Multiple Animal Companions

[Psimancer]

How much impact will a Druid with multiple Animal Companions have on the game?

Despite DMing for years, I’ve never DMed a Druid before (nor a Paladin for that matter)… A new player to our group (a Gnome Druid) wants to take a feat to acquire additional Animal Companions (plus one per feat), and I have about a level to consider the consequences to the game. If anyone has any experience with this (or just Animal Companions in general), your input would be greatly appreciated…



.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Well, in the "old days" of 3.0, Druids could already have multiple animal companions (they didn`t improve with his level). It worked finde, though you usually attempted to get the highest possible HD, and later the option was available to increase the HD of an animal companion.

I like the flavour of a druid with more than one animal companion - the druid and his zoo.

Some ideas: compare the "Extra Animal Companion" Feat you designed with the Leadership feat, and especially the resulting cohorts.
I think giving the druid simply an extra companion with all bonus due to his druid levels like his first companion could be too much
Maybe reduce his effective druid level for the second companion (similar to chosing stronger animals for higher level druids)

 

[Li Shenron]

How much impact will a Druid with multiple Animal Companions have on the game?

I haven't tried in 3.5, with such a feat I suppose the extra animal companion will have the same improvements as the regular one?

At least I can tell you from having had 3.0 druids with more than one animal (although they were less powerful than in 3.5) that the only problem I had with them was bookkeeping the full stats of each

 

[Psimancer]

This is what I have so far... can anyone see a potential problem with this...?

Additional Animal Companion

You gain an additional animal companion.
Prerequisites: Druid level 5th.
Benefit: You gain an additional animal companion. You treat you effective druid level as three less when calculating your animal companions special powers.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time, you treat your effective level as three less than the previous animal companion.



.

 

[Li Shenron]

Seem quite fine, although 3 levels less is not little (and definitely wouldn't have been to good if it was 3 levels less for even the next companions).

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I would never allow this. The druid's animal companion is already a powerful melee machine. It's far stronger than a single feat, even at -3 levels. If I had a druid who wanted another animal companion, I might work something out with the Leadership feat, which is based on charisma. But I would not allow another standard animal companion for one feat. Companions are hella-strong.

 

[Li Shenron]

I would never allow this. The druid's animal companion is already a powerful melee machine. It's far stronger than a single feat, even at -3 levels. If I had a druid who wanted another animal companion, I might work something out with the Leadership feat, which is based on charisma. But I would not allow another standard animal companion for one feat. Companions are hella-strong.

I was kind of having in mind a Druid who wants a second animal companion to cover for some ability missed by the first one, rather than just adding melee power.

For example, a Druid who has a bear/lion/tiger or whatever she can afford at this level, may want a secondary companion which can fly as a scouting support, or an aquatic companion, or a small sneaky companion. I think this feat should work quite well in doing this, and not very much in empowering the combat power.

 

[Ghostknight]

A good book for additional familiars/animal companions is the "Book of familiars" from Troll Lord games. The additions seem well thought out although i haven't playtested it myself yet.

Generally a good book it gives a load of extra familiar abilities, familiars for all classes and feats to go with them. My biggest issue with the book is the editing!

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I was kind of having in mind a Druid who wants a second animal companion to cover for some ability missed by the first one, rather than just adding melee power.

For example, a Druid who has a bear/lion/tiger or whatever she can afford at this level, may want a secondary companion which can fly as a scouting support, or an aquatic companion, or a small sneaky companion. I think this feat should work quite well in doing this, and not very much in empowering the combat power.

Ah. Well, if combat power isn't important, the effect you want can easily be gained with a normal hawk or ferret, a decent Handle Animal check, a few weeks, and a scroll of Speak with Animals... Far cheaper than a feat, IMO.

 

[Psimancer]

Yes I meant the level decrease to be per additional animal companion, so the first would be at Druid level, the second at Druid-3, the third at Druid-6…

My feelings are that an Animal Companion with less HD is, to an extent, vulnerable, and as such is as much a liability as an asset. On average each additional Animal Companion will have 2 HD less than the previous.

Leadership I found to be a poor comparison. You would end up with a lot of 1 & 2 HD creatures running around, getting killed off left, right & centre. No Druid would ever want that on her conscience…

How much more unbalancing would this be than, say, a number of Summon Nature’s Ally spells? Are they not effectively doing the same thing? Sure, there is the time factor, for both casting and duration, but they are only ever really used in a fight. So having said that, I don’t think that combat is the whole issue…

I’ll be honest; I am not too sure what to think… This is new territory for me! I think we will just play it out and see what happens… personally, I wish that when they died, that the Druid would sustain an XP lose. At least then they would show some restraint…