I was reading the epic rules for the druid companion, and found that they just reprinted the double the druids hit die rule for 3.0. Does anyone know if the companion improves at all after 20th level or did they gimp the druids and rangers from having a companion that progresses and give the paladin the only animal that can progress.
The 3.5 DMG errata corrected this (available on WotC website).
ericthecleric wrote: The 3.5 DMG errata corrected this (available on WotC website). That would be helpful if I could download and open the info, but I can't.
The errata says,
"Replace the Animal Companion paragraph with the following text:
Animal Companion: The epic druid's animal companion continues to increase in power. At every three levels higher than 18th (21st, 24th, 27th, and so on), the companion gains +2 bonus Hit Dice, its natural armor increases by 2, its Strength and Dexterity modifiers increase by 1, and it learns one additional bonus trick."
Thanks for that. Does that mean in the end, the animal companion comes out better than the paladins's warmount, and if so what about a ranger/paladin with the devoted tracker feat from the Complete Adventurer?
> Thanks for that. Does that mean in the end, the animal companion comes out better than the paladins's warmount, and if so what about a ranger/paladin with the devoted tracker feat from the Complete Adventurer?
After checking the feat description and special mount/animal companion rules, a 30th-level paladin/30th-level ranger with that feat would have a special creature which acts as a 30th-level paladin special mount/15th-level druid animal companion (because ranger level equals half druid level). Such a creature would gain: +22 bonus HD (+10 druid, +12 paladin), +24 natural armor adj. (+10 druid, +14 paladin), +11 Str/+5 Dex adj (+5/+5 druid, +6/+0 paladin), 6 bonus tricks, SR 35, and Int 11, as well as, empathic link, share saving throws, improved speed, command creatures of its kind, spell resistance, improved evasion, link, share spells, devotion, multiattack, and improved evasion.
Yikes! That’s a powerful creature.
ericthecleric wrote: Yikes! That’s a powerful creature. Yes, but is it as powerful as the 60th level character it belongs to?
Tome- Of course not. I kind of suspect that the OP was thinking of a gestalt PC. Maybe not though.
Out of curiosity, what is a gestalt character. I have seen the term on the boards before, but where is it from?
Actually, the character I have that spawned the question is a halfling ranger/paladin with the Halfling outrider and Beastmaster prestige classes with levels at 15/15/10/10. Of course, the Beastmaster class level count as a level 13 duid. The reson I aked about epic level druid companions is because, as you can see, one more level of ranger puts the druid level at 21st.
Gestalt characters. To quote from the Unearthed Arcana (page 72):
“In this high-powered variant, characters essentially take two classes at every level, choosing the best aspects of each. The process is similar to multiclassing, except that characters gain the full benefits of each class at each level.”
I believe that the rules are available for download somewhere, but I don’t know where (sorry). Someone has put it up before. Try doing a Search on the messageboards.
> Actually, the character I have that spawned the question is a halfling ranger/paladin with the Halfling outrider and Beastmaster prestige classes with levels at 15/15/10/10. Of course, the Beastmaster class level count as a level 13 duid. The reason I asked about epic level druid companions is because, as you can see, one more level of ranger puts the druid level at 21st.
You’re correct. If you ditch a Halfling outrider level for 1 more ranger level, he would indeed count as a 21st-level druid for animal companion purposes.
With that character, the special creature acts as a 15th-level paladin/20th-level effective druid. Such a creature would gain: +20 bonus HD (+12 druid, +8 paladin), +22 natural armor adj. (+12 druid, +10 paladin), +10 Str/+6 Dex adj (+6/+6 druid, +4/+0 paladin), 7 bonus tricks, SR 20, and Int 9, as well as, empathic link, share saving throws, improved speed, command creatures of its kind, spell resistance, improved evasion, link, share spells, devotion, multiattack, and improved evasion.
Adding the extra ranger level means the creature gains (in addition to the above): an extra +2 HD, +2 natural armor improvement, Str & Dex mods increase by +1, and it learns an additional bonus trick.
Sovilor Sage has made a really great website that lets you browse through the SRD and do searches and all that good stuff. Among all that SRD goodness he has the unearthed arcana which has the rules for gestalting characters in it.
Gestalting Characters.
Gestalt characters sound like they take away all the hard work of builing the character the hard way. To me, it is the getting there taht defines the character.
Incidently, I was looking at the rules for the Arcane Hierophant (races of the wild), and found that if I took a few levels of wizard, I could add the benifits of the familiar to the animal companion at the first level of the prestige class. Now how sick is that (special mount/animal companion/familiar) all in the same creature?
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