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Prestige class Mammoth Rider's class feature Steed states that "The mammoth rider’s class levels stack with other classes that grant an animal companion to determine her effective druid level." I'm trying to determine if this means that for every level of mammoth rider I take it increases my druid level as well. If I'm reading that right does it mean I can take Mammoth Rider from level 11+ and still gain the benefits of both the mammoth rider and druid essentially being a lvl 20 druid and a lvl 10 Mammoth rider.

Here are some specific questions that need clarification if so.

Question 1: Would my companion being a cat(big) gain the benefits from both the animal companion statistics table granted to her by druid lvls and the Mammoth Rider's table?

Question 2: If it does increase my druid lvls does that mean I get all the class features and spell increases as if I were normally leveling up?

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    \$\begingroup\$ You should limit yourself to one question at a time. You might want to edit your question to only include Question1 or 2 and make a separate question about the other one. \$\endgroup\$
    – Umbranus
    Jul 14, 2017 at 10:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ The title encompasses the questions which are specific to the topic. They are questions that I don't fully understand and feel that it would be a waste of resources and other peoples time if I post it up as another question that points to this question because I would have to explain the whole premise again. No it belongs here . \$\endgroup\$
    – Tanki
    Jul 14, 2017 at 10:34

2 Answers 2

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  1. Yes, just as it is written, your effective druid level to determine the Steed's power is as sum of your levels in Druid class plus your levels in Mammoth Rider class:

The mammoth rider’s class levels stack with other classes that grant an animal companion to determine her effective druid level.

Plus, from the Druid's description:

If a character receives an animal companion from more than one source, her effective druid levels stack for the purposes of determining the statistics and abilities of the companion.

  1. However, if you level up as a prestige class, you only get class features of that prestige class that are written on its chart, most of the time it means that you retain some of the features of your previous class, and sacrifice the others for powerful prestige class options. A common sacrifice is a bunch of caster levels. In your case (Mammoth Rider's description), for example, I don't see any information about spells and casting levels at all, which means that you get no new spells/caster levels at all if you progress through the Mammoth Rider chart. Essentially you sacrifice 10 caster levels of Druid for a bunch of cool features: by level 20 you will be Druid 10/Mammoth Rider 10, casting spells as level 10 Druid, facing level 20 enemies. I would call it a bad deal.

As an example of a class that keeps some spellcasting progression, look at the Dragon Disciple. This class is basically intended to be taken by Sorcerers starting from their 6th to 11th level. By level 20, as you see in the "Spells per day" column of the progression table, you lose 3 caster levels compared to 20 levels of the Sorcerer class: at 1st, 5th and 9th levels of Dragon Disciple you get no caster levels at all.

I suggest you to reread how the prestige classes work, what do you keep and what you don't keep, how are prestige class's BAB and saves applied, etc.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ This answers all my questions very well put. I happened to only want the huge animal effect from mammoth rider so I'll only really need to take one lvl of it. But it sounded like I would be able to keep my spells even if I had taking 10 lvls in mammoth but as you stated that's not true. So thank you for the clear answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – Tanki
    Jul 14, 2017 at 11:21
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Yes to Question 1, no to Question 2.

Your effective Druid level is similar to caster level. So you count as a 20th level Druid for any class features you have, including your animal companion. In addition to any benefits granted by the prestige class.

You do not actually gain Druid levels, so you don't gain new spells or any other class features from the Druid class.

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    \$\begingroup\$ "20th level druid for any class features" This suggests that you would have a caster level of 20 after 10 levels of each, which i don't think is correct. I believe it only applies to the animal companion feature. \$\endgroup\$
    – frodoskywalker
    Jul 14, 2017 at 11:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ That's an interesting question in and of itself. I'm not sure what effective druid level covers, but it sounds like it would, by RAW, cover a druid's caster level. \$\endgroup\$
    – gaynorvader
    Jul 14, 2017 at 12:16
  • \$\begingroup\$ Agreed, if there was no more context. But it's fairly clear that it is only meant to apply to the animal companion feature. Otherwise why would they mention it there, of all places? And include stacking with other classes that grant animal companion? \$\endgroup\$
    – frodoskywalker
    Jul 14, 2017 at 12:58
  • \$\begingroup\$ Many classes use 'Effective Druid Level' to manage their Animal Companions statistics. Having an Effective level isn't having a level, and only applies insofar as the referencing Class Feature says. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ifusaso
    Jul 14, 2017 at 14:18
  • \$\begingroup\$ In my experience, it usually calls out that it's exclusively for Animal Companions. Like the Green Faith Acolyte: "At the indicated levels, a Green Faith acolyte increases her effective druid level by 1 for determining the abilities of her animal companion." \$\endgroup\$
    – gaynorvader
    Jul 14, 2017 at 14:31

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