So the subject kind of says it all, but I feel I should clarify before this one explodes in my face. When a wolf animal companion receives the 7th level advancement, does it turn into a dire wolf, at least from an aesthetics point of view? Let me make one thing clear.
All I am talking about is what it would look like. Especially from a color perspective, but also in terms of dimensions like length and weight.
I would say that's completely open to interpretation. If that's how you want your wolf to look, and your GM doesn't veto you for some reason, then sure. There is, to my knowledge, absolutely nothing that specifies exactly what animal companion growth looks like from an in-world perspective, which to me says that you can fluff it however you choose.
I'd even argue that it could vary between characters in a world, unless your game world specifically makes it the same for all characters. So it might be possible for one druid's wolf to look like a dire wolf, and another's to look just like an ordinary gray wolf grown to nine feet long. But again, this is, to my knowledge, a completely-up-to-you-and-your-GM issue.
From a flavor perspective it sure seems that it could become a direwolf. Then again, a fey influenced, more calm druid might not have a companion that took on the more aggressive, hard features of a dire animal.
As far as height and weight, the dire wolf is probably the best example for these on a large wolf, so theh seem like a great baseline to work with.
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So the subject kind of says it all, but I feel I should clarify before this one explodes in my face. When a wolf animal companion receives the 7th level advancement, does it turn into a dire wolf, at least from an aesthetics point of view? Let me make one thing clear.
All I am talking about is what it would look like. Especially from a color perspective, but also in terms of dimensions like length and weight.
It makes it an advanced wolf. It doesn't start growing the bony protusions and other cosmetic changes that denote a dire wolf. Dire Wolves themselves can have advanced versions as well.
The animal companion can represent a couple of things.
It could be a normal wolf that grows abnormally large. Or maybe it is an immature dire wolf that eventually reaches normal size. Or don't take the size increase and just keep it a regular wolf/immature dire wolf.
The Dire template is mainly meant to represent the large outsized and now extinct versions of normal mammals, that flourished between the start of the Cenozoic era and the end of the last Ice Age.
Maybe a dire wolf in the GoT sense thats it's a really oversized wolf. But I wouldn't say dire in the D&D sense. I wouldn't say it gains the fearsome, monstrous appearance. Unless you want it to, of course.
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Considering their difference in stats from their Bestiary counterparts and their ability to grow statistically as characters despite their baser mental capacity, Animal Companions come off as more "vat grown in an alchemist's lab" then "companion gifted by nature." At least to me.
If you're fond of that view, you could just say that you took it back to the lab for some Dire DNA infusion, or perhaps it went into a crystals for some kind of zerg style metamorphasis, or maybe a Pokemon style evolution.
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I would say that any and all of the ideas presented here are valid, because magic.
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I wouldn't say it gains the fearsome, monstrous appearance.
A wolf the size of a warhorse gains a fearsome, monstrous appearance. With or without cosmetic spikes.
Fair enough.
So what I'm hearing so far is that, aesthetically speaking, I could base things like color and build, I could go with either normal wolf options, just bigger, or with dire wolf options, or some combination there of, and I would be totally justified.
The best part of this discussion is my GM will be cool either way, as long as I come ready to play.
You could say it has pink poodle hair, as long as your GM is cool wth it.
So ask the munchkin question, what benefit do you get from any of these options? Looks like maybe some situational socal pros and cons, none of them big. Makes it sem to be a personal flavor choice, like hair color.