That's quite the interesting mystery that you've noted! I've taken a look at it, and I believe that I have the answer.
Short version: This is a leftover artifact of how multiclassing (and gaining animal companions) worked in 3.0, and shouldn't apply if you're running a 3.5 game.
Longer version: The text you quoted is from the
Epic-Level Basics part of the SRD, specifically where it says "Adding a Second Class" (emphasis mine):
When a single-class epic character gains a level, he or she may choose to increase the level of his or her current class or pick up a new class at 1st level. The standard rules for multiclass characters still apply, but epic characters must keep in mind the rules for epic advancement. The epic character gains all the 1st-level class skills, weapon proficiency, armor proficiency, spells, and other class features of the new class, as well as a Hit Die of the appropriate type. In addition, the character gets the usual skill points from the new class. Just as with standard multiclassing, adding the second class does not confer some of the benefits for a 1st-level character, including maximum hit points from the first Hit Die, quadruple the per-level skill points, starting equipment, starting gold, or an animal companion. An epic character does not gain the base attack bonuses and base save bonuses normally gained when adding a second class. Instead, an epic character uses the epic attack bonus and epic save bonus progression shown on Table: Epic Save and Epic Attack Bonuses.
So what does that mean? Well, since the
Epic Level Handbook was released in 2002 as part of D&D 3.0, we can find the answer if we look at page 56 of the 3.0 PHB (since, apparently, the following text wasn't added to the 3.0 SRD), which also has a section titled "Adding a Second Class" (notice the last bullet point):
When a single-class character gains a level, he or she may choose to increase the level of his or her current class or pick up a new class at 1st level. The DM may restrict the choices available according to how he or she handles classes, skills, experience, and training. For instance, the character may need to find a tutor to teach him the ways of the new class. Additionally, the DM may require the player to declare what class his or her character is “working on” before he or she makes the jump to the next level, so the character has time to practice new skills.
The character gains all the 1st-level base attack bonuses, base save bonuses, class skills, weapon proficiency, armor proficiency, spells, and other class features of the new class, as well as a Hit Die of the appropriate type. In addition, the character gets the new class’s per-level skill points.
Picking up a new class is not exactly the same as starting a character in that class. Some of the benefits for a 1st-level character represent the advantage of training while young and fresh, with lots of time to practice. When picking up a new class, a character does not receive the following starting bonuses given to characters who begin their careers in that class:
- Maximum hit points from the first Hit Die.
- Quadruple the per-level skill points.
- Starting equipment.
- Starting gold.
- An animal companion (druid only).
Naturally, this begs the question of why that's in there to begin with. As it turns out, it's a quirk of how druids gained an animal companion in D&D 3.0, which was different compared to 3.5. If we look at the 3.0 entry for the druid, it notes the following when the talking about the animal companion listing on the class table:
Animal Companion: A 1st-level druid may begin play with an animal companion. This animal is one that the druid has befriended with the spell
animal friendship.
And that, right there, solves the mystery: a druid character, if they took a level of druid for their first character level, automatically starts off with an animal companion under the assumption that they had already cast
animal friendship before play started; if they want more (since in 3.0 you could have many animal companions, since they didn't gain Hit Dice or other bonuses of their own as you leveled up, unlike in 3.5) they'd need to cast
animal friendship again during the course of play.
Hence, the note about epic-level characters is a callback to that: that an epic-level character who takes a level of druid won't automatically gain an animal companion; they'll need to cast
animal friendship instead. But that's only the case for D&D 3.0. In 3.5, the way animal companions function changes, making them into a codified class feature of their own, not relying on a spell being cast (and, in fact, that spell was written out of the game in the 3.5 update), and the section on multiclassing in the 3.5 PHB (and 3.5 SRD) no longer says anything about not gaining animal companions. As such, if you're playing 3.5, I'd recommend ignoring that particular clause.
