Template: the demi-animal

hong · Oct 25, 2002

Ferret said:
Guardian animal?

I _like_ it. I like it very much.

Morgenstern · Oct 28, 2002

Hmm. Looks promising.

Would suggest lowlight vision over darkvision, but that is a small matter of taste. Might give the animal a bonus to intelligence equal to 1/4 its HD (round up). Might alter some of the other ability bonuses to be similarly HD-based (like 1/2 for Str and Con, 1/3 for Dex and Wis, all rounding down) so the critter grows smoothly with its master. I think the technical term is "favorable" saves. Would cap advancment at 20 HD, just as a practical limit.

A little polish on the grammar (fill in all ability text fully) and integrating your ideas for XP cost and possible name change and this will be a highly useful template

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Kahuna Burger · Oct 28, 2002

Morgenstern said:
Hmm. Looks promising.

Would suggest lowlight vision over darkvision, but that is a small matter of taste.

Animals already have lowlight vision unless stated otherwise.

I agree with a previous poster that allowing this template too early could be unballancing. I tend towards bats as animal companions for the scouting possibilities.

In any case, my favorite "scaling" trick is simply to awaken at least one companion ASAP and let it gain class levels. speaking of which, this template seems to include a free awakening. troublesome...

I'd increase the XP cost, set a spell level for the template so it can't be done too early, increase the number of HD a 'templated' animal counts as for # of companions, or some combination of above...

kahuna Burger