Maybe around the geometric mean of the animal's lifespan and a human's. In that sort of setting, I would probably let awakened animals live a longer life than their mundane counterparts. If it's D&D 3ed, then the creature's type changes from Animal to Magical Beast, which implies that the change goes deeper than just "somehow jamming a sapient brain into that mouse's skull." And a mage's familiar, which is similar but not identical to an awakened animal, is implied to live as long as the mage herself. Whatever rules you're using might provide some guidance, or at least suggest a range of possibilities. The party didn't realize they were awakened though. The only time I know intelligent animals have seen my table was when I was DM I had an NPC that had two awakened tigers as allies. I have always wanted to play Rocket Racoon, as does at least one other player in my group. I suppose it would be allowed to make an NPC though.Nobody has played one in my group either, but depending on the campaign and DM we would probably allow it. My group has a gentleman's ban on cohorts and similar things, so nobody has used awaken to make such an ally. I still don't see sentience as being linked to longer or shorter life-fantasy races vary greatly in lifespan, with some only hitting their 40's while others can live 1000 years or more. ![]() Mechanically, I don't see how awaken would transfer to offspring, but I suppose you could rule that being "awakened" does actually cause changes at the genetic level. I dislike the idea of awaken adding lifespan to the animal unless they themselves gain such magical abilities through study and such. Since average lifespan is normally a range, I factor in feats, con score, etc to lean towards one or the other. ![]() Since the animal is now a character, I factor in the middle age/old age/venerable penalities as well. I generally just use the average lifespan of the animal. Which approach do you think makes the most sense? Leaving an awakened animal with a standard lifespan, or a magically enhanced one of three times the base lifespan, or a human-equivalent one, whichever comes first? Also, do you suppose that two awakened creatures of the same species could have awakened offspring?įinally, what's the best use of an awakened animal in your history as gamers? My Druid's Dire snake served as acting Prime minister for about two weeks, and currently is Planning Minister. Another idea I've been considering is the way the mouse-people were handled in Dahl's "The Witches", namely with a tripled lifespan compared to a mouse because of the mojo that effected the transformation (and cramming a human brain into Mouse neurons takes serious mojo). ![]() One option in the case of awakened animals is just to look up the average life expectancy of the base animal. Given how many people have non-humanoid characters/cohorts/companions, we sort of need to establish lifespans for these creatures. For example, 18 years have passed in game (and 9 out of game) since my current D/D campaign began! Awakened animals play a pretty big role in many of my campaigns, campaigns which often have a long time frame.
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