Teamwork Benefits and Companion Spirits

In D&D, PCs rarely stand alone. The wizard relies on the doughty fighter to intercept charging enemies, and the fighter in turn depends on the cleric's healing magic when battle is over.

But over time, characters who adventure shoulder to shoulder together can realize teamwork benefits based on their long history together. Likewise, PCs who adventure together can bind a guardian spirit to their up, further strengthening their ability to function as a team.

What Is a Teamwork Benefit

Experienced D&D players understand the value of specific tactics that take advantage of teamwork. However, teamwork also has a more general benefit. Once characters have trained with specific comrades, they're attuned to nuances of how they fight, move, and communicate. Characters who have spent time working as a team can derive a benefit simply from having their comrades nearby. This teamwork benefit grants an expanded use of a skill, a bonus on certain checks, or a battlefield action otherwise unavailable to the team members.

To qualify for a teamwork benefit, PCs must meet two broad categories of requirements: training time and prerequisites.

First, the characters seeking the benefit must jointly practice techniques relevant to the benefit for at least two weeks before acquiring the benefit. This two-week training period must be repeated whenever a new character joins the group, as the newcomer becomes accustomed to the operating procedures of veteran team members.

Second, some teamwork benefits have prerequisites such as skill ranks, base attack bonus, or feats. A prerequisite can take one of two different forms.

Task Leader Prerequisites: These requirements must be met by at least one character on the team. If only one character qualifies, and that character leaves the team, the group loses the teamwork benefit until the character returns or is replaced by another character who meets the same prerequisites. The designation of task leader can vary from one benefit to another; a character who serves as the task leader for the Infiltration teamwork benefit might be a different individual from the one who functions as the task leader for the Ranged Precision benefit. In addition to the indicated prerequisites, a task leader must have an Intelligence score of at least 8. (While a task leader need not be a genius, nor has he particular need of a strong personality, he must be at least reasonably capable of communicating his thoughts to others.)

Team Member Prerequisites: Every character on the team must meet these requirements. Any character who joins the team must meet the prerequisites in order for the team to enjoy the teamwork benefit.

For example, the Infiltration teamwork benefit has a task leader prerequisite of 8 ranks in both Hide and Move Silently, and a team member prerequisite of 1 rank in Hide or Move Silently. This means that at least one character in the group must have 8 or more ranks in each of the two skills, while each other character in the team must have at least 1 rank in either of the two skills. When the team is sneaking around, the task leader directs her less adept comrades in stealth techniques, covering any extra noise with environmental sounds, and so on.

A team (see The Team Roster, below) gets one teamwork benefit for every 4 Hit Dice the lowest-level member of the team has, so it earns a new teamwork benefit whenever that character attains a new level evenly divisible by 4. If that character's level later drops below the required level (due to energy drain or being brought back from the dead), the team retains all its current teamwork benefits but doesn't gain a new one until the lowest-level character regains his or her lost level(s) plus four more levels.

Anytime a team gains a new teamwork benefit, it also has the option to swap out a previously known teamwork benefit for a new one for which the team qualifies. In effect, the team can elect to lose one teamwork benefit in order to gain two others. This is most often done when the team roster has changed in such a way as to make a previously known teamwork benefit no longer useful.

Unless otherwise specified, each teamwork benefit can be taken only once. The teamwork benefit applies whenever the characters on the team can communicate with each other, whether verbally, with gestures, or by magical means.

Creatures and Teamwork

The Team Roster

Teamwork benefits are based on the notion that once characters have spent time training with their comrades, they respond instinctively to subtle changes in body language and can anticipate their comrades' likely moves. A group of people (PCs or NPCs) must train together for at least two weeks before all members of the group are eligible to share the same teamwork benefits. The PCs will undoubtedly occupy most of the positions on the team, but cohorts, animal companions, paladin mounts, familiars, and recurring NPC allies can also be members of a team.

A team must have at least two members and no more than eight. To join a team, a character must have an Intelligence score of 3 or higher.

To maintain their teamwork benefits, the characters on a team must train together for at least four one-week periods per year. These training periods need not be consecutive and can happen at the same time as training to earn the new class features of a given level (as described above), so in most cases PCs won't have to spend additional time to keep their teamwork skills sharp.

To add a new character to a team (often because a previous character died or otherwise left the group), that character must train with the other characters on the team for at least two weeks, learning the nuances and standard operating procedures of the team. This training can occur during the training time required to gain the benefits of a new level.

A character can join an adventuring party without joining the team that includes other members of the party. In this case, he doesn't gain any teamwork benefits, neither does his lack of prerequisites count against the team's qualification for the benefits.

A character leaves a team at his option or by consensus of the other members of that team.

Teamwork Benefit Descriptions

Here is the format for teamwork benefit descriptions

Benefit Name

Description of what the benefit does or represents.

Training: A brief discussion of the training procedure required to acquire the benefit.

Task Leader Prerequisite: A base attack bonus, a feat or feats, a minimum number of ranks in one or more skills, a class feature, or some other requirement that at least one character on the team must have in order the team to acquire this benefit. This entry is absent if a teamwork benefit has no task leader prerequisite. A benefit can have more than one task leader prerequisite; the same character must meet all task leader prerequisites for a particular benefit.

Team Member Prerequisite: These requirement must be met by every member of the team in order for the team to acquire this benefit. This entry is absent if a teamwork benefit has no team member prerequisite. A benefit can have more than one team member prerequisite. If another teamwork benefit is given as a team member prerequisite, all members of the team must qualify the prerequisite teamwork benefit before the new benefit can be acquired.

Benefit: What the teamwork benefit enables the team members to do.

Tips: Advice for players and DMs using this teamwork benefit.

Awareness

Your team knows where to look and what to listen for to anticipate ambushes.

Training: To train for this benefit, you and your teammates must run through scenarios in which half of you set up ambushes to snare the others. Through constant drilling, your team learns to listen for specific sounds and look for random visual dues. By regularly exploring dangerous locales, developing listening skills, and staying alert for the slightest movements, your team gradually develops a routine for examining an area to prevent enemies from getting the drop on the group.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Listen 12 ranks and Spot 12 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Listen 2 ranks or Spot 2 ranks.

Benefit: Every member of the team gains a +2 circumstance bonus on Listen and Spot checks if any other team member is within 30 feet.

Special: When moving into an area with poor lighting, or one that offers plenty of places for opponents to hide, it's best to spread out to the outer extent of this benefit's range. By doing so, your group presents a less attractive target to a hidden spellcaster. For example, if each character is exactly 30 feet (6 squares) away from the task leader, not everyone could be caught in a fireball or similar effect.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Camp Routine

The regular routine your group has established allows you to setup, watch, and break down camp quickly and efficiently.

Training: To develop a camp routine, the team must establish a regular schedule of tasks and responsibilities for each member. For example, one character might set up the tents while another starts the fire and a third prepares the evening meal. Your team must also set up a routine watch schedule so that everyone knows who goes on watch when, and for how long.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Survival 8 ranks or Self-Sufficient.

Team Member Prerequisite: Survival 1 rank.

Benefit: Your team can set up and break camp with an eye toward defensibility and efficiency. The team member on watch gains a +2 bonus on Spot and Listen checks, and each sleeping team member gains a +4 bonus on Listen checks to hear any sounds within 30 feet.

Special: Be sure to put spellcasters on the first watch or last watch so that they can get enough uninterrupted rest to regain their spells. Your first priority when the party is attacked while you are on watch is to wake up your allies, so you should carry signal whistle, bell, or similar item.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Circle of Blades

The members of your team can combine their attacks to slice rough the defenses of a foe they have surrounded.

Training: You and your teammates learn to anticipate each other's attacks and fighting maneuvers. By correctly timing your blows, you can strike at a foe's vulnerable points.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Weapon Specialization and base attack bonus +6.

Team Member Prerequisite: Sneak attack +1d6.

Benefit: Any team member who readies an action to attack when the task leader does gains a +2 bonus on damage rolls against the same target.

Special: Tip: The circle of blades teamwork benefit works best against undead, oozes, and other monsters that have immunity to extra damage from sneak attacks.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Climbing Squad

Your team has developed a method to climb surfaces safely and quickly.

Training: Your team must spend a great deal of time climbing as a group, studying each other's technique and learning from the team's best climber. With practice, members of a climbing squad can scale most surfaces easily.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Climb 8 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Climb 1 rank.

Benefit: When encountering a surface to be scaled, the task leader must climb it first. Upon reaching the top (or another safe point along the climb), the leader can use the aid another action to grant a +4 bonus (instead of the usual +2) to each other member who attempts the climb. In addition, each member after the task leader can attempt accelerated climbing and take a -2 penalty to the Climb check.
To grant these benefits, the task leader must direct each member for his entire climb (a move action).

Tips: Despite the benefits, climbers who wear heavy armor and have high check penalties still find it difficult to scale smooth or slippery surfaces. Knotted ropes prove helpful in most cases.

Source: Dungeonscape

Crowded Charge

Because you and your allies know when to step out of each other's way, you can charge even when allies are blocking your path.

Training: The members of your team learn to step aside whenever one of them begins a charge.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Jump 8 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Jump 1 rank.

Benefit: Other team members do not block movement for the purpose of determining whether a team member can charge. However, a charging team member must still end her movement in an unoccupied space.

Tips: This versatile benefit allows the party's rogue or ranger to scout ahead in a dungeon or other constrained terrain without worrying about blocking a fighter's or barbarian's charge. Furthermore, because the benefit also extends to mounted team members, a paladin can charge on horseback without worrying about trampling her comrades.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Cunning Ambush

Your team can quickly take advantage of terrain to ambush opponents.

Training: The training for this benefit involves studying common environments, running through ambush scenarios, and devising strategies that take advantage of the terrain. Your team must spend a few days in the hills, then in the forest, and then - if possible - in the shifting sands of the desert.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Hide 8 ranks and Listen 8 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Hide 1 rank.

Benefit: If the team members allow the task leader to prepare their hiding positions, he can make a special Hide check to camouflage them. This check is modified by each team member's armor check penalty and Dexterity rather than the task leader's, and the camouflage effect lasts until the team member moves. Hiding a team member in this manner requires 10 minutes of work.

Tips: The ambush teamwork benefit is a great way to play smart. Instead of always going after the monsters on their own turf, let them come to you. Try luring monsters into your trap with spells such as dancing lights or major image. Failing that, buff up the party scout with defensive spells to protect her while she acts as bait.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Cunning Ambush, Improved

When you are adequately prepared, your team can set a devastating ambush.

Training: Same as for cunning ambush.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Hide 12 ranks and Listen 12 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Hide 3 ranks and the cunning ambush teamwork benefit.

Benefit: During the surprise round, each team member who is not surprised and has been camouflaged (see Cunning Ambush) can take a full round's worth of actions.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Door Procedures

Your team is accomplished at identifying and eliminating traps and other threats at doors.

Training: By studying common door traps, practicing listening techniques, and remaining alert for tiny clues that precede a triggered trap, you gradually develop a routine that enables your team to examine a door with minimum risk to the team.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Listen 8 ranks, Search 8 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Listen 1 rank or Search 1 rank.

Benefit: When listening at or searching a door or similar portal, the task leader gains a +1 circumstance bonus on his Listen and Search checks for each team member within 10 feet of the door.
If the task leader chooses to take 20 on a Listen or Search check made at a door, he can do so in half the normal time (as if he had made ten attempts, rather than twenty).

Tips: The door procedures teamwork benefit is a good way to quickly adjudicate each door you approach in a dungeon. You can quickly make the rolls and get on with the encounter on the other side. Be ready to make these rolls when you find a closed door in the dungeon. Then make the Listen check or the Search check, and either deal with the trap you find or get ready to open the door. Keep in mind that you might be able to take 10 or take 20 these checks.

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II

Expert Mountaineers

Your team can work together to ascend difficult slopes and sheer surfaces with relative ease.

Training: Constant training with expert climbers has made your team comfortable with ascents and descents.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Climb 8 ranks and Use Rope 8 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Climb 1 rank or Use Rope 1 rank.

Benefit: If a team member succeeds on a Climb check, every other team member adjacent to him gains a +2 circumstance bonus on Climb checks made to ascend the same surface Furthermore, each team member can make an accelerate climb with only a -2 penalty on the Climb check. Finally team member can catch a falling comrade by succeeding on a Climb check against the wall's DC (not against the wall's DC +10).

Tips: Using the appropriate climbing equipment makes Climb checks easier. So, to ensure success, invest in pitons to make your own handholds and footholds.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Fearsome Roster

By taunting your enemies and projecting an air of menace, your team can send them fleeing from the field of battle.

Training: Intimidating enemies is more than an individual effort once the members of your team have practiced together enough to earn this teamwork benefit. Even in a fight, your collective body language exudes dangerous menace, and each team member responds to comrades' telling blows with war cries and demoralizing taunts.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Intimidate 8 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Cha 13 or Intimidate 1 rank.

Benefit: Enemies who can see at least two members of your team take a penalty on morale checks equal to 1 + one-quarter of the Hit Dice of the lowest-level member of the team.

Tips: If your team has acquired this benefit, you should be keenly aware of the conditions that force your enemies to make morale checks. Usually, individuals make morale checks when they fall to half their hit points or less, and the surviving members of units make morale checks when half their original numbers have fallen or fled. See Morale Checks for more information.

Source: Heroes of Battle

Field Medic Training

Your comrades can quickly stabilize grievous wounds so that a fallen ally doesn't succumb to blood loss and trauma.

Training: To gain this benefit, your team receives instruction from accomplished healers and practices on the wounded.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Heal 8 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Heal 1 rank.

Benefit: If two team members each attempt to stabilize the same dying creature in the same round, the second attempt automatically succeeds.

Tips: The fastest members of the team can reach a fallen comrade most quickly.

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II

Foe Hunting

Your team is especially good at tracking down and destroying specific types of creatures.

Training: The training for this benefit begins with intensive research on the specific creature type to be hunted. You and your teammates must drill on the various features and traits of the chosen creature until you learn its every idiosyncrasy. Finally, the team must stage mock combats so that each of you can learn to take advantage of the target creature's weaknesses.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Favored enemy (any one) +4.

Team Member Prerequisite: Survival 1 rank and base attack bonus +4.

Benefit: Each team member who assumes a flanking position with the task leader against his favored enemy gains a +2 bonus on damage rolls against that creature.

Tips: To make optimum use of this benefit, the task leader should wear light armor or use spells that improve his speed.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Friendly Fire Evasion

By attuning yourself to minute, almost subliminal changes in your environment, you get just enough warning to avoid damaging area spells cast by your allies.

Training: During the training procedure for this benefit, the spellcasters on your team cast lightning bolts, fireballs, flame strikes, and other area spells in their arsenal, and other team members stand on the fringes of the spells' area, their senses perked for the whiff of brimstone, the crackle of static electricity, or the barely audible hum that occurs an instant before such spells go off. Then you practice ducking, dodging, and covering so that you avoid the damage from those spells.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Spellcraft 4 ranks, evasion ability.

Team Member Prerequisite: Base Reflex save +2, Spellcraft 1 rank.

Benefit: You gain the evasion ability (see page 41 of the Player's Handbook), but only concerning spells cast by your team members.

Tips: Use this teamwork benefit to keep tough characters in the front line despite allied damaging spells raining down around them. Of course, you still need a pretty good Reflex save bonus to take full advantage of this benefit.

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II
Heroes of Battle

Friendly Fire Evasion, Improved

You have further attuned yourself to the subtle precursors of the area spells your comrades cast, so you can usually avoid their worst effects.

Training: As described in Friendly Fire Evasion, above.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Spellcraft 6 ranks, improved evasion ability.

Team Member Prerequisite: Friendly Fire Evasion teamwork benefit, base Reflex save +3, Spellcraft 1 rank.

Benefit: You gain the improved evasion ability (see page 42 of the Player's Handbook), but only concerning spells cast by your team members.

Tips: As with Friendly Fire Evasion, this teamwork benefit lets tough characters stay in the front line despite allied damaging spells raining down around them. A good Reflex save bonus isn't as crucial to take advantage of this benefit, but it still helps.

Source: Heroes of Battle

Gaze Aversion

When facing a monster with a gaze attack (such as a medusa), you are adept at avoiding its dangerous gaze.

Training: Your team practices concise verbal descriptions, often in code, and maneuvering according to those descriptions. Eventually you're able to avoid looking at your target except when it's absolutely necessary, keeping track of the battle through the shouted instructions of your comrades.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Spot 8 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Spot 1 rank.

Benefit: As long as at least one team member is looking directly at the gaze-attack monster, any team member averting his eyes need not make a save against the gaze attack.

Tips: To make this teamwork benefit as effective as possible, it's best if the spotter is beyond the area the gaze attack affects, is naturally immune to the effect of the gaze, or at least has the best saving throw among the team members.

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II

Group Trance

You and your teammates reduce your susceptibility to sleep by learning the ways of the elves.

Training: Your team members learn the secrets of elf trance and can slip into a trance state by establishing a physical link with the task leader. This trance state allows each member to gain the benefit of sleep by cleansing her mind and entering a deep meditative state.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Elf blood (elf or half-elf).

Team Member Prerequisite: Concentration 1 rank.

Benefit: When team members join hands, the task leader can create a trance link that allows each of them, regardless of race, to meditate in the same manner as elves do. Every team member gains the benefit of 8 hours of sleep after just 4 hours of meditation.

Tips: Let all the spellcasters in the group rest while the warriors stay on guard. If the group's elf trances with half the team at a time, your party can get by with two well-manned guard watches per night rather than several shorter shifts.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Heavy Cavalry

Not only are you an accomplished equestrian, but your comrades are as well. You have extended your almost instinctive bond with your mount to the riders and steeds galloping at your sides. Your team can charge enemies with your steeds running shoulder to shoulder. This tight formation often sends your foes scattering - if they don't panic and flee from battle entirely.

Training: At first, would-be heavy cavalry team members simply practice running across an open field, four abreast. But as the riders and mounts grow more accustomed to each other, they gradually reduce the space that separates one steed and rider from another. Once they're galloping shoulder to shoulder, the team members practice sweeping turns and maintaining their formation despite difficult terrain.
Training often concludes with practice in trampling enemies. Good-aligned heavy cavalry might practice by running down livestock, illusory enemies created by friendly spellcasters, or wood-and-straw jousting dummies. Evil equestrians sometimes turn prisoners or slaves loose as "trample practice" for heavy cavalry.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Handle Animal 4 ranks, Ride 8 ranks, Mounted Combat, Trample.

Team Member Prerequisite: Ride 1 rank. The members' mounts need not be members of the team.

Benefit: To close their formation, the team members and their mounts first line up in adjacent squares, then move closer together so that each takes up a square half as wide as usual. For example, a Medium character mounted on a horse or other Large creature normally takes up a 10-foot square, and a team of four such characters would occupy a rectangle 40 feet wide and 10 feet deep. By contrast, if the same team had trained together and acquired this teamwork benefit, they could compress their line into a unit only 20 feet wide and 10 feet deep, making it harder for anyone they overrun to dodge between the horses' hooves.
All team members must act on the same initiative count, so some members must delay to match the initiative count of the slowest member in the team.
As long as the characters remain in a cohesive set of squares and move at least their speed every round, they gain the following benefits:

• They don't take the -4 penalty on attack rolls and to AC for squeezing (described on page 29 of the Dungeon Master's Guide).
• Opponents can't avoid overruns from team members; they must attempt to block.
• The team members' mounts count as one size category larger for purposes of resolving overruns. For example, a horse counts as a Huge creature (+8 bonus to overrun) rather than a Large creature (+4).

For the purposes of area spells and determining position on the battlefield, each Medium character on a Large mount is considered to be occupying a space 5 feet wide and 10 feet long.

Tips: If you have the heavy cavalry teamwork benefit, you'll want to know the mounted overrun rules (see page 158 of the Player's Handbook) backward and forward. Calculate the bonus for your Strength check in advance, keeping in mind that your mount gets an extra +4 bonus for counting as one size category larger than normal. In addition, have that hoof attack ready to go - you'll get lots of use out of it - and know what prone characters can and can't do (see page 311 of the Player's Handbook). If all goes well, you'll be facing a lot of prone enemies.

Source: Heroes of Battle

Indirect Fire

Your team has a forward observer called a spotter, who locates enemies and reveals their positions.

Training: You and your teammates practice aiming at unseen targets using directions from allies. Eventually, you learn to fire accurately at targets that have cover based on the body language and gestures of the spotter.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Precise Shot and base attack bonus +6.

Team Member Prerequisite: Spot 3 ranks.

Benefit: This benefit denies opponents some of the protection normally granted by cover or concealment. If the spotter has an unobstructed line of sight to the covered or concealed target, she can, as a move action, use hand gestures, spoken directions, and body language to alert allies wielding ranged weapons to the target's position. If the target has cover, it gains only half the normal cover bonus to Armor Class against the team's ranged attacks. If the target has concealment, the attacker rolls the miss chance twice to determine whether his attack hits. A spotter who can see invisible targets can use this ability to allow a reroll on the miss chance to strike an invisible creature.

Tips: Team members with darkvision make the best spotters, since they can use their special sight to locate creatures that are taking advantage of shadowy or dark conditions.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Infiltration

You are adept at moving silently and unseen. You point out noisy ground to your comrades, identify good hiding places for one another, and otherwise move as unobtrusively as possible. You dart ahead while your teammates watch for enemies, then you cover your comrades while they advance. While this teamwork benefit doesn't help much amid the tumult of a pitched battle, you're able to sneak behind enemy lines to attack enemy leaders, sabotage siege engines, and otherwise give your army the upper hand before the trumpets sound.

Training: Infiltration training involves hours of practice sneaking as a group. Elves and other woodland denizens often play elaborate games of hide-and-seek (with the seeking team getting useful practice as scouts). Subterranean races stalk the caverns and tunnels of their realms, practicing the art of hiding in a pitch-black environment. With practice, members of an infiltration team get good at sharing hiding spaces, darting from cover to cover, and timing their movements to be as silent and stealthy as possible.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Hide 8 ranks, Move Silently 8 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Hide 1 rank or Move Silently 1 rank.

Benefit: Your team can move at full speed without taking a -5 penalty on Hide and Move Silently checks. Other penalties (such as from difficult terrain) still apply, and you take the normal penalties on Hide or Move Silently checks while attacking, running, or charging. Team members are always visible to each other despite their Hide check results and the presence of anything less than total concealment (although cover might still block line of sight between team members). If you move to a position where none of your comrades can see or contact you, you lose the teamwork benefit at the start of your next turn and don't count as part of the team until you reestablish contact with at least one member.

Tips: If you're part of an infiltration team, keep if mind that you can take 10 on your Hide and Move Silently checks whenever you aren't being threatened OB distracted. It's often easiest to just tell the DM what the lowest Hide and Move Silently check results on the team are. Those check results set the DC for NPCs' Spot and Listen checks.

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II
Heroes of Battle

Invisibility Sweep

If you're aware of the presence of an unseen enemy, you can quickly move through an area and pinpoint your foe's location.

Training: You practice finding invisible enemies by swinging your weapons through empty spaces and making sudden movements that an invisible foe wouldn't anticipate. More important, you quickly develop a short hand way of describing the location of an unseen enemy you have pinpointed - "At my 4 o'clock, 10 feet out," for example. Eventually, members of your team can quickly and effectively target a specific (apparently empty) square based on your verbal description.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Blind-fight.

Benefit: Each team member can check for the presence of an invisible enemy by groping into four adjacent 5-foot squares within reach, making touch attacks in those squares as described on page 295 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Doing so is a standard action. If one team member pinpoints the location of an invisible enemy (whether through groping, Spot and Listen checks, other means), every other team member within earshot also has that enemy pinpointed until that enemy moves into a different square. (Pinpointed invisible enemies still gain the benefit of total concealment; see page 152 of the Player's Handbook.)

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II
Heroes of Battle

Joint Bull Rush

Shoulder to shoulder with your allies, you can blast into the ranks of your enemies, knocking them back with your combined force.

Training: You and your teammates practice charging wooden tackling dummies all at the same time, moving in lockstep and delivering a powerful push at the same moment. Eventually you get so good that you leave only splintered and sagging dummies in your wake.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Improved Bull Rush.

Benefit: To perform a joint bull rush, all the team members involved must ready the bull rush action until the turn of the member with the slowest initiative. Then all the bull rushing team members move to their target at the same time and make a single bull rush attempt using the Strength bonus of the strongest team member. Each additional team member involved in the joint bull rush applies his or her Strength bonus (minimum +1). The team members must end their movement adjacent to one another, and they all provoke attacks of opportunity from the defender (although the defender can only make a single attack unless he has the Combat Reflexes feat).

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II
Heroes of Battle

Joint Grapple Escape

You use nonverbal cues to time your struggles against a grappling enemy, applying force and leverage at just the right moment to escape the clutches of your foe.

Training: In a series of wrestling matches, you practice techniques of suddenly shifting your weight and applying maximum effort just as a comrade outside the grapple makes a similar effort - or at least distracts your opponent. Eventually, your timing improves to the point where you and your comrades are working in concert with split-second timing.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +4 or Improved Grapple.

Benefit: If you successfully use the aid another action to assist an adjacent team member's next grapple check or scape Artist check to escape from a grapple, you provide our teammate with a bonus on that check equal to +4 or our Strength modifier, whichever is higher.

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II
Heroes of Battle

Joint Ram

Your comrades and you are practiced at bashing things down, applying maximum force at the moment of impact.

Training: To practice for this teamwork benefit, you have to wreck stuff together, practicing your timing and making sure you're applying the utmost leverage to the target. Eventually, you learn to break down doors and crumble walls that would be impervious to individual efforts.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Improved Sunder.

Benefit: When your team is employing a ram to knock down a barrier or destroy another object, the ram deals an extra 2 points of damage for each team member wielding the ram.
In addition, if a team member is trying to break down a door or perform a feat of strength similar to ramming, she gains a +4 bonus on the check for every team member who assists with the aid another action. The DM should set limits for how many team members can usefully help break down a particular door (typically two Medium creatures for every 5 feet of the door's width).

Source: Heroes of Battle

Like a Rock

Like dwarves, the members of your team are stable on their feet.

Training: Your team develops resilience against unbalancing attacks by working closely with a dwarf or some other sturdy member of the party. When the team stands together, its members are difficult to dislodge.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Stability (as dwarf racial trait).

Team Member Prerequisite: Balance 1 rank.

Benefit: The task leader's stability bonus against bull rush or trip attempts extends to all team members adjacent to her. This bonus stacks with that provided by stability.

Tips: This benefit requires the team to bunch up, so if the enemy has a number of area attacks, be sure to beef everyone up with spells and abilities that grant energy resistance. If you must spread out, don't move so far apart that you can't help an ally who is knocked prone.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Long-Range Archery

Because you're attuned to the other archers on your team, you learn from the mistakes they make when targeting a far-off foe.

Training: When you collectively train on the archery range, you spend time watching each other's form and providing pointers. After enough practice, you can see when your comrades miss a shot because they aimed too high or too low, and you can use that information to make your own shots more accurate.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Far Shot.

Team Member Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +1.

Benefit: When a team member misses with a ranged attack made against a target farther away than one range increment, subsequent ranged attacks any team member makes against that foe take only half the penalty for range (-1 per range increment). If the foe moves more than 20 feet, this benefit does not apply until a team member shoots at and misses the foe again.

Tips: If you have this teamwork benefit, consider ordering your ranged attacks so that the team member who is least likely to hit fires before the more reliable attackers do. This tactic helps ensure that the benefit will apply to later attacks. Also, having a more accurate attack follow a less accurate one almost always takes the enemy by surprise.

Source: Heroes of Battle

Massed Charge

When your team charges, it smashes into the foe as a single great, implacable mass.

Training: You and your teammates learn to charge as one. You line up in a tight formation and time your strides to move in tight synchronicity.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Balance 5 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Balance 1 rank.

Benefit: The team can make a special charge attack. All team members move on the same initiative count, and each must charge and attack the same target. Each team member gains a bonus on his attack roll after the charge equal to the number of teammates participating.

Tips: This benefit works best against a single, large opponent. A smaller opponent presents too narrow a point of contact for you to maximize this ability.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Missile Volley

Your team excels at firing as a group, unleashing a saturated wave of arrows and bolts. Each member places her shots so that the target cannot dodge them all.

Training: Your team practices by taking aim at a number of small targets clustered together (representing different spots on the body of a single enemy). Each of you can learn to place your shots so as to cover every part of a target with a single joint volley.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Far Shot and Precise Shot.

Team Member Prerequisite: Point Blank Shot.

Benefit: Every member of the team who readies an action to fire a missile weapon when the task leader does gains a bonus on the attack roll equal to the number of team members firing. The task leader also qualifies for the bonus, even though she did not ready an action. All these attacks must be made against the same target.

Tips: Since everyone except the task leader must ready an action to fire, the other team members lose their additional attacks. Thus, the team is trading a high number of attack rolls for a smaller number of attacks that are more likely to hit. This benefit works best when a single, skilled archer (the task leader) uses her teammates' help to improve her accuracy.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Ranged Precision

You know the timing of your comrades' attacks so well that you can shift to the side for a moment, letting ranged attacks fly past you and into your enemies.

Training: You and the rest of the team watch each other shoot ranged weapons, memorizing how much time it takes to draw an arrow from a quiver, nock it, aim, and shoot. Then you internally count to measure the time between arrows, shifting yourself when you know an arrow is being fired so you don't get in the way.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +4, Precise Shot.

Team Member Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +2.

Benefit: The penalty for firing a ranged weapon into melee is cut in half (from -4 to -2) if every ally in the melee is on your team. The AC benefit your foe gets from cover is likewise cut in half (from +4 to +2) if that cover consists solely of team members.

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II

Scouting

Your team is alert for the slightest disturbance in your environment. While one of you watches straight ahead, another scans to the side, while a third pauses for a moment to listen intently. By finding your enemies before they find you, your team can dictate the terms of an engagement - or perhaps avoid it entirely.

Training: Trainees divide their environment into arcs, with one soldier looking straight ahead, another checking to the left, a third watching the right, a fourth the sky, a fifth behind him, and so on. The soldiers concentrate their senses on those arcs, doing their best to block out distractions elsewhere. Eventually, each member of the team instinctively knows which arc he is responsible for and which arcs his comrades are covering, and he can switch arcs subconsciously when his comrades stop scanning for a moment.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Listen 8 ranks, Spot 8 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Listen 1 rank and Spot 1 rank; or Alertness.

Benefit: The team as a whole can make a free Spot check and a free Listen check at the end of each round, regardless of whether any members of the team have already made such checks that round. Use the lowest check modifier of any member of the team present, with a +1 bonus for every team member beyond the first. In the middle of a combat when actions are precious, this team-work benefit gives the members detailed information about their immediate environment that they otherwise wouldn't have.

Tips: If your team has this benefit, have your team's Spot and Listen modifiers figured out in advance. It's a good idea to designate one character to make the Spot and Listen checks at the end of each round; making it a specific character's responsibility means the group is less likely to forget it.

Source: Heroes of Battle

Search Team

Your team is skilled at finding secret doors and traps much faster than normal.

Training: By assigning members to look for specific clues, your team has developed a routine to find secret doors and traps quickly by alerting the task leader to any anomalies.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Search 5 ranks, trap sense +1.

Team Member Prerequisite: Search 1 rank.

Benefit: As a full-round action, the task leader can apply his Search check result to every square searched by a member of the team (excluding the task leader).

Tips: For this benefit to be effective, the task leader should have a high number of ranks in the Search skill. Team members can use the aid another action to increase the task leader's check.

Source: Dungeonscape

Snap Out of It

Because you know your fellow team members so well, you can help them shake off the effects of magical compulsions.

Training: Your team is trained in a variety of effects that intentionally shake the psyche of your comrades - everything from a stinging slap to the face to an imploring "Remember us, Regdar? We're your friends...."

Task Leader Prerequisite: Concentration 8 ranks or Iron Will.

Team Member Prerequisite: Concentration 1 rank.

Benefit: If a team member is known to be under the sway of a compulsion effect, an adjacent team member can spend a full-round action to grant that team member a new save against the compulsion effect (as the rogue's slippery mind class feature, except that the second save need not happen in the second round of the effect).

Special: No character can grant another team member more than one extra save against any one compulsion effect. However, multiple team members can all attempt to help the same character.

Tips: This benefit only works if you know that your team members have been subverted by a compulsion effect. Spellcraft checks can identify that a spell such as dominate person has been cast, and a Sense Motive check can detect that the behavior of one of your team members is being influenced by an enchantment.

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II

Spellcaster Guardian

You have a keen sense of the timing of the spellcasters on your team, so you can often protect them from enemies when their spells are about to go off.

Training: Over a period of weeks, you closely observe your comrades as they cast spells, noting the exact gestures and phrases they use when they are at their most distracted. You learn the idiosyncrasies of your allies' spellcasting techniques so well that you know exactly where they are in the spellcasting process just by watching and listening to them, even if you don't know what the words and gestures mean.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Combat Reflexes, Spellcraft 4 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Dexterity 13 or Spellcraft 1 rank.

Benefit: If a spellcaster on your team provokes attacks of opportunity by casting a spell, a team member adjacent to the spellcaster can interpose herself between the spellcaster and one or more attackers at the last moment, taking upon herself attacks of opportunity meant for the spellcaster. The team member can intercept a number of attacks of opportunity equal to 1 + her Dexterity bonus. Resolve each attack as normal, using the interposing team member's Armor Class. If the attack hits, it damages the interposing character but doesn't distract the spellcaster.

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II
Heroes of Battle

Spell Barrage

By coordinating the release of your spells, you're able to catch your foes when they're unable to evade the effects.

Training: By observing your fellow spellcasters as they're working magic, you're able to time your spells so they finish when your enemies are off-balance from the first spell.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Spellcraft 8 ranks.

Team Member Prerequisite: Spellcraft 2 ranks.

Benefit: This benefit is triggered when a team member first casts a spell requiring a Reflex save. Whether they succeed or fail on the save, all enemies within its area take a -2 penalty on Reflex saves for each subsequent Reflex save attempted that round against an effect created by another member of the same team.

Tips: Obviously, the more Reflex-save-requiring area spells you can cast during the round, the better. Consider giving team members that are secondary spellcasters or have ranks in Use Magic Device a scroll or wand with an area spell for such occasions.

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II

Steadfast Resolve

Your team members can use their camaraderie and shared experience to shrug off the effect of fear.

Training: Through long experience in dealing with adversity, you and your teammates develop the trust and support needed to bolster each other's minds when subjected to magical fear.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Concentration 8 ranks and Iron Will.

Team Member Prerequisite: Base Will save bonus +2.

Benefit: Any team member who must make a saving throw against a fear spell or effect gains a +2 circumstance bonus on the save if he can see or hear at least one team member.

Tips: Some fear-based spells affect areas. If you cast such a spell on an area that includes both allies and enemies, your teammates are likely to make the save while the foes run away.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Superior Flank

Your team is good at harrying foes by surrounding them. If two of you get into flanking positions, you can both time your attacks to take maximum advantage of the enemy's divided attention. Enemies get so distracted that every attacker benefits.

Training: This teamwork benefit happens only after all the members of the team spend countless hours practicing two-on-one, three-on-one, and other unbalanced melee combats. Eventually the team members develop split-second timing and a keen perception of where the enemy is concentrating his defensive efforts.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Sneak attack +4d6.

Team Member Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +3.

Benefit: Whenever two members of your team flank the same enemy, all members of the team can make melee attacks against that enemy as if they also flanked her. Creatures that can't be flanked are unaffected.
Furthermore, if at least two members of your team are flanking a foe who has the improved uncanny dodge ability, add together the rogue levels of all team members engaged in melee with that foe to determine whether she can be flanked. If the sum of your teammates' rogue level is four more than the foe has Hit Dice, all members of your team can flank that foe.

Tips: If your team has this benefit, you get the +2 bonus for flanking on your melee attacks more frequently. You'll want to study how to flank unusually large creatures (see page 153 of the Player's Handbook).

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide II
Heroes of Battle

Superior Team Effort

When your team works together on a task - whether it's battering down a door, talking a nervous innkeeper into allowing everyone to spend the night, or sneaking past a guard - everyone on the team does a better than average job of assisting each other's efforts.

Training: Your team focuses on improving a particular skill. Each team member watches the task leader and learns a few specific actions that can help her succeed.

Task Leader Prerequisite: 8 ranks in a skill and Skill Focus for the same skill.

Team Member Prerequisite: 1 rank in the skill to which the task leader's Skill Focus feat applies.

Benefit: Any team member who attempts to aid another member's check with the relevant skill must make a DC 5 check to succeed rather than a DC 10 check.

Special: Special: This teamwork benefit applies only to checks made with the skill to which the task leader's Skill Focus feat applies.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Team Melee Tactics

Because your group fights as an effective team in melee, its members can use the aid another action with greater than normal efficiency.

Training: Your team studies each member's tactics, fighting style, and tendencies. These hours of focused observation allow each member to understand how best to help the rest of the team.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Combat Expertise and Dodge

Team Member Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +6.

Benefit: Whenever a team member uses the aid another action to grant another member a bonus on attack rolls, that bonus increases by 1.

Tips: The aid another action allows an ally to strike with superior accuracy at the expense of the aiding character's own attacks. Thus, the ally who receives the assistance should be the best qualified team member to take down the foe - whether by virtue of damage reduction, high AC, or the ability to use Power Attack for extra damage.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Team Rally

The members of your team are particularly good at setting a good example for other troops, supporting each other and exuding an aura of competence and confidence.

Training: Most teams that acquire this benefit get it by acting as a cadre for less accomplished soldiers, teaching them the rudiments of military discipline and how to stay cool under fire. After you've dealt with enough recruits, you're attuned to their fears and concerns. When recruits see the members of your team acting in unison in the face of danger, they naturally try to emulate your bravery.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Charisma 13, commander rating 2 (Commander Ratings).

Team Member Prerequisite: Commander rating 1.

Benefit: Whenever a team member makes a rally check, she gains a +1 bonus on the rally check for each other team member the demoralized troops can see or hear.
If a team member is successfully rallied by another team member's rally check, the morale of the rallied teammate improves by two categories (such as from shaken to heartened).

Source: Heroes of Battle

Team Rush

Your team travels faster than normal as a group. The efforts and assistance of the faster characters allow the slower ones to keep up.

Training: Your team must march for a week as a group, traveling across roads, dells, forests, and mountain passes. In so doing, each team member learns how best to help everyone to move together.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Survival 8 ranks and Endurance.

Team Member Prerequisite: Survival 1 rank.

Benefit: When the entire team is traveling overland on foot, each team member moves at the task leader's speed. This benefit does not extend to combat and similar short-term movement situations, or to mounted characters.

Tips: A barbarian is the best task leader for this teamwork benefit. At the cost of a prerequisite feat, he allows his allies to travel much more quickly across the countryside. In campaigns that feature frequent wilderness or underground travel, the time saved might prove to be a major benefit.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Team Shield Maneuver

When your team fights as a group, its members can close ranks to protect a badly injured ally.

Training: Your group learns to react quickly when an ally falls. You drill in pushing aside a wounded team member before he tumbles to the ground and moving him out of harm's way.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Shield Specialization.

Team Member Prerequisite: Shield Proficiency.

Benefit: When a team member's hit points drop to -1 or lower, any teammate adjacent to him who carries a shield can use an immediate action to push him out of harm's way. The injured team member moves 10 feet before falling prone.

Tips: Tip: This tactic works best if one of the group's second line characters has a potion or wand ready to heal the fallen character. In this case, even a character who isn't a member of the team can play a valuable role in making the most of this benefit.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Wall of Steel

By closing ranks and locking shields together, you and your teammates form an impenetrable barrier to shield a more vulnerable team member from enemies.

Training: Your group stands in a tight formation and locks shields while a hired mercenary or assistant pelts everyone with blunt arrows. Each bruising shot reminds you to improve your form and teamwork.

Task Leader Prerequisite: Tower Shield Proficiency and base attack bonus +8.

Team Member Prerequisite: Shield Proficiency and base attack bonus +2.

Benefit: As a swift action, any member of the team can lose his shield bonus to AC and grant it to a single adjacent team member instead. This bonus stacks with the recipients existing shield bonus, if any.

Tips: Tip: Any arcane spellcasters who are frequently exposed to missile fire might want to take the Shield Proficiency feat to gain this teamwork benefit.

Source: Player's Handbook II

Acquiring a Companion Spirit

The process of attracting a companion spirit begins with a group of at least two and no more than eight creatures gathering for a brief magic ritual.

The creatures in the group must each have at least 4 Hit Dice and an Intelligence score of 3 or higher. Other than the Hit Dice requirement, the requirements for connecting with a companion spirit are the same as for establishing a team roster, and in the vast majority of cases, the PCs will use the same roster for both team-based benefits. No creature can be connected to more than one companion spirit, since the second spirit won't establish a connection to a creature already under another spirit's companionship. The hour-long ritual to attract and bind a companion spirit requires one of the creatures on the team to succeed on a DC 15 Spellcraft check. The ritual is simple enough that a PC can simply take 10 on it - there's no consequence for failure other than a wasted hour. By burning a series of rare reagents (worth 300 gp per team member), the team convinces a companion spirit to approach. The exact order of the reagents burned determines the kind of companion spirit that approaches, chosen from those described below. Once attracted, the companion spirit connects to each character in turn, taking a measure of their life force (300 XP each). Once the companion spirit has bound itself to the team, the ritual is nearly complete. By consensus, the team members choose the companion spirit's characteristics, selecting one from the list of general qualities and one from the list of specific qualities. Once the team makes this choice, they gain the 1st-tier benefits associated with each chosen quality, and the ritual is complete.

Companion Spirits and the Team

The magical benefits the companion spirit provides are useful but not flashy or overtly powerful. These qualities encourage teamwork among team members by using the companion spirit as a conduit for magical energy or providing a floating bonus that the team decides jointly how to spend.

Unless stated otherwise, using a companion spirit's benefit is a free action usable once per team member's turn. The benefit doesn't manifest itself in any visible or audible way unless stated.

Changing the Team: As long as the companion spirit is connected to fewer than eight creatures, a character can join a team under the companionship of a spirit by performing the ritual at the highest level the team has attained (according to Table 6-9 below). Only the creature joining the team must pay the XP cost; the other team members need only be present for the ritual and assent to the creature's joining the team. The reagent cost for the ritual is based on the total team membership, however, including the new member.

A creature can disconnect from a companion spirit by spending an hour in meditation and burning a small amount (50 gp worth) of the same reagents that first attracted the companion spirit - in reverse order. Doing so requires no skill in Spellcraft or specific ritual trappings. Once the reagents have been burned and the meditation completed, the creature no longer has any of the benefits of the team.

Improving a Companion Spirit

A companion spirit can become more powerful, just as the creatures under its companionship improve.

Periodically, the team can gather together and repeat the ritual that connected them to the companion spirit in the first place. When they do so, they get a chance to exchange more of their life energy (represented as experience points) for greater magical benefits from the companion spirit.

The team has an opportunity to perform the ritual and gain a new magical benefit every time the lowest-level creature on the team gains 3 Hit Dice, starting at 7th level. If that character's level drops below the required level (due to death or level drain), the team retains its companion spirit benefits but won't gain new ones until the lowest-level character regains his or her lost levels plus three more levels.

The rituals require more expensive reagents and a greater XP cost as the creatures in the team gain levels.

Companion Spirit Ritual Costs
Lowest-Level Character	Reagent Cost (per team member)	XP Cost (per team member)	Benefit
4th	300 gp	300 XP	1st-tier
7th	700 gp	750 XP	2nd-tier
10th	1,500 gp	12,000 XP	3rd-tier
13th	3,000 gp	1,650 XP	4th-tier
16th	7,500 gp	2,100 XP	5th-tier

Companion Spirit Benefits

When a team first connects with a companion spirit, the team chooses a specific quality and a general quality, gaining the 1st-tier benefit from both characteristics. Each time thereafter that the team performs the ritual to improve the companion spirit (according to the schedule shown in Table 6-9: Companion Spirit Ritual Costs), the spirit receives the next higher tier benefit from the two benefit categories that it already possesses.

General Characteristics

The team chooses one of the following four general characteristics for its companion spirit.

Communication Benefits

Your companion spirit allows communication through the magical conduits that bind members of your team.

1st-Tier Benefit: Team members can talk to each other as though connected by a message spell for 1 round per day per each person on the team, split up as each team member likes. For example, if there are eight people on your team, you can use the message benefit for 3 rounds before an encounter, then 4 rounds later in the day, and you'd still have 1 round of communication left.

2nd-Tier Benefit: The team shares a permanent status effect.

3rd-Tier Benefit: The team can send messages great distances through the air, as the whispering wind spell, though the destination of each message is limited to the locations of other team members. The team can send one such message each day for each team member.

4th-Tier Benefit: Team members can telepathically communicate through a Rary's telepathic bond for 1 minute per day per team member.

5th-Tier Benefit: Each team member can use scrying (as the spell) on another team member for 1 round per day per creature on the team. For example, with six people on your team, you could scry on one of them for 2 rounds and another for 4 rounds. You instinctively sense when a team member is scrying you, so you know it's safe to intentionally fail the Will save the spell requires.

Magical Storage Benefits

Your companion spirit stores magical energy that can used by all members of the team.

1st-Tier Benefit: Your companion spirit can hold a 1st-level spell, which each team member can release. Once per day, a spellcaster on the team casts the spell into the companion spirit (ignoring usual targeting requirements). At any point during the following 24 hours, each team member can release the spell as if it were a spell trigger item with a caster level of 1st, but the team member need not have spellcasting ability. The spellcaster makes all choices the spell requires (other than targeting) when originally casting the spell. Each team member can use the stored spell only once, and must abide by targeting restrictions and line of effect when casting the spell. You can't use the companion spirit to store spells with a target entry of personal, and it won't store 0-level spells.

2nd-Tier Benefit: As above, but your companion spirit can hold a spell of up to 2nd level, and the caster level of the spell becomes 3rd level. This replaces the 1st-tier benefit.

3rd-Tier Benefit: As above, but your companion spirit can hold a spell of up to 3rd level, and the caster level of the spell becomes 5th level. This replaces the 2nd-tier benefit.

4th-Tier Benefit: As above, but your companion spirit can hold a spell of up to 4th level, and the caster level of the spell becomes 7th level. This replaces the 3rd-tier benefit.

5th-Tier Benefit: As above, but your companion spirit can hold a spell of up to 5th level, and the caster level of the spell becomes 9th level. This replaces the 4th-tier benefit.

Salve Benefits

This companion spirit provides the succor of healing, mending the wounds of those under its protection.

1st-Tier Benefit: Each day, the companion spirit offers a pool of curative magic equal to 3 hit points times number of team members. For example, a six-creature team would have 18 points of curative magic in its pool. A team member can claim all or part of curative magic as a standard action, healing 1 point of damage for every point taken out of the pool. Once part of the pool is claimed, the size of the pool shrinks accordingly for the rest the day.

2nd-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 1st-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that the pool is equal to 6 hit points times the number of team members. You can also use the companion spirit to heal ability damage, at a cost of 4 hit points of healing for each point of ability damage restored. You can heal either hit point damage or ability damage as a standard action, but not both in the same action.

3rd-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 2nd-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that the pool increases to 9 hit points times the number of team members, and members can claim all or part of the curative magic with a move action.

4th-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 3rd-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that the pool equals 12 hit points times the number of team members.

5th-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 4th-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that the pool increases to 15 hit points times the number of team memers, and members can claim all or part of the curative magic with a swift action.

Transference Benefits

The tendrils that connect your team together are conduits for a variety of effects.

1st-Tier Benefit: Once per day, anyone on the team can aim all or part of a +4 morale bonus on his or her next saving throw. Once claimed, the bonus is unavailable to the rest of the team. For example, if you claim a +2 morale bonus on your next save, the other members of your team have only a +2 bonus remaining to be claimed. (Most team members get a consensus before claiming the bonus.)

2nd-Tier Benefit: As a move action, you can voluntarily accept a -2 penalty on your next attack roll to give another team member a +2 circumstance bonus on his or her next attack roll against the same enemy. Your ally doesn't get the bonus until you actually make the attack with the -2 penalty.

3rd-Tier Benefit: Once per day as a move action, each team member can voluntarily take 10 points of damage to give another team member 10 temporary hit points, which last for up to 10 minutes.

4th-Tier Benefit: Once per day as an immediate action, each team member can grant his save bonus (including any magic, ability score, class, and race-based bonuses) to another team member. You effectively attempt the saving throw on behalf of your comrade, lending them your ability through the companion spirit.

5th-Tier Benefit: Once per day, you can target one team member with a spell and have it take effect on another team member. The magic is transferred through the companion spirit to the true target. For example, you could cast a touch spell such as cure critical wounds on a nearby ally, using this benefit to heal a gravely injured team member who's too far away to reach. The spell also affects the team member you actually touch. You can't use the companion spirit to transfer spells with a target entry of personal, however.

Specific Characteristics

The team chooses one of the following specific types of companion spirit and gains the accompanying benefits.

Chain Companion Spirit Benefits

Chain companion spirits seem interested in interpersonal connections between the creatures in their care, with a strong affinity for social hierarchies and situations of social dominance.

1st-Tier Benefit: Each day, the companion spirit offers a bonus pool on Intimidate checks equal to twice the number of team members. For example, a five-creature team would have a +10 bonus pool. A team member can claim up to half (round up) of the Intimidate bonus by taking a free action to do so prior to making a Intimidate check. Once part of the bonus pool is claimed, the size of the bonus pool shrinks accordingly for the rest of the day.

2nd-Tier Benefit: The companion spirit makes your compulsion spells more convincing, granting +1 to the effective caster level for level-dependent spell variables] such as damage dice or range, and for caster level checks on compulsion spells cast by team members.

3rd-Tier Benefit: The companion spirit can surround the team members in a thin gray mist that doesn't obscure sight but evokes great sadness in the team's enemies (equivalent to a crushing despair spell, except that it's not a cone). The Will save DC is Charisma-based, and the caster level for the crushing despair effect equals the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member.

The mist surrounds each team member that activates it out to a 10-foot radius. Any team member can activate or deactivate the mist with a move action, but the total duration on a teamwide basis is limited to 2 rounds per team member. A team of six could have the mist surround one member for 6 rounds, or they could get 2 rounds each for example.

4th-Tier Benefit: Once per day, each team member can call on the power of the companion spirit for a lesser geas spell-like ability with a caster level equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member. The save DC is Charisma-based.

5th-Tier Benefit: Once per day, each team member can call on the power of the companion spirit for a dominate person spell-like ability with a caster level equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Corrosion Companion Spirit Benefits

The forces of acid and decay are affinities for this companion spirit, which delights in gradual destruction and collapse.

1st-Tier Benefit: Each team member can call on the companion spirit as a standard action to gain resistance to acid 5 for 10 minutes, as the companion spirit consumes some of the corrosive damage for itself Team members activate their resistance on an individual basis and don't need to have the benefit running at the same time.

2nd-Tier Benefit: When a team member makes an attack that includes poison (whether from natural venom ?or poison on a weapon), the DC of the Fortitude saves to avoid the poison damage are increased by 1. Furthermore, attempts to sunder an object (such as an opponent's weapon) deal an extra 2 points of damage.

3rd-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 1st-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that each team member gains permanent resistance to acid 5.

4th-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 2nd-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that the DC of poison saves is increased by 2, and sunder attacks deal an extra 4 points of damage.

5th-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 3rd-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that each team member gains permanent resistance to acid 15.

Flame Companion Spirit Benefits

The flame spirit has no connection to fire elementals or other denizens of the Elemental Plane of Fire, but it has a fundamental affinity for flame and the destruction it wreaks.

1st-Tier Benefit: Each team member can call on the companion spirit as a standard action to gain resistance to fire 5 for 10 minutes, as the companion spirit consumes some of the fire for itself. Team members activate their resistance on an individual basis and don't need to have the benefit running at the same time.

2nd-Tier Benefit: The companion spirit stokes the flames of your magic, granting +1 spell power (+1 effective caster level for level-dependent spell variables such as damage dice or range, and for caster level checks) on fire spells cast by team members and an additional 1 point of fire damage dealt by team members wielding a weapon that deals fire damage (everything from a torch to a flame tongue longsword).

3rd-Tier Benefit: As the 1st-tier benefit, except that each team member gains permanent resistance to fire 5.

4th-Tier Benefit: As the 2nd-tier benefit, but spellcasters gain +2 spell power on fire spells, and weapons that deal fire damage deal an extra 1d6 points of fire damage.

5th-Tier Benefit: As the 3rd-tier benefit, except that each learn member gains permanent resistance to fire 15.

Frost Companion Spirit Benefits

Frost companion spirits crave cold (insofar as companion spirits have motivations).

1st-Tier Benefit: Each team member can call on the companion spirit as a standard action to gain resistance to 15 for 10 minutes, as the companion spirit consumes some of the chill for itself. Team members activate their resistance on an individual basis and don't need to have the benefit running at the same time.

2nd-Tier Benefit: The companion spirit augments the chill of your magic, granting +1 spell power (+1 effective caster level for level-dependent spell variables such as damage dice or range, and for caster level checks) on cold spells cast by team members and an additional 1 point of cold damage dealt by team members wielding a weapon that deals cold damage.

3rd-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 1st-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that each team member gains permanent resistance to cold 5.

4th-Tier Benefit: As the 2nd-tier benefit, but spellcasters gain +2 spell power on cold spells, and weapons that deal cold damage deal an extra 1d6 points of cold damage.

5th-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 3rd-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that each team member gains permanent resistance to cold 15.

Lens Companion Spirit Benefits

Lens companion spirits are devoted to enhancing the senses of the creatures under their protection.

1st-Tier Benefit: Each day, the companion spirit offers a bonus pool on Spot checks equal to the number of team members. For example, a five-creature team would have a +5 bonus pool. A team member can claim all or part of the Spot bonus by taking a free action to do so prior to making a Spot check. Once part of the bonus pool is claimed, the size of the bonus pool shrinks accordingly for the rest of the day.

2nd-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 1st-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit except that the bonus pool can also be spent on Listen and Search checks.

3rd-Tier Benefit: Team members can see each other as long as they have line of effect to one another, even if ambient light conditions wouldn't allow them to do so. If it's too dark to see a fellow team member, you can see him and everything within 10 feet of him with black-and-white vision (like darkvision). You can also see everything within 10 feet of yourself as if you had darkvision.

4th-Tier Benefit: The companion spirit can render visible an unseen foe (as an invisibility purge spell with a caster level equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member). It can do so for a total of 2 rounds per team member. Any team member can activate or deactivate the invisibility purge effect with a move action, but the total duration on a teamwide basis is limited to 2 rounds per team member. A team of six could have one member as the center of an invisibility purge for 12 rounds, or they could get 2 rounds each, for example.

5th-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 3rd-tier benefit. It is identical to that effect except that you can see everything within 30 feet of another team member, regardless of ambient light conditions, and everything within 30 feet of yourself.

Lightning Companion Spirit Benefits

This companion spirit has an affinity for bright flashes of light, quick movement, and electricity in all its forms.

1st-Tier Benefit: Each team member can call on the companion spirit as a standard action to gain resistance to electricity 5 for 10 minutes, as the companion spirit consumes some of the electrical damage for itself. Team members activate their resistance on an individual basis and don't need to have the benefit running at the same time.

2nd-Tier Benefit: Once per day, each team member can call on the power of the companion spirit for an expeditious retreat spell-like ability with a caster level equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member.

3rd-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 1st-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that each team member gains permanent resistance to electricity 5.

4th-Tier Benefit: Once per day, each team member can call on the power of the companion spirit for a haste spell-like ability with a caster level equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member. Unlike the standard haste spell, this spell-like ability affects only the individual team members, but other team members can activate the power for themselves if they wish.

5th-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 3rd-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that each member gains permanent resistance to electricity 15.

Rampart Companion Spirit Benefits

Rampart spirits seem to draw sustenance from combat - specifically by twisting fate so that successful blows turn into misses.

1st-Tier Benefit: Each the companion spirit offers a bonus pool to Armor Class equal to double the number of team members, for example, a five-creature team would have a +10 bonus pool. A team member can claim up to half (round up) of the available Armor Class bonus by taking an immediate action to do so after the attack is announced but before the attack result is known. The bonus is considered an insight bonus to AC and lasts only for that attack. Once part of the bonus pool is claimed the size of the bonus pool shrinks accordingly for the rest of the day.

2nd-Tier Benefit: This benefit replace the 1st-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit except that the size of the bonus pool to AC is equal to three times the number of team members. At most, a team member can claim half the bonus pool's maximum size for a single attack. For example, a six-member team would have a +18 bonus pool to AC, and a team member could take up to a +9 bonus on any single attack.

3rd-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 2nd-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit except that the insight bonuses to AC last for 1 round.

4th-Tier Benefit: The companion spirit can extrude its energy so it surrounds a team member in a coruscating nimbus of yellow-orange energy that provides concealment (and a corresponding 20% miss chance). It can do so for a total of 2 rounds per team member. Any team member can activate or deactivate the nimbus with a move lion, but the total duration on a teamwide basis is limited to 2 rounds per team member. A team of four could have tie member protected for 8 rounds, or they could get 2 rounds each, for example.

5th-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 4th-tier benefit, is identical to that benefit except that the nimbus provides total concealment (and a corresponding 50% miss chance).

Shadow Companion Spirit Benefits

While this spirit companion has no overt connection to undead shadows or the Plane of Shadow, it has an affinity wall things stealthy and hard to discern.

1st-Tier Benefit: Each day, the companion spirit offers a bonus pool on Hide and Move Silently checks equal to double the number of team members. For example, a five-creature team would have a +10 bonus pool. A team member can claim up to half (round up) of the Hide and Move Silently bonus by taking a free action to do so prior to making a Hide or Move Silently check; the bonus applies to both skills, so you can use it twice if you make both checks in the same round. Once part of the bonus pool is claimed, the size of the bonus pool shrinks accordingly for the rest of the day.

2nd-Tier Benefit: The companion spirit can dampen sound around a team member (as a silence spell with a caster level equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member). It can do so for a total of 2 rounds per team member. Any team member can activate or deactivate the silence effect with a move action, but the total duration on a teamwide basis is limited to 2 rounds per team member. A team of six could have one member as the center of a silence spell for 12 rounds, or they could get 2 rounds each, for example.

3rd-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 1st-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that the bonus pool is equal to three times the number of team members.

4th-Tier Benefit: The companion spirit can render a team member unseen (as an invisibility spell with a caster level equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member). It can do so for a total of 2 rounds per team member. Any team member can activate or deactivate the invisibility effect with a move action, but the total duration on a teamwide basis is limited to 2 rounds per team member. Unlike the standard invisibility spell, this benefit doesn't prevent team members from seeing each other, regardless of whether they have this benefit active.

5th-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 3rd-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that the bonus pool is equal to four times the number of team members.

Shroud Companion Spirit Benefits

These companion spirits tend to hover near the border between life and death, keeping the creatures in their care on the life side of that border.

1st-Tier Benefit: Team members continually have a gentle repose spell-like ability active on them with a caster level equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member, so their bodies do not decay for days or weeks after death.

2nd-Tier Benefit: Once per day, each team member can call on the power of the companion spirit for a false life spell-like ability with a caster level equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member. The temporary hit points last until the duration expires or the temporary hit points are lost in battle.

3rd-Tier Benefit: Each team member gains a +2 insight bonus on saving throws against death effects and effects employing negative energy (such as inflict spells), and a +2 insight bonus on Fortitude saves against massive damage.

4th-Tier Benefit: The companion spirit can render a team member immune to magical death and negative energy effects (as a death ward spell with a caster level equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member). It can do so for a total of 2 minutes per team member. Any team member can activate or deactivate the death ward effect with a move action, but the total duration on a teamwide basis is limited to 2 minutes per team member. A team of six could have one member protected by the death ward for 12 minutes, or they could get 2 minutes each, for example.

5th-Tier Benefit: This ability replaces the 3rd-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that the saving throw bonus is +4. In addition, team members can activate their 4th-tier benefit as a swift action.

Thunder Companion Spirit Benefits

This companion spirit seems attracted to loud sounds all kinds - it's not for the stealthy or unobtrusive.

1st-Tier Benefit: Each team member can call on companion spirit as a standard action to gain resistance sonic 5 for 10 minutes, as the companion spirit consumes some of the energy damage itself. Team members activate their resistance on an individual basis and don't need have the benefit running at the same time.

2nd-Tier Benefit: Once per day, each team member can call on the power of the companion spirit for a shatter spell-like ability with a caster level equal to the HI Dice of the lowest-level team member. The save DC is Charisma-based.

3rd-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 1st-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that each team member gains permanent resistance to sonic 5.

4th-Tier Benefit: Once per day, each team member can call on the power of the companion spirit for a shout spell like ability with a caster level equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member. The save DC is Charisma-based. Unlike the standard shout spell, this spell-like ability doesn't affect other team members, so they can stand in its area with impunity.

5th-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 3rd-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that each team member gains permanent resistance to sonic 15.

Tower Companion Spirit Benefits

Defense wins battles, and no companion spirit offers more defense than the tower companion. A kindred spirit to the rampart companion, the tower companion offers a broader range of defensive benefits.

1st-Tier Benefit: If you take a full attack action this round, you can voluntarily reduce your attack rolls by up to -5 and add the same number to a bonus pool. Any other team member can use a free action at the beginning of their turn to take 1 point from the bonus pool to gain a +1 insight bonus to their AC for 1 round. Unused points evaporate at the beginning of your next turn.

2nd-Tier Benefit: As an immediate action taken right before you attempt a saving throw, you can ask fellow team members to grant you an insight bonus on that saving throw. The tower companion spirit transfers fateful energy between you and your comrades, so that you gain a +1 insight bonus on that saving throw for every team member who agrees to the exchange. Team members who agree to the exchange take a -2 penalty on all saving throws for 1 round - including the saving throw from the current effect, if it affects multiple team members simultaneously (such as a fireball).

3rd-Tier Benefit: The companion spirit can make a team member's skin preternaturally resistant to damage (as a stoneskin spell with a caster level equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member). It can do so for a total of 2 rounds per team member. Any team member can activate or deactivate the stoneskin effect with a move action, but the total duration on a teamwide basis is limited to 2 rounds per team member. A team of four could have one member protected for 8 rounds, or they could get 2 rounds each, for example.

4th-Tier Benefit: This benefit replaces the 2nd-tier benefit. It is identical to that benefit, except that you gain a +2 insight bonus on that saving throw for every team member who agrees to the exchange (and accepts the -2 penalty on their own saving throws).

5th-Tier Benefit: The companion spirit can render hostile magic ineffective, granting spell resistance equal to the Hit Dice of the lowest-level team member +12. It can do so for a total of 2 rounds per team member. Any team member can activate or deactivate the spell resistance with a move action, but the total duration on a teamwide basis is limited to 2 rounds per team member. Team members ignore this spell resistance when casting spells on each other; the tower companion spirit knows to let such spells pass through its defenses.

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From Dungeon Master's Guide II, Heroes of Battle, and Dungeonscape

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