Dire Animals, Dinosours, what can a Druid have for a freind

[Voneth]

I play a druid. I am reaching 11th level and I have a lion, a lizard and hawk for my entrouge of animals. It seems that these guys are getting outclassed here since we keep running into demons a lot. I just got done reading a WotC write up on their druid and I found out she has a Dire Lion at 10th level.

Vadania: Female half-elf Drd10; CR 10; Medium-size humanoid (elf); HD 10d8+10; hp 59; Init +2; Spd 20 ft.; AC 22 (touch 13, flat-footed 20); Atk +9/+4 melee (1d6+1/15-20, +1 keen scimitar); or +6/+1 ranged (1d6+1/x3, +1 returning halfspear); SQ Animal companion (dire lion), half-elf traits, nature sense, resist nature's lure, trackless step, venom immunity, wild shape (Small, Medium-size, or Large animal 4/day), woodland stride; AL N; SV Fort +10, Ref +7, Will +14; Str 10, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 21, Cha 8.

My druid is also a lizard man, so I thought one of the smaller dinos would also make sense as an Animal Compainion. But with a Dire Lion as a buddy, perhaps a Triceatops won't be out of my leauge soon.

 

[Happiest_Sadist]

Unfortunatly for you, dinos are beasts not animals. A druid can't have them as companions. Your DM might allow this, or you could advance a lizard in hit dice until it is the right size.

 

[Greatwyrm]

If you're adventuring, you can't have more HD in Animal Companions than you have Druid levels.

Any creature that is an "animal" is a legal choice, as long as you can find one. Unless you're playing a prehistoric game, dinosaurs probably won't be an option for you. They're classified as beasts normally.

Brown bears are a very nice choice for a combat capable companion. At least, until you have enough HD to work with to get into the dire animals.


(Note: post above was slipped in while I was writing this)

 

[Buddha the DM]

Masters of the Wild has a listing of Dire & Legendary Animals for use as animal companions for the druid. Also in there is a ritual that the druid may perform to improve her companions. A third option is the Awaken Spell which Masters of the Wild deals with the reprecussions of using that spell on a druid's animal companions as well.

As for what Legendary Animals are I've seen people basically describe them as Dire Plus animals.

 

[Carnifex]

Of course, through the use of Animal Empathy and Animal Handling your druid *could* get some dino's to tag along, since those skills can be used on creatures other than animals (beasts and magical beasts, though it's a little harder I think).

 

[Wolfspider]

Wow, another lizardfolk druid. Cool. I play one as a well, a 10th level character named Sedek.

I started a thread in the Rules forum questioning the classification of dinosaurs as beasts instead of animals. You might want to check that out for inspiration. Feel free to add comments.

To summarize, I don't think that dinosaurs should be beasts. There's no logical reason why they shouldn't be animals, and they're really no more powerful than dire animals (and certainly dwarfed by Legendary animals).