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<blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 9400219" data-attributes="member: 3400">For my money, making the companion a spirit is about the only option that is really functional without distorting the rules to vastly improve the survivability of an actual animal pet that is otherwise grossly overpowered as characters level up. In 3.0, druids and rangers had to replace their companion as they leveled up or their 2HD initial animal companion (or even 2 1HD companions) was sure to be dead or useless as an actual power resource. In 3.5, they were retooled to be a single animal that improved well above their initial stats but still had to have a ton of ad hoc abilities added on (like evasion) to have a chance at surviving (to be fair, the same was true of paladin warhorses).A more stable solution would be not thinking of it as a specific animal pet that's been befriended but as a nature spirit that's been befriended (or assigned as an aide by the forces of nature) and can take a variety of forms AND COMES BACK if its physical form is destroyed.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="billd91, post: 9400219, member: 3400"] For my money, making the companion a spirit is about the only option that is really functional without distorting the rules to vastly improve the survivability of an actual animal pet that is otherwise grossly overpowered as characters level up. In 3.0, druids and rangers had to replace their companion as they leveled up or their 2HD initial animal companion (or even 2 1HD companions) was sure to be dead or useless as an actual power resource. In 3.5, they were retooled to be a single animal that improved well above their initial stats but still had to have a ton of ad hoc abilities added on (like evasion) to have a chance at surviving (to be fair, the same was true of paladin warhorses). A more stable solution would be not thinking of it as a specific animal pet that's been befriended but as a nature spirit that's been befriended (or assigned as an aide by the forces of nature) and can take a variety of forms [B]AND COMES BACK[/B] if its physical form is destroyed. [/QUOTE]

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