New DM- Advancing Animals?

[Marvin the WarLord]

Hi,
I'm new to these forums and to DMing in general and, while most of the rules are coming fairly naturally, I cannot for the life of advance creatures properly.

In this instance, I'm trying to advance the Dire Badger to 10 HD and Awaken it, but none of my efforts seem right. I was hoping some generous individual could at least show me what the properly done creature would look like, and perhaps explain in idiots terms how they did it?

 

[Destil]

I'm trying to advance the Dire Badger to 10 HD and Awaken it

In that order (awaken is cast on a dire-baddger that already has 10HD), or do you want the final baddger to have 10HD?

 

[Marvin the WarLord]

Given the scenario in question (the Neutral NPC druid chose a champion), a badger with 10 HD being Awakened fits best.

 

[Destil]

Given the scenario in question (the Neutral NPC druid chose a champion), a badger with 10 HD being Awakened fits best.

One minor problem... dire badger advancement is generaly limited to a max of 9HD...

EDIT: Oh, and Welcome to the boards!

 

[Marvin the WarLord]

Oops... mental snap. 9 HD is equally fine, and thanks for the welcome.

 

[Destil]

10 HD dire baddger

Start Here
Dire Badger
Medium-Size Animal
Hit Dice: 3d8+12 (25 hp)
Initiative: +3 (Dex)
Speed: 30 ft., burrow 10 ft.
AC: 16 (+3 Dex, +3 natural)
Attacks: 2 claws +4 melee, bite -1 melee
Damage: Claw 1d4+2, bite 1d6+1
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Rage
Special Qualities: Scent
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +4
Abilities: Str 14, Dex 17, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10
Skills: Listen +6, Spot +6

Since the default badger has 3 HD, we'll be adding 7 HD. A 9 HD badger is huge, so a 10HD badger could still be huge, but you could also make a good case that when a rare one does pop up (the limits in the MM arn't hard and fast rules, but exceptions should be rare IIRC) it'll be Gargantuan. I'll stick with huge for the example, since it's easy to add one more advancement.
You can add HD or change the size in either order, the results will be the same. I typicaly increase size first.

Per the chart on MM 12, going from meidum to large gives you this:
+8 Str, -2 Dex, +4 Con, +2 Natural Armor, claw damages goes from d4 -> d6, bite from d6 -> d8 (MM 14)
Large to Huge:
+8 Str, -2 Dex, +4 Con, +3 Natural Armor, Claw 1d8, Bite 2d6
The final results are a Huge Baddger with +16 Str (Str 30), -4 Dex (13 Dex), +8 Con (27 Con) and +5 Natural Armor (+8 NA), Claw damage 1d8, bite damage 2d6. (also remember that a huge creature has a -2 size penelity to atatcks and AC)

Now Add Hit Dice. In accordance with the chart on MM 13, Animals get:
d8 HD, 3/4th BAB, Good Fort and Reflex Saves (and a bad Will Save), and no skill or feat improvement (their skill points are fixed at 10-15). This gives us the following:

BAB +7
Base Saves +7 Fort, +7 Ref, +3 Will

It's generaly easier to simply re-work the saves, to hit and damage with the new number rather than add, since the're not broken down in the original stat block. Recall that creatures take a -5 to hit and use 1/2 their strength bonus to damage on secondary attacks. From this we get the following:

Hit Dice: 10d8+80 (125 hp)
AC: 17 (+1 Dex, -2 Size, +8 natural)
Attacks: 2 claws +15 melee, bite +10 melee (+10 Str, -2 Size, +7 BAB, and -5 for the secondary bite)
Damage: Claw 1d8+10, bite 2d6+5 (+10 Str, 1/2 Str bonus for secondary bite)
Face/Reach: 10 ft. by 20 ft/10 ft. (I'm just assuming a huge badger would be a Huge (long) creature, since at meidum size it dosn't matter. This is a pure DM call. For dimentions / reach use PH 131)
Saves: Fort +15, Ref +8, Wil +4
Abilities: Str 30, Dex 13, Con 27, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10

 

[Destil]

Awakened

Now for awaken. The spell desctiption is way to lean, so here's a bit from the FAQ

When the awaken spell makes an animal a magical beast,
do the animal’s Hit Dice get any bigger? Does the animal
gain any extra skill points, feats, or attack bonuses?
An awakened animal gains no new hit points, bigger Hit
Dice, new feats, better saves, or extra skill points, except as
noted in the awaken spell description. The subject does get the
benefit of its extra Hit Dice. If the subject is an animal, it gains
+2d8, and its new base attack is 3/4 of its new total Hit Dice.
Its saves improve according to its new Hit Dice total (an animal
has good Fortitude and Reflex saves). In addition, an awakened
animal’s type determines how magic affects it, just as a familiar
or paladin’s mount does.

So it's an animal that just has a new type and some ability score boosts. Add Hit Dice as above, and roll thoes new scores:
Hit Dice: 12d8+96 (150 hp)
AC: 17 (+1 Dex, -2 Size, +8 natural)
Attacks: 2 claws +17 melee, bite +12 melee
Saves: Fort +16, Ref +9, Wil +5
Abilities: Str 30, Dex 13, Con 27, Int 3d6, Wis 12, Cha 10+1d3
Skills: Listen +6, Spot +6 (If the skills were Cha / Int based they would depend on the new Int / Cha scores, but as is they are both Wis).
(speaks one language you know +1 language / point of int bonus)


End Product
Dire Badger
Huge Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 12d8+96 (150 hp)
Initiative: +1
AC: 17 (+1 Dex, -2 Size, +8 natural)
Attacks: 2 claws +17 melee, bite +12 melee
Damage: Claw 1d8+10, bite 2d6+5 Face/Reach: 10 ft. by 20 ft/10 ft.
Special Attacks: Rage
Special Qualities: Scent
Saves: Fort +16, Ref +9, Wil +5
Abilities: Str 30, Dex 13, Con 27, Int 3d6, Wis 12, Cha 10+1d3
Skills: Listen +6, Spot +6
(speaks one language you know +1 language / point of int bonus)

 

[Marvin the WarLord]

Okay, thats very cool. I actually followed that
Thanks for that.

 

[Dwarmaj]

Now that it's awakened, would it gain exp as a cohort would and when it gained 12,000exp it could then take a character class?