Awakened animals (new alignment?)

[RigaMortus]

Most animals have an alignment of Neutral based on the fact that they do not know right from wrong, they act on instict. When an animal becomes Awakened, it gains more Intelligence (among other things) and can therefore think on it's own and what not. I'd assume that this point it knows the different between right and wrong. So would such an Awakened animal have a change in alignment? Is it possible to Awaken a tiger in the hopes to have him be the protector of the jungle, only to have the tiger be more interested in causing harm then doing good?

It mentions that the Awakened animal serves the character in specific tasks or endeavors if the character can communicate the character's desires to it. So would the Awakened animal be of the alignment of the character casting the spell? If an evil Druid casts this to do evil, I guess the animal would have no choice to do so, or would it?

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Next question...

What if a Paladin commissions a powerful Druid to cast Awaken on his Special Mount? Would that be more harmful than helpful for the Paladin?

The character has no special empathy or connection with a creature the character awakens, although it serves the character in specific tasks or endeavors if the character can communicate the character's desires to it.

Based on that, would the "empathy" between the Paladin and the mount now be broken? Would the mount continue to serve the Paladin or is there the chance it would leave? It says the character (the one casting the spell) shares no empathy with the Awakened animal, so maybe the Paladin still would?

 

[Golandrinel]

Would it also gain Charisma & Widom? I'm not familiar with the rule. I would expect them to have to change to merit an alignment change ... ie the animal gets a personality and some sort of judgement / morals beyond that of a normal animal.

 

[Pielorinho]

What if a Paladin commissions a powerful Druid to cast Awaken on his Special Mount? Would that be more harmful than helpful for the Paladin?

To answer your second question, yes, it would be more harmful than helpful. After all, the paladin would have to pay the druid for the commission (a harm), and since the special mount is technically a magical beast and not an animal, it wouldn't be cast successfully, so it wouldn't be helpful at all.

I do, however, assume that an awakened animal can have an alignment. Unless there are good story reasons to do so, the animal ought to have an alignment similar to the druid's: to do otherwise is roughly equivalent to having someone's cohort (acquired through the leadership feat) betray them for no good reason.

Daniel

 

[melkoriii]

I would say the the newly awakened animal would start out as Neutral and over time as it learned from its companions change to a new alignment.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

The Awaken spell states the animal has the same alignment as the awakening druid.

 

[AuraSeer]

I would say the the newly awakened animal would start out as Neutral and over time as it learned from its companions change to a new alignment.

I agree. IMO alignment just records your past deeds, it doesn't dictate your future behavior.

So I'd have a newly-awakened animal always start out Neutral, like a newborn baby, because it has no moral or ethical baggage. Only after it began to demonstrate its personality through deeds (helping people, or eating people, or whatever) would its alignment begin to change.