I need some suggestions on how to create intelligent animal player characters when using point buy.
The Awakened spell has a template of sorts, but it has the animal roll for an intelligence score when becoming self-aware and we are using a 20-point buy.
The race builder options don't seem to take into account not being generally humanoid in shape.
Despite the sheer amount of talking animals in folklore and literature, I've heard the folks at Paizo never made an option for PC talking animals because they thought it would be considered silly, thus your current dilemma as well as anyone that wants to do something similar without buying extra materials like Nobel Wild.
There's a couple threads on this.
Hmm...I think there's a Player Companion book that deals with this. It actually has 2 pages worth of talking about the personalities/possible classes awakened animals will have based off of what animal they are (I remember that apparently reptiles would be quiet and somewhat antisocial, but would be a loyal ally for life; I think it said lizards would likely be witches, snakes and monitor lizards as rogues, and dinosaurs as barbarians).
I do however think that the awakened animal's personality would be similar to a human with a near-identical personality. I'd imagine my wizard having either a (non-awakened, mind you) very protective viper, a hyper-active compsognathus, a chatterbox of a thrush, or a dull, doom-and-gloom raven (think Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh)
doom-and-gloom raven (think Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh)
I like Quoth from Discworld. "Ravens don't talk? Ooooh, who am I to argue with an expensive education like yours? Got any eyeballs? I missed lunch."
We just allow the existing animal stat block to be used... with the following considerations:
INT/WIS/CHA are base 10, like humanoids.
STR/DEX/CON are modified by an even number (subtract 10 or 11 from them, 10 if even, 11 if odd)-this is the stat modifier.
So, point buy your stats normally, then apply appropriate mods.
The CR of the animal is used as a level, so a Grizzly bear would count as a fourth level character with STR +10, DEX +2, CON +8.
When calculating feats, use total hit dice, so the above bear would have three feats, gaining a fourth after gaining two class levels, another at four class levels etc.
For stat increases, use only character class levels, so the above bear would gain a stat point increase after getting four levels in a class.
That is how we do it, and have been doing it for years. Haven't run into any issues yet.
The balance? No thumbs. People look at you weird, lost class levels.
It's fun, I highly recommend playing a spellcasting bird.
I don't use purely animal based PCs in my game, though I have used the hengeyokai provided in Rite Publishing In the Company of Henge (PFRPG). Since henge are a shape-shifting race, one of its abilities is to transform into the fully animal version of whichever animal that specific henge is based. A mujina henge has badger/humanoid features in its normal form, but can shapechange to a standard badger animal form.
Existing henge from that supplement only include: badger, cat, dog, hare, monkey, rat and raccoon dog - so there are limitations.
I don't use the Race Guide for anything, finding my own process of creating races better than Paizo's method from that guide. My builds are always balanced and interesting, so I don't need another publisher's process to create my races.