Player wants to 'be' a druid's animal companion...

[Kularian]

Okay, in a game I'm planning on running, two players came up to me and asked if, if one was a druid, could the other be the 'animal companion.' I said I'd think about it, but I really am not sure how that would work. I don't have access to a lot of books, (money is rather tight atm,) so I figured I'd propose the question to those who probably know more than I.

If this was done, would there be any LA, templates, etc for the 'companion?' I think they're looking at a wolf at the moment, if that helps any. Obviously, the tricks and bonus tricks would be tossed out the window, as would many of the standard bonuses. As far as I understand, they want to play as an animal for a race, and take class levels.

I'm not against it, as I think it's a fairly novel idea. My games are usually RP heavy, so it won't matter too much in that aspect. How would you guys handle this...?

 

[Musrum]

Smack the silly furry on the muzzle and give him a Human Filghter to play

 

[Kularian]

lol, believe me, I thought of such an avenue. The thing is, is that I can't tell if they're dead serious or just trying to do something so bizarre that it makes me look for hours for rules. But in the event that they 'are' serious about such a thing, I'd like to have an answer.

Besides, now I'm curious as to how that'd work as well, heh.

 

[Infiniti2000]

As you no doubt realize, this can't be done 'per the rules', but that seems to be a non-issue for you. With that in mind, it would be very difficult to carefully balance out powers, LA, and all that jazz, which quite frankly seems to be counter to your desire for an RP-intensive game.

I would let the players figure out how they would do it and then just go with it.

In general, I think it's a bad idea to have one PC be the animal companion (or familiar or cohort or henchman) of another PC, but that's just me. I can see it working okay for one group in a hundred, so good luck with it.

 

[Musrum]

There is a discussion about this here.

Latest advice is to use a Worg to get LA.

 

[Kularian]

One can play a worg as a character? That might simplify things a great deal. Thanks!

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I've wanted to do something similar for quite a while, actually.

But, for me, I'd play a Worg Barbarian/Druid and I was thinking of maybe changing out the Animal Companion for a Cohort ... goblin. Then my character could wear a saddle and the cohort could take mounted archery feats. NPCs would talk to the Goblin and I'd say: "Down here, two-leg."

And I'm not even a furry. I just like Worgs.

--fje

 

[Kularian]

I've wanted to do something similar for quite a while, actually.

But, for me, I'd play a Worg Barbarian/Druid and I was thinking of maybe changing out the Animal Companion for a Cohort ... goblin. Then my character could wear a saddle and the cohort could take mounted archery feats. NPCs would talk to the Goblin and I'd say: "Down here, two-leg."

And I'm not even a furry. I just like Worgs.

--fje

That paints a hilarious picture. But yeah, I see your point. I'll have to offer the idea to the two of them and see what they think, probably eliminating a few classes/feats available to the 'animal companion.' We'll see how that turns out.

 

[Nyaricus]

Here's what I'd do (as DM) for such a situation.

The druid would not gain the animal companion class feature as normal, per se. Essentually, the Animal PC would be an awakened animal (damned if I can remember which book that's in) who is a companion of the druids, but not in the sense of the "Animal Companion" ability that the druid gets. Wait, I think to get an awakened animal there's a spel in the PHB, IIRC.

In any case, good luck with this

 

[Kularian]

Yeah, pretty much that's my plan, unless I can get my hands on some info about using a Worg as a playable race. The 'awaken' spell, according to the SRD, as I don't have my books on hand, gives an animal some more intelligence, some more charisma, 2 more HD, and makes it a magical beast. Not quite what I'm looking for...unfortunately. I'll have to see what I can dig up.

Found a good thread here for dealing with awakened creatures. This seems like it's what I'm looking for, so this thread can be closed, if so chosen by mods.