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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack Simth" data-source="post: 3609659" data-attributes="member: 29252">Err... the Deinonychus I linked to says it's a Medium Animal.  The Megaraptor I linked to is listed as a Large Animal, hence listing it for 8th level (also, incidentally, the number of HD it has).  Also.... a Lion has more strength (5 points more), damage, and a MUCH better grapple than the Leopard.  The extra strength makes you more likely to hit as a lion, which increases your damage output (by 10%).  The extra strength also adds to damage directly.  The Lion has more primary attacks (two claws, bite, rake vs. the Leopards Bite, two claws, rake) and so makes better use of strength to begin with.  Tack on to that the little issue that EVERY attack of the Lion is a die size bigger, and: Against AC 15, a Druid with a BAB of +3 (5th level, if the lion were permitted at that point) is looking at (ignoring crits):Lion:2 claws +7 for 1d4+5 (8 or better, 65% chance each claw, average damage per hit 7.5)Bite +2 for 1d8+2 (13 or better, 40% chance to hit, average damage per hit 6.5)Average damage per round: 2*0.65*7.5+0.40*6.5=12.35Leopard (no Weapon Finess, sorry; you don't get the feats):Bite +6 for 1d6+3 (9 or better, 60% chance to hit, average damage per hit 6.5)2 claws +1 for 1d3+1 (14 or better, 35% chance to hit, average damage per hit 3.5)Average damage per round: 0.60*6.5+2*0.35*3.5=6.35It's reasonable to force the Druid to hold off for a little while on becoming one, if the Leopard is a reasonable critter for 5th; the lion nearly doubles your damage output in comparison.  Most effects that boosts damage output (Greater Magic Fang, for instance) will do better on the Lion than on the Leopard, due to the better chance to hit on more attacks (big exceptions being Multiattack which does more for the Leopard than for the Lion, as the Leopard has more secondary natural attacks to begin with, and Weapon Finess, which doesn't help the lion (lion strength higher than Lion dex) but does help the leopard (dex higher than strength)).</blockquote>

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