Advancing Beast (3.5e Spell)

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Advance Companion

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Level:	-
Components:	"-" is not in the list (V, V (Brd only), V (Bard only), S, F, DF, M, M/DF, F/DF, XP, ...) of allowed values for the "Component" property.
Casting time:	-
Range:	-
Target:	-
Duration:	-
Saving Throw:	See Text
Spell Resistance:	See Text

turn a characters old companion into a larger more powerful counterpart, such as turning a tiger into a dire tiger and eventually a legendary tiger.

If advancement reaches its maximum, then it becomes an greater evolution or adds templates: the most common templates are celestial, fiendish, dire, and legendary.
(For DM's, I advise applying a limit on the number of templates allowed, but allow the players to get creative for finding templates they want (that fit).
Evolving into a new creature (from cat to tiger) causes the creature to lose all previous templates.
This "should" work with all d20 Pokémon.

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HD Challenge Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Dragons advance age as appropriate.

Template CR XP Cost or Gold Cost 1 500 XP / 2,500gp 2 1,000 XP / 5,000gp 3 3,000 XP / 15,000gp 4 6,000 XP / 30,000gp 5 10,000 XP / 50,000gp 6 15,000 XP / 75,000gp 7 21,000 XP / 105,000gp 8 28,000 XP / 140,000gp 9 36,000 XP / 180,000gp 10 45,000 XP / 225,000gp 11 55,000 XP / 275,000gp 12 66,000 XP / 330,000gp 13 78,000 XP / 390,000gp 14 91,000 XP / 455,000gp 15 105,000 XP / 525,000gp 16 120,000 XP / 600,000gp 17 136,000 XP / 680,000gp 18 153,000 XP / 765,000gp 19 171,000 XP / 855,000gp 20 190,000 XP / 950,000gp 21 210,000 XP/ 1,050,000gp This exp cost is the same as leveling a character. 1XP = 5gp.

Druids, Sorcerers, and Wizards commonly use this on their Animal Companions and familiars, their CR cannot match or exceed the master's level.
For creatures without magical bonds that have merely been taught in captivity (such as a dragon growing up in captivity), the creature's master must make successful Handle Animal checks during the ritual; otherwise, all prior progress in domesticating the creature will be lost.

This ritual only has an effect if the monster advances as a monster, not character classes.

• Constructs cannot be advanced with this ritual, unless they are considered "living".
  
• Undead cannot be advanced with this ritual, unless they are considered "living".

This ritual can be used to apply templates by Challenge rating or Savage species levels.

• Either the druid(s) or the subject pays the exp cost.

Examples

Example1: Sarah is a level 5 wizard with a Housecat familiar; having heard of the amazing abilities of druids causing creatures to "advance", she decides to see what will become of her familiar.
With 2500 gold, her familiar gains the dire template, becoming a Dire Housecat with a full HD and CR:2
Satisfied with the results, she leaves the familiar with the druids for a few days.
Her familiar can become a much larger feline, namely a Cheetah, Leopard, Lion, or Tiger (maybe even a griffon, which is a cross between Lion and Eagle); however, becoming a new creature causes the familiar to lose all previous templates.
The creature can have the template re-applied to become an Dire Lion or Dire Tiger, but not at this time, because both dire creatures have a CR greater than Sarah's level.

Example 2: Fred is a level 15 sorcerer with Improved familiar (Hippogriff); however, having had three familiars die already,
he decides to hire 10 druids to advance his familiar. The familiar's challenge rating cannot match or exceed his level, so we're going to buff his hippogriff up to 33 HD and CR:14.
Starting with 3HD and CR:2, we'll first advance it to huge size and 9 HD for a CR:4, basic for the SRD. Now, two options arise here:

1. The hippogriff is known to become celestial (Celestial Hippogriff), and for any good-aligned master, it would be perfect.
   
2. Fred is neutral, so giving him a celestial or fiendish creature wouldn't fit, meaning we'll give it the Dire template, making it a Dire Hippogriff.
   

This Dire Hippogriff has 17 HD, CR:8 (6,000 XP cost) and a few more bonuses (including a second size upgrade to gargantuan).
To give this hippogriff the CR:14 Fred wants, we're going to give it the Legendary Template, adding 16 HD and CR:6 (15,000 XP).
The Legendary Hippogriff has 33 HD, CR:14; increases to AC and many stat-boosts make this a familiar that will not be easily slain.

• Unfortunately for Fred, these creatures still don't have much damage, and because its double size increase makes it stand out so much, it is attacked even more (and the cost of feeding...).
  
• The benefits being, now it can survive most fights and fly with the entire party mounted.
  

But, how much did it cost Fred to accomplish this task?

13 year ritual divided by 10 druids equals a 1.3 year ritual, with each druid taking part in the two added templates (21,000 XP total).

using the standard 1 XP to 5 gp ratio, the druids charge to advance the hipprogriff "at cost" would be 105,000 gp, then the 10 druids charge for performing this one ritual more than a year!

Total cost for Fred to have this Dire+Legendary Hippogriff familiar? 105,000+(15,000 ×10)= 255,000 gp and over a year without his familiar!

• This cost assumes that there are not additional complications during the ritual, such as earthquakes, tarassque attacks, shortages on food/water, fights, plagues, and other adventurers, not limited to DM intervention.

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