Wild Cohort VS Animal Companion

[Snig]

Hi Guys, I have a question about a mounted archer build I am working on.

I am considering taking the Wild Cohort Feat and trading my animal companion at lvl 4 for Distracting Attack (PHB 2, p 55): Lose animal companion. Whenever you hit with an attack, the enemy is then considered flanked.

My only concern is that the Wild Cohort takes a move action to handle rather then a free action (they dont get the Link ability). And i'm pretty sure this will hurt me as a mounted archer?

Does this mean that if I take a full round action such as Rapid Shot, that I cannot do anything with my mount, or does it still have it's own set of actions to use?

Also wild cohorts miss out on the Shared Spells and get no Multiattack. How big of a deal are these?

The advantage of wild cohort is that I don't have to juggle classes that advance my druid/ranger level to keep my animal companion relevent and I can freely PrC into something interesting like Deepwood sniper if I take Wild Cohort.

Any advice?

[Vaz]

Give it an item of +2 intelligence, and it can understand orders (speaking is a free action).

[prufock]

As your Wild Cohort gains hit dice it can take Multiattack as a feat if it has more than 3 natural attacks. Share Spells is a bigger loss.

[Snig]

Give it an item of +2 intelligence, and it can understand orders (speaking is a free action).

Is it really that easy?

[Eldonauran]

Is it really that easy?

Yes and no. Yes, that increasing its intelligence will allow it to follow simple orders verbally. No, being that you have to teach the animal a language (mechanically, investing a rank in Speak Language).

[Snig]

I'm not sure if that is the answer. I just researched it and I could no longer make ride checks to control my mount, instead I would have to use diplomacy.

What about using my move action to handle my wild cohort. Does that prevent me from taking full round actions?

[Urpriest]

As a Mounted Archer the move action handling will never be a problem. You'll be directing your mount with Ride checks, which (for a combat-trained mount like a Riding Dog) are free actions. You won't be using Handle Animal except out of combat when you want your Wild Cohort to do something and you aren't on top of it.

[Sceluvia]

What about using my move action to handle my wild cohort. Does that prevent me from taking full round actions?

Try to get the spell Haste constantly in effect.

[Snig]

So in that case there is no need for me to pick up the Silverwood Outrider PrC to gain the level 1 ability "Fast Handling"?

Am I right in thinking that Wild Cohort is a better option then trying to level up a Rangers Animal Companion?

[Urpriest]

So in that case there is no need for me to pick up the Silverwood Outrider PrC to gain the level 1 ability "Fast Handling"?

Am I right in thinking that Wild Cohort is a better option then trying to level up a Rangers Animal Companion?

Sort of. Basically, Ride covers normal stuff in combat (provided, again, you have a combat-trained mount, so Silverwood Outrider is still useful if you had a Wolf or the like, rather than a Riding Dog), but Handle Animal covers more unusual tasks. If you want your mount to pick something up in its mouth and carry it somewhere, that would be Handle Animal. So it's a question of whether you want that versatility.

That said, I definitely think you're better off with Wild Cohort in general.

[Fouredged Sword]

Wild cohort is best when you want to do some multiclassing. Distracting attack is a flat boost gained at level 4.

It is also better if you are starting as a mounted character at level one. You can get Wild Cohort and Mounted Combat as your first human feats and start with your build functioning.

Animal Companions level better, if you are a druid and don't multiclass.

Really, though, I prefer to pick up a wild cohort AND an animal companion. Nothing like having TWO riding dogs as a halfling.

[Prime32]

There's a lot of ways to keep levelling up your animal companion. I've got some of them here (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=25). A Wild Cohort is still almost twice as strong as a ranger companion though, unless you're applying multiple sets of companion bonuses to the same creature.

[Snig]

With all this said, am I better off using my wild cohort as

- a mount for my archer (only using it to fight when i'm forced into melee), and staying at range as much as possible.

- a mount for my archer, but try to stay in the middle of the fight where my mount can engage in melee, and my archer can take features that allow him to threaten with his bow and not take AoO from using a bow.

or

- Send my wild cohort into combat while I stay back and use my archery (really against my concept of a goblin wolf rider).

[Snig]

Anyone have any input on this style of mounted archery?

I was thinking I would stay in close range (30ft) of most combat and use a combination of archery, and attacks from my animal companion. This would be made easier with ranger spells that allow me to threaten squares and avoid opportunity attacks while firing a bow (also think that the Peerless Archer supports this).

One particular maneuver I had in mind was to have my mount charge an enemy with ride-by-attack, and during the movement I could take a full round action to make a full ranged attack.

This seems like the best way of combining both my attack and my mounts attack in a single round?

If things are getting a little hairy, I could attempt to move out of harms way and stay on the fringes of combat relying on my mounts movement and my archery.

Thoughts?