Can awakened animals speak?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Frankly, I don't see an awakened animal going for Druid.

I do, and have a portion of a campaign devoted to it: see an inkling of what I'm talking about in post #41 of this thread:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=102706&page=2&pp=30

An Awakened creature could see the benefit of its "uplift" and might desire to make others of its kind as well off. Imagine the advantage a pack of Awakened wolves would have over others of their kind as well as other creatures in general.

Then again, there is that whole "Animal Farm" trope you could use...with Awaken as a key to liberty and freedom.

Heck, Awaken aside, imagine learning enough of the Old Faith to cast spells like Create Water, Entangle, Barkskin, Purify Food & Drink, Remove Disease or Cure spells. That creature is well along the way to not needing to worry as much about the hazards of everyday life.

Summon spells would make it easier for a creature to take and hold territory.

And if your creature has an anti-civilization bent, imagine the advantage a night-predator would have with a spell like Quench.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Frankly, I don't see an awakened animal going for Druid.

I played a Ranger with Leadership, once - his cohort was an Awakened Horse Druid.

-Hyp.

 

[Dragonwriter]

Well, I said I didn't see it, not that it wasn't possible. It just seemse to me that an awakened animal, no matter how high it's Int, would not easily have the Wisdom necessary to pursue the Druid class.

Seeing those two posts though, it seems pretty cool... Turn that awakened wolf pack evil with a Worg Barbarian leader and you could have a nice adventure.

 

[Hypersmurf]

It just seemse to me that an awakened animal, no matter how high it's Int, would not easily have the Wisdom necessary to pursue the Druid class.

Well, in my example - Light Warhorse, 13 Wis, 3HD. Awaken gives it two more HD, so it gets to increase one ability by 1 (for the 4th hit die), which gives it a Wisdom of 14 before you start adding Druid levels. Flick it a cheap Periapt of Wisdom, and it's at 16.

With 5 racial hit dice, it's obviously not an optimised spellcaster for its ECL! But neither is 16 an absurdly low Wisdom for a low-level druid.

-Hyp.

 

[Slaved]

Using the Druid Variant Class Rules would make that Horse a lot of fun!!

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#druidVariantDruidicAvenger

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#druid

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Other questions along the animal druids tangent...

Would you let them wildshape into a humanoid? Would they still be able to speak in a wildshaped form?

And what about the awakened druid plants?

 

[ardentmoth]

"letting" them wild shape into something other than an animal would be house-ruling. The problem would come with equipment issues, I should think.

Wild Shape = turn into an animal.

 

[Will]

Consider the difference between "A griffon cannot speak, but understands Common" and "Giant eagles speak Common and Auran".

The Monster Manual distinguishes between "speak" and "understand".

-Hyp.

Yeah, that sums up what people have been saying pretty well. Thanks.

Now I just have to see if my group will let me play an awakened riding dog.

(Dogs/wolves aren't exactly 'optimal' awakened animals, but there's a lot of coolness there; scent + track, racial bonus to tracking with scent, low-light vision, and special Trip attack are all pretty handy)

 

[mvincent]

It just seemse to me that an awakened animal, no matter how high it's Int, would not easily have the Wisdom necessary to pursue the Druid class.

An animal with the elite array could start with a fairly high Wisdom (17 for a horse).

btw: it seems like a maximized and/or empowered awaken could make for an extremely smart animal.

 

[VanRichten]

Why not go with an Awakened Raven. According to the Familair chart it can speak 1 language of the wizards choice. Basically the familiar is awakened in this manner.

So take the spin that it is a familiar who was awakened while with its master but its master died or what not.

Then consider since the creature is an animal it lost its masters connection to the arcane, but found its own way in the form of druidic magic. Since that magic is more natural to that of an animal.

You can generally take any spin you want on this concept but many birds already have the ability to speak a language if not many.