Could a druid cast an awaken spell on an animal, have that animal take levels in druid, and then have the animal repeat the process until an army of intelligent animals is at his disposal?
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In theory, yes.
However it would take a lot of time for all those animals to reach level 9 as druids, and remember that awakened animals are only friendly to the druid that awakened them, not magically controlled, so you might have trouble coordinating them and they will leave if abused.
This situation is probably best handled with the Leadership feat (with the first animal being your cohort and subsequent animals being followers).
But if I had my first awakened animal become a level 9 druid, he could awaken another animal and it would do HIS bidding. Which would indirectly be MY bidding. Then the process would repeat until said army is large enough.
Technically, yes. Although "allowed by rules" and "allowed by GM" are two different animals.
Sure input would be interesting (but thanks for the rules confirmation)
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While the text of Awaken doesn't prohibit it, Animal Archive says that "the character must follow the rules for Leadership if he wishes to take the animal as an official cohort. Further, an intelligent animal can be difficult to manage...." This is part of why I think the effort needed to coordinate awakened animals, train them as druids, and keep them loyal to the group is best represented by the Leadership feat.
But if I had my first awakened animal become a level 9 druid, he could awaken another animal and it would do HIS bidding. Which would indirectly be MY bidding. Then the process would repeat until said army is large enough.
Yes, you'd ultimately have control over the structure, but a chain of command is typically pyramid-shaped rather than linear, and the "only one actively helpful awakened creature" clause requires a linear chain. And since, again, you don't have perfect magical control over your awakened creatures (see below) there's nothing preventing an animal four or so steps down the chain from deciding that it's not going to obey the great-grandpappy druid's instructions. Filal loyalty can be diluted over generations.
Since awaken is not a charm or mind-control spell, there's nothing to prevent awakened animals from resenting mistreatment in the same way a normal person of their intelligence level would, and they're no more inclined to be automatically servile than anyone else. More than one careless druid has found her awakened animal companion refusing to follow instructions, leaving to pursue its own goals, or even seeking vengeance for its former “enslavement.”
If you did take Leadership and treat them as followers rather than a perfectly-loyal army in the vein of undead spawn, I'd think it's a really neat idea. You'd have some fantastic scouts and spies to call on.
Could a druid cast an awaken spell on an animal, have that animal take levels in druid, and then have the animal repeat the process until an army of intelligent animals is at his disposal?
I like it. Put it to music and I'll buy it!
Awaken has a high material component cost. Also, you are essentially giving these animals free will. What if they don't want to become Druids?
Oh believe me. They'll want to be druids.
Unless your GM says otherwise...
Awaken has a high material component cost. Also, you are essentially giving these animals free will. What if they don't want to become Druids?
It almost has free will. "it serves you in specific tasks or endeavors if you communicate your desires to it."
That only applies to the most recent of your Awakened animals, but it is sufficient enough to steer the animal towards learning the druid class with any levels it gains.
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But what if his heart screams: Bard. It sounds like a coming of age movie to me.
You don't understand me! I don't want YOU'RE life!
Once you cast awaken on your animal companion, don't you just get a new animal companion at whatever level the old one was at? Why do you need to chain the animals if you can just get another one every 24 hrs? OR you could do BOTH and have some kind of druid-animal pyramid scheme!
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Awaken has a high material component cost. Also, you are essentially giving these animals free will. What if they don't want to become Druids?It almost has free will. "it serves you in specific tasks or endeavors if you communicate your desires to it."
It still has free will. From animal archive: "they're no more inclined to be automatically servile than anyone else."
Animal archive went into a good amount of detail on what an awakened animal will and won't do for whoever awakened it, probably because the devs realized some people were treating their awakened allies as if they were magically coerced when in fact the intent was just to create a parent-child-like bond between the druid and the awakened.
Oh and to clear up some confusion, I'm GM and if my player(s) layed down the resources and time I would totally let them try to build a primal force XD
Could a druid cast an awaken spell on an animal, have that animal take levels in druid, and then have the animal repeat the process until an army of intelligent animals is at his disposal?
. . .
Oh believe me. They'll want to be druids.
Not necessarily...
9th level druid. Rod of Maximize (54,000 gp) or Empower (32,500 gp).
. . . An awakened tree has characteristics as if it were an animated object, except that it gains the plant type and its Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores are each 3d6. An awakened plant gains the ability to move its limbs, roots, vines, creepers, and so forth, and it has senses similar to a human's. . .
So with a rod of maximize, your trees have Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma of 18. If you prioritized wisdom at character creation, odds are they are smarter and more personable than you.
If you use a rod of empower instead, you get 3d6+.5(3d6) to mental stats (on average 15). Since it varies, it could be as low 6 to as high as 27. If they fall in the average, a community of bushes and trees are smarter and more personable than a village of people. They also require less, just clean air, sunshine, and some rain. They don't even mind being outdoors in winter.
. . . An awakened animal gets 3d6 Intelligence, +1d3 Charisma, and +2 HD. Its type becomes magical beast (augmented animal). An awakened animal can't serve as an animal companion, familiar, or special mount. . . .
An animal gets +18 to intelligence, so 19 or 20, and +3 to charisma, so it varies but probably 6 to 10. Same issue as above, smarter than you. The animals in question would probably lean toward witchcraft, wizardry, or if the campaign allows 3rd party, psionics (no need for gestures).
If you use a rod of empower, the animals will range in intelligence between 8 to 29.
If you go all the way with this [15th level Druid, maximize spell, spell perfection-Awaken, (greater) rod of empower], three castings per day of a maximized, empowered awaken, twenty one plants or animals a week. For plants, it's 18+.5(3d6) (averge 22.5, range of 19 to 27) for all mental stats. For animals, it's a range of 21 to 29.
The trees could out druid you. The animals can out cast you. I see oracle oaks and sorcerous sequoias silently observing. Wizened owls pontificate, while rabit alchemists bemoan ravenous zen bears. The only thing keeping them in check is a narrator...
Welcome to the 1000 acre wood. Possible beginning of the end for races with lumberjacks...
This chicanery is as old as 3.0... I think...
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As you are the GM, it is certainly up to you to do this. I think the general sense, however, is that doing this is more or less equivalent to giving a free feat (Leadership) to the Druid who has a classed follower and henchbeasts... which is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as the other players are not then outshined/overshadowed by the druid and his animal army.
In a practical sense, it seems as though the idea is to build a 'settlement/kingdom' of intelligent animals, which would be self-supporting (unless you want to handwave food/shelter), and which would provide a capable fighting force of any number of intelligent, class-levelled animals. Armies of many types and sizes are classified in Ultimate Campaign, and extending the rules for type to PC-class animals should not be too difficult (I have ideas on the matter if you are interested).
If, on the other hand, the idea is to actually have a squad of more than a couple intelligent animals follow you... I believe that your plan is practically unfeasible due to the sheer amount of time needed to resolve your battles and the complexity of planning needed to challenge the party.
Those opposed to the matter have legitimate ground, as this type of ploy has been rehashed many times in the past, in regard to both the Awaken spell, and the Leadership Feat. It usually crops up as somebody looking for that one, shining 'yes, it may be done' answer so that the player can show their current GM and say that it is unfair to disallow their brilliant idea.
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If Third Party material is allowed, it might be worth checking out the New Paths Compendium from Kobold Press.
Aside from have lots of nature and animal class oriented stuff (including the spell-less ranger, elven archer, skin-changer and shaman - essentially a spontaneous druid) the book also has a lot of nature and animal oriented feats, including Beast Leadership which I think might be perfect for this kind of scenario!
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Technically allowable? Probably. but the animal has free enough will that it would eventually possibly resent what's going on. This would basically be an end run around the leadership feat that many GMs would shoot down early on ad not allow.
That said, a funny idea might be to talk to a group of friends ahead of time and have friends playing animals with free will not "under your control", but otherwise working with a Druid you are playing as a normal party.
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Oh and to clear up some confusion, I'm GM and if my player(s) layed down the resources and time I would totally let them try to build a primal force XD
As long as your player expends resources and time and doesn't outshine the other players, sounds like fun. Adept_Woodwright's suggestion of using the Kingdom and/or Army Building rules is a good one.
Is this all technically possible? Yes. This is more of a role-playing scenario than a hard mechanics one- you have to convince any given animal to train as a Druid, then it has to train any childer it creates, and pretty soon you're in a bizarre version of a Vampire game where the various Clans of creature (the bear tribe hate the oak tribe, you see), where the legends tell that the original Awakened was not an Animal or Plant type at all, who was cursed with Awakening by the gods themselves, or that he comes from a people who are all Awakened and do not require The Gift to be bestowed...
That sounds like a fantastic game.