automatically gain new skill points, because the spell doesn't say they gain it. They can however, start gaining class levels, and gain skill points that way.

if you have a normal creature (or tree) awakened by the spell, how do you get it to first level? it wouldn't automatically have a character level, so, how much experience would it take? how much time? etc., and so on...

 

[Caliban]

Paladin's Mount: "is a magical beast, not an animal. It is superior to a normal mount of its kind and has special powers..." etc.

that's straight out of the PH

And before it was a paladin's mount, it was a normal warhorse, with normal warhorse attributes. (It specifically states that you use the stats from the MM.)

Also note that a paladin's mount uses a D8 for it's bonus hit points, not a D10, like a normal magical beast.

familiar and the Awaken spell description don't mention 'type' changes

familiars 'are magically linked to their masters'

awaken 'to a humanlike sentience'

that's all i could find

I don't think that familiars magically appear out of nowhere. Before they became a familiar, the creature was a normal animal of it's type.

Most of this is academic for a familiar, since their HD, hit points, and skills are covered by the familiar abilities.

 

[Caliban]

if you have a normal creature (or tree) awakened by the spell, how do you get it to first level? it wouldn't automatically have a character level, so, how much experience would it take? how much time? etc., and so on...

It would have a character level, it just wouldn't have any class levels.

You would have to determine it's ECL modifier, and go from there, like any other unusual race. The simplest method is to set it's character level equal to it's HD, and let it gain class levels from there. If it's an animal type with unusual abilities, or unusually high attribute modifiers, it might need an ECL modifier to balance it.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

i see what you mean, Caliban.

figure the ECL, then advance as normal (as detailed by the 'experience for monsters' section in the DMG -- set the experience points to the minimum number to be that ECL, then aquire the points needed to go 'up' to 1st level)