Awakened horse as a cohort/NPC

[Thurbane]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of introducing an awakened warhorse into my game as an allied NPC or cohort. I've read the Awaken spell, but what else do I need to know?

Does it get feats/skill points based on it's new hit dice? Does it have a class? If so, what's it's ECL? Is it's alignment still Neutral?

Basically, any advice you can give me would be approeciated.

 

[D.Shaffer]

Does it get feats/skill points based on it's new hit dice? Does it have a class? If so, what's it's ECL? Is it's alignment still Neutral?

IMO?

Yes. Figure out its racial hit dice (As a magical beast), and then assign Feats/Skill Points from that

It can, yes. Depends on what the total level of what you cohort should be.

ECL would be up to the DM to decide. Everytime this seems to come up, I usually see them end up being +1 or +2. For a horse, I'd probably gravitate to +1.

Alignment, as its your cohort it should be something compatible to you. You're supposed to work with your DM to help you define your cohort, so try to get it to be as close to your alignment as possible. From the SRD.

The cohort’s alignment may not be opposed to the leader’s alignment on either the law-vs-chaos or good-vs-evil axis, and the leader takes a Leadership penalty if he recruits a cohort of an alignment different from his own.

 

[pawsplay]

I can't imagine less than +1 LA, since every animal has significant traits a human would envy (quadruped encumbrance, flight, huge Hide bonus, etc), but no more than that, since they typically don't have hands, have social disadvantages, and have animal hit dice. I would allow it to advance in a class.