Ride Your Friends Today

[Wraithy]

By friends I mean animal companions.

What is, in your opinion, the best animal companion to use as a mount?

Most people would post something from the druid's handbook (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=10552967#post10552967), I am one of them.
Dire Tortoises are rediculously good, for trample damage and general comedy value. what's your favourite?

[Dausuul]

By friends I mean animal companions.

What is, in your opinion, the best animal companion to use as a mount?

Most people would post something from the druid's handbook (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=10552967#post10552967), I am one of them.
Dire Tortoises are rediculously good, for trample damage and general comedy value. what's your favourite?

I'm a big fan of the dire bat. Unlimited flight at level 4? Yes please.

[jameswilliamogle]

I just read your sig, Wraithy: funny! Also, p 121 of PHB2

I only played a druid in one broken campaign: fleshraker dinosaur.

But, for flavor, I like the idea of a basic wolf or snake. good ole snake... small characters, of course.

[Raolin_Fenix]

Did you know that a war-trained Riding Dog is better than a wolf? It can do everything that the wolf can; it loses ten feet of movement speed, and I think that's it. In return, it gains a few attribute points. That's my current animal companion!

... Who has a saddle on his back, even though my character is Medium sized.

The best animal companion is a fleshraker. There's almost no competition about it. Two claws, a bite, a tail slap, and two rakes, plus dex poison on everything but the bite, plus the ridiculous leaping pounce? At fourth level? If you're Small sized (or your Fleshraker is large for whatever reason), you can even ride them. Yeah, I almost took that, but we're currently playing in a city. Didn't feel like messing things up too bad. My dude's already crazy enough. Maybe when my riding dog dies.

[Wraithy]

... Who has a saddle on his back, even though my character is Medium sized.

I'm waiting for you to say that your character is fat and you ride it anyway

[Frosty]

Which MM is Fleshraker from?

[Sepp]

Which MM is Fleshraker from?

MM III, page 40

[Frosty]

Hey...if you take Natural Bond, does it mean you can treat the Fleshraker as a level 1 Companion, since the -3 penalty is counteracted by the +4 bonus?

[Karsh]

I don't believe so. Natural Bond is intended to work as Practiced Spellcaster. It increases your effective druid level up to your hit dice for the purposes of determining animal companion abilities. Since your Animal Companion's abilities are determined by EDL (Effective Druid Level) - X, Increasing EDL doesn't mitigate the -X penalty for having a better than normal animal companion.

[RTGoodman]

Hey...if you take Natural Bond, does it mean you can treat the Fleshraker as a level 1 Companion, since the -3 penalty is counteracted by the +4 bonus?

Nope, Natural Bond says "This bonus can never make your effective Druid level exceed your character level."

But, really, if you're DM is gonna let you have a Fleshraker as a Companion, don't complain about having to wait until 4th level.

[Laesin]

Hey...if you take Natural Bond, does it mean you can treat the Fleshraker as a level 1 Companion, since the -3 penalty is counteracted by the +4 bonus?

By my reading yes, you can treat it as a level one companion for the extra stuff but you still can't take it until level 4. I'm sure I'll be corrected on this shortly.

[Wraithy]

sounds good, what book is natural bond from again?

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

I have a vermin lord that uses a large-sized stag beetle as a mount and is her animal companion. Lots more vermin-based druid feats than I expected.

Edit: Picture (http://nny2.deviantart.com/art/Vermin-Lord-44551429).

[heroe_de_leyenda]

Did you know that a war-trained Riding Dog is better than a wolf? It can do everything that the wolf can; it loses ten feet of movement speed, and I think that's it. In return, it gains a few attribute points. That's my current animal companion!

... Who has a saddle on his back, even though my character is Medium sized.


You can't used trained animals (such as warhorse) as animal companions. Sorry dude.

[horseboy]

Hell, just ride the fighter. That way he has a purpose for being in the party with a druid. ;)

[Mewtarthio]

You can't used trained animals (such as warhorse) as animal companions. Sorry dude.

Hence the clause in Handle Animal:

Special
You can use this skill on a creature with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2 that is not an animal, but the DC of any such check increases by 5. Such creatures have the same limit on tricks known as animals do.

A druid or ranger gains a +4 circumstance bonus on Handle Animal checks involving her animal companion.

In addition, a druid’s or ranger’s animal companion knows one or more bonus tricks, which don’t count against the normal limit on tricks known and don’t require any training time or Handle Animal checks to teach.

If you have the Animal Affinity feat, you get a +2 bonus on Handle Animal checks.

Synergy
If you have 5 or more ranks in Handle Animal, you get a +2 bonus on Ride checks and wild empathy checks.

Untrained
If you have no ranks in Handle Animal, you can use a Charisma check to handle and push domestic animals, but you can’t teach, rear, or train animals. A druid or ranger with no ranks in Handle Animal can use a Charisma check to handle and push her animal companion, but she can’t teach, rear, or train other nondomestic animals.

It looks to me like animal companions are basically trained by default. Sure, they just know few tricks, but an animal trained for a special purpose is simply an animal given a set of synergistic tricks.