Druid Animal Companion 3.5

[LaughingRogue]

I your opinion what is the best animal companion (besides fleshraker) in 3.5. One step further, what is the best way to optimize your animal companion as a druid,

thanks in advance
LaughingRogue.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Big cats or bears are the usual choice when fleshraker is not on the table; and the best use for an AC is to make an Ubermount

[Rejakor]

Get a monkey.
Train it to pick pockets.
...
Profit

[NeoSeraphi]

Animal companions are usually taught one of two tricks. Either they grapple (Bears and dinosaurs) or they pounce (lions, tigers, and fleshrakers).

Also, there is trample, but that's mostly out of core (some of the larger dinosaurs, as well as elephants and dire tortoises (Sandstorm).

The question is, do you want your animal companion to be a valued combatant or a mount? If you want a mount, the best thing to do would be to get a flying companion, like a dire bat or a roc.

If you want grapple, the bigger the better. I believe the dire bear has the highest grapple check in core, but in the MM2, the Huge sized dinosaurs with their Swallow Whole abilities are superior.

If you want pounce, dire tiger is the way to go, but get a tiger at earlier levels. Get Companion Spellbound and cast Bite of the Werebear (Spell Compendium) so that your weretiger gets a +16 enhancement bonus to its Strength and the Power Attack feat, and rip your opponents to shreds.

[opticalshadow]

id also dare weigh your dm's setting. if your in alot of dungeons or corridors, you might want to skip mounts and pounces for grapplers, if your in alot of out door plains, id go with flying and become more of a bomber scout.

cats are normally nice for the pounce when you get a mix of those two, and if you have alot of really nice sized encounters, ive had some fun with rhino mounts


but the more your indoors, the more grapplers remain the better option, the more your outdoors, or in larger areas, the more the higher mobilioty will be valued.

[Eldariel]

Generally, you want ursine, feline or canine creatures (and strongest canine is Dire Wolf, so those cap out pretty fast), or a dinosaur. Then there's few outliers like elephants, rhinos, crocodiles, dire bat and some (dire) birds. Usually, the best option is of the highest level you can get. My favorite option for very high levels is Horrid Tiger [ECS]; basically Dire Tiger with +5d6 acid on attacks and some miscellaneous benefits.

Of core options, it goes something like:
Riding Dog (War-Trained) > Dire Bat > Brown Bear > Polar Bear > Dire Bear > Dire Tiger or so (with some alternatives on each level, Tyranno, Rhino, Dire Lion, Dire Wolf, etc. are good). Notice that Dires have good Will-saves which is key especially for mid- and higher-powered campaigns. Sucks to waste actions keeping your animal companion useful.

[Coidzor]

For upping the melee nature of an Animal Companion, I'd recommend grabbing the Necklace of Natural Attacks(Savage Species?) to get weapon properties on its natural attacks/unarmed strike, Improved Unarmed Strike(or an appropriate item to grant it to the animal companion), Mouthpick Weapons(+1 bonus, Lords of Madness), Multiattack if they're eligible, and possibly TWF if they're capable of unarmed striking and having a mouthpick weapon.

Snap Kick & Superior Unarmed Strike, both from ToB, could be good as well.

Appropriate armor-barding/bracers of armor and other defensive items for it, probably using item stacking from Magic Item Compendium. Search around for some thoughts about what body slots animals would have, depending upon their body shape.

[Xyk]

At low levels, I found the wolf to be endlessly helpful. That free trip attempt does wonders when fighting a few tough monsters. If there's 3 bears and one of them is on its back, you only have to fight 2 bears. That's much easier.

[Caveman]

If you go Druid 20 (or the equivalent) I have found that the riding dog stays competitive for a long time (plus, my GM has ruled that dinosaurs are magical beasts, which does a little bit to keep down the druid's imbalances). The natural armor increase keeps it from getting hit too hard, trip never gets old and the second attack is helpful. I added in a studded leather harness (barding), and a collar of resistance and it works pretty well, especially with things like Animal Growth and such.

Plus, it can go anywhere I go (aside from underwater), and remains a complement to my character rather than a character unto itself, which is good for balance.

[Philistine]

Of core options, it goes something like:
Riding Dog (War-Trained) > Dire Bat > Brown Bear > Polar Bear > Dire Bear > Dire Tiger or so

I'm curious, what's the appeal of the Polar Bear? It doesn't seem like it's much of an improvement over the Brown Bear. They have almost the same stat line, with the Polar Bear having an extra 2 HD and a Swim speed - and the Brown Bear will always be one step farther along the Druid AC Progression, nullifying the difference in HD and providing a few other bennies as well.

For that matter, even the Dire Bear doesn't appear to offer much over an equivalently-advanced Brown Bear, other than the strong Will Save. Am I missing something?

[ShriekingDrake]

I'm curious, what's the appeal of the Polar Bear? It doesn't seem like it's much of an improvement over the Brown Bear. They have almost the same stat line, with the Polar Bear having an extra 2 HD and a Swim speed - and the Brown Bear will always be one step farther along the Druid AC Progression, nullifying the difference in HD and providing a few other bennies as well.

For that matter, even the Dire Bear doesn't appear to offer much over an equivalently-advanced Brown Bear, other than the strong Will Save. Am I missing something?

I never thought about it in quite this way. I don't have my books infront of me, but I think you make a good point.

[Eldariel]

I'm curious, what's the appeal of the Polar Bear? It doesn't seem like it's much of an improvement over the Brown Bear. They have almost the same stat line, with the Polar Bear having an extra 2 HD and a Swim speed - and the Brown Bear will always be one step farther along the Druid AC Progression, nullifying the difference in HD and providing a few other bennies as well.

Polar and Brown is a toss-up, really. That level doesn't have many good choices in Core tho so if you wanna upgrade, Polar Bear is among the better choices.


For that matter, even the Dire Bear doesn't appear to offer much over an equivalently-advanced Brown Bear, other than the strong Will Save. Am I missing something?

It has higher Str than the leveled-up version, and 2 HD more than leveled up Brown/Polar Bear. But the real key is the will-save; on those levels it gets to be unbelievably convenient to not have to deal with a mind control effect on your AC every turn.

Overall, this is just clearly better in spite of the lower AC (you can actually raise the AC quite a bit with equipment and magic). Overall, leveled-up ones tend to have higher AC and lower everything else than the higher level options. Generally the AC is just too expensive, especially since the thing is not a high priority target. Though leveled-up low level creatures can certainly be viable too.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Dire Eagle in Races of Stone is a 'level -3' companion, it starts large with 5 HD and gets three attacks/round at 10 ft. reach. At the lower levels it's big enough for a medium character to ride, which can be extremely helpful.

You should always get the feat Natural Bond in Complete Adventurer. It adds +3 levels to your effective Druid level for the animal companion's benefits, but never higher than your character level. Since you can apply your own bonuses and penalties in the most beneficial order, you can get a 'level -3' companion and apply that penalty first, then add in the +3 from Natural Bond to still count your full level for its benefits.

Every animal companion should have two cross-class ranks in Spellcraft to get Mage Slayer and possibly Pierce Magical Protection and Pierce Magical Concealment. Note it can only have two cross-class ranks once it's gained +4 HD, since it only gets one skill point/HD.

If you're playing a good/exalted character, get the feat Exalted Companion (BoED) to get a Celestial Creature version of your animal companion. That makes it good-aligned so it can take Sacred Vow and Vow of Poverty, and get bonuses better than any gear you would have bought for it. It's a bit cheesy, unless your character also has VoP in which case it would make a lot of sense.

[youngpoet_467]

:smallbiggrin: Well he said 3.5 and no one mentioned the horse. I think 3.5 makes any animal competitive by levelling it up as the druid levels up. I chose a horse so i can Lightening Charge with Shillelagh. I'm not interested anymore with lookin through supplements for hours. There are some good core options if only you have a DM that allows you to hang with other game maxers. Just role play. a horse can be battle trained, easy barding, go anywhere, growthed, and Spell Link in the druid progression makes every mount share your spells. I'm going to have an easier time training my mount over such a long period of time, IF she's got character enough to charm the DM. If i am not impressed, i'll get a rhino for effect. If you have a grapple animal companion like these smart players are suggesting with bears and such, then you can't use benefits from 'Link' (shared spells), maybe i'm forgetting the name exactly. I just wanted to join the front line this time and am guessing that i can hang with fighters on front line. Many ride tricks are easy for Druid and only a true class skill in 3.5. (not cross as in 3.0). Erego... Was time for a change from the spellcaster to the surprise front liner. If only i had the Constitution to keep this up. Mounted Combat Feat substitutes a ride check with the mounts AC for one attack every round for free to help protect your mount! Can you imagine? My mount has only been hit once while this was active (while mounted) so far (a hit to AC 26 pfffft, this at level 4, my DM will hit you if he wants to but my horse will stay beefy anyway). Eventually i theorize a wild shape into Dire Ape is a huge strength boost, with spells perhaps, plus natural quarter staff, plus Brambles, plus Spikes, plus a rhino between my legs, plus Lightening Charge, Shillelagh. i'm sure a bunch of yous so called experts are shaking heads. But you might have a DM that might let an attack of gore + 6d6+"bunch" slide by every turn by ninth level (it requires a skill check for letting animal attack in same round as rider(not a charge maybe but still good), plus ride check to guide with knees and use a two handed weapon, plus shillelagh and a large quarterstaff in dire ape hands (though a druid mind and vice like grip), plus Two-Weapon Fighting Feat (3d6/3d6 and only minus 2 to each attack) -OR- plus ride-by-attack, lightening charge..= lg staff (because dire ape lg. creature) -w- shillelagh=3d6, + lightening charge=6d6. (crit 12d6?)... hardly any spells used so far. I think it's worth trying for a druid of this kind. Magic items and shared spells to keep strength up would cause medium loads to become light ones, increasing speed of mount under barding and increase damage by rider and mount. I like the post about the eagle though. That's a really good idea. But then i like the Hippogriff on a whim. Levelled up it could be as good or "more useful". I just think it shouldn't be the type of game where a few strength points decide the color of an optomized druid (or pick bears). Having an animal companion level up in D&D 3.5, to save time switching companions and perhaps developing companion personality, is a powerful option or should be. I've never seen a dinosaur, to be honest, I don't care much, it's weird. I summon enlarged dire wolves as my sacred pleasure. The funny part is i would carry around a ten foot pole for the times i need to wild shape into a dire ape and use it as a staff. Make your choices fun! Or worth dying for.

[eggs]

I tried to break it down further here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13489956&postcount=8).[/shameless] It's from a Shaman standpoint, which changes a couple things (namely: more polymorph/divine power, less animal growth), but most of it should apply.

At low levels, I really like the Tressym (high int/skills/flight), serval (pounce/dps) and small monstrous spider (webs/climb/tremorsense); at high levels, the Roc and Gargantuan Giant Scorpion are completely impractical, but I love the scale of the things. (Plus, by the time a Druid qualifies, unshapechanged animal companions are long past relevance anyway.)

But for combat with the standard options, it's usually a decision between damage (cats), control (reptiles) and something in between (bears). Of those, I tend to prefer the cats.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff of Moddingham: Thread Necromancy.