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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gabrion" data-source="post: 2828398" data-attributes="member: 30779">I don't think any questions were necessary.  You were making an argument that because allowing this feat to give a benefit to straight druids would cause a discrepancy between druids with normal (available at first level) companions and alternative companions, it must not be the intent of the designers to allow the feat to offer such a benefit.  Despite what you may think, there is nothing "crystal clear" about this logic.  I was pointing out in my post that having a feat give a benefit to class abilities gained at higher levels but not to ones gained at lower levels really isn't that strange.Since you seem to be making your argument based on intent though, I do have a few question for you.  It seems like answering the answer to this poll depends on what order is used in applying the penalties/bonuses to the effecitve druid level, right?  With the example of a druid 4 who has an ape companion and the natural bond feat, there are two options AFAIK.  Option one is that the natural bond is added in last, meaning the effective level is 4-3+3 (max 4)=4, which is kosher since the effective level never goes above 4.  Option two is that the adjustment from page 36 is added in last, meaning the effective level is 4+3(max 4)-3=1.  You seem to be taking the second position, while I'm taking the first, right?  (Stop me at any point if I'm making incorrect assumptions)So the real question here is how we decide what order to add the modifiers, which is something that isn't spelled out for us in the feat or the druid class ability.  Can we agree that this is the heart of the argument?Edit: And btw, if you take a moment to think about my previous post, you'll see that it isn't "random gibberish."  It makes a pretty solid point, whether you want to be swayed by it or not.  The ability gained by a higher level druid that I was referring to is the option to choose particular alternative companions, not just to have an animal companion with a certain number of HD.  The fact that a feat benefits the druid when they make use of this higher level ability, but it doesn't if they stick with their lower level ability doesn't lead me to believe that there is a problem with the feat.As for gaining high HD companions early, it really isn't that hard.  A Druid 7/Beastmaster 3 with natural bond only has 10 HD, but they can have a dire shark companion, which has 18 HD.  This is well provided for in the rules, so I don't know what kind of point you're making by claiming that they shouldn't gain higher HD companions early.</blockquote>

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