Improving my Animal Companion

[MichielHagen]

I would like to build a Druid with a powerful Animal Companion.

What are feats, classes or other stuff for me to look at.
We only use 3.5 books though.

[Eloel]

Natural Bond (feat) gives +3 effective Druid level.
Beastmaster (PrC) counts as 3+Beastmaster levels on top of Druid levels, so 1-level-dip nets you +3 effective levels.
There was a Druid version in one of the Dragon Magazines that granted another +3 to Animal Companion in expense of Wildshape.

All combined is basically a Megaraptor that benefits from full Druid levels for HD/Str/Dex.

[Eldariel]

Really, you should rather look at Druid's spell list & magic items though; you have lots of ways to buff animals through simple magic and what better way to make use of them than your Animal Companion? Further, few choice cheap magic items can truly enhance its performance vastly. Some variety of armor barding, for example.

As far as static buffs actually increasing its HD/effective Druid bonuses, the listed are pretty much all of them (without going the Devoted Tracker-road to combine it with Mount and taking a dual advancement class like Halfling Outrider for epic companion; that gives everything else up though, so I suggest against it).

[Sstoopidtallkid]

I worked out a Druid/Beastmaster/Wizard/Arcane Heirophant build that ended up with an AC powerful enough to let the caster stay at home while the pet adventured. Dual-Progression classes like AH and Halfling Outrider are the best for this.

[CthulhuM]

Natural Bond (feat) gives +3 effective Druid level.
Beastmaster (PrC) counts as 3+Beastmaster levels on top of Druid levels, so 1-level-dip nets you +3 effective levels.
There was a Druid version in one of the Dragon Magazines that granted another +3 to Animal Companion in expense of Wildshape.

It should be noted that natural bond works like practiced spellcaster - it can't boost your effective druid level above your character level. Not sure about the other two.

But that said, arcane heirophant is a pretty strong way to go. Not only to you get access to all sorts of wizard buffs (including self buffs - Tenser's Transformation might actually be useful if you're casting it on your animal companion), but, since your companion is also your familiar, you can imbue it with touch spells, which it will deliver automatically as it makes its natural attacks. Chill touch, in particular, is a nice low-level one to throw up, since it basically just adds 1d6 damage and possibly 1 strength damage to all of your animal companion's attacks for the next few rounds.

[Eldariel]

It should be noted that natural bond works like practiced spellcaster - it can't boost your effective druid level above your character level. Not sure about the other two.

It can, however, mitigate the adjustment to your effective Druid-level for choosing a more powerful Companion.

[Dyllan]

And there's always the Exaulted Companion feat from BoED. It gives your companion the Celestial template.

You could also go the mount/companion route by taking levels in a Paladin variant that includes a neutral alignment and then taking the proper feats to make your mount also be your animal companion. But I'm guessing you don't really want to go that route.

[MichielHagen]

Thanks for the tips.

Currently i am working on a
Wizard 3
Druid 3
Beastmaster 1
Arcane Hierophant x (depending on what level it will be, somewhere between 9-12 most likely)

I will take Natural Bond to even out the wizard levels, and i am considering Exalted Companion, hoping my DM allows me to take a Blink Dog, which just sounds awesome to me ;)

I am a bit low on feats though, and possibly i am not allowed to play a human. So by level 9 i would only have 4 feats (Natural Bond, Exalted Companion and Skill Focus (Handle Animal), leaving only one open, and i really would like Practised Spellcaster and the one that lets you cast spells while in Wildshape.....)

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Just FYI, there's a variant Bard out there that gets full AC progression. 4 levels of that plus the Obtain Familiar feat allows you to get AH with no levels that don't progress your AC, and may(RAW is vague) allow AH to progress your Familiar at 2x the normal rate.