Simple Q&A D&D 3.5 (by RAW) XXII

[killem2]

A 435 No/Talk to your DM.

550 gp gets you an untrained 6 HD Warbeast Tiger. The Petal Psion doesn't have the skill to do the training. So there's just an untrained wild animal running around, doing whatever the DM wants it to do.

It's clear your DM is comfortable making adjustments to the rules since the Petal is recommended as a Cohort only, not a PC. The Psion is ECL 4 (1 HD of Fey, +2 LA, and 1 level of Psion) barring shenanigans, but it doesn't have Handle Animal as a class skill. Even if the DM were to throw in 14 months of skilled work with the Warbeast Tiger, the Psion still would have no way of communicating her desires to the animal. If the Tiger obeys the Petal player's wishes anyway, you should ask your DM why that's happening. In particular, what's to keep some enemy with decent Handle Animal skill from coming in and simply giving the Tiger commands to attack the PCs? It's not like the Psion has any ability to overcome that.

If the DM hasn't already had the untrained Warbeast Tiger devour the Petal Psion as a snack, you should talk about the Handle Animal rules and out-of-rules favoritism.

Sorry, he allowed her to take the skill knowledge feat from UA, and determined it was trained before well before hand. (We couldn't figure the age for petals so we went by some pixie figure or something and she's 112 years old).

I personally have zero issue with it. We need a melee because we have only a half giant pyschic warrior played by an insecure teen who is shy and doesn't do anything to lead us.

But you answered it, I didn't think it figured into the ECL in that situation.