Awakened animal companions and class levels

[Volaran]

Hello. I'm playing a ranger for the first time in 3rd edition, and his animal companion has recently been Awakened by an NPC druid. My DM is interested in having the wolf in question begin to gain class levels.

He has Savage Species on order, but for a quick answer, knowing that ENWorld is always a good source for them, he asked me to post his question here.

What would the ECL of an Awakened wolf with 5 hit dice be?

 

[Alzrius]

I don't recall the rules for Awakened animals right off, but the general formula for calculating the total ECL is to add the creatures hit dice + plus its level adjustment.

Now, just to be clear, level adjustment is the effective levels added on for inherent abilities (usually for SR, Sp, Su, and Ex abilities). Wolves only have two special abilities. One of them is just that they get a +4 racial bonus to Wilderness Lore checks (Survival checks in 3.5E) when tracking by scent. That's not worth a level adjustment. Their other ability though is that when they make a successful bite attack, they can make a trip attack without having to make another touch attack, and they are not subject to an attack of opportunity. Furthermore, if the trip attempt fails, the opponent cannot react to try to trip the wolf.

Now, considering that a wolf's only attack is a bite attack, this means that the Awakened wolf PC is going to get to make free trip attempts with no chance of repercussion every time he makes a successful hit. That can be a fairly substantial combat ability, so IMO it'd be worth a +1 level adjustment (Savage Species may disagree here, I can't quite rightly recall).

So, 5 hit dice plus 1 level adjustment, 5 + 1 = 6. The Awakened wolf would have an ECL of +6, so it would be treated as a 7th level character after it took its first character level.

Be sure to note that the normal wolf entry has only 2 hit dice, and being Awakened adds only 2 more hit dice, so unless that wolf was advanced to begin with, it should only have 4 hit dice now, which would reduce its total ECL to +5.

 

[isoChron]

But don't you have to take the downsides of a wolf character into the ECL ?
What about the fact that he has just a bite attack, no hands to manipulate or use a weapon ?
I don't have Sav.Spec. but how are the animals/magical beasts treated in respect to skillpoints and feats ? Do they get some (I think the wolf advanced one level before he got awakened). Otherwise it would be bad to advance a wolf that should be awakened.
Well, I'm curious what the Sav.Spec. changed.

BYE

 

[Luis Figoo]

Note that i do not specifically follow savage species 100%

Base Wolf
50 ft move
+2 natural armor
Special: Trip, Scent
Str +2, Dex +4, Con+4, Int +0(awakened), wis +2, cha -4 +d3(awakened)
Racial +4 track

ECL evaluation
High base move: +0.25
Natural armor +2: +0.25
Trip: +1 (Exclusive ability, differs from improved trip, simlar to knockdown but no limitation)
Scent: +0.5 (can be gotten by druid as feat)
Unbalanced stats: +1
Racial bonus: 0 (small bonus, limited use)

5HD: +5
Animal HD: -(5x.25) (Animal HD of limited value for skills and hp)

No hands: -1 (no access or large penalties for some skills, misc problems including lack of ability for weapons and ranged attacks)

Lack of item slots: -1 to -3 (depending on DM allowance for item slots. Note that multiple abilties stacked onto single item and in activation at the same time costs higher)

ECL:+4.75 to 2.75

 

[Volaran]

Be sure to note that the normal wolf entry has only 2 hit dice, and being Awakened adds only 2 more hit dice, so unless that wolf was advanced to begin with, it should only have 4 hit dice now, which would reduce its total ECL to +5.

Indeed, my DM had allowed the ritual from ritual from Masters of the Wild that increases the hit dice of an animal companion. My character had thus far performed this once, then the Awakening was taken into account.

Thanks for the assistance

Edit: New question from the DM...

"See, just adding factors is what I'm concerned about here. I've heard a bit about that, but I'm still working from the Monster Manual. I was curious, because animals don't gain further feats or skills along with extra hit dice, if that had been changed or if it might be enough of a mitigating factor that I'd end up with an ECL lower than the Hit Dice of the wolf."

 

[Alzrius]

"See, just adding factors is what I'm concerned about here. I've heard a bit about that, but I'm still working from the Monster Manual. I was curious, because animals don't gain further feats or skills along with extra hit dice, if that had been changed or if it might be enough of a mitigating factor that I'd end up with an ECL lower than the Hit Dice of the wolf."

That part has been changed. Savage Species notes, as a preview of how things will be in 3.5E, that all creatures gain one feat for every three hit dice, just like characters do for levels, and they gain skill points at the same rate. I don't quite recall what the skill point increase is, but its there too. As a rule of thumb, I'd go for 2 + Int modifier per hit die.

Given that a wolf already has Weapon Finesse (bite) we can see that that's probably the feat it'd gain for its first hit dice. Since the wolf here has gained a third hit dice, it should thus also gain a second feat. When it takes it's first level, it'd gain another feat (5 hit dice + 1 level) since then it'd be sixth level.

Without any class levels, a creature's "class" skills are those in it's entry, so a normal wolf has class skills of Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Wilderness Lore (to be renamed Survival in 3.5E). It can spend its skill points for its 3 additional hit dice on those normally, or on other (un-restricted) skills at cross-class price. Once it takes a class level, it gains skill points at the rate listed for that class, and that's class's class skill list is open to it also.

I think Luis might have something there for the reductions in ECL. I did forget to factor in penalties, such as lack of hands and certain item slots. To a degree though, your DM's (or fellow players if they can make magic items) might mitigate this somewhat with Opposable magic items from Masters of the Wild. That shouldn't bring the ECL back up though. Taking the wolf's limitations into account, and ECL of +3 or +4 does sound better.

 

[Volaran]

Well, my DM seems to be nodding having read that. I think he's probably just going to let the ECL be its present hit dice, which I'm fine with...

As a player, I'm glad to know about the changes to animals for skills and feats. Always glad to know my character's best ally is more dangerous than before. Heh


Thank you kindly for the help.