Alright, so as DM I decided one of my players, a Wood Elf, could have an Elven Hound as a pet; the elf "paid" for it, conducted all his training and handle animal rolls, has 10 ranks in handle animal before ability mod etc - and when he gets his 4th level of ranger next at level 8 he's taking the elf ranger substitution level to make his pet his animal companion.
We talked about it and his build he has planned only calls for 4 levels of ranger - so as an animal companion (or even a straight pet) the hound is very limited and very weak. We decided that he can give up a percentage of his own earned experience to 'feed' to the hound so it can level based off the experience by level chart itself (the hound starts with 3 hitdie so it's effectively a 3rd level character on its own), a stipulation being he can never give more than half his earned experience to the hound at any given time, and the hound cannot be more than his current level -3.
He just gained enough experience that the hound can now make level 4, but we are unsure of how to 'level' it. It is a magical beast so we know it gets a d10, fighter BAB, good fort and reflex, and 2(+/- int mod) skill points... but how do we handle attribute gains and feat gains???
Does it gain an attribute point at levels 4, 8, 12, etc like a normal character? and feats at 3, 6, etc? The MM wasn't very clear on how to deal with this. We see on the animal companion chart he'll gain +Str/Dex every few levels - would that be in addition to his 4th level attribute point bonus?
Any help on the attribute points and feats gained would be appreciated.
Thanks!
We talked about it and his build he has planned only calls for 4 levels of ranger - so as an animal companion (or even a straight pet) the hound is very limited and very weak. We decided that he can give up a percentage of his own earned experience to 'feed' to the hound so it can level based off the experience by level chart itself (the hound starts with 3 hitdie so it's effectively a 3rd level character on its own), a stipulation being he can never give more than half his earned experience to the hound at any given time, and the hound cannot be more than his current level -3.
He just gained enough experience that the hound can now make level 4, but we are unsure of how to 'level' it. It is a magical beast so we know it gets a d10, fighter BAB, good fort and reflex, and 2(+/- int mod) skill points... but how do we handle attribute gains and feat gains???
Does it gain an attribute point at levels 4, 8, 12, etc like a normal character? and feats at 3, 6, etc? The MM wasn't very clear on how to deal with this. We see on the animal companion chart he'll gain +Str/Dex every few levels - would that be in addition to his 4th level attribute point bonus?
Any help on the attribute points and feats gained would be appreciated.
Thanks!
