So this may be a misunderstanding of how this feat works, but trying to figure this out. It seams that it should be possible using this feat to subsequently utilize it to awaken a companion, but then keep it as my companion. If I have understood this correctly though I need to figure out what the animal's effective level would be. In the first place how do I figure out the effective level for a normal animal that has been awakened? After that my subsequent question though is, would this effective level change depending on my level as that changes the animal's level, but it doesn't appear to change the effective level for the animals listed in the feat description. Asking this last as my GM believed that was the case in a game I was in, but in a game I am running a player is considering the same thing I was and I am less certain.
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You may have to clarify what you're asking a little bit more.
For starters, are you talking about Monstrous Mount? (and Monstrous Mount Mastery?)
I cannot seem to find "Monstrous Companion".
This is an incredibly complex feat, and you are trying to combine it with an equally complex spell effect. Don't expect anything to be cut and dry in this situation. For starters, 'Effective Cohort Level' is a rather arbitrary number, based on a gut feeling of some developer as to a power level of a given creature. Step one in your scenario would be to determine the ECL of this newly awakened beasty. There are the examples in the monstrous companion feat, but also a much larger list in the monstrous cohort rules that should be used to help determine this.
Also, realize, that when you awaken an animal companion, any 'boosts' and abilities it has gained based on your druid level go away. It is now back to it's base animal form, plus the bonuses granted by the awaken spell. That is the form which would be used to determine it's ECL. Once an ECL is determined, you then compare it to the table in the monstrous companion feat to determing what level it actually is. (Say you determine the beasy has an ECL of 3, and you are a 7th level druid, which grants an ECL of 4. That means you're beasty would have 1 class level to being it up to match the table number. Since you're monstrous companion now has 1 class level, it acquires the link and share spells abilities, but it has no other animal companion abilities.
My only advice is stay away from the monstrous companion feat that turns your animal comapion into a magical beast cohort. The return you get from what you have to give up/invest into the feat is poor. Not only that but to me the rules are poorly written and incomplete. If you want a monstrous cohort do regular leadership instead, much simpler and all you have to invest is one feat slot and the return you get form it is much better. If you don't want the followers that come with leadership feat, just tell your gm that you don't want to recruit any.
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I have totally no idea how to interpret that feat, the options given are not valid by the feat. You will see considerable table variance with this feat. This will persist until you find a static GM who will be your GM for all games and you work out with them what this feat does (if anything useful) and how.
Monstrous Companion from Cohorts and Companions.
I have totally no idea how to interpret that feat, the options given are not valid by the feat. You will see considerable table variance with this feat. This will persist until you find a static GM who will be your GM for all games and you work out with them what this feat does (if anything useful) and how.
Monstrous Companion from Cohorts and Companions.
Why are you seeing them as not valid? All the listed companions are Magical Beasts, which is the only requirement the feat has. I'm not saying that it's a great feat, as you do loose quite a bit compared to just keeping your animal companion, but it doesn't seem written that bad. The complicated part in this discussion was that he was trying to use an awakened animal, which isn't on the ECL list.
Sphinx, criophinx 13th
Sphinx, gynosphinx 14thBoth of those are greater than 12th level and therefore require more than 20 levels of Druid.
Would an Elven Nature oracle with the FCB of +1/6 to level of one mystery count? At 20th level they (could, possibly) have an effective druid level of 23.
You'd have to extrapolate what the effective cohort level would be above 20, but a 13 wouldn't necessarily be out of the realm of possibility given how the rest of the levels seem to be generated. A 14 might even be possible.
But I admit, that's a stretch...
I think they were just included as examples from the bestiary (where ECL's are listed for quite a few more monsters of higher ECL's than could be had by Monstrous Companion, but are available as Monstrous Cohorts, based on leadership score.
Sphinx, criophinx 13th
Sphinx, gynosphinx 14thBoth of those are greater than 12th level and therefore require more than 20 levels of Druid.
That part of it I did actually understand. The effective level bit determine whether or not a companion can then take class levels. It does not say that you are limited to a companion that can actually take those levels. So a person that takes the gynosphinx would have just that. It wouldn't be able to take any class levels unless you were playing an epic game.
Thanks for all the help. CraziFuzzy, I think the interpretation of the RAW makes the most sense. So if the player in my game does want to awaken his wolf I will look at his starting stats and compare to the list to gain an effective level. Since I am ball parking this I am thinking it would probably be around a 2 or 3 as it is large sized, but wouldn't have any spell like abilities like most of the upper level magic beasts on that list. Thoughts?
It was the first Google result for me.
It's also a complex and strangely designed feat.
It's a similar feat for Druids, Rangers, and the like. The primary difference is that any magical beast technically can be chosen and there is not a mastery version with upgraded abilities.
That part of it I did actually understand. The effective level bit determine whether or not a companion can then take class levels. It does not say that you are limited to a companion that can actually take those levels. So a person that takes the gynosphinx would have just that. It wouldn't be able to take any class levels unless you were playing an epic game.Both of those are greater than 12th level and therefore require more than 20 levels of Druid.Sphinx, criophinx 13th
Sphinx, gynosphinx 14th
I'm not certain that I completely follow what you are saying, but I think you are suggesting that you can attract a Cohort with an Effective Cohort Level higher than that granted by your Effective Druid Level. If that is not what you are saying, then nevermind.
If it is, I don't believe that is correct. Since it is replacing the Cohort that can be granted through Leadership, and since it doesn't say that it works differently, I believe that it follows the same rules as the Leadership feat, mainly:
"Cohort Level: You can attract a cohort of up to this level."
I will admit that this is an assumption, however, and may not be correct.
The feat says you can get a cohort up to this level based on your druid level.
Then it lists cohorts.
Two of the cohorts are never attainable until you get beyond 20th level druid.
The Friends from Birth option allows adding the young simple template to reduce a magical beast’s effective cohort level by 1. It's in the same section, beastly accomplices, as the feat in question.
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We just treat CR as level...
mostly.
subject to GM total nuking.