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Volthawk
2010-02-15, 08:03 PM
I'm looking for ways to get as high a level as possible for my animal companion(s). So far I have this (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=185818), which gets 4 animal companions: one as strong as if you were a Druid 25;one as strong as if you were a Druid 20;one as strong as if you were a Druid 19 and one as strong as if you were a Druid 16.Wild Cohort gets me a cohort which levels like an animal companion, so thats another one as strong as if I was Druid 20. It uses a variant I found on Crystal Keep, which exchanges most class features for a +2 to effective druid level (so 5 levels of that gives an effective druid level of7), Beastmaster, which gives the other 3 companions and increase my effective druid level by it's class level +3 (so thats an extra 13), which is then finished by another 5 levels of druid (so +5).

Anything else I missed?

Character Sheet (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=185818)

gorfnab
2010-02-15, 11:47 PM
I don't think you've missed much. For highest level I would suggest looking into some of the things mentioned in the Supermount (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19866958/Supermount!) build.

GenPol
2010-02-15, 11:58 PM
Well, going with the spirit of the Supermount build mentioned above, you may want to work with is making your animal companion also a paladin mount, for extra bonuses.

Im not sure how helpful this will be, but I'll add it for good measure.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a
It gives you an animal companion without having to be a druid, basically. Probably not what you're looking for, but I thought I'd add it.

EDIT: Unless maybe you could combine the bonuses? I dunno, I'll wait for someone who knows more than me to come along :smalltongue:

Volthawk
2010-02-16, 04:26 AM
I don't think you've missed much. For highest level I would suggest looking into some of the things mentioned in the Supermount (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19866958/Supermount!) build.

That looks alright, but I don't want to use them as a mount. Besides, that only has one animal. I have fiur :smallbiggrin:.


Well, going with the spirit of the Supermount build mentioned above, you may want to work with is making your animal companion also a paladin mount, for extra bonuses.

Im not sure how helpful this will be, but I'll add it for good measure.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a
It gives you an animal companion without having to be a druid, basically. Probably not what you're looking for, but I thought I'd add it.

EDIT: Unless maybe you could combine the bonuses? I dunno, I'll wait for someone who knows more than me to come along :smalltongue:

Yeah, I saw that before, but I never fully read it until now. So that's another animal companion (as strong as if I was a Druid 20).

Heliomance
2010-02-16, 04:30 AM
I believe Beastmaster's not generally considered worth taking more than a dip in. The +3 to druid level is handy, but the extra animal companions tend to be too weak to help much.

I'd also recommend taking Leadership and getting a magical beast of some sort for your cohort, and pimping your Handle Animal check to the point where you can legitimately claim to have tamed a roc. If you're going for crazy amounts of animals, anyway.

Volthawk
2010-02-16, 04:38 AM
I believe Beastmaster's not generally considered worth taking more than a dip in. The +3 to druid level is handy, but the extra animal companions tend to be too weak to help much.

Personally, I quite like it because my companions aren't too weak. The weakest acts as if I'm a Druid 16, and the strongest as if I'm a Druid 25. And now I have 5 of them.

Fenix_of_Doom
2010-02-16, 04:42 AM
Natural bond helps with making the weakest stronger(giving +3 to any companion with an effective druid level under your HD). Depending on your interpretation of the feat it could also help your higher level companions, as long as you make sure they're selected from the list of animals that give the appropriate penalties to your effective druid level.

Volthawk
2010-02-16, 04:43 AM
Natural bond helps with making the weakest stronger(giving +3 to any companion with an effective druid level under your HD). Depending on your interpretation of the feat it could also help your higher level companions, as long as you make sure they're selected from the list of animal companions that give the appropriate penalties to your effective druid level.

Done that, but I didn't think of that way of using it.

Radar
2010-02-16, 04:56 AM
I second the Handle Animal skill. With proper optimization, it was possible (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7097263&postcount=38) to tame three Battletitans (36HD dinosaurs) or Cryohydras and other magical beast at level 4. Without this sort of optimization, you could have them anyway a few levels later. Since as a druid you have high Wisdom and the skill is on your list, there is no reason not to use it to it's full extent. :smallsmile:

Grumman
2010-02-16, 05:03 AM
Personally, I quite like it because my companions aren't too weak. The weakest acts as if I'm a Druid 16, and the strongest as if I'm a Druid 25. And now I have 5 of them.
Wrong. The weakest acts as if you're a Druid 1. The additional animal companions only count your Beastmaster class level, not your druid levels and not your +3 bonus from the level 1 ability.

Volthawk
2010-02-16, 05:03 AM
I second the Handle Animal skill. With proper optimization, it was possible (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7097263&postcount=38) to tame three Battletitans (36HD dinosaurs) or Cryohydras and other magical beast at level 4. Without this sort of optimization, you could have them anyway a few levels later. Since as a druid you have high Wisdom and the skill is on your list, there is no reason not to use it to it's full extent. :smallsmile:

Yeah, I know. I've already got it maxed out, and I haven't really looked at what else I can get. I just decided to add Leadership in and have a Winter Wolf as my cohort, so now I have 5 animals with me already- a Horrid Dire Wolf, 4 Dire Wolves and a Worg :smallsmile:.


Wrong. The weakest acts as if you're a Druid 1. The additional animal companions only count your Beastmaster class level, not your druid levels and not your +3 bonus from the level 1 ability.

Damn, bang goes that idea now. I really should have paid more attention when reading that. At least natural bond kicks in, so the weakest acts like I'm Druid 4.


OK, another question. Can I use beasts for my follwers, if they have a LA listed? For example, could I say my 2nd level followers were Worgs?

Riffington
2010-02-16, 05:20 AM
For example, could I say my 2nd level followers were Wogs?

Since this is a discussion of animal companions, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you meant Worgs.

Volthawk
2010-02-16, 05:25 AM
Since this is a discussion of animal companions, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you meant Worgs.

Oops, misspelling.

Grumman
2010-02-16, 07:13 AM
OK, another question. Can I use beasts for my follwers, if they have a LA listed? For example, could I say my 2nd level followers were Worgs?
They'd have to be 5th level: +1 LA and 4 RHD.

Volthawk
2010-02-16, 07:14 AM
They'd have to be 5th level: +1 LA and 4 RHD.

Oh, yeah. I forgot about HD.

PlzBreakMyCmpAn
2010-02-16, 03:54 PM
By Effect druid level I don't know. I had two old builds that managed 53 and 55HD Colossal+ Great Wyrm Gold Dragons

However I'm in the middle of updating the two to make an even higher monster conglomeration. I hope to break 70HD. If I were using pure Effective Druid Level (which I'm not) that would be... um about 64 or 84 for a non-dragon :smallbiggrin:

Volthawk
2010-02-16, 03:56 PM
By Effect druid level I don't know. I had two old builds that managed 53 and 55HD Colossal+ Great Wyrm Gold Dragons

However I'm in the middle of updating the two to make an even higher monster conglomeration. I hope to break 70HD. If I were using pure Effective Druid Level (which I'm not) that would be... um about 64 or 84 for a non-dragon :smallbiggrin:

Post a link or something when you finish that, I'd like to see that.

PlzBreakMyCmpAn
2010-02-19, 12:43 AM
Done (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7919698)

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