I'm harsh, but seeking to compansate. Any advice?

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Awakening animals seems to add power to an existing living creature without any corresponding drain on the caster -- does this hurt the planet by draining power from it or help it because stronger life is living on it?

That ties into what I was thinking. I was wondering about things like reincarnate. If the goddess is so low on power already, where would she get the power to build new bodies and stuff souls into them? A lot of spells are like that. They put out a lot of energy and don't necessarily give much back. Awaken however, induces sentience in a pre-existing creature. If we accept the idea (a la Gemmel's Rigante books) that sentient creatures have more mystical energy than non-sentient ones, then I think the goddess should be encouraging the wide use of Awaken. A small influx of energy and boom! sentience. And since sentience is considered to be more than the sum of its parts, you've actually generated more "life energy" than you started with.

That and people are going to be a lot less likely to cut down a tree that says "ouch" or kill a wolf that's picked up a level or two in a spellcasting class.

 

[brun]

Yep, you're right, awakening animals should be benefic.