How to have the most effective animal companion possible.

[Yerrik]

Hello, I'm trying to tweak my animal companion to be the best possible option that I can.

I have a few assumptions here:
6 levels of ranger using a homebrew where the animal companion starts at level 1 like druid.
1 level of beastmaster.

So total character level 7. AnCmp level 10.

What I'm looking for is feat choices and gear and future class levels. Also spells in particular I could ask my party members to try and keep on hand to help my animal companion be all he can be :P

Thank you in advance for any help that can be given.

If this thread was better answered somewhere else I wasn't able to find it... please redirect me.

[Akal Saris]

Medium sized: Fleshraker companion (MM 3) with bonus HD, hands-down. It grapples, pins, pounces, rakes, trips, and poisons. Versatile and able to go anywhere you can go.

Large sized: Horrid Bat (EBCS) is a terrific flier, while for melee I'd go for a brown bear or magebred tiger (5 nations).

Huge sized: My own ranger uses a giant crocodile - they fill the freaking room, deal nice damage, and have good HD. But it's hard to get them into some places.

Feats: Not very many here. Natural Bond might offset the penalty for a larger than normal companion, but probably doesn't work that way. I think there might be a celestial companion feat in BoED as well.

Feats for the companion: Hrm. Depends on the DM, but Multiattack, Improved Natural Attack and Improved Critical are common but good choices.

Templates: Making your animal a warbeast (MM 2) through handle animal is free and gives another HD, some stat boosts, and armor proficiency. All around good things. Of course, you might as well just spend 1.4K and buy a warbeast dire tiger, but whatever.

[The Glyphstone]

I think the official name for the build is the Supermount, if you want the absolute best. I don't remember the specifics, but it ends up with a ridiculously overpowered animal companion that also gains paladin special mount qualities and maybe familiar traits as well.

[Mythestopheles]

Here's (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19866958/Supermount!) a useful thread on supermount if you wish to go in that direction.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You can apply your own bonuses and penalties in the most beneficial order, the same goes for the more powerful 'level -X' companions, Beastmaster, and the Natural Bond feat in Complete Adventurer.

Get an animal companion from the 'level -3' list, and apply the penalty first: Character level 7, effective Druid level 4.
Apply the bonus for Natural bond: Character level 7, effective Druid level 7.
Apply the bonus for Beastmaster: Character level 7, effective Druid level 7.
Now you have a stronger companion at no cost to its HD/benefits progression.

Your animal companion's feats are also important. It's often a good idea to give it two cross-class ranks in Spellcraft (you can train anything to recognize what is and isn't a spell) to get Mage Slayer. Power Attack and Leap Attack are also good, particularly if you put Armbands of Might on it. The armbands add +2 to its bonus damage for power attacking, so for taking a -2 to hit it gets +4 damage, and Leap Attack increases this by 100% (as per errata) so for a -2 to hit it will get +8 damage to all of its attacks. This is particularly good with anything that has Pounce, such as a Fleshraker.

If you want to get ridiculously cheesy, take the Celestial Companion feat from BoED, and put the Celestial Creature template on your animal companion, which gives it Int 3 and a good alignment. Your animal companion can now take the feats Sacred Vow and Vow of Poverty, which grant it significant benefits when it's not wearing magic items or carrying valuable gear. Just don't put a saddle on it, and make sure to never use it to help carry anything. RAW this doesn't work with anything that has a poison attack, despite all logical arguments to the contrary. A reasonable DM would probably recognize that, but then again a reasonable DM wouldn't allow this in the first place.

Buffs are also good to use. Enrage Animal is particularly strong in the lower levels, and Barkskin and Animal Growth are also quite useful. Probably the best buff to use would be Venomfire from Serpent Kingdoms, which adds 1d6 per caster level (no cap) acid damage to every one of its attacks which deliver poison, for an hour per caster level. For a Fleshraker this will mean 1d6 per caster level damage to three of its attacks. Furthermore, if you cast Venomous Volley (http://crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Spells-Druid.pdf) on your opponents they'll take a -4 penalty to saving throws vs poison attacks, including those used by your animal companion. It can also get the feats Ability Focus: Poison (MM, +2 DC) and Virulent Poison (SS, +2 DC). As it just so happens, a Fleshraker is the ideal creature to use with all of these tactics.

[Zeta Kai]

Step #1: Be a Druid. :smallcool:

Step #2: Don't be a Ranger. :smallyuk:

[Gnaeus]

Another way to go that is more effective than ranger/beastmaster is Druid/wizard/Arcane Hierophant/rest druid(or beastmaster 1).

Natural Bond makes up for the 3 lost levels in wizard. Your companion gets all the abilities of a familiar (intelligence, improved evasion, big natural armor boost) and with Companion Spellbond he benefits from cast buffs from both sides.

[marjan]

Step #1: Don't be a Ranger. :smallyuk:

Step #2: Be a Druid. :smallcool:

I believe it should be like this. :smallwink:

[Akal Saris]

Well, he's house-ruled to have the druid AC, so that's not an issue. And look at his build: unless he's going to take his next 5 levels of paladin out of nowhere, he's not going the supermount route. And those would be 5 levels where the AC didn't improve at all, so that's not really a good choice. Seriously, people.

[Gan The Grey]

Another way to go that is more effective than ranger/beastmaster is Druid/wizard/Arcane Hierophant/rest druid(or beastmaster 1).

Natural Bond makes up for the 3 lost levels in wizard. Your companion gets all the abilities of a familiar (intelligence, improved evasion, big natural armor boost) and with Companion Spellbond he benefits from cast buffs from both sides.

The Companion Familiar from Arcane Hierophant does not stack the Natural Armor bonus from both Familiar and Animal Companion. You only receive the Natural Armor bonus from Animal Companion.

[PlzBreakMyCmpAn]

The most effective animal companion ever? Be careful what you wish for (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142554):smallcool: