Quote Originally Posted by Nyaa View Post
Thank you for the guide!
I'm going to participate in a level 12 game soon, and GM said "Don't worry about cheese level, this is meant to be high power, and epic scale."
Naturally, I'm looking at Animal Lord. Am I reading it correctly that Young Advanced Animal Lord of Young Advanced base animal gets +12 to all mental stats, +4 str/con, and +20 dex? And if I were to pick CR8 dire tiger as a base animal, two more CR of templates slapped onto it won't increase my CR above 12?

Nope, apparently I can't read, and I should maximize a stat only on one side, as Animal Lord gives me better of two.

And I can't find anything better than Advanced on animal, considering size limits of Animal Lord and that I don't want any more CR on the humanoid side.
Thanks!

You could check out the CR +0 templates for extra goodies on your animal form. Pick up Celestial / Fiendish and get minor resistances as well as a variety of DR for when people come at you with silver on hand.

Use of Young + Giant can boost physical stats to a fair degree as well (+4 Strength, +2 Dex, and a bit of natural armor for a Large animal base). The other benefit to Advanced animal forms is that it gives you a solid baseline for non Int mental stats too. The Advanced Dire Tiger has Wis 16 and Cha 14, so the Animal Lord bonus gives you a minimum of Wis 20 and Cha 18 without any investment on your 'human' side.

The other odd option for an Animal Lord is the Advanced Emperor Cobra, which gets a base Wisdom of 25, so it makes for a phenomenal divine caster (and Str 26, Dex 19, Con 22 makes you better than most melee types if you wind up in combat). Toss in some levels of druid to wildshape yourself even higher bonuses, or be a cleric and enjoy your plethora of bonus spells and high DCs.