Animal companion for Pseudodragon

[Stryyke]

I just got to Ranger 4, and I get an animal companion. I have a few thoughts, but I thought I would ask if anyone else has interesting ideas for a companion animal for a tiny creature.

On one hand, with a land move of 15, it might be nice to do a wolf or riding dog to get a land speed of 50. But I've enjoyed the flexibility of not being tied to the ground, so maybe a hawk or eagle. The problem is that we are ECL 8, and my animal would be 2HD. So it wouldn't be primarily for combat purposes. I was thinking maybe having the companion animal be more of a social friend would make more sense. But I'm not sure if it would be "too much of the same thing." Any thoughts?

[Xaroth]

I'd go with a wolf if I were you, the flexibility of not being tied to the ground is nice, sure, but in situations where you want to be on the ground, you won't be SOL, or having to rely on somebody else.

Besides, wolves are awesome. Can you imagine a tiny pseudodragon curled up with a wolf curled up around it when they go to sleep? Like holy hell, be still my beating heart.

But as far as actual mechanical reasons go, just because you get a land companion, doesn't mean you're automatically tied to the ground. You can still fly about. Your wolf might want to, but unfortunately unless someone's gonna give the wolf the ability to soar through the air like the majestic beast it deserves to be, it'll be on the ground. It can just do its own thing while you're in the air.

[Mr Adventurer]

There's a web enhancement where you can instead choose a creature from the wizard familiar list in the PHB, and it becomes intelligent. Might be worth a look.

[Bronk]

You could get a tressym, a tiny sized winged cat that's listed as a first level animal companion in Sandstorm, and statted out in the FRCS.

It's a magical beast, it can fly, it has a claw/claw/bite attack, and it's smart (Int 10). You could hang out together, fly around, and have adventures. Maybe get a hat of disguise and pretend to be each other sometimes... So many possibilities!

Also, you'd never have to worry about training it.

[Particle_Man]

There's a web enhancement where you can instead choose a creature from the wizard familiar list in the PHB, and it becomes intelligent. Might be worth a look.

Hmmm, if you do that and spend another feat to get a special familiar, maybe your animal companion could be another pseudodragon! Heck, maybe you could end up being each other's animal companion! ;)

[Ruethgar]

You should take the Fangshield Ranger substitution level for 4th, that'll bump you up. Also note that Master's of the Wild, while a 3.0 book, never had its method of finding animals overwritten, so you could get a beast with rolled stats(18 Con is what you want mostly, but pretty much anything is better than 11s and 10s). Also, if willing to spend massive gold, you could get some templates ritually added, Warbeast, Magebred, Dungeonbred, Chameleon and Amphibious all don't change the type.

Pynxkin(don't look at the picture, just think toothless from how to train your dragon) are nice if you can pick their feats for Dragon Wings and later Improved Dragon Wings. So you can be a dragon with a dragon. But generally you'll want more of a utility pet than a roaming blender, so Eagle would probably be better.

[Twurps]

There's a web enhancement where you can instead choose a creature from the wizard familiar list in the PHB, and it becomes intelligent. Might be worth a look.
seconded.
It's called 'urban companion', from cityscape web enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) (way down the page, I never remember how to make the link go there directly). It's actually better than a normal familiar because it gets 3/4 your hitpoints, and you don't lose XP when it dies.