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<blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 6260367" data-attributes="member: 6669384">We have a caster in our group who, for RP purposes, wanted a black bear as a familiar.&nbsp; He took Improved Familiar to qualify, and it worked.&nbsp; (Black Bear is a 3 hit dice creature, so it's over all dice/capacity is comparable to other creatures considered appropriate).Since then he's realized what a tremendous liability this is.&nbsp; He has to constantly protect his Familiar, who is too big to hide, and the thought of keeping him in a Familiar Pocket is just plain ludicrous.I suggested he retrain his Improved Familiar feat (with the permission of the collective at the game) into Leadership, that we cast Awaken on his bear, and that said bear take Fighter or Barbarian levels.&nbsp; (We're a bit light in the tank department).So we start with a Black Bear, 3 hit dice, right from the book.&nbsp; Add two dice as per the Awaken spell and make the appropriate stat adjustments.Next, we add Fighter levels.&nbsp; The question is, how many?&nbsp; Do we call Awakened Bear a straight ECL 5 creature and go with it?&nbsp; We're aiming for a total effective level of 14.This isn't a &quot;How do I build a death machine&quot; thread, by the way, though advice wouldn't be out of place.&nbsp; The major topic is &quot;How to Convert Improved Familiar to Awakened NPC Cohort?&quot;(On the &quot;Death Machine&quot; topic, I'm not sure if Barbarian is simply appropriate or just plain piling it on.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Greenfield, post: 6260367, member: 6669384"] We have a caster in our group who, for RP purposes, wanted a black bear as a familiar. He took Improved Familiar to qualify, and it worked. (Black Bear is a 3 hit dice creature, so it's over all dice/capacity is comparable to other creatures considered appropriate). Since then he's realized what a tremendous liability this is. He has to constantly protect his Familiar, who is too big to hide, and the thought of keeping him in a [I]Familiar Pocket[/I] is just plain ludicrous. I suggested he retrain his Improved Familiar feat (with the permission of the collective at the game) into Leadership, that we cast [I]Awaken[/I] on his bear, and that said bear take Fighter or Barbarian levels. (We're a bit light in the tank department). So we start with a Black Bear, 3 hit dice, right from the book. Add two dice as per the [I]Awaken[/I] spell and make the appropriate stat adjustments. Next, we add Fighter levels. The question is, how many? Do we call Awakened Bear a straight ECL 5 creature and go with it? We're aiming for a total effective level of 14. This isn't a "How do I build a death machine" thread, by the way, though advice wouldn't be out of place. The major topic is "How to Convert Improved Familiar to Awakened NPC Cohort?" (On the "Death Machine" topic, I'm not sure if Barbarian is simply appropriate or just plain piling it on.) [/QUOTE]

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