Magebred Tiger

[Masakan]

Could you take this thing all the way to level 20?
And let's just assume your either using fey bard as a multiclassing component
or multiclassing druid for some reason.
so level 7 with natural Bond.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Assuming you mean the Magebred Ghost Tiger in Five Nations, I'd say yes. It's a useful companion all the way to 20th level, assuming you get (nearly) full Druid progression for its animal companion benefits. Be sure to take Natural Bond in Complete Adventurer to help offset the 'level -6' penalty.

I would recommend taking Exalted Wild Shape and getting a Celestial Magebred Ghost Tiger, and with the extra feats it gets from its bonus HD give it Sacred Vow and Vow of Poverty.

[Masakan]

Assuming you mean the Magebred Ghost Tiger in Five Nations, I'd say yes. It's a useful companion all the way to 20th level, assuming you get (nearly) full Druid progression for its animal companion benefits. Be sure to take Natural Bond in Complete Adventurer to help offset the 'level -6' penalty.

I would recommend taking Exalted Wild Shape and getting a Celestial Magebred Ghost Tiger, and with the extra feats it gets from its bonus HD give it Sacred Vow and Vow of Poverty.

wait what -6 penalty?

[eggynack]

wait what -6 penalty?
Just the normal penalty you pick up by using a higher level companion. And, to answer the core question, definitely. Most of the time, you're better off advancing to a higher level companion, but magebred ghost tiger is one of the few exceptions to that. You're not necessarily getting massive benefit by having a pounce machine at 20th level, because it's 20th level, but you're not getting a significantly greater benefit from other companions.

[Masakan]

Just the normal penalty you pick up by using a higher level companion. And, to answer the core question, definitely. Most of the time, you're better off advancing to a higher level companion, but magebred ghost tiger is one of the few exceptions to that. You're not necessarily getting massive benefit by having a pounce machine at 20th level, because it's 20th level, but you're not getting a significantly greater benefit from other companions.

I think your gonna have to go into detail about the penalty, cause i don't think i understand entirely

[eggynack]

I think your gonna have to go into detail about the penalty, cause i don't think i understand entirely
Well, you have this table over here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/druid.htm#theDruidsAnimalCompanion), which determines the benefits that apply to your animal companion. Because the magebred ghost tiger is a companion for 7th level druids, you apply a -6 penalty to your druid level for the purposes of those benefits. So, a 7th level druid would gain the benefits on the first line, for first level druids, for that particular companion.

[Masakan]

Well, you have this table over here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/druid.htm#theDruidsAnimalCompanion), which determines the benefits that apply to your animal companion. Because the magebred ghost tiger is a companion for 7th level druids, you apply a -6 penalty to your druid level for the purposes of those benefits. So, a 7th level druid would gain the benefits on the first line, for first level druids, for that particular companion.

WHAT?! What kind of bull is that? Oh my god.....

[torrasque666]

I think your gonna have to go into detail about the penalty, cause i don't think i understand entirely
More powerful companions are treated as X levels lower for your Effective Druid Level, and you can't take something as a companion if you'd have a 0 or less as your EDL. So whenever you see "must be a druid of X level to have this companion" it means that to determine its bonuses you treat it as if your druid levels were X-1 levels lower.

In this particular case, it says that you need to be a druid of 7th level or higher to use it as a companion. This means that when calculating the bonuses it gets as a Druid's Animal Companion, subtract 6 from your EDL to determine the bonuses. Meaning that you need an EDL of 9 before it starts to get any bonus HD or anything.

Basically:
As explained in the text on page 35, a druid of sufficiently high level can select her animal companion from one of the following lists, applying the indicated adjustment to the druid's level (in parentheses) for purposes of determining the companion's characteristics and special abilities.

EDIT: Swordsaged.

[eggynack]

WHAT?! What kind of bull is that? Oh my god.....
I'm not really sure what's wrong with it. It just keeps low level companions roughly on par with high level ones. And, in the case of the magebred ghost tiger, it doesn't do a particularly complete job, as it's way better than most lower level companions (and most higher level ones).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

WHAT?! What kind of bull is that? Oh my god.....

You get to use your full Druid level when determining the benefits for something like a Riding Dog (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dogRiding.htm), which starts at 2 HD with Str 15. The Magebred Ghost Tiger starts with 6 HD and Str 27, so that 'level -6' means it gets about four fewer bonus HD and two fewer bonus points to Str and Dex, which makes it still significantly stronger than the Riding Dog. If you get Natural Bond, that 'level -6' effectively becomes 'level -3', so you only have two fewer bonus HD and one fewer bonus point to Str and Dex. Overall you're still coming out ahead, especially when it comes to its Str score.

If you go with my advice and take Exalted Companion from Book of Exalted Deeds (requires a good alignment and an exalted status), you can make it a Celestial creautre (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/celestialCreature.htm) for an additional 'level -1', bringing you to a total 'level -4' for its benefits, which is totally worth it because it gets a good alignment. This enables it to take the feats Sacred Vow and Vow of Poverty in Book of Exalted Deeds, which gives it tons of bonuses to ability scores, AC, attack and damage, and a bunch of special qualities.

[Sayt]

I think your gonna have to go into detail about the penalty, cause i don't think i understand entirely


WHAT?! What kind of bull is that? Oh my god.....

It makes a certain amount of sense.

A Wolf has 2 HD, as an animal companion to a 7th level druid, it would have 4 extra Hit dice and +2 Strength and Dex. Next to the 7th level companions, just as they are is anemic, at best (For instance, the Dire Wolf has the same HD and twelve more strength. If the Dire Wolf didn't have the cap on EDL it'd simply be beyond any remote sense of parity.

[Ellowryn]

WHAT?! What kind of bull is that? Oh my god.....

Its not actually that bad, most of the stuff that higher level (and therefore get a higher penalty) already have enough HD that it doesn't hurt.

Edit: Wow, got swordsaged hard on this one.....

[Masakan]

Its not actually that bad, most of the stuff that higher level (and therefore get a higher penalty) already have enough HD that it doesn't hurt.

Even so Multi attack would have been super helpful for a pouncer....

[torrasque666]

Even so Multi attack would have been super helpful for a pouncer....
Its.... marginal at best. -2 rather than -5 on its bite when pouncing. Something that can easily be made up for or ignored altogether.