[OOC] Return to the Rusty Rat

[Toot]

Torin:  Thanks for the article.  It cleared up some issues I was having.  One in particular is magic items for animals and therefore myself in animal form.  I highlights specific points of interest for a Druid and his companion.

Animal Companions and Magic Items

A great way to both protect your companion and perhaps give it some offensive power is to equip it with magic items. Consider purchasing items for your companion or just give it items you no longer need (such as your +1 ring of protection when you acquire a +2 ring of protection).

Once you do so, however, you and your DM face a potentially difficult decision. Exactly which items can animals use? Since most magic items fit users of any size, the simple answer is this: pretty much any item. No animal companion can use an item that requires spell completion or spell knowledge because they are not spellcasters. Likewise animals cannot speak, so they can't use command word items. Animals also lack weapon proficiencies and prehensile appendages, so they cannot employ weapons, either. That leaves us with the following: potions (though you may have to open the potion vial and pour out the liquid), rings, and most items that can be worn or carried. Your DM may decide that your companion's body type simply does not allow some items to fit your companion. For example, you might persuade your DM to let your wolf wear boots, but don't count on your snake wearing boots. Creatures like owls and hawks may have a hard time with cloaks (since the garment interferes with their wings).

Other than the exceptions noted here, all animals have locations for magic items similar to those noted for characters on page 214 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. For example, a quadruped uses its back feet for the "foot" location and its front feet for the "hand" location. The hind legs correspond to a humanoid's legs and the front legs correspond to a humanoid's arms.

For avians, treat the feet and legs as hands and arms, and the wings as legs and feet. The creature can wear "leg" items on its wings or hind legs, but not both.

A snake simply wears items over its head or body.

In most cases, even if your companion can't use an item you've found, it should be possible to make (or have made) an item it can use. For example, you might fashion wing bands of speed for your owl's or hawk's wings, and they would work just like boots of speed for your companion.

For an in-depth look at what items an animal can use or wear, check out Wild Life.

This is also important because it states that you don't need to make special items unless the companion doesn't have the item location or the item would make one of the companions abilities unusable (but in that case you can make items to fit the creature).  It even mentions possibly putting boots on your wolf which goes with what it says in the DM's Guide that no one's race or size should make a magic item unusable except for armor and weapons.  So a boot would reshape itself from human looking to fit a lizardman so it should also reshape itself to fit a wolf.  This is all with the DMs blessing of course.  

RE switching Boo's personality: I wasn't thinking of a ritual that would change Boo into a snake.  It would be the same type.  So a Black Bear into a Brown Bear or a Wolf into a Dire Wolf.  I know there are no Game Rules for this but that's what house rules are made for.    Obviously Toot wouldn't be the first Doodid ever to want to upgrade their companion but keep the previous companion's memories too.  It wouldn't effect game balance at all.

In any case, at least the article says: "An animal companion identity is strongly linked to you, however, and the two of you form a sort of dual being."  So like Lugar mentioned, the new animal would likely act a lot like Boo anyways.