Druid / Ranger Multiclass

[Snig]

Hey guys, i'm looking for some input on my character idea. I plan on creating a mounted archer with two powerful Worgs / Winter Wolves.

I will implement this idea by taking the Urban Companion ACF offered to Druids and Rangers in place of an animal companion. This basically lets me trade in my companion for a familiar which uses my PCs BAB and 3/4 of his HP. Then I will take the feats Improved Familiar, and Extra Familiar.

Improved Familiar gives me access to to some great familiars but the ones I am interested in are the Worg at caster lvl 3, and the Winter Wolf at caster level 7 (under the heading for Improved Familiar it says "Arcane" Spellcasting level requirements for gaining familiars, but since Urban Companion uses your Druid or 1/2 your Ranger levels to determine the familiars abilities my DM thought it fine to use Druid or 1/2 Ranger lvl to gain new Improved Familiars).

So now i'm stuck trying to find the best way to go about this. If I go straight druid I can get my 2 Worgs at lvl 3 and 2 Winter Wolf at lvl 7 and be a mounted spellcaster, but due to my average BAB my Wolves will be a little less powerful. However if I go with Ranger I get full BAB, but no Worgs till lvl 6 and no Winter Wolves till 14.

So then I started thinking about multiclassing Ranger / Druid to try and get the best of both and be a mounted archer with some great spellcasting. I'm not sure how BAB works though if I multiclass.

Thoughts?

[bekeleven]

My thoughts: Familiars are not battle sturdy like companions are.

The best thing to do for companion optimization is to take 1 level of Beastmater (from Complete Adventurer). 1 level grants you +4 effective companion levels. You can also level to level 4 for an additonal animal companion but it will be a complete chump. Levelling beastmaster is a trap. A druid 5/Beastmaster 4 would have their primary companion as a Druid 12, and a secondary companion as a Druid 1.

From there, I'd take a feat that gives you an animal companion to gain your second one. Look into Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a).

Edit: It's not RAW but, depending on how nice your DM is, you might be able to take Natural Bond to help out your wild cohort's scaling.

[Snig]

My thoughts: Familiars are not battle sturdy like companions are.

The best thing to do for companion optimization is to take 1 level of Beastmater (from Complete Adventurer). 1 level grants you +4 effective companion levels. You can also level to level 4 for an additonal animal companion but it will be a complete chump. Levelling beastmaster is a trap. A druid 5/Beastmaster 4 would have their primary companion as a Druid 12, and a secondary companion as a Druid 1.

From there, I'd take a feat that gives you an animal companion to gain your second one. Look into Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a).

I realize that standard familiars are not battle sturdy, but have you looked at Improved Familiar? It uses its master BAB and 3/4 of his HP (thanks to Urban Companion). I've been comparing a Winter Wolf Improved Familiar to a Polar Bear animal companion of a 12th lvl character and it stacks up very well. HP = to 3/4 of its masters (lvl 12 druid?) 21 AC vs 15 AC, and 3 attacks at 1d8+6+1d6, and a 4d6 breath weapon every 1d4 rounds. It also has an Int of 11.

[Chronos]

Just how many threads are you planning on starting on this? The discussion would probably be a lot more coherent if you just kept it all in one thread.