Getting Multiple Animal Companions as a Ranger

[Vault756]

So I have a player in an upcoming campaign that wants to play a sort of WoW Hunter. The closest parallel is Ranger but she's kinda miffed that Ranger's only get 1 animal companion. I'm thinking maybe a dip into Druid to get the Druid animal companion as well. The issue with that is how to progress both animal companions. Is there a PrC that can be taken? Or is her only hope some sort of house rule?

[Doctor Despair]

Might I suggest the Beastmaster (Complete Adventurer, 26)?

Animal Companion (Ex): A beastmaster gains the service of a loyal animal companion. See the druid class feature, pages 35-36 of the Player's Handbook. Treat the beastmaster as a druid whose level is equal to the beastmaster's class level + 3. A beastmaster can select one of the animals available to a 1st-level druid and then apply the modifications as appropriate for a 4th-level druid's animal companion, or she can select a typical version of one of the animals available to a 4th-level druid.

As a beastmaster gains class levels, her animal companion gains Hit Dice and other special abilities just as a druid's animal companion does. Use the beastmaster's class level + 3 to determine the animal companion's special abilities. If a beastmaster already has an animal companion from another class, her beastmaster class levels stack with class levels from all other classes that grant an animal companion. For example, a 5th-level druid/2nd-level beastmaster would be treated as a 10th-level druid for the purpose of improving the statistics of her animal companion (and which alternative animal companions she could select).

Extra Animal Companion (Ex): At 4th level, a beastmaster gains a second animal companion, chosen from the list of animal companions available to a 1st-level druid. Treat the beastmaster as a druid whose level is equal to the beastmaster's class level – 3 for the purpose of improving the animal companion's statistics (or of selecting an alternative companion at higher levels).

At 7th level, a beastmaster gains a third animal companion, chosen from the list of animal companions available to a 1st-level druid. Treat the beastmaster as a druid whose level is equal to the beastmaster's class level – 6 for the purpose of improving the animal companion's statistics (or of selecting an alternative companion at higher levels).

At 10th level, a beastmaster gains a fourth animal companion, chosen from the list of animal companions available to a 1st-level druid. Treat the beastmaster as a druid whose level is equal to the beastmaster's class level – 9 for the purpose of improving the animal companion's statistics (or of selecting an alternative companion at higher levels).

Other class levels in classes that offer an animal companion don't stack for the purpose of determining the power of a beastmaster's additional animal companions, nor do they allow her to choose additional animal companions from the alternative lists.

A feat, Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a), also grants an animal companion of sorts that scales on its own.

[Vault756]

Oh I didn't know this existed. This is perfect.

[Blue Jay]

Ninja'd


So I have a player in an upcoming campaign that wants to play a sort of WoW Hunter. The closest parallel is Ranger but she's kinda miffed that Ranger's only get 1 animal companion. I'm thinking maybe a dip into Druid to get the Druid animal companion as well. The issue with that is how to progress both animal companions. Is there a PrC that can be taken? Or is her only hope some sort of house rule?

I don't play WoW, so I'm not entirely sure what the specifics are, but here are some options for getting multiple animal companions:

Wild Cohort feat. This is from a web article by WotC. It's like an animal companion, but it progresses a bit slower and has fewer special abilities. It's available to any character, so there's no reason why she can't have both her ranger animal companion and a wild cohort at the same time.
Beastmaster prestige class. This is from Complete Adventurer. It gives a nice boost to your animal companion level, and it also gives you extra animals companions as you level up. The extra companions will be very weak, because your effective druid level for determining their abilities is low, and there aren't many ways to boost your effective level for them; but she will get 3 of them over the course of the class.
Leadership feat. This feat can be problematic, but if you allow your player to choose an animal as her cohort (and other minor animals as her followers), and have her cohort advance only by racial hit dice, it should be okay.


A word of warning: a ranger's animal companion is usually quite weak, so it will take some serious investment from her to make it useful in combat. A wild cohort is also fairly weak, and has similar problems. The beastmaster's extra animal companions and any Leadership followers will be very, very weak, to the point that they're mostly just good for character development, and not very mechanically useful at all. So, if your player's animal companions are too ineffective or die too regularly, consider boosting her effective druid level a bit.

Also, having a whole band of animal companions can slow your game down, so you'll probably want to work with her to find a "happy medium" that balances her collecting interest with the logistics at your table.

[Vault756]

Thanks for the advice. This will be my first time DMing as well. I'm gonna try and limit her to two.

[Doctor Despair]

Thanks for the advice. This will be my first time DMing as well. I'm gonna try and limit her to two.

Probably best to use Wild Cohort then, as that'll scale better than the ones from Beastmaster (and Beastmaster seems to be more explicitly meant for Druids anyway).

[bean illus]

I was under the impression that a ranger/druid gets 1 animal companion, with levels stacking.

There are a few feats and acfs that can boost animal companion level (natural bond).

Beastmaster absolutely grants companions, but most advice is dip 1 level.

With wild cohort that makes 3.

* Don't forget simple handle animal. Several small abilities are available, such as flanking, messengers, alarm, tiny size, etc.

A decent charisma, skill focus (handle animal), animal affinity, max ranks, and eagle's splendor total +14 at 1st level. A bit pricey, but there's a bit of room for development.

And mentioning magebred, and warbeast templates is obligatory. Have them both on riding dog, then cast animal growth.

Some of these things stack, but some don't.

[Bonzai]

There are also alternative class features for wizard and sorcerer that let them trade their Familiar for animal companions instead.

I had a crazy cat lady build once...

Druid 1/wizard 1/sorcerer 1/Totemist 2/Beastmaster 10.

With wild cohort feat that is basically 8 animal companions. She would use the Share Soulmeld feat and let all 8 get her Manticore belt (bound to her totem). She and her cats all flick spikes equal to the essentia she has invested. So for example she has 5 essentia, that's 45 spikes lobbed each potentially dealing a d6.

Silly... yes, but it is a crazy cat lady.

[Palanan]

One other option is to allow the Animal Friendship spell from 3.0, which is a first-level ranger spell that allows you to "win the loyalty of an animal, provided your heart is true."

You'd have to look at the spell to see if it fits your player's needs, but it does allow for multiple befriended animals (with some restrictions) and could save a feat. Wild Cohort is a great feat in a pinch, but it was originally intended to allow an animal companion for characters whose classes don't automatically receive one. Using Animal Friendship would allow you to bypass the need to spend a feat.

[MinimanMidget]

Everyone talking up Beastmaster, no love for Beast Heart Adept? It mostly does the same thing but better.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

There are two problems with the multiple animal companions character concept: each one is weak (or at least weaker than the last), and they'll bog down combat. Fortunately, there's a solution to both: use them for utility instead. You don't want your squishy companions getting killed in combat, but they make great scouts, assistants, distractions, performers, messengers, mounts, etc.. This also provides a mechanical incentive to get wildly different kinds, rather than, say, multiple fleshrakers.

There's actually a whole handbook (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=1300.0) on acquiring animal companions, variants, and the best tricks to teach them. I'd focus on the tricks section.

If you do want to make the animal companions more combat capable, there're several options. First, consider using Druid as the base class instead of Ranger; you'll be a bit weaker in combat, but your furry friend will be much stronger, you'll get him immediately instead of at level 4, and you'll be able to use your spells to a) summon more pets and b) buff your pets to make them even stronger. (Paladin actually also works surprisingly well as an alternate base class, especially with PrCs like Aglarondan Griffonrider that will upgrade your mount). Beastmaster naturally adds 3+class level to your effective druid level for the first animal companion, so that'll bring even a Ranger's companion up to snuff. Similarly, the Natural Bond feat will add 3 to your effective Druid level for one companion*. Last but certainly not least, the Warbred template is discussed in the handbook, and provides a serious buff to medium or larger animals. It's not quite clear whether animals have to be born Warbred or whether you can train them into it, but if it's the latter, the template is a great way to keep your animal companions relevant longer once you get enough ranks in Handle Animal to take 10 on the check.

Oh, two last things mentioned more for completeness than because I'd recommend them for a new player. The Devoted Tracker feat will let your animal companion and (Prestige) Paladin Mount be the same creature; notably, this means that classes like Halfling Outrider that progress both will make it grow twice as fast. Fun times, but that's a strat that only comes into its own at relatively high levels. Second, if you're using Magic of Incarnum (a fantastic book that I highly recommend, just not to first time players), the Share Soulmeld feat will let you share all your incarnum magic with all your animal companions/special mounts/familiars. That gets really cool, really fast.


*The feat won't take your effective Druid level above your actual character level, but there's an argument to be made that this would still help a Druid/Beastmaster. You always apply bonuses in the most beneficial order, so a Druid 5/Beastmaster 4 would have effective Druid level = 5 (Druid) + 3 (Natural Bond) = 8 (not higher than character level), then +7 (Beastmaster) = 15 effective Druid levels. By strict RAW, this works, but use common sense deciding whether to allow it in the game.

[Vizzerdrix]

Everyone talking up Beastmaster, no love for Beast Heart Adept? It mostly does the same thing but better.

I wish it was a base class.

Ranger animal companions are really bad. You may want to allow your player to have druid equivalent. Their are feats that add monsters to the list as well. I know one of the dragon mags has a feat like that.

If I remember correctly, in wow you can have spiders as pets? The watch spider could fit that roll well. It is in the book Waterdeep City of Splendors.

[liquidformat]

So as has been mentioned above ranger sucks because your effective druid level for your animal companion is only 1/2 your ranger level (like your casting blah) and you have to wait until level 3 to get your animal companion. However, that isn't a huge issue either and can be overcome, I will toss out some different builds with different power levels. There are some fun Ranger ACF like Kobold, Halfling, Elf, and Gnome that give some extra animal companion choices and some bonuses to your animal companion effective level that are worth checking out though I haven't sat down and tried to make any spific builds with them yet.

Human (Eberron themed from house Vadalis) Ranger 4 (Mounted-Combat Style, Champion of the Wild)/Vadalis Beastkeeper 1/Beastmaster 1/Vadalis Beastkeeper 2-10/Wild Plains Outrider 3

Feats: Wild Cohort (HB), Mounted Combat (lvl1), Ride-By-Attack (R2), Spirited Charge (lvl3), Skill Focus [Handle Animal] (R4), Natural Bond (lvl 6)

Note: Wild Plains Outrider levels can be dipped anywhere within the build, I will level feats open after level 6 there are quite a few choices: Companion Spellbond, Exalted Companion, Dark Stalker, Martial Study, Martial Stance, Shadow Blade, Nemesis, Extra Favored Enemy, Leadership...
Champion of the Wild ACF removes casting to give you a bonus feat at 4th, 8th, 11th, and 14th levels based on your combat style. Mounted-Combat Style is an ACF from Dragon Mag that gives you Ride-By Attack lvl2, Spirited Charge lvl6, and trample lvl 11. I would suggest the following list of feats for Champion of the Wild bonus feats: Cavalry Charger (CW), Improved Mounted Archery (CW), Mounted Archery (PH), Mounted Casting (MH), Mounted Combat (PHB), Mounted Mobility (HB), Natural Bond (CAd), Spirit of the Stallion (PE), Talenta Dinosaur Bond* (PE), Skill Focus (Handle Animal), Skill Focus (Ride), Tunnel Riding (RS), Valenar Trample* (PE), Knight Of The Lolth* (DrU), Tremendous Charge (DCS)
*- feats are race/setting specific

Bamboo Spirit Folk Combat Immediate Magic Conjurer 1/Predator Shooting Star Mystic Ranger Arcane Hunter 5/Beastmaster 1/Arcane Hierophant 10/Nar Demonbinder 3
Fetas: Lvl 1 Knowledge Devotion (arcane), Improved Initiative (Combat Wiz), Lvl 3 Skill Focus (Handle Animal), Lvl 6 Sword of the Arcane Order, Lvl 9 Iron Will, Lvl 12 Spell Focus (Conjuration), Lvl 15 Nature Spell, Lvl 18
Possible Feats: Nemesis, Darkstalker, Martial Study, Martial Stance, Shadow Blade, Companion Spellbond, Natural Bond, Augment Summoning

Bamboo Spirit Folk Combat Immediate Magic Conjurer 1/Predator Shooting Star Mystic Ranger Arcane Hunter 5/Beastmaster 1/Prestige Paladin 2/Arcane Hierophant 10/Mystic Theurge 1
Fetas: Lvl 1 Wild Cohort, Mounted Combat (Combat Wiz), Lvl 3 Skill Focus (Handle Animal), Lvl 6 Sword of the Arcane Order, Lvl 9 Devoted Tracker, Lvl 12 Nature Spell, Lvl 15 Natural Bond, Lvl 18 Knowledge Devotion (arcane)
Possible Feats: Nemesis, Darkstalker, Martial Study, Martial Stance, Shadow Blade, Companion Spellbond, Natural Bond, Companion Spellbond

Predator Shooting Star Mystic Ranger Arcane Hunter 9/Beastmaster 1/Lion of Talisad 10
Fetas: Lvl 1 Knowledge Devotion (arcane), Lvl 3 Skill Focus (Handle Animal), Lvl 6 Nature Spell, Lvl 9 Natural Bond, Lvl 12 Companion Spellbond, Lvl 15, Lvl 18
Possible Feats: Nemesis, Darkstalker, Martial Study, Martial Stance, Shadow Blade

[Lilapop]

One other option is to allow the Animal Friendship spell from 3.0, which is a first-level ranger spell that allows you to "win the loyalty of an animal, provided your heart is true."

You'd have to look at the spell to see if it fits your player's needs, but it does allow for multiple befriended animals (with some restrictions) and could save a feat. Wild Cohort is a great feat in a pinch, but it was originally intended to allow an animal companion for characters whose classes don't automatically receive one. Using Animal Friendship would allow you to bypass the need to spend a feat.

Not sure there is any explicit text anywhere, but that spell has effectively been superseded by the AC class features (including the ranger's half level and starting at 4, by way of ranger spellcasting specifics). I wouldn't allow it in a 3.5 game, unless the player wanted it instead of the 3.5 AC system (but probably not even then).




Meanwhile, something that seems to have slipped through here: The World of Warcraft hunter is not a zookeeper class. You can (normally) only have one pet out at the same time, with switching in combat being rather impractical - comparable to ToB initiatiors swapping out readied maneuvers. At the same time though, these pets are each effectively at full strength, unlike the progressively weaker beastmaster animal companions. The game design intent is to use one with a buff spell missing in the party lineup (Your not-cleric doesn't have a spell for +4 enhancement to dex? Easy, just whip out a cat pet for the grace aura).

Other than releasing your companion and ritualing up a new one whenever you get bored (which is closer to World of Warcraft handled it during the earlier expansions, before the buff slot system was codified), I think D&D 3.x would only offer WoW's "click a button and it disappears, click another and it reappears" for summoned extraplanar creatures, like paladin mounts.

[Remuko]

If I remember correctly, in wow you can have spiders as pets? The watch spider could fit that roll well. It is in the book Waterdeep City of Splendors.

Theres also a wotc article that allows a druid to have a vermin companion instead of an animal. i ran such a druid once. She was very fun.

[liquidformat]

Not sure there is any explicit text anywhere, but that spell has effectively been superseded by the AC class features (including the ranger's half level and starting at 4, by way of ranger spellcasting specifics). I wouldn't allow it in a 3.5 game, unless the player wanted it instead of the 3.5 AC system (but probably not even then).

So the wild empathy class feature replaced animal friendship for all intents and purposes. Wild Empathy is effectively Diplomacy for animals and magical beasts, instead of having a capped number of animals you can have at any one time you instead have to roll to get their attitude high enough to become helpful.


Meanwhile, something that seems to have slipped through here: The World of Warcraft hunter is not a zookeeper class. You can (normally) only have one pet out at the same time, with switching in combat being rather impractical - comparable to ToB initiatiors swapping out readied maneuvers. At the same time though, these pets are each effectively at full strength, unlike the progressively weaker beastmaster animal companions. The game design intent is to use one with a buff spell missing in the party lineup (Your not-cleric doesn't have a spell for +4 enhancement to dex? Easy, just whip out a cat pet for the grace aura).

Other than releasing your companion and ritualing up a new one whenever you get bored (which is closer to World of Warcraft handled it during the earlier expansions, before the buff slot system was codified), I think D&D 3.x would only offer WoW's "click a button and it disappears, click another and it reappears" for summoned extraplanar creatures, like paladin mounts.
Ranger casting is replacing the buffing here, so it would appear dumping wild cohort and just optimizing animal companion is a good way to go.

[Vault756]

I wish it was a base class.

Ranger animal companions are really bad. You may want to allow your player to have druid equivalent. Their are feats that add monsters to the list as well. I know one of the dragon mags has a feat like that.

If I remember correctly, in wow you can have spiders as pets? The watch spider could fit that roll well. It is in the book Waterdeep City of Splendors.

I planned on giving her Druid equivalent if she played Ranger. I am personally of the opinion that Ranger is a little weak and could benefit from the boost. Funny you mentioned spiders because she's absolutely terrified of them. I'll make sure she has options though.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Lilapop
Not sure there is any explicit text anywhere, but that spell has effectively been superseded by the AC class features (including the ranger's half level and starting at 4, by way of ranger spellcasting specifics). I wouldn't allow it in a 3.5 game, unless the player wanted it instead of the 3.5 AC system (but probably not even then).

Yes, I know it’s been superseded in 3.5, but I wanted to offer a mechanical option to provide companions without spending a feat.


Originally Posted by Remuko
Theres also a wotc article that allows a druid to have a vermin companion instead of an animal.

Just for reference, it’s here (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040705a).


Originally Posted by Vault756
I planned on giving her Druid equivalent if she played Ranger. I am personally of the opinion that Ranger is a little weak and could benefit from the boost.

The mystic ranger variant trades the animal companion for early spellcasting, and a second-level mystic ranger can cast first-level spells.

If you allowed Animal Friendship, that would bring in an animal companion at second level rather than fourth. Probably not what they had in mind with the mystic ranger, but not exactly overpowered.

[Vizzerdrix]

Theres also a wotc article that allows a druid to have a vermin companion instead of an animal. i ran such a druid once. She was very fun.

The fun thing about the watch spider is that it is a magical beast, not a vermin, and it starts with an int of 2.

[Remuko]

The fun thing about the watch spider is that it is a magical beast, not a vermin, and it starts with an int of 2.

yeah ive heard a lot about it. isnt it small though? (not necessarily the size category, but small as in the real life meaning of the word) One thing my Druid, Rosalin, enjoyed was getting a bigger spider, that she eventually rode around on like a mount (even though she could fly, she was a pixie).

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Heh. This depends on level and available wealth, but...

If she really wants a powerful "animal companion," she should optimize the heck out of her Handle Animal skill and buy a titanic warbeast (both from MMII). A measly couple thousand gp, and she could have a Gargantuan pet animal that can crush everything before it.

Kind of hard to fit in the inn, however...

But if it's a marsupial, like a kangaroo, wallaby, or wombat, she could literally set up a house in the pouch. Talk about a mobile home.

[ciopo]

my understanding of the wow hunter is that he can capture as many animals as he want, but he can only have one out at a time, I don't know if that changed in the years since I last played, but I doubt it did.

Considering that, maybe simply allow him to have/befriend as many animal companions as he wants, capped in power to be equal to each other in term of "companion level", but he's only allowed to have one out of the pokeballs at once?

With the caveat that the bookkeeping of all these animals is on him, not on you as the dm.

[Vizzerdrix]

yeah ive heard a lot about it. isnt it small though? (not necessarily the size category, but small as in the real life meaning of the word) One thing my Druid, Rosalin, enjoyed was getting a bigger spider, that she eventually rode around on like a mount (even though she could fly, she was a pixie).

They are medium size. I like them as druid companion mounts for small races.

[Remuko]

They are medium size. I like them as druid companion mounts for small races.

Ah okay. I thought they were "small" or "tiny" size in D&D terms. My character was small (pixie) but she rode a Large Monstrous Spider because it was fun lol

[Vault756]

my understanding of the wow hunter is that he can capture as many animals as he want, but he can only have one out at a time, I don't know if that changed in the years since I last played, but I doubt it did.

Considering that, maybe simply allow him to have/befriend as many animal companions as he wants, capped in power to be equal to each other in term of "companion level", but he's only allowed to have one out of the pokeballs at once?

With the caveat that the bookkeeping of all these animals is on him, not on you as the dm.

Yeah but Beastmastery Hunters can have two out at once and that's what she's going for. It seems that getting 2 is pretty trivial.

[liquidformat]

Yeah but Beastmastery Hunters can have two out at once and that's what she's going for. It seems that getting 2 is pretty trivial.

Two is probably also the max you want to try for, anymore than that and you don't really have enough resources to keep them alive...

[RNightstalker]

There are also alternative class features for wizard and sorcerer that let them trade their Familiar for animal companions instead.

I had a crazy cat lady build once...

Druid 1/wizard 1/sorcerer 1/Totemist 2/Beastmaster 10.

With wild cohort feat that is basically 8 animal companions. She would use the Share Soulmeld feat and let all 8 get her Manticore belt (bound to her totem). She and her cats all flick spikes equal to the essentia she has invested. So for example she has 5 essentia, that's 45 spikes lobbed each potentially dealing a d6.

Silly... yes, but it is a crazy cat lady.

That's gotta be one of the most creative builds I've seen in a long time!

[Bonzai]

That's gotta be one of the most creative builds I've seen in a long time!

Thank you. It got better. She was a Mongrel folk, who never actually referenced herself directly. Instead she channeled herself through through her cats. Each cat would represent a different aspect of her personality. One would represent her playful side, another her aggression and so on. So for example a local ruler invites the party to a grand ball being held at his castle.
A conversation with her would go something like this; "Oh... Princess Mittens loves a fancy party! Yes she does, yes she does. But Mr. Whiskers doesn't trust the prince at all. No he does not".

It was one of my favorite character concepts I had done. Lol. The build wasn't overly powerful, but it was hilarious, and Incarnum has great flexibility anyways.

[RNightstalker]

It was one of my favorite character concepts I had done. Lol. The build wasn't overly powerful, but it was hilarious, and Incarnum has great flexibility anyways.

If only we could focus on more of those "builds" in the game. One of my favorite characters was built around the Fortune's Friend PrC, didn't get 9th level spells until epic levels.

[Bronk]

So I have a player in an upcoming campaign that wants to play a sort of WoW Hunter. The closest parallel is Ranger but she's kinda miffed that Ranger's only get 1 animal companion. I'm thinking maybe a dip into Druid to get the Druid animal companion as well. The issue with that is how to progress both animal companions. Is there a PrC that can be taken? Or is her only hope some sort of house rule?

Here's what I would think of as a good plan, without having to use house rules:

1st level: One Level of Druid, and make sure she often has the 'Speak With Animals' spell on hand. Get her a "Bag of Tricks" ASAP, and she can talk to both regular animals and the animals she pulls from the bag. Make sure there's always something for her to do with that. For animal companion, suggest that she choose a Tressym from Sandstorm. They're first level animal companions, and are smart (int 10), magical beast cat with feathered bird wings, and can speak common... way better than having a hawk at level one, for example. She can also take wild cohort with her regular first level feat, and she could either take Wolf for flavor, or Riding Dog for an slightly tougher companion, three levels before she could get an AC as a straight ranger.

2nd level: One level of sorcerer to pick up a nice little animal familiar, although first level familiars also include foxes, and foxes can eventually take advantage of the War Fox Harness (Dragon 291) which turns them into Dire Foxes.

3rd to 6th Level: Generic Warrior, where she can use her regular and generic bonus feats to grab Extra Familiar and Improved Familiar feat to switch her Tressym into being a familiar, then picking a new animal to be her main AC. (Most people I've encountered get attached to their animals, but animal companions can be replaced without any issues.) She can also take the Natural Bond feat to boost her both her AC and WC, and can also use whatever generic bonus feats are left over to get Favored Enemies much faster than a regular Ranger. This also gets her +4 BAB for the Prestige Ranger prerequisite.

7th Level onwards: Prestige Ranger, which progresses animal companions as a druid, and will progress her druid spellcasting every other level. Soon, her Tressym's stats will rival and surpass her Wild Cohort.

Then, she can take the leadership feat by level 9, and at level 10 she can pick up a cohort... specifically, this is when the Unicorns (land steed) and the Giant Owls (flying steed) become available.

So, that gets her 5 decent animals and whatnot following her around by level 10 or so... plus, all of her leadership followers, plus her bags of tricks, plus pets she's tamed or bought, plus all of the animals she's just friends with after speaking with them magically.

You can also get her some 'obsidian figure' magic items. There are a bunch to choose from, but I suggest the riding dog (long lasting, 10 int, and can speak common, can be ridden if small) at low levels, and maybe a bit later the Smilodon from Frostburn...

Finally, you might want to let her train some of her animals, specifically her Wild Cohort, but maybe her AC as well if it's also an animal, up as Warbeasts (MM2) for a little extra oomph.

Edit: Changed the class progression to get animals earlier, a more advantageous feat order, and adding some magic items.

[ShurikVch]

One more way to get several Companions for a Ranger: to take Urban Companion (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) ACF, and then - Extra Familiar feat (Dragon #280) required amount of times

But, if two Companion is enough, then you may do it via the Swift Hunter feat and Ranger/Scout multiclass, except take the "Light Cavalry" Scout variant (Dragon #346) and, rather than a simple Horse, take some Dire Animal (or Dinosaur) as your Mount

[Doctor Despair]

Not sure if anyone mentioned it yet, but you can also just fluff Druid's companion as being a stable of animal companions off-screen. A druid can dismiss their animal companion at will (or let it die) and pray for 24 hours for a new one

[ShurikVch]

Dodge gives you +1 AC (Animal Companion); but the Companion in question must be a Viper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Viper)... :smallbiggrin: