Making a Menagerie Master

[Noxangelo]

So I'm trying to build a pet based character from level 1 using things like wild cohort, obtain familiar and handle animal. and i could really do with all the help i can get.

[Ruethgar]

Extra Familiar has no prerequisites like Obtain Familiar. Gnomes can still get the old version of Animal Friendship via the Animal Friends feat, it is limited to 2HD per use of the feat(non-stacking). Masters of the Wild confirms that you can boost your friend’s HD(so a 1HD up to a 2) and Awaken doesn’t make you lose your friend, you just have to wait til you’re high enough level to account for the HD increase before taking more(ie never). That sets a precedent that increasing HD past cap doesn’t lose you the pet, so you could potentially get it to be Titanic Magebred Dungeonbred Warbeast and still covered under Animal Friends. MotW also added the ability to find a perfect specimen(normal animals are peasant array you can find all 18s), takes massive patience though.

The cheese aside, Forest Gnomes IIRC can speak with animals without magic so are my go to for animal builds. Magical Affinity from a Dragon Mag can sub out your SLAs for new ones, note that metamagic doesn’t affect spell level for this except Sanctum, so you can try and grab something more flavorful for a beastmaster(Forage, Sanctum Wood Wose, Sanctum Detect Animals and Plants).

There are two Druid variants that are nice for pets, Totem Druid, and Animal Focus. If you squint real hard you can take both for, if I recall, a +4 on Animal Companion effective Druid level. The Beastmaster class gives another +4 for a one level dip and a major bloodline would give +6 at that point for no ECL change(but ask your DM how they would rule on bloodlines).

[daremetoidareyo]

It's not that hard to rack up companions: urban druid, druid, wild cohort, sorc/wiz, and shape soulmeld (spulspark familiar) can get you 5 critters by level 3. Then you can get 3 mephits from the elemental archon prestige class from faiths and pantheons at level 6. That's 8 weaklings in 6 levels.

It's making them meaningful that's difficult. Maybe dragonfire inspiration bard? But still, you've got an issue with how killable they all are. Maybe leap into animal paired with share spell? They can voltron together. Non animals can be hot with adpect of the wolf first to change their type.

Maybe if you take the wujen spell list sorcerer variant, you can use when two become one to make a giant hp pooled up horse using share spells. Or do a combo of that to make a horse wolf matryoshka doll.

[ShurikVch]

Apprentice: Entertainer (Dungeon Master's Guide II) gives you "admirer", who acts as your Cohort for a number of days =(Cha mod.)-1 once per your character level; there are no limitation of who may be that admirer, as long as their character level is only ½ of your PC (minimum 1)