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View Full Version : Level 8 Ranger, looking for [Animal] Companion



Kevka Palazzo
2013-11-22, 01:20 AM
Decided to turn the title into a dating ad joke.

Anyway, I'm making a level 8 ranger for a PbP. While looking through a book, I found a really spiffy level 2 ranger spell: leap into animal*

It's nifty as all get out, but requires a willing animal that must be your size or larger. I'm trying to find rules for alternate animal companions that will let me nab either a medium-sized flying animal or at least increase the size of my, say, hawk (the only flying option other than a dire bat for my level).

It's kind of a terrible spell due to the size requirements and the duration (caster level minutes), but wonderfully flavorful, and I'm trying to find ways to make it useful.

Alternatively, I guess I could grab summon nature's ally II, spend a round to summon a dire bat, then cast leap into animal. Would have to do this through scrolls, of course. Seems convoluted. And expensive.

* (Magic of Eberron pg. 97).

jaydubs
2013-11-22, 01:44 AM
A level 8 ranger can straight up take a dire bat as his/her animal companion. Were you specifically looking for a medium sized flyer for some reason?

Kevka Palazzo
2013-11-22, 01:59 AM
A level 8 ranger can straight up take a dire bat as his/her animal companion. Were you specifically looking for a medium sized flyer for some reason?

No, a bat just doesn't really fit [the character's] theme. Otherwise it's probably a really good choice. I'm mostly trying to figure out the logistics of having a large-sized bat following me all around. Boggles my mind.

jaydubs
2013-11-22, 02:50 AM
You can take the natural bond feat to push up your effective druid level to 7. You can then grab either a Dire Hawk (medium) from Races of the Wild or a Dire Eagle (large) from Races of Stone. You can technically get a Dire Hawk without the feat at Ranger 8, but only if you're a Raptoran (some kind of avian humanoid).

The easier if not quite RAW way to do things though is probably just to ask your DM for some leeway. Regular eagles can get to medium size by advancing in HD. And while normally animal companion bonus HD doesn't advance an animals size, there probably isn't too much harm in giving you a medium sized eagle.

Kevka Palazzo
2013-11-22, 03:05 AM
You can take the natural bond feat to push up your effective druid level to 7. You can then grab either a Dire Hawk (medium) from Races of the Wild or a Dire Eagle (large) from Races of Stone. You can technically get a Dire Hawk without the feat at Ranger 8, but only if you're a Raptoran (some kind of avian humanoid).

The easier if not quite RAW way to do things though is probably just to ask your DM for some leeway. Regular eagles can get to medium size by advancing in HD. And while normally animal companion bonus HD doesn't advance an animals size, there probably isn't too much harm in giving you a medium sized eagle.

Man, I had to dig hard to find Natural Bond. I haven't touched Complete Adventurer in years. That would do the trick.

I'll ask my DM about it. Thanks for the tip.

GutterFace
2013-11-22, 07:52 AM
Dire Weasel. Throw some barding on i if your DM lets you and share some spells and let it suck the life out of everything.