Gestalt and the animal companion

[Goonthegoof]

I need a critique: If I took these classes, I think I'd end up with wizard 20 druid 20 paladin 15 in terms of the the bonuses given to companion- All to the same animal. Would that be the case?

1Wizard/Druid
2Wizard/Druid
3Wizard/Druid
4Wizard/Druid
5Wizard/Druid
6Wizard/Prestige Paladin
7Wizard/Prestige Paladin
8Wizard/Halfling Outrider
9Wizard/Halfling Outrider
10Wizard/Halfling Outrider
11Wizard/Halfling Outrider
12Wizard/Halfling Outrider
13Wizard/Halfling Outrider
14Wizard/Halfling Outrider
15Wizard/Halfling Outrider
16Wizard/Halfling Outrider
17Wizard/Halfling Outrider
18Whatever/Arcane Hierophant
19Whatever/Arcane Hierophant
20Wizard/Beast Master

[Eldariel]

Yeah, that's about right (assuming you have the Devoted Tracker-feat to combine your Mount and AC). You could add Dragon Steed to get a...well, Dragon. With lots of HD. Though you generally want to advance Mount well into Epic for that.

It's actually doable non-Gestalt though you'll lack high-level casting and thus be much worse. It involves Fey Bard, Prestige Ranger, Theurgic Mount, Holy Mount, Theurgic Companion and few other choice Dragon-feats. You can get two different Animal Companion-progressions and combine them with Beastmaster IIRC.

[Goonthegoof]

Hmm, looking at that it seems the familiar part is kind of useless. I think if I went druid 5/paladin 5 and then halfling outrider 10+MoMF 10(forgot only one prestige class at a time) that'd work better. If you add bonus HD (from the druid) to a young dragon will it spontaneously age?

[Eldariel]

It won't age; bonus HD don't affect a creature's size. (Un)fortunately.

And the Familiar still adds Natural Armor, Int and some random useful abilities; you'll probably reach Int higher than a young Dragon has.

[Gnaeus]

This is assuming that your Gestalt game doesn't use the rules involving dual progression PRCs. In "normal" gestalt games, Arcane Hierophant is not legal.