Ring of Animal Friendship

[Kai Lord]

Let's say I acquire a Ring of Animal Friendship and use it to befriend 12 Hit Dice worth of animals then take the ring off. What happens to my animal companions? Do they leave because the ring is gone or do they stay because the bond that was developed is not a magical one?

 

[kreynolds]

From the SRD:

The character wins the loyalty of an animal, provided that the character's heart is true. The spell functions only if the character actually wishes to be the animal's friend. If the character is not willing to treat the animal as a friend (for example, the character intends to eat it, or to use it to set off traps), the spell fails. An animal's loyalty, once gained, is natural (not magical) and lasting.

Your animal friends will stay as long as you really are their friend. Animal Friendship is not a continuous spell, nor is it permanent. It is instantaneous, meaning you gain the friendship of the animal, provided you really want to be their friend, and the friendship lasts as long as any other would.

 

[Jairami]

Welcome Kai Lord! Kai and Ishir watch over you.

Animal Friendship allows a permanent friendship to be established in 6 seconds as opposed to a couple of weeks. Once the animal is your friend, he will remain your friend until you do something that stretches his friendship too far.

Getting him fixed, taking a polar bear into the desert, and not feeding him are generally considered bad things.

Taking the ring off will make no difference as the ring allows you to affect an animal "as if the wearer had cast animal friendship."

 

[Kai Lord]

Thanks for the replies. That was pretty much what I figured as well. Let's say I'm a fighter and I put on two rings of Animal Friendship and befriend 24 Hit Dice worth of animals. Now they're my buddies and the power of the rings has maxed out. Then I take off those rings and put on two *different* rings of Animal Friendship. Can I use *those* rings to befriend more animals?

 

[Number47]

Respectfully, I disagree. A druid can only have so many hit dice of animal companions. Even though the friendship is instantaneous, real and pemanent, an animal will leave if the hit die cap is gone over. Similar for the ring. Remove it and its hit die cap goes from 12 to zero. Otherwise, everyone in the party will wind up with 12 hit die familiars by passing the ring around.

 

[Jairami]

Now there's a DM trap.

Whether you could or not I don't believe any DM would allow it, so it's probably moot.

I know I wouldn't.

As to why within the rules you can't, probably something along the lines of a ring allows you to affect an animal as if you had cast the spell as an x level caster. Another ring lets you cast the same spell again as the same x level caster. A druid can memorize 5 animal friendship's one morning and it won't matter, you can only use the spell to have x amount of HD per caster level before restrictions. Regardless of how many times you cast from how many different sources.

 

[Jairami]

Respectfully, I disagree. A druid can only have so many hit dice of animal companions. Even though the friendship is instantaneous, real and pemanent, an animal will leave if the hit die cap is gone over. Similar for the ring. Remove it and its hit die cap goes from 12 to zero. Otherwise, everyone in the party will wind up with 12 hit die familiars by passing the ring around.

Heh. Of course a ring of spell storing can be pimped out like that with an animal friendship in it... Or there's always Imbue with Spell Ability.

"Rule Zero! Help!!"

"Here I come to save the day!

Cease this sneaky rule twisting at once!"

 

[Speaks With Stone]

I don't believe that 2 rings of Animal Friendship would stack like that. Each ring allows you the ability to have 12 HD of animals befriended. Wearing 2 of these rings should not stack, they would be redundant, much like wearing 2 rings of resist fire provides no additional benefit over wearing just one.

As for taking them off and using different rings, you run in to the exact same problem. Each ring does not confer a set 12 HD but allows you to have that maximum. If you were to interpret it in such a way as each ring has a designated number of animals, then you'd have to say that when the ring passes owners then the animals pass with it.

By the by, this ring of friendship is ripe for abuse and should be watched by the GM. One ring passed around a group of 6 adventurers confers the same value as 6 rings.

Perhaps a more appropriate method of interpreting this magic item would be to require the ring even after the animals have been befriended. While the ring may confer the animal friends "as if" the spell had been cast, it only confers that "as if" so long as the ring is worn. Otherwise, a single ring could be quire unbalancing. (Place it next to the ring of cure light wounds, I guess).

 

[Kai Lord]

I don't believe that 2 rings of Animal Friendship would stack like that. Each ring allows you the ability to have 12 HD of animals befriended. Wearing 2 of these rings should not stack, they would be redundant, much like wearing 2 rings of resist fire provides no additional benefit over wearing just one.

The section on Animal Companions in Masters of the Wild states that multiple Rings of Animal Friendship do indeed stack as far as Hit Dice are concerned, though I can see your point as far as needing to wear the ring. Even though the spell effect might be instantaneous, the maximum allowable levels to which the animals remain in your company would seem to vanish if the ring was gone....

 

[Jairami]

Worse, having two rings and being a druid stacks too according to it.

But only with regards to number of HD followers, not max HD of a follower, how's that for sillyness? Unless I'm remembering it wrong. Said something crazy like that.

Silly, silly, silly.