I have a Druid and his animal companion but had the following questions I cant answer.....
1) Does a Druids animal companion start with full hit points at first level or need it roll for its hit points.
2) Does the companion die at 0 hp like monsters do or at its negative con score like player characters?
Thanks!
1) Page 12, Core Rulebook says only those with levels in character classes (those available to PCs) get the maximum amount. Everyone and everything else has to roll. For ease of play, the game just assumes they all have average hp instead of rolling.
2) Monsters do not, and never have in d20 games, died at 0 hit points. (Except constructs and undead). They follow the same death and dying rules as characters, though a lot people just assume death at 0 hp as it is easier. But that is a house rule.
Awesome.
Is there any mention of point 2 anywhere within either the Pathfinder, 3.5 or d20 rule sets?
The only indirect evidence Ive found prior is that Diehard is available to a companion as a feat, which in its definition implys the companion acts as do characters when reduced to negative hit points.
I think the key point is that they have a section defining death and dying. There is no rule that says creatures other then Undead or Constructs do not follow that rule.
Undead and Constructs have the rule that they are immediately destroyed at 0 HP in the creature types section of the bestiary.
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If your hit point total is negative, but not equal to or greater than your Constitution score, you are unconscious and dying.
When your negative hit point total is equal to your Constitution, you're dead.
This isn't just PCs. It's everything that isn't excepted: PCs, NPCs, monsters, even animal companions. For it to apply differently to things other than PCs, there would need to be a rule that said this. An example is found for constructs and undead. The burden is on the position that says animal companions or monsters die at 0 hp.
IIRC, 4e handles death differently for PCs than for other creatures. There may be confusion with that game system.
EDIT: modify for inclusion of constructs/undead.
The evidence is in the fact that no where does it ever say that monsters work differently than characters. So, everyone follows the death and dying rules in the core rulebook.
The only exceptions to those rules are constructs and undead, which the Bestiary specifically says (under the descriptions of those types in the back of the book) that constructs and undead die/are destroyed at 0 hp. If that were true for all non-characters, they would of mentioned that somewhere.
My DM follows the houserule of the 0 HP = Dead for non-player creatures. This may end up becoming an issue in a few levels when my Witch takes the Suffocation spell (aka Your Lack of Faith Disturbs Me). The house rule turns the spell from a "die if you fail three saves in a row" to "die if you fail one out of three saves". Not quite sure how this will play out...
It does make more sense, any creature can be hacked and fall unconscious, then without attendance, bleed out. No matter what it is. Making it apply only to players removes from the realism. I guess its just assumed that a monster is dead when it falls cause the characters after the combat will go around cutting throats of the fallen enemy, ensuring their death or they simply bleed out during the minute or two it takes to loot their bodies.
Thanks all.
Often times you may not want to slaughter all the opposition but take prisoners. Having every enemy die at 0hp would be a real hassle in such cases, so a corresponding houserule chnages quite a lot in the way a game is played.
EDIT: Generally running around throat-slitting after a victorious combat might pose serious problems for good aligned pcs.
Enemies below 0 HP are out of combat, if they're dead or not. That's why they usually get ignored, the same as NPCs tend to ignore those PCs that fell unconcious with negative HP. The other guys that are still hitting, biting or casting at you are just more dangerous right now.
It can easily be assumed that after the fight is over either the survivors get killed, bleed out on their own, get eaten by a pack of wolves that come along in case they stabilized etc.
So for nearly all purposes NPC at negative HP = dead is pretty accurate.
However if the players don't actually state they kill the survivors (which most players probably won't do), you can use that to bring back a recuring villain they just "killed" a while later. He just got found and healed up by allies, or managed to stabilize on his own.
Often times you may not want to slaughter all the opposition but take prisoners. Having every enemy die at 0hp would be a real hassle in such cases, so a corresponding houserule chnages quite a lot in the way a game is played.
This is actually why my DM decided that enemies die at 0 HP. He didn't want us going around and reviving enemies we had 'killed' for interrogation or other purposes. If we want to leave someone alive we have to declare we're doing non-lethal damage and take the appropriate penalties.