Awakened animal companions rebuilt using the ARG race building rules?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


So this evening I was going down a rabbit trail focused on the Awakened spell and animal cohorts. The Awakened spell mentions a bump to mental stats and +2 HD. That said it also says that if you want to keep your pet you need to convert it from animal companion to a cohort via leadership. In Ultimate Campaign or Animal archive (don't remember which) it talks about advancing via class levels but doesn't say what to do about the level 4/7 advancement. With all that ambiguity in mind I went about thinking of another way to build Awakened animals that was (potentially) easier to balance against other party members.
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Enter the race building rules. Now they seem to be missing some important options like a race type Magical Beast and Weakness: No arms, but I think they can be made to work. Side note: Why hasn't a third party publisher pursued this design space yet?

Below I have an example Awakened Raven Race. I think it works from a racial point balance perspective, but what are your thoughts?

Raven 15 (14) RP
Type: Magical Beast (homebrew; same as humanoid but usually must take Weakness: no arms) 0RP
Size: Tiny 4RP
Base Speed: Slow -1RP / Or homebrew: Very slow -2RP (10ft)
Ability Score Modifiers: Weakness -1RP (-4 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Wis)
Languages: Linguist 1RP

Feat and skill racial traits
Skill: Scavenger 2RP
Feat: Skill focus (perception) 2RP
Feat: Weapon focus 2RP

Movement/Misc:
Flight 5RP (40ft Average) 5RP

Offence:
Bite 1RP

Senses:
Low-light 1RP


Awakend animals have there own rules why make up new ones? I fail to see the need.


Anything like this is entering into house rules territory, so some folks will dislike/disdain it.

That said, one good reason to make up your own rules is that otherwise awakened animals are pigeonholed into just a few viable classes. It is odd that you mentioned a Raven specifically since I wanted an awakened Raven as a Skald to fit with the RP for our mythic "Viking game". Unfortunately the highest Charisma an awakened Raven could possibly have would be 10 (since Awaken gives animals +1d3 Charisma)

I guess many people might say something like, "A 10 is a viable Charisma for a Skald if you use level increases and magic items to augment it. Stop your endless whining and play the game by the rules you worthless complainer and shameless munchkin." However, the DM for the game in question let me roll ability scores for the Raven as for a normal PC and then adjust them with some racial modifiers. I believe we used Str-6 Dex+4 Wis+2.

If you want an animal with high Charisma and the DM isn't flexible I guess you could try dinosaurs since they tend to start out with higher Cha than other animals.


Cap. Darling wrote:
Awakend animals have there own rules why make up new ones? I fail to see the need.

Likely because the rules currently are near useless.

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