I see what the spell description says but there needs to be MORE OFFICIAL information on this spell.
Is the Awaken Spell ONLY Physiological OR does it go down to the Genetic Level? Can an Awakened Creature become a player Character? If not, why not? If so, then can their intelligence improve just as any characters attributes can improve over time? If two Awakened Creatures (or Player Characters) mate, will their Offspring be intelligent, mobile, etc. just like their two parents? Will Awaken work on a Baby Creature that, in it's infant size it is within the size parameters of the spell? For example, casting Awaken on say...a Sapling of a Giant Sequoia Redwood Tree. IF a Characters STARTING intelligence were 5 or 6 and it were to be knocked down to 3 or 2, would an Awaken Spell bring their Intelligence up to 10? From what I am seeing in the Spell Description, there is nothing indicating body type, etc. Therefore, ANY Beast or Plant can be awakened if within the "Size" constraints. Which is why I asked about the "Baby" versions of things.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-- The Spell - - - - -
After spending the casting time tracing magical pathways within a precious gemstone, you touch a Huge or smaller beast or plant. The target must have either no Intelligence score or an Intelligence of 3 or less. The target gains an Intelligence of 10. The target also gains the ability to speak one language you know. If the target is a plant, it gains the ability to move its limbs, roots, vines, creepers, and so forth, and it gains senses similar to a human's. Your GM chooses statistics appropriate for the awakened plant, such as the statistics for the awakened shrub or the awakened tree.
The awakened beast or plant is charmed by you for 30 days or until you or your companions do anything harmful to it. When the charmed condition ends, the awakened creature chooses whether to remain friendly to you, based on how you treated it while it was charmed.
* - (an agate worth at least 1,000 gp, which the spell consumes)
I'm not sure what you mean by "physiological or...go[es] down to the generic level".
Generally speaking, no, it can't become a PC. It's not a playable race. You could homebrew it, just as you could homebrew that a Tarrasque could be played by a player. RAW supports neither, but you could do it. As far as an Awakened Creature is concerned, you could reflavour an existing playable race as an Awakened Creature of a similar type (eg Lizardfolk as an Awakened Lizard), if your DM is happy with it.
As for mating, that's beyond the scope of RAW. The books don't delve that far, and as much as I'm pro-lore...there has to be a cutoff point. I'm entirely comfortable with the books leaving details like that to DMs to figure out. There's constructive lore that helps DMs to build up their worlds...then there's restrictive stuff...this crosses over that line (or rather, going to that level of detail does, since it implies other stuff that is more applicable to the game should also be codified). Ask your DM.
If the baby version has stats, then yes, it would work. Given that most campaigns don't give long enough for them to grow, I don't know how that's supposed to work when it grows up.
I'd say no, it doesn't stop further modifications. It changes the base stats, but you can then modify it using spells etc. You might roll 12 on your Intelligence, then put an ASI into it to make it 14 - but that doesn't stop Feeblemind from yoinking it back down to 1. Same principle.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I see what the spell description says but there needs to be MORE OFFICIAL information on this spell.
Is the Awaken Spell ONLY Physiological OR does it go down to the Genetic Level?
Can an Awakened Creature become a player Character?
If not, why not?
If so, then can their intelligence improve just as any characters attributes can improve over time?
If two Awakened Creatures (or Player Characters) mate, will their Offspring be intelligent, mobile, etc. just like their two parents?
Will Awaken work on a Baby Creature that, in it's infant size it is within the size parameters of the spell?
For example, casting Awaken on say...a Sapling of a Giant Sequoia Redwood Tree.
IF a Characters STARTING intelligence were 5 or 6 and it were to be knocked down to 3 or 2, would an Awaken Spell bring their Intelligence up to 10?
From what I am seeing in the Spell Description, there is nothing indicating body type, etc. Therefore, ANY Beast or Plant can be awakened if within the "Size" constraints.
Which is why I asked about the "Baby" versions of things.
That’s up to the DM.
That is also entirely up to the DM. Depending on the beast/plant, many DMs might even actually allow it.
Depending on the beast/plant it might unbalance the campaign.
Sure. Why not?
Presumably.
Presumably.
You would need a statblock for the baby version, but presumably it would work.
Since most PCs are Humanoids or Fey, and the rest are Constructs, Monstrosities, or Oozes, it probably wouldn’t work.
my 2cp worth, and this might be a tad controversial, there is a distinct drop off of canon/lore/official background information in various aspects of 5e compared to previous editions and I think this is because the powers that be wanted to make it as accessible as possible as well as making it as customisable as possible. You could easily say that in ages past Awakened Shrub "A" cross polinated with Awakened Shrub "B" and some time later the first Twig Blights came into being, or that very old awakened shrubs become Treants, or that the result of two Awakened Beasts mating results in a "Dire" variant of the beast and over time these can give rise to the various creatures considered to be in the "Monstrosity" creature type. All things considered the lack of official lore can be quite liberating to work with if DM's have the time and/or inclination to homebrew their own worlds, sadly if they don;t it can be quite frustrating to have fill in the blanks.
As for playing an Awkaened shrub or Creature, I'd allow it as long as the approriate stat block is used in place of a (insert chosen word to replace race) although I would probably say no to anyone wanting to playing "teenage Groot".
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
Honestly this thread just validates 5e's approach as far as I'm concerned. While it's easy to say they were too lazy to fully codify how it should work (and sometimes they are - see the stealth rules), in this case they leave it open so the DM can tailor it to the needs of the group.
If you want awakened creatures to mate and become PCs and so on and so forth, go for it. But that's homebrew and it should be. Hereditary mechanics like genetics should not be dictated as the standard for all campaigns. They don't need to write a whole new subset of rules for making an awakened fox into a PC. This is the kind of stuff that should absolutely be left up to the group/DM because different people are going to have very different opinions and reactions to OP's questions, and the great majority of players just don't think about those things at all.
I see what the spell description says but there needs to be MORE OFFICIAL information on this spell.
Is the Awaken Spell ONLY Physiological OR does it go down to the Genetic Level?
Can an Awakened Creature become a player Character?
If not, why not?
If so, then can their intelligence improve just as any characters attributes can improve over time?
If two Awakened Creatures (or Player Characters) mate, will their Offspring be intelligent, mobile, etc. just like their two parents?
Will Awaken work on a Baby Creature that, in it's infant size it is within the size parameters of the spell?
For example, casting Awaken on say...a Sapling of a Giant Sequoia Redwood Tree.
IF a Characters STARTING intelligence were 5 or 6 and it were to be knocked down to 3 or 2, would an Awaken Spell bring their Intelligence up to 10?
From what I am seeing in the Spell Description, there is nothing indicating body type, etc. Therefore, ANY Beast or Plant can be awakened if within the "Size" constraints.
Which is why I asked about the "Baby" versions of things.
That’s up to the DM.
That is also entirely up to the DM. Depending on the beast/plant, many DMs might even actually allow it.
Depending on the beast/plant it might unbalance the campaign.
Sure. Why not?
Presumably.
Presumably.
You would need a statblock for the baby version, but presumably it would work.
Since most PCs are Humanoids or Fey, and the rest are Constructs, Monstrosities, or Oozes, it probably wouldn’t work.
Correct.
Yup, see above.
1. Physiological. 2. No, they do not become a playable race therefore cannot be a player character. There are hundreds of intelligent monsters that are not allowed as player characters, awakened creatures are no different. 3. No, in general the game does not cover matters of reproduction, but especially when it comes to awakened plants their reproduction can pass through different life-cycle stages completely unlike the original creature you awakened thus I see no reason to think the "Awakened" state would continue -> e.g. ferns alternate generations of diploid and haploid organisms (which are completely different physiologically & arguably genetically), awakening a diploid fern doesn't logical translate to producing awakened haploid sporosorite. 4. For animals I could see this being the case. However for plants, awakening them enables them to move around thus seriously disrupting their root systems which IMO would make them incapable of growing. 5. Yes hypothetically but currently there are no playable races that are the appropriate creature type thus it is not possible. However, you could True Polymorph a player character into a low-intelligence Beast (like a T-rex) and then Awaken them.
All of these questions are answered in the Player's Handbook and the DM's Guide.
Does it go down to the genetic level?Does the spell mention genetic level? Does anything in D&D mention genetic level?
Can an Awakened Creature become a player character? It's a Non-Player Character. NPCs are not PCs.
Can their intelligence improve? It's a creature. So it has three attunement slots. It can attune to a Headband of Intellect.
If Awakened Creatures mate...? Easy there. This is a RPG system, not an ERPG system.
Will awaken work on a baby creature if the size is within the parameters of the spell? If it fits the parameters of the spell, which you stated it did, then the spell works.
If a Character's intelligence was 2 or 3 would Awaken work? Player Characters are not beasts or plants.
If you would like to make playable Awakened Beast characters, applying the Tasha Sidekick rules are probably the simplest means.
If I were to allow this, and it would take some convincing, I would use the Tasha's Custom Lineage optional rule. If the creature's stat block lists Darkvision then the character would get it. Otherwise they'd get a skill proficiency.
If you would like to make playable Awakened Beast characters, applying the Tasha Sidekick rules are probably the simplest means.
If I were to allow this, and it would take some convincing, I would use the Tasha's Custom Lineage optional rule. If the creature's stat block lists Darkvision then the character would get it. Otherwise they'd get a skill proficiency.
You can approximate awakened plants / animals pretty easily by reskinning existing races.
Any bug / insect / arthropod uses the Thrikreen as a template.
Reptiles uses Lizardfolk as a template
Snakes use Yuan'ti
Fish use Locantha
Amphibians use Grung
Woody Plants can use Warforged
Viney Plants can use Plasmoid
Small cats use Tabaxi
Large cats use Leonin
Horses/deer use Centaur
Wolves/dogs could use old-Kobold or Shifter(WildHunt)
If you would like to make playable Awakened Beast characters, applying the Tasha Sidekick rules are probably the simplest means.
If I were to allow this, and it would take some convincing, I would use the Tasha's Custom Lineage optional rule. If the creature's stat block lists Darkvision then the character would get it. Otherwise they'd get a skill proficiency.
Sorry: I think I wasn’t clear. Using the Sidekick rules would make the Awakened creature playable as a Sidekick, rather than as a standard PC. For example, a Wolf can already be taken as a Warrior Sidekick. An Awakened Wolf, as it can speak, can also be an Expert or Spellcaster Sidekick (though there might be some issues with handling Material spell components).
A player who was really keen for play as an Awakened Wolf could use this approach, as long as they don’t mind having a character whose class features will not fully keep pace with conventional PC classes.
Your choice of Beasts would also be limited by CR and the DM would have to decide whether they want to deal with the potential issues of party members whose size is neither Small nor Medium.
The OP referred to an option of an awakened as a player character and that's what I was thinking about and didn't realize what you were referring to until after I had submitted the post. I only allow Tasha's Custom Lineage for characters that don't have an official race. Otherwise those who want to use it want to be "a human with darkvision". So I'd let them be whatever awakened plant or beast they wanted to be, but they're still rolling stats and they're not going to get pack tactics if it's an awakened wolf. They're going to get what their class gives them.
I do think using sidekick rules is a good idea if the awakened NPC is treated well and wants to hang around after the 30 day charm expires. I don't think I'd use it for a player character, although I'd let them control their own sidekick until they go unconscious.
Logic dictates that Awakened critters do not have Awakened offspring. Why? They would handily out-compete their non-Awakened brethren, removing them from existance in a few generations. This is a sort of Schrödingers Fermi Paradox: We have this spell that imbues unintelligent beasts with intelligence - but where are all the unintelligent beasts? We know they must exist, because why else create the spell??
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I see what the spell description says but there needs to be MORE OFFICIAL information on this spell.
Is the Awaken Spell ONLY Physiological OR does it go down to the Genetic Level?
Can an Awakened Creature become a player Character?
If not, why not?
If so, then can their intelligence improve just as any characters attributes can improve over time?
If two Awakened Creatures (or Player Characters) mate, will their Offspring be intelligent, mobile, etc. just like their two parents?
Will Awaken work on a Baby Creature that, in it's infant size it is within the size parameters of the spell?
For example, casting Awaken on say...a Sapling of a Giant Sequoia Redwood Tree.
IF a Characters STARTING intelligence were 5 or 6 and it were to be knocked down to 3 or 2, would an Awaken Spell bring their Intelligence up to 10?
From what I am seeing in the Spell Description, there is nothing indicating body type, etc. Therefore, ANY Beast or Plant can be awakened if within the "Size" constraints.
Which is why I asked about the "Baby" versions of things.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--
The Spell - - - - -
LEVEL: 5th
CASTING TIME: 8 Hours
RANGE/AREA: Touch
COMPONENTS: V, S, M *
DURATION: Instantaneous
SCHOOL: Transmutation
ATTACK/SAVE: None
DAMAGE/EFFECT: Charmed
After spending the casting time tracing magical pathways within a precious gemstone, you touch a Huge or smaller beast or plant. The target must have either no Intelligence score or an Intelligence of 3 or less. The target gains an Intelligence of 10. The target also gains the ability to speak one language you know. If the target is a plant, it gains the ability to move its limbs, roots, vines, creepers, and so forth, and it gains senses similar to a human's. Your GM chooses statistics appropriate for the awakened plant, such as the statistics for the awakened shrub or the awakened tree.
The awakened beast or plant is charmed by you for 30 days or until you or your companions do anything harmful to it. When the charmed condition ends, the awakened creature chooses whether to remain friendly to you, based on how you treated it while it was charmed.
* - (an agate worth at least 1,000 gp, which the spell consumes)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Beast Plant list -
Giant Fire Beetle. . . . . . . . . Beast
Crab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Lizard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Quipper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Frog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Scorpion. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Sea Horse. . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Spider. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Shrieker. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Plant
Giant Crab. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Poisonous Snake. . . . . . . . . . Beast
Constrictor Snake. . . . . . . . . Beast
Giant Centipede. . . . . . . . . . Beast
Violet Fungus. . . . . . . . . . . Plant
Reef Shark. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Wasp. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Gas Spore. . . . . . . . . . . . . Plant
Hunter Shark. . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Constrictor Snake. . . . . . Beast
Swarm of Poisonous Snakes. . . . . Beast
Giant Scorpion. . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Shark. . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Vulture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Badger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Hyena. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Deer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Goat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Eagle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Rat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Bat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Hawk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Owl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Raven. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Weasel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Camel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Mule. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Pony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Flying Snake. . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Rat. . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Stirge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Dimetrodon. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Badger. . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Cow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Giant Lizard. . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Poisonous Snake. . . . . . . Beast
Hadrosaurus. . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Axe Beak. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Boar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Draft Horse. . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Elk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Riding Horse. . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Bat. . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Giant Frog. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Pteranodon. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Black Bear. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Crocodile. . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Warhorse. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Sea Horse. . . . . . . . . . Beast
Brown Bear. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Hyena. . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Giant Toad. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Spider. . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Quaggoth Spore Servant. . . . . . .Plant
Thorny. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Plant
Aurochs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Allosaurus. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Boar. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Plesiosaurus. . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Polar Bear. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Rhinoceros. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Quetzalcoatlus. . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Ankylosaurus. . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Stegosaurus. . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Brontosaurus. . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Crocodile. . . . . . . . . . Beast
Triceratops. . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Tyrannosaurus Rex. . . . . . . . . Beast
Jackal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Octopus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Cat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Mastiff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Blood Hawk. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Giant Wolf Spider. . . . . . . . . Beast
Wolf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Panther. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Giant Goat. . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Dire Wolf. . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Tiger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
Lion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Saber-Toothed Tiger. . . . . . . . Beast
Killer Whale. . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Elephant. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beast
Mammoth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast
I'm not sure what you mean by "physiological or...go[es] down to the generic level".
Generally speaking, no, it can't become a PC. It's not a playable race. You could homebrew it, just as you could homebrew that a Tarrasque could be played by a player. RAW supports neither, but you could do it. As far as an Awakened Creature is concerned, you could reflavour an existing playable race as an Awakened Creature of a similar type (eg Lizardfolk as an Awakened Lizard), if your DM is happy with it.
As for mating, that's beyond the scope of RAW. The books don't delve that far, and as much as I'm pro-lore...there has to be a cutoff point. I'm entirely comfortable with the books leaving details like that to DMs to figure out. There's constructive lore that helps DMs to build up their worlds...then there's restrictive stuff...this crosses over that line (or rather, going to that level of detail does, since it implies other stuff that is more applicable to the game should also be codified). Ask your DM.
If the baby version has stats, then yes, it would work. Given that most campaigns don't give long enough for them to grow, I don't know how that's supposed to work when it grows up.
I'd say no, it doesn't stop further modifications. It changes the base stats, but you can then modify it using spells etc. You might roll 12 on your Intelligence, then put an ASI into it to make it 14 - but that doesn't stop Feeblemind from yoinking it back down to 1. Same principle.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
If you would like to make playable Awakened Beast characters, applying the Tasha Sidekick rules are probably the simplest means.
my 2cp worth, and this might be a tad controversial, there is a distinct drop off of canon/lore/official background information in various aspects of 5e compared to previous editions and I think this is because the powers that be wanted to make it as accessible as possible as well as making it as customisable as possible. You could easily say that in ages past Awakened Shrub "A" cross polinated with Awakened Shrub "B" and some time later the first Twig Blights came into being, or that very old awakened shrubs become Treants, or that the result of two Awakened Beasts mating results in a "Dire" variant of the beast and over time these can give rise to the various creatures considered to be in the "Monstrosity" creature type. All things considered the lack of official lore can be quite liberating to work with if DM's have the time and/or inclination to homebrew their own worlds, sadly if they don;t it can be quite frustrating to have fill in the blanks.
As for playing an Awkaened shrub or Creature, I'd allow it as long as the approriate stat block is used in place of a (insert chosen word to replace race) although I would probably say no to anyone wanting to playing "teenage Groot".
Honestly this thread just validates 5e's approach as far as I'm concerned. While it's easy to say they were too lazy to fully codify how it should work (and sometimes they are - see the stealth rules), in this case they leave it open so the DM can tailor it to the needs of the group.
If you want awakened creatures to mate and become PCs and so on and so forth, go for it. But that's homebrew and it should be. Hereditary mechanics like genetics should not be dictated as the standard for all campaigns. They don't need to write a whole new subset of rules for making an awakened fox into a PC. This is the kind of stuff that should absolutely be left up to the group/DM because different people are going to have very different opinions and reactions to OP's questions, and the great majority of players just don't think about those things at all.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
1. Physiological.
2. No, they do not become a playable race therefore cannot be a player character. There are hundreds of intelligent monsters that are not allowed as player characters, awakened creatures are no different.
3. No, in general the game does not cover matters of reproduction, but especially when it comes to awakened plants their reproduction can pass through different life-cycle stages completely unlike the original creature you awakened thus I see no reason to think the "Awakened" state would continue -> e.g. ferns alternate generations of diploid and haploid organisms (which are completely different physiologically & arguably genetically), awakening a diploid fern doesn't logical translate to producing awakened haploid sporosorite.
4. For animals I could see this being the case. However for plants, awakening them enables them to move around thus seriously disrupting their root systems which IMO would make them incapable of growing.
5. Yes hypothetically but currently there are no playable races that are the appropriate creature type thus it is not possible. However, you could True Polymorph a player character into a low-intelligence Beast (like a T-rex) and then Awaken them.
All of these questions are answered in the Player's Handbook and the DM's Guide.
Does it go down to the genetic level? Does the spell mention genetic level? Does anything in D&D mention genetic level?
Can an Awakened Creature become a player character? It's a Non-Player Character. NPCs are not PCs.
Can their intelligence improve? It's a creature. So it has three attunement slots. It can attune to a Headband of Intellect.
If Awakened Creatures mate...? Easy there. This is a RPG system, not an ERPG system.
Will awaken work on a baby creature if the size is within the parameters of the spell? If it fits the parameters of the spell, which you stated it did, then the spell works.
If a Character's intelligence was 2 or 3 would Awaken work? Player Characters are not beasts or plants.
If I were to allow this, and it would take some convincing, I would use the Tasha's Custom Lineage optional rule. If the creature's stat block lists Darkvision then the character would get it. Otherwise they'd get a skill proficiency.
You can approximate awakened plants / animals pretty easily by reskinning existing races.
Any bug / insect / arthropod uses the Thrikreen as a template.
Reptiles uses Lizardfolk as a template
Snakes use Yuan'ti
Fish use Locantha
Amphibians use Grung
Woody Plants can use Warforged
Viney Plants can use Plasmoid
Small cats use Tabaxi
Large cats use Leonin
Horses/deer use Centaur
Wolves/dogs could use old-Kobold or Shifter(WildHunt)
Sorry: I think I wasn’t clear. Using the Sidekick rules would make the Awakened creature playable as a Sidekick, rather than as a standard PC. For example, a Wolf can already be taken as a Warrior Sidekick. An Awakened Wolf, as it can speak, can also be an Expert or Spellcaster Sidekick (though there might be some issues with handling Material spell components).
A player who was really keen for play as an Awakened Wolf could use this approach, as long as they don’t mind having a character whose class features will not fully keep pace with conventional PC classes.
Your choice of Beasts would also be limited by CR and the DM would have to decide whether they want to deal with the potential issues of party members whose size is neither Small nor Medium.
The OP referred to an option of an awakened as a player character and that's what I was thinking about and didn't realize what you were referring to until after I had submitted the post. I only allow Tasha's Custom Lineage for characters that don't have an official race. Otherwise those who want to use it want to be "a human with darkvision". So I'd let them be whatever awakened plant or beast they wanted to be, but they're still rolling stats and they're not going to get pack tactics if it's an awakened wolf. They're going to get what their class gives them.
I do think using sidekick rules is a good idea if the awakened NPC is treated well and wants to hang around after the 30 day charm expires. I don't think I'd use it for a player character, although I'd let them control their own sidekick until they go unconscious.
Logic dictates that Awakened critters do not have Awakened offspring. Why? They would handily out-compete their non-Awakened brethren, removing them from existance in a few generations. This is a sort of Schrödingers Fermi Paradox: We have this spell that imbues unintelligent beasts with intelligence - but where are all the unintelligent beasts? We know they must exist, because why else create the spell??
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.