Totems

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the burdens of the humanoid form . Halflings and gnomes rarely become animal lords because of their strong community ties, and half-ores are even less likely to do so because of their typically rapacious attitudes . Though rangers, druids, and barbarians are the most likely characters to adopt this class, some arcane spellcasters (especially bards) choose to become animal lords late in their adventuring careers.

A character can choose this prestige class more than once but must select a different group of associated animals and start at 1st level each time . Levels of different animal lord classes do not stack when determining levelbased class features .

Eight animal lords are presented here (the DM is free to create others) . The various kinds of animals from the Monster Manual they are associated with are as follows .

Apelord : ape, baboon, monkey .

Bearlord : black bear, brown bear, polar bear.

Birdlord : eagle, hawk, owl, raven .

Catlord : cat, cheetah, leopard, lion, tiger.

Equinelord : donkey, heavy horse, heavy warhorse, light horse, light warhorse, mule, pony, warpony .

Marinelord : crocodile, giant crocodile, octopus, giant octopus, porpoise, shark (all), squid, giant squid, whale (all) .

Snakelord : constrictor, giant constrictor, viper (all) .

Wolflord : dog, riding dog, wolf .

Hit Die : d8 .

Requirements

To become an animal lord, a character must fulfill the following criteria .

Alignment : Neutral good, lawful neutral, neutral, chaotic neutral, or neutral evil .

Skills : Animal Empathy 6 ranks, Wilderness Lore 8 ranks, plus 2 ranks in the appropriate skill from the following list : Apelord-Climb ; Bearlord-Intimidate ; Birdlord-Intuit Direction ; Catlord-Move Silently ; Equinelord-Jump ; Marinelord,-Swim ; SnakelordEscape Artist; Wolflord-Hide .

Feats : Animal Control and the appropriate feat from the following list: Apelord, Skill Focus (Climb) ; Bearlord, Power Attack ; Birdlord, Improved Flight ; Catlord . Weapon Finesse (any) ; Equinelord, Run ; Marinelord, Skill Focus (Swim) ; Snakelord, Resist Poison; Wolflord . Expertise .

Class Skills

The animal lord's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Animal Empathy (Cha, exclusive skill), Climb (Str), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex ;, Intuit Direction (Wis), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Wilderness Lore (Wis) . See Chapter 4 of the Player's Handbook for skill descriptions .

Skill Points at Each Level : 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

The following are class features of the animal lord prestige class .

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Animal lords gain no weapon or armor proficiencies .

Spells : An animal lord can cast a small number of divine spells . Her spells are based on Wisdom, so casting any given spell requires a Wisdom score of at least 10 the spell's level . The DC for saving throws against these