Trading in an Animal Companion for Feats?

[Zook Murning]

I am making a ranger but due to multiclassing my little Badger (He's a gnome ranger, so go figure :smallamused: ) is going to be more of a hindrance than a help. So I have looked through my books for some variant rules for a companion but none seem to gel with my character. So I was thinking about trading him in for feats.

I know there is a flaw (somewhere in a dragon magazine) that lets you lose your companion but gain a feat but to me that seems a little unbalanced, I know the disadvantages of a Flaw should outweigh the advantages of a Feat but it still seems a little excessive, so maybe He gains a feat at 5th level Ranger and another at 10th (my ranger levels will probably only go up to 10th anyway). Is that too much, what does everyone else think?

(PS if you know any awesome ranger flaws please let me know :smallsmile: )

Thanks :smallbiggrin:

[Jack_Simth]

I know there is a flaw (somewhere in a dragon magazine) that lets you lose your companion but gain a featDragon 327: "Loner" - although rangers can't really take it because flaws have to come at 1st, and rangers don't qualify until 4th.

So what you're really looking for is a ranger alternate class feature that drops the animal companion in favor of something else. Hmm...

I'm afraid I haven't studied Rangers that much.

[Person_Man]

Your alternate class feature options are:

Celestial Slayer (Exemplars of Evil, p 20): must be evil; lose wild empathy, animal companion, and woodland stride, gain SR vs. good spells/spell-likes and +4 to confirm crit. vs. good creatures. (Sucks unless you're an NPC fighting Good enemies).

Distracting Attack (PHB 2, p 55): Lose animal companion. Whenever you hit with an attack, the enemy is then considered flanked. (Sucks unless you're a bow ranger playing with a rogue in your party, and even then it's not that helpful).

Shooting Star Substitution Levels (CV, p 50): add Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft. Lose Animal Companion, gain slightly better (but still cruddy) spells.

Spiritual Guide (CC, p 50): Lose animal companion. As long as you're in natural settings, gain a bonus on several skills. Use commune with nature once per day. (also cruddy).

Urban Companion (CS (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a), web): Instead of a normal animal companion, instead gain something similar to a familiar.

The other options basically trade your animal companion for a slightly different animal companion.

I would suggest an Urban Companion. It shares your BAB and has 3/4 your hit points, which means that it's not nerfed if you multi-class or enter a PrC. More importantly, it counts as a Familiar. So it starts with Improved Evasion and can benefit from the Improved Familiar or Draconic Familiar feat.

[Talya]

Get your DM to allow you to drop your companion in favor of the Wild Cohort feat.

[Cog]

It sounds like you don't have a problem with a companion in the first place, just a weak one. In that case, you might want to try an Urban Companion (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) instead; like a familiar, HP and BAB are based off your own, so it's much more survivable.

[GodGoblin]

There is also the Lone stalker variant (Might have the name wrong) it drops companion and you gain the damage bonus from your favoured enemy to hit as well! My personal favorite.

[Zook Murning]

I am greatly considering Urban companion, could i still have a Badger (They're fluffy and viscous all in one package :smallbiggrin: )? Or Do you think I would need Improved Familiar? But to me Dire badger seems some of a thing for improved familiar.

[danzibr]

Person_Man covered all of your bases, of course.

I was going to suggest something along the lines of what Talya said. If your DM is willing to give you a bonus feat or two for your AC, just ask for Wild Cohort instead. That is, unless you don't want an AC.

[Yuki Akuma]

I am greatly considering Urban companion, could i still have a Badger (They're fluffy and viscous all in one package :smallbiggrin: )? Or Do you think I would need Improved Familiar? But to me Dire badger seems some of a thing for improved familiar.

Badgers aren't very 'urban' animals.

[Coidzor]

Badgers aren't very 'urban' animals.

Unless you're in a Gnomish city, anyway... :smallamused:

[Talya]

Person_Man covered all of your bases, of course.

I was going to suggest something along the lines of what Talya said. If your DM is willing to give you a bonus feat or two for your AC, just ask for Wild Cohort instead. That is, unless you don't want an AC.

It's a common houserule in my games that a ranger can trade his animal companion for a wild cohort at his choice. (there are very few reasons why even a single class ranger wouldn't do this...the few that exist involve prerequisites for other things, because a wild cohort is not technically an animal companion.)

[Yuki Akuma]

Unless you're in a Gnomish city, anyway... :smallamused:

The only examples of gnomish cities I can think of are built into mountains, which really wouldn't have any badgers living in them. :smallwink:

[The-Mage-King]

Dragon 327: "Loner" - although rangers can't really take it because flaws have to come at 1st, and rangers don't qualify until 4th.

WRONG

You appear to have missed a line in the rules for them.

The one that goes "...[U]nless the game master specifically allows it..."


You know, the one where you ask your DM to let you take a flaw at a later level?

[Yuki Akuma]

WRONG

You appear to have missed a line in the rules for them.

The one that goes "...[U]nless the game master specifically allows it..."


You know, the one where you ask your DM to let you take a flaw at a later level?

So... in fact, you cannot take flaws at any level later than 1st unless your DM hosuerules otherwise?

You don't say.

[Talya]

So... in fact, you cannot take flaws at any level later than 1st unless your DM hosuerules otherwise?

You don't say.

Actually, not all flaws even recommend 1st level only. (The Dragon Magazine ones usually don't.)

[Zook Murning]

I am sure my DM will let me have an urban Badger, because gnomes love their badgers (metaphorically speaking of course) so Gnome villages and towns probably have them around a lot and Races of Stone gives rules for dire badger mounts, so they must be domesticated by gnomes to an extent.

[Person_Man]

From a strict optimization point of view, if you go with an Urban Companion you're better off taking Improved Familiar to get a Winter Wolf or Draconic Familiar to get a baby dragon. If you stick with badger it's not going to be that useful to you - though if I was your DM I would reward your fluffy sub-optimal choice by letting your badger breath fire or be an Earthbender or something.

[Amnestic]

So... in fact, you cannot take flaws at any level later than 1st unless your DM hosuerules otherwise?

You don't say.

I think "variant rule" would be a better descriptor, as houserule implies that its a change not spelled out, while this is a clear option as allowed by the rules.

So it'd be a variant variant rule :smalltongue:

[Talya]

From a strict optimization point of view, if you go with an Urban Companion you're better off taking Improved Familiar to get a Winter Wolf or Draconic Familiar to get a baby dragon. If you stick with badger it's not going to be that useful to you - though if I was your DM I would reward your fluffy sub-optimal choice by letting your badger breath fire or be an Earthbender or something.

Celestial Badger!

(Full BAB, if nothing else.)

[Urpriest]

Celestial Badger!

(Full BAB, if nothing else.)

Irrelevant as a familiar, unfortunately. They don't gain more hit dice, they just copy their master's. Same with the abundance of skills, though I suppose you could give it skills the master lacks.

[Talya]

They don't gain more hit dice, they just copy their master's.

yes. And if you gave them full BAB progression for those copied dice...

[Urpriest]

yes. And if you gave them full BAB progression for those copied dice...

Sorry, that sentence was missing a word. I mean to say they just copy their master's BAB. Familiars don't actually count as having their master's hit dice for anything besides spells and the like, unlike psicrystals.

[Talya]

Sorry, that sentence was missing a word. I mean to say they just copy their master's BAB. Familiars don't actually count as having their master's hit dice for anything besides spells and the like, unlike psicrystals.

That would be great, here, as the master is a ranger with full BAB.

However, the "Urban Companion" Familiar replacement for Animal Companion explicitly has 3/4 BAB instead of copying its masters. It seems to me Celestial Familiar would bump that up to full BAB.

[Urpriest]

That would be great, here, as the master is a ranger with full BAB.

However, the "Urban Companion" Familiar replacement for Animal Companion explicitly has 3/4 BAB instead of copying its masters. It seems to me Celestial Familiar would bump that up to full BAB.

That 3/4 is for hit points, not BAB.

[The-Mage-King]

So... in fact, you cannot take flaws at any level later than 1st unless your DM hosuerules otherwise?

You don't say.

Certainly.

Just like you can't play a warforged unless your DM houserules otherwise.

[dextercorvia]

From a strict optimization point of view, if you go with an Urban Companion you're better off taking Improved Familiar to get a Winter Wolf or Draconic Familiar to get a baby dragon. If you stick with badger it's not going to be that useful to you - though if I was your DM I would reward your fluffy sub-optimal choice by letting your badger breath fire or be an Earthbender or something.

I was under the impression that Urban Companion doesn't count as a familar, and that he doesn't have an Arcane Spellcasting level (without SotAO).