Feats on rangers urban companion?

[bean illus]

I thought familiars can learn feats? But I can't find the rule.

I want to get darkstalker on a mount. Can I finagle a horse as an urban companion?

Any way to get swift and silent feat on it? Or am I barkin up the wrong tree?

Because it would be cool to gallop your mount right past mundanes and truesight alike, without detection.

Anything?

[gorfnab]

First off some clarification.
Familiars are gained by Wizards and Sorcerers.
Animal Companions are gained by Druids and Rangers.
Special Mounts are gained by Paladins.

You can ride "use as a mount" a familiar, animal companion, or special mount depending on the size of your character and the size of familiar, animal companion, or special mount.


I thought familiars can learn feats? But I can't find the rule.
Since familiars do not gain hit dice as they level they do not inherently gain feats. Here is a thread discussing some spells, prestige classes, and other mostly awkward ways to get additional feats on a familiar. How to give a familiar class levels, or at least feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?520533-How-to-give-a-familiar-class-levels-or-at-least-feats)



I want to get darkstalker on a mount.

Paladin mounts do gain bonus hit dice so they could get the Darkstalker feat.


Bonus HD: Extra eight-sided (d8) Hit Dice, each of which gains a Constitution modifier, as normal. Extra Hit Dice improve the mount’s base attack and base save bonuses. A special mount’s base attack bonus is equal to that of a cleric of a level equal to the mount’s HD. A mount has good Fortitude and Reflex saves (treat it as a character whose level equals the animal’s HD). The mount gains additional skill points or feats for bonus HD as normal for advancing a monster’s Hit Dice.





Can I finagle a horse as an urban companion?

Yes and no. An Urban Ranger's Animal Companion is limited to Medium size. Horses are large. You could get a Pony though, however it is Medium in size so to ride it you would have to be of Small size (ie. Halfling or Gnome). However, an Urban Druid (Dragon Compendium) can get a horse as an Urban Companion.


Animal Companion
An urban ranger cannot have an animal larger than Medium as his animal companion.



Urban Companion (Ex): An urban druid begins play with an urban companion selected from the following list: Small animated object, bat, dire rat, rat, cat, dog, riding dog, horse (light or heavy), Medium monstrous centipede, Small monstrous scorpion, Small monstrous spider, mule, owl, pony, raven, snake (Small or Medium viper), warhorse (light). This creature is a loyal companion that accompanies the urban druid on her adventures as appropriate for its kind. A vermin serving as an urban companion has an Intelligence of 1, and its type changes to animal.





Any way to get swift and silent feat on it? Or am I barkin up the wrong tree?
Because it would be cool to gallop your mount right past mundanes and truesight alike, without detection.
Anything?
Animal Companions gain feats as they get hit dice (see text below). However, Swift and Silent (PGtF) is a Regional feat with a fairly long list of what can take it, which is mostly humanoids. Also Regional feats are selected at 1st level or may require 2 ranks in Knowledge local (see text below).


Bonus HD: Extra eight-sided (d8) Hit Dice, each of which gains a Constitution modifier, as normal. Remember that extra Hit Dice improve the animal companion’s base attack and base save bonuses. An animal companion’s base attack bonus is the same as that of a druid of a level equal to the animal’s HD. An animal companion has good Fortitude and Reflex saves (treat it as a character whose level equals the animal’s HD). An animal companion gains additional skill points and feats for bonus HD as normal for advancing a monster’s Hit Dice.



Players Guide to Faerun

"Each regional feat specifies one or more character race and region combinations as prerequisites. To select such a feat, your character must meet one such set of prerequisites. For example, to select a feat whose regional prerequisite is Dwarf (Spine of the World), your character must be a dwarf whose home region is the Spine of the World.

When you choose a home region during character creation, you can select one regional feat from the list available to characters of your homeland. Even if you can choose more than one feat at 1st level (a human or strongheart halfling gets two feats at 1st level), you can never have more than one regional feat.

Regional feats are not bonus feats; you must use normal feat slots to select them." (page 32)

"The region system in this book limits each character to one and only one regional feat that must be selected at 1st level. This rule replaces the one on page 28 of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting that allows a character to learn another regional feat for each 2 ranks in Knowledge (local) she has.

The regional feats presented herein are designed with the intent that a character has access to only one. Allowing a character to choose more than one may unbalance the system." (page 33)