Deadseid
I am running a 3.5 revision of D&D with a few minor house rule changes. I am having a hard time finding the answer to this question. I have browsed SRDs, forums, and rulebooks, but have come up empty. The rule is this:
Animals start with (2+int)x(3+HD) skill points.
Animal companions may not have more ranks in a skill than they have HD.
My question: if the rules state that a 3 HD cerval animal companion can't have more than 3 ranks in any skill, why does it start with 1 HD and 6 ranks in jump? Do i have the max ranks for animal companions wrong? It was hard info to find, but the info above was finally found on some pathfinder sites. As a dm, i'm a little stumped. The druid in my group is as well. This is the only aspect of animal companion advancement that we cannot grasp. Any help is much appreciated.
Comments
But that's only if I'm understanding your question correctly?
I don't really know if that'll be of any help to you, but I hope between this and Paladin's answer you can figure something out!
When the druid made his character, her decided he wanted to be from a tribal jungle community. I ruled that he had to have a beast native to the jungle as his companion. After some research, he asked me if he could have an ocelot, a creature not on any list in any supplement. After some consideration, i said yes. I could find no stats for an ocelot, so we used the stats from the Serval entry in sandstorm. A serval is a savanna cat, but is it roughly the same size and weight as the ocelot, so with just a few aesthetic changes, Targ the druid got to have his ocelot. Here are the serval stats thatwe are using for Tusk the ocelot:
Hit Dice: 1d8+1 (5 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (+1 size, +3 Dex, +1 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/
I think in this case you just go with what you think is balanced, and make it a house rule...You've done your best to find the answer, and since you couldn't...just answer it yourself and call it done, I think.