So how exactly does an Animal Companion work, in regards to the loss of the connection between owner and animal?

[Reksew_Trebla]

I've seen a lot of people say if the Druid dies, then the animal reverts to a normal member of their species. But here is the thing, Nature Bond is EX, which is completely non-magical. This means the animal naturally gained that level of power (not counting any instance of the Druid taking Evolved Companion or similar feats obviously, though with the change in Ultimate Wilderness, if the animal themself took the feat, then it might count as being naturally acquired since they used a naturally acquired feat to take said feat). Since it is natural, there is no logical reason for those increases to go away just because the Druid died or casts awaken on the animal, right? I looked at the FAQs, but found no answer on this.

Arguments for Animal staying super: It's natural. It'd be like if you said an NPC whose parent had the feat "Mark of Lamashtu" loses their Half Fiend template when the parent dies, or maybe more accurate, if the Druid who trained you to be a Druid dying means you lose your own Druid levels. It makes no sense whatsoever.

Arguments against: It's a class feature. It might make things unbalanced with Awaken.

Counterarguments: The fire that is spreading from the fireball spell you cast, which is a class feature as a spell, doesn't disappear if you die.

Awaken is a double edged sword. First, if you ever cast it again, you completely lose all control over the first animal. They might join you, they might not. It's 100% up to the gm once that second Awaken is cast. So no army of op animals.

Second, the awakened animal can no longer continue advancing as an ac. They can take class levels, but unless they were an ape, or build specifically for a non-weapon build, they would have been better off staying an Animal Companion with a headband of intelligence.

Third, if you ever, for any reason at all, mistreat the awakened animal, the GM has the right to break the control the spell still allows you to have and make the animal either leave you or straight up attack you.

Fourth, it's not exactly easy to find another super op tiger all the time, plus you have to tame it on the spot so it doesn't kill you while you do the ritual, either that or drop a lot of money buying an already reared one.

Fifth, there are way more broken builds. You can take leadership, have you and your cohort be sylvan sorcerers with robes of arcane heritage and boon companion (no not to make the animal higher level than you) then multiclass into a summoner. You now have two characters, two pretty much close enough to your level most of the game animal companions, and two eidolons. Does having an awakened formerly Animal Companion that still keeps their animal companion powers without continuing to advance as an ac, and also having your regular ac, really sound broken now?

So what's the answer for this? Do animal companions keep their stuff if the Druid dies or casts Awaken?

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

The druid need not die nor cast awaken; they can just dismiss their current A/C and get a new one, usually because the old one is unsuited to the environment they're headed into. The old one goes back to being a normal animal. Otherwise you'd have an awful lot of oddly pumped animals wandering around just from turnover.

Ignore awaken, it's a needless complication. Death and dismissal suffice to encapsulate the core problem.

[Dave Justus]

"An animal companion’s abilities are determined by the druid’s level and its animal racial traits. "

If an animal is no longer an animal companion, for whatever reason, it doesn't have a druid's level to get abilities from and thus only has its animal racial traits.

Points 2-5 are irrelevant to the question.

[Java Man]

If the AC remains at full power after dismissal one could completely populate the area around their home/lair/stronghold with super beasts. Only takes 24 hours for each, and with minor foresight/planning a druid should be able to establish good relations with them.

Ask yourself if this should work.

[Reksew_Trebla]

Java Man wrote:

If the AC remains at full power after dismissal one could completely populate the area around their home/lair/stronghold with super beasts. Only takes 24 hours for each, and with minor foresight/planning a druid should be able to establish good relations with them.

Ask yourself if this should work.

They can establish good relations all they want. The animals are npcs, and can be made by the gm to leave at any time. Plus what's to guarantee they won't try to kill you when you release them? They only knew you for a day, and are wild animals.

And finally, do you know why it takes 24 hours in a special ritual to get a new one? Because these special animals aren't common versions of their regular species. So ask yourself this: What happens when you mess with nature in a drastic manner like this?

A: Nothing happens.
B: If you're a Druid you become an ex-Druid, and on top of this, all the 15-20th level Druids are trying to kill you for messing with nature in such a drastic manner.

[Reksew_Trebla]

I found the answer.

James is law

James is law part 2

[Jurassic Pratt]

JJ has said himself that he's not a rules guy and we've been told that only PDT clarifications are official.

But as fir what happens, The animal companion is a class feature of the character and furthermore it's abilities are based on that character's level. If that character is dead then they no longer have that class feature or have a level for it to be based off.

Additonally, your fireball example is a false analogy. The wizard cast the spell when he was alive. The effect if the spell stays because that's how spells work. His character's class just gave him the ability to cast the spell, the effects are independent of the class unlike the animal companion.

You're free to houserule it however you like, but the creature would lose all of its animal companion benefits as soon as the character was dead.