Animal companion help

[LTwerewolf]

I've been using a wolf as my companion since level 1, my question is is a dire wolf actually better once you get to that level? With the bonus hit die and extra feats the wolf gets, does the dire wolf's extra strength really make as much of a difference?

We're playing so druid bonus hit dice on animals does in fact give an increase in size, so there's no size difference at that point. The wolf would also have 3 more in natural armor.

Also, how much better is a fleshraker in practice? I know it's better in theory, but that doesn't always play out.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Personally I'd say the Dire Wolf is better than the advanced Wolf, even with the size increases. I'd also say that the Fleshraker is significantly better than either.

Edit: I completely forgot about ability boosts. The regular wolf is better.

[Urpriest]

Since you guys houseruled the size increases for some bizarre reason, the gap closes significantly. Should I assume you guys are applying the ability boosts that advancing HD usually give when size is increased?

So say you're a 7th level Druid, able to get a Dire Wolf. Your Wolf has 6HD. If you're interpreting the HD increase as the sort of advancement that increases size rather than bonus HD, then you can't get any higher than that. But I digress. Anyway, 6HD Wolf vs. 6HD Dire Wolf. Both are Large. The Wolf will have natural armor +8 (including the size increase) while the Dire Wolf has +3. Assuming you're adding ability boosts to Str, Wolf has Str 24, while the Dire Wolf has Str 25, so effectively the same. The Wolf has a d8 bite, the Dire Wolf does too, so they're dealing the same damage.

As for the other ability scores, Dire Wolf has Dex 15, Con 17 while advanced Wolf has Dex 13, Con 19. The advanced wolf will have 4 better AC, and better hit points. The Wolf has good Fort and Ref, the Dire Wolf has good Will as well, but the Wolf gets Devotion so that's mostly a wash. The Wolf will also get Evasion, and more tricks. Overall, the Wolf is significantly better, which is one of the reasons why you don't increase size when you add Bonus HD.