Ranger/Scout animal companion progression

[Thanos92]

Hi all!

I'm currently playing a Ranger 4/ Scout 1 and I have an egle (normal MMI eagle) as an animal companion.
Considering I'm not advancing as a Ranger I think my animal should stay forever at the same level, however I eventually use it during fights, so... doest it earns experience? How his progression should be treated?

Thanks so much for your help.

[zlefin]

since you aren't advancing as a ranger, so it will stay the same level it is and not progress. It doesn't earn experience on its own
iirc there is a feat that can be used to advance the animal companion akin to the practiced spellcaster feat, but I can't recall the name of it or find it atm.

[Bronk]

Nope, it’s stuck. It doesn’t gain its own experience because it’s part of your own class features.

To make it more powerful? You could give it equipment, improve your ranger level, take druid levels, take the ‘companion bond’ feat, train it as a warbeast, or get another animal with the ‘wild cohort’ feat.

Otherwise, it will quickly decline in combat usefulness as you level. Maybe start thinking of it as more of a distraction or for scouting and keeping watch?

[Thanos92]

As I thought. Thanks so much. Actually I don't really care about my animal companion progression, I was just asking if there were some progression possibilities considering he fights as me, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

[Grod_The_Giant]

The Ranger's Animal Companion isn't that strong to start with, and if you multiclass it just gets worse. I recommend trading it away (Distracting Attack from the PHB 2 isn't bad, nor is Urban Companion from the Cityscape web enhancement) and picking up Wild Cohort (web) instead. The companion you get from that is about 1HD behind a Druid's, meaning it's significantly better than the base Ranger's... and it advances with total character level, so multiclassing doesn't hurt it at all.

[Yogibear41]

Go for the Urban companion, if all you want is something akin to the eagle, if you use one of the variant base familiars from dragon magazine there is a hawk/falcon that is pretty close to the eagle if I remember.

[ATHATH]

Are you playing a Swift Hunter build, by any chance?