Samloyal23
Adventurer
Why not? If it goes on adventures instead of just hanging out in the woods, yes.
D&D 5E Awakened Animals as Player Characters
Why not? If it goes on adventures instead of just hanging out in the woods, yes.
Wasteland Knight
Adventurer
Is it a PC or NPC? A PC, yes. An NPC, the same as any other NPC.
jgsugden
Legend
Considering the original discussion: Compare your PC a 3rd level Crcle of the Moon Druid that can Wild Shape into that same brown bear. The druid is more powerful, in general, as they also have spellcasting, etc... Yes, they might run out of wildshapes, but they generally will have some combats where their physical prowess is no required.
As such, I'd not really look at the number of hit dice as the level equivalency. I'd look at overall power.
So, what is a brown bear like as a PC equivalent. How about a dual wielding barbarian 2 / rogue 1 (Human variant for 2wF feat).
The bear has 34 hps. The barbarian would have 12 + 7 + 5 + 3Xcon.
The bear does two attacks, one for 2d6+4 and the other for d8+4. A dual wielding barbarian rogue that benefits from both rage and sneak attack would be in that ballpark. I won't do the fine math, but it is ballpark similar.
The bear gets keen smell, a slight proficiency bonus (essentially a +1 to all proficiency bonuses due to hit dice of 6 compared to assumed power level of 3), large size, perception skill, improved speed and a climb speed. It also has no thumbs and can't benefit from many magical items.
The HV barbarian/rogue gets An extra language, unarmored defense, reckless attack, danger sense, expertise, thieves can't and the combat abilities previously factored in (sneak, rage, etc...)
That seems like a good 'wash point' to me.
I'd treat the PC as a 3rd level PC for multiclassing purposes, except allow it to retain the 6 hd for purposes of calculating proficiency bonuses. If a player wanted to play it from the start of the campaign, I would allow it - but give them a lingering major wound (something a cure wound would not heal) that was slow to heal for levels 1 and 2, but that reduced their max HP, etc... to balance the PC for those two quick levels.
As such, I'd not really look at the number of hit dice as the level equivalency. I'd look at overall power.
So, what is a brown bear like as a PC equivalent. How about a dual wielding barbarian 2 / rogue 1 (Human variant for 2wF feat).
The bear has 34 hps. The barbarian would have 12 + 7 + 5 + 3Xcon.
The bear does two attacks, one for 2d6+4 and the other for d8+4. A dual wielding barbarian rogue that benefits from both rage and sneak attack would be in that ballpark. I won't do the fine math, but it is ballpark similar.
The bear gets keen smell, a slight proficiency bonus (essentially a +1 to all proficiency bonuses due to hit dice of 6 compared to assumed power level of 3), large size, perception skill, improved speed and a climb speed. It also has no thumbs and can't benefit from many magical items.
The HV barbarian/rogue gets An extra language, unarmored defense, reckless attack, danger sense, expertise, thieves can't and the combat abilities previously factored in (sneak, rage, etc...)
That seems like a good 'wash point' to me.
I'd treat the PC as a 3rd level PC for multiclassing purposes, except allow it to retain the 6 hd for purposes of calculating proficiency bonuses. If a player wanted to play it from the start of the campaign, I would allow it - but give them a lingering major wound (something a cure wound would not heal) that was slow to heal for levels 1 and 2, but that reduced their max HP, etc... to balance the PC for those two quick levels.
