Best Buffs for An Animal Companion?

[Palanan]

As a druid or ranger, what are some of the best spells you can lay on your animal companion?

I’m open to all official Wizards and Paizo content, as well as Dragon magazine. Just looking for some strong options to buff up a companion, especially when things get hairy in combat.

[ayvango]

Polymorph Any Object :)

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by ayvango
Polymorph Any Object :)

Not helpful. I’m looking for druid or ranger spells to improve a companion’s combat ability.

[ngilop]

Nature's Avatar gives +10 morale to attack and damage, haste, and 1d8 temp HP/level for 1 minute per level to animal touched as a 9th level druid spell.


Draconic Might gives a +4 bonus to strength, constitution, charisma, and natural armor, plus imunity to sleep and payalysis for 1 minute per level as a 4th level paladin spell or a 5th level sorcerer/wizard spell

[tiercel]

A few druid/ranger spells from Spell Compendium:

Enrage Animal (Druid 1, Ranger 1): Give animal barbarian rage, no fatigue
Nature’s Favor (Druid 2, Ranger 2): Swift-action luck bonus to hit & damage; caster level dependent
Heal Animal Companion (Druid 5, Ranger 3): It’s the Heal spell for your animal buddy

And notably from PHB/SRD:

Animal Growth (Druid 5, Ranger 4): Make your buddy (and other animals) a size larger, with some DR and save bonuses to help make up for this spell coming so much later than Enlarge Person

[Nifft]

If it's for your animal companion, you can share a Personal spell with it.

Therefore: shapechange.

[zfs]

A few druid/ranger spells from Spell Compendium:

Enrage Animal (Druid 1, Ranger 1): Give animal barbarian rage, no fatigue
Nature’s Favor (Druid 2, Ranger 2): Swift-action luck bonus to hit & damage; caster level dependent
Heal Animal Companion (Druid 5, Ranger 3): It’s the Heal spell for your animal buddy

And notably from PHB/SRD:

Animal Growth (Druid 5, Ranger 4): Make your buddy (and other animals) a size larger, with some DR and save bonuses to help make up for this spell coming so much later than Enlarge Person

The especially good thing about Enrage Animal is that the bonuses to Str and Con are a rare type, Morale, so they stack with any enhancement bonus from something like the Bite of the Were-X line and the size bonus to Str and Con from Animal Growth.

The "Bite of the Were-X" line are also good AC buffs.

Bite of the Wererat (Druid 2): +6 Enhancement Bonus to Dex, +2 Enhancement Bonus to Con, +3 Enhancement Bonus to Natural Armor, Gain Bite Attack That Does 1d4 + 1 1/2 STR if you're Medium, Gain Weapon Finesse.

Bite of the Werewolf (Druid 3): +2 Enhancement Bonus to Str, +4 Enhancement Bonus to Dex, +4 Enhancement Bonus to Con, Gain Bite Attack That Does 1d6 + 1 1/2 Str if you're Medium, Gain Blind-Fight

Bite of the Wereboar (Druid 4): +4 Enhancement Bonus to Str, +6 Enhancement Bonus to Con, +8 Enhancement Bonus to Natural Armor, Gain Bite Attack That Does 1d8 + 1 1/2 Str if you're Medium, Gain Blind-Fight

Bite of the Weretiger (Druid 5): +12 Enhancement Bonus to Str, +4 Enhancement Bonus to Dex, +6 Enhancement Bonus to Con, +5 Enhancement Bonus to Natural Armor, Gain Two Claw Attacks That Do 1d8 + Str if you're Medium, Gain Bite Attack That Does 2d6 + 1/2 Str if you're Medium, Gain Blind-Fight, Gain Power Attack

Bite of the Werebear (Druid 6): +16 Enhancement Bonus to Str, +2 Enhancement Bonus to Dex, +8 Enhancement Bonus to Con, +7 Enhancement Bonus to Natural Armor, Gain Two Claw Attacks That Do 1d8 + Str if you're Medium, Gain Bite Attack That Does 2d8 + 1/2 Str if you're Medium, Gain Blind-Fight, Gain Power Attack

Swift Haste (Ranger 2) is just what it says on the tin - it's Haste cast as a swift action but with a short duration, 1d4 rounds. You can cast it on yourself and share the spell or cast it directly on your AC.

Instant of Power (Ranger 1/Druid 1) is just a +4 to either your next attack roll, damage roll or saving throw but it's an immediate action to cast it.

[ezekielraiden]

One Personal range Druid spell I'm liking is master air. Normally 1 round/level...but being Personal, it can be Persisted. 8th level spell for all-day flight for your companion? Not too shabby. If you can finagle some metamagic cost reducers, it becomes a no-brainer. Especially good for a Pounce build, as it enables aerial charging.

Resinous skin and strong jaw, from PF, are good short-term buffs when you need your companion to really hit hard. Combined with Animal Growth, on a naturally Large creature, with Improved Natural Attack, you can get some weapons to fully Colossal size damage. (With grapple feats, it's actually possible to go *beyond* that, getting 2x damage on effectively Colossal-sized claw attacks...including e.g. tiger rake attacks.) Perhaps not optimal, but it does make your companion scary for one combat a day.

[radthemad4]

I like Cloud Wings for +30 to fly speed for an hour per level that stacks with anything

Sword of the Arcane Order lets Rangers prepare Wizard spells. Also, Wizards and Sorcerers can trade their familiars for a Ranger Animal Companion (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Publication:Unearthed_Arcana/Sorcerer/Wizard_Variant), except starting at level 1.

[Ruethgar]

Sword of the Arcane Order lets Rangers prepare Wizard spells. Also, Wizards and Sorcerers can trade their familiars for a Ranger Animal Companion (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Publication:Unearthed_Arcana/Sorcerer/Wizard_Variant), except starting at level 1.

SotAO would need GM adjudication if you want to use it for buffs. While it let's you prepare the spells, it does not let you cast them. For that you would need the Spells class feature of the wizard(including the minimum wizard level to cast). So it basically just lets you use Wizard spells for crafting and the rare Mindset buff unless you have significant wizard spellcasting levels, in which case it is just a secondary pool to prepare your wizard casting from that has weaker spells(DC 10+Int) but will probably never outstrip the loss of wizard levels.

[Palanan]

Thanks to everyone who contributed spells, I appreciate the suggestions.

As it turned out, Enrage Animal was worth its weight in gold as a low-level spell, especially with no fatigue afterward. But I'll definitely be keeping the rest in mind.

[SLOTHRPG95]

I mean, Greater Magic Fang only applies to one natural weapon, but if that's all your companion has then it's worth the spell slot. Otherwise, meh not really. Energy Immunity if you think you'll need it that day (and it lasts 24 hours, so that's fun). Heart of [Element] spells are range Personal so those also work, and are rightfully considered generally useful. Plenty of other long-ish lasting defenses, too: Foresight, Stoneskin, and Tortise Shell come to mind. In low-to-mid OP, you can get a lot of mileage out of just buffing/healing your animal companion and sitting back while it tanks better than any martial could.

[ezekielraiden]

Thanks to everyone who contributed spells, I appreciate the suggestions.

As it turned out, Enrage Animal was worth its weight in gold as a low-level spell, especially with no fatigue afterward. But I'll definitely be keeping the rest in mind.

One last suggestion: halo of sand.

It's 10min/level, so with CL boosters (ankh of ascension, prayer bead of karma, orange prism ioun stone, magic tattoo, etc.), a high-level Druid with Extend can throw this out for 8 hours or more (17+4+4+1+1=27, 27*2*10=520 minutes, aka 8 2/3 hrs.), and it's a deflection bonus, which your companion has a much harder time getting than you do. It can also be Persisted, but even without either of those, it's +4 AC for 2 hr at caster level 12.

[Malphegor]

I've been privately considering whether my druid's spider animal companion can benefit from Girallon's Blessing + Arms of Plenty... then Fuse Arms.

See, a spider already has 8 limbs. DM's discretion whether those count as arms for Fuse arms.

Girallon adds a pair of arms (used to be per caster level but 3.5 version changed that to just one to prevent a 22 armed person because apparently that is silly). Arms of Plenty adds one pair of arms.

This leads to a monster with 6 pairs of arms- 12 limbed spider!

This would lead to, if I understand fused arms properly, +4*6 strength, which is an additional 24 strength on the 11 it has naturally. (reduce if legs do not count as arms)

So now you have a spider's cephalothorax and opisthoma with one mighty magical arm of PURE PUNCH

And I have no goddamn clue what to do with this thing. It can't really move any more.

Only punch.

[liquidformat]

I've been privately considering whether my druid's spider animal companion can benefit from Girallon's Blessing + Arms of Plenty... then Fuse Arms.

See, a spider already has 8 limbs. DM's discretion whether those count as arms for Fuse arms.

Girallon adds a pair of arms (used to be per caster level but 3.5 version changed that to just one to prevent a 22 armed person because apparently that is silly). Arms of Plenty adds one pair of arms.

This leads to a monster with 6 pairs of arms- 12 limbed spider!

This would lead to, if I understand fused arms properly, +4*6 strength, which is an additional 24 strength on the 11 it has naturally. (reduce if legs do not count as arms)

So now you have a spider's cephalothorax and opisthoma with one mighty magical arm of PURE PUNCH

And I have no goddamn clue what to do with this thing. It can't really move any more.

Only punch.

Easy solution you add flight to it, who cares if it can't walk when it can fly.

[ezekielraiden]

Easy solution you add flight to it, who cares if it can't walk when it can fly.

Flying One Punch Spider. Things I never knew I was terrified of before coming to GitP.