Animal Companion Question(s) [PF]

[Hyde]

I'm rolling a druid, and I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to have an ape animal companion and giving it maybe weapons and/or a UMD after increasing its intelligence to 3 at level 4?

As opposed to having a big cat, anyway.

My theory is that it might be useful, in terms of economy of action, to have another standard action that can be used to cast spells or whatever.

probably have a pretty lousy check, though.

[Carth]

This is usually only worthwhile with an improved familiar. For instance, faerie dragons have good charisma scores and UMD as a class skill already. Overcoming the ape's -2 cha mod, lack of it as a class skill, and so forth would require more resources that it's worth.

[avr]

Weapons might be viable. It'd have to spend a feat on proficiency (even for simple weapons) to start with though.

[Hyde]

Given that animal companions don't get iteratives, I think that the cat's probably going to be my best bet.

I ran into a list that ranked the Allosaurus higher, but I'm not really seeing it with its claws as secondary weapons and no rake.

[Carth]

Don't underestimate the roc, grab the narrow frame feat with it to make going indoors not so painful.

[Hyde]

I like the versatility of having a flyer/attacker, but I also like pounce.

that said, I have basically no idea what type of setting or environment we're going into.