03-14-2017, 07:23 PM
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x.../20070206a
Acquiring an Animal Companion
The rules speak of a ceremony to gain an animal companion, but they do not go into much detail about the process other than noting that the ceremony takes 24 hours of uninterrupted prayer. Here are a few thoughts to flesh out the process.
An animal companion is not a conjured creature and is not subject to effects, such as protection from evil or dismissal, that banish or hedge out conjured creatures. Think of it as binding an animal companion rather than summoning it. To begin, you must first locate the kind of creature you desire. The prospective companion cannot be an advanced animal, nor can it be another character's animal companion or another character's familiar. It also can't have a template, even if that template doesn't change its type. Awakened animals can never serve as animal companions. The animal you choose must be of a kind your class makes available to you as an animal companion.
You can use any convenient means to locate your intended companion. Because most animal companions aren't the kind you can find in a shop, finding the animal you want probably requires a trip into the wild and a few Survival or Knowledge (nature) checks.
After locating the companion, you must arrange to keep the animal nearby for the day-long ritual that binds the two of you together. Lucky masters choose companions that are friendly enough to stick around on their own , but sometimes you must tether or cage it to keep it from wandering off.
The ritual does not succeed unless the intended companion is friendly toward you (but a wild empathy check can solve that problem). The ritual also does not succeed if the intended companion is under any charm or compulsion effect.
You can have only one animal companion at a time and an animal can have only one master at time. You can, however, have both an animal companion and a familiar if your class levels give you both class features.
The ritual itself can take any form the DM desires; however, a few gestures, chants, and perhaps some drawings sketched on the floor around the pair of you -- all repeated at intervals throughout the day -- are all that are necessary.
...
Death of an Animal Companion
When an animal companion dies, the master doesn't suffer any penalties beyond the loss of the companion and she can bind a new one right away, as noted above.
Bringing back the animal from the dead reestablishes the link between the two of you, and you need not locate or bind a new companion; however, the reincarnate spell is an exception. The spell brings back the animal as an independent being and the resulting creature is no longer an animal companion.
Acquiring an Animal Companion
The rules speak of a ceremony to gain an animal companion, but they do not go into much detail about the process other than noting that the ceremony takes 24 hours of uninterrupted prayer. Here are a few thoughts to flesh out the process.
An animal companion is not a conjured creature and is not subject to effects, such as protection from evil or dismissal, that banish or hedge out conjured creatures. Think of it as binding an animal companion rather than summoning it. To begin, you must first locate the kind of creature you desire. The prospective companion cannot be an advanced animal, nor can it be another character's animal companion or another character's familiar. It also can't have a template, even if that template doesn't change its type. Awakened animals can never serve as animal companions. The animal you choose must be of a kind your class makes available to you as an animal companion.
You can use any convenient means to locate your intended companion. Because most animal companions aren't the kind you can find in a shop, finding the animal you want probably requires a trip into the wild and a few Survival or Knowledge (nature) checks.
After locating the companion, you must arrange to keep the animal nearby for the day-long ritual that binds the two of you together. Lucky masters choose companions that are friendly enough to stick around on their own , but sometimes you must tether or cage it to keep it from wandering off.
The ritual does not succeed unless the intended companion is friendly toward you (but a wild empathy check can solve that problem). The ritual also does not succeed if the intended companion is under any charm or compulsion effect.
You can have only one animal companion at a time and an animal can have only one master at time. You can, however, have both an animal companion and a familiar if your class levels give you both class features.
The ritual itself can take any form the DM desires; however, a few gestures, chants, and perhaps some drawings sketched on the floor around the pair of you -- all repeated at intervals throughout the day -- are all that are necessary.
...
Death of an Animal Companion
When an animal companion dies, the master doesn't suffer any penalties beyond the loss of the companion and she can bind a new one right away, as noted above.
Bringing back the animal from the dead reestablishes the link between the two of you, and you need not locate or bind a new companion; however, the reincarnate spell is an exception. The spell brings back the animal as an independent being and the resulting creature is no longer an animal companion.
