Need a poisoinous Animal Companion

[RandomLunatic]

So I am gearing up to play a Swift Hunter, and it occured to me I could milk my Ranger-granted AC for poison. Unfortunately, said AC's poison was... less than impressive. The best i could come up with was a Medium Viper, which dealt a(n un)healthy 1d6 CON/1d6 CON, but had a laughable save DC of 12-your average CR 10 is never going to notice it. Heck, your average CR 4 is going to laugh that off.

So my question is: Is there an Animal Companion out there with more substantial poison?

The rules:
ECL 10 game
He has 6 levels of Ranger. This is really not negotiable. Therefore, we pick as a 3rd-level Druid.
I cannot fit Natural Bond in.

Thanks in advance!

[Mr.Moron]

I hate to be a party pooper, but there isn't very much you can do with a ranger animal companion in any context. Much less one in something as specialized as poison, which on animals tend to have low-ish saves, that don't grow & target fort.

I don't know, maybe it's possible by some miracle of char-op, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too high.

EDIT:
See if you can convince your DM to let rangers pick animal companions as a druid. If the feature is allowed in general, there is no reason for rangers to behind druids. It won't make poison in general any more effective, but it'll at least give you some more viable choices.

[Eldariel]

Next level, you could pick up Fleshraker. Before then, Swindlespitter Dinosaur [MM3] is honestly your best bet. It has no higher chance of success than Viper, but at least it causes serious damage if it works; primary damage is blindness. Also, you get two extra HD from level 3, so it gets a feat you can spend on Ability Focus: Poison. Then toss it some Con-boosting items and you can at least get to 15-16.

That said, any level 1 AC that could actually have combat-beneficial poison on level 10 would be hopelessly broken. Really, you should ask for Ranger AC progression to be that of the Druid, 'cause the present one sucks. Friggin' Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) that any class can acquire with a feat is better.


For example, right now you'd at least have level 6 boosts to your AC, and it'd keep getting better instead of worse (you could still only pick level 4 ACs next level). These boosts get you higher HD, which gives you more feats and stat increases, which in turn gives you higher poison DC. Really, Vermin Companion (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040705a) seems like a decent option given that their DCs are typically rather high for the level, but you need 6 effective Druid-levels for them to gain feats (and thus, the ability to buff their poison) so meh. Scorpions in particular have high DCs across the board thanks to their high HD and decent Con (their damage isn't that impressive, but as it's Con-damage, it translates into HP damage very well).