Druid - Animal Companion Advancement

[RolandOfGilead]

When a druid's animal companion - say a wolf - advances to a HD that would normally make that a larger version of a wolf - in this case, 4hd wolves are large... should you move the animal companions size up?
thanks

 

[shilsen]

No. Animal companions don't get any changes besides those listed in the sidebar under the druid description.

 

[Conaill]

Yup, no size change. This was covered in the FAQ recently (see link in my sig)

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

By the rules, I would say no.

It would make a reasonable house rule with some minor tweaking.

I like the general concept of the 3.5 companion progressions, but a wolf is not much of an ally in combat once you hit ~8th level unless you Animal Growth it. But an Animal Growthed Black Bear or Dire Wolf is far better.

I think they are unnecessarily stingy with HD. There is nothing wrong a higher level druid having a plain wolf as a companion with equal HD.

I play a low level gnome druid. If something bad happens to my wolf companion, I am going to "trade" up. I treat the companion with at least as much care as my own PC, but its armor class and hit points will not keep up in the long run...

 

[jimmicus]

I had the same question to my DM some months ago for my 15th level druid. He ruled the same thing, no increase in size, which is obviously a shame from a stat point of view.

However, the best way to get around this is to get a dire wolf companion (assuming you're high enough level), the difference is stats between a size large wolf and a dire wolf companion for a druid of a given level are very minor.