What's the most powerful 3.5 core build?

[RoboEmperor]

Yes, eventually both riding dog and warhorse are options to consider. But a riding dog isn't affordable at level 1.


Yeah but guard has other restrictions:

Trying to use guard as a substitute for attack sounds fishy at best. Moving behind your animal and saying guard isn't that bad of an idea against melee foes. But many foes have ranged attacks, including many primarily melee foes. Even for melee charges attacking sooner is better than attacking after waiting for the enemy to approach first. Especially at low level when that first attack might drop the companion or force him to flee. Teaching him to attack all creature types is ideal, and having the ability to attack the 4 common creature types before they approach is much nicer than waiting. I can see why a druid might make his first trick guard instead of attack, but it's still far from ideal. And guard isn't necessarily the better choice out of the two.

Also arguably an animal companion or even a friendly dog might protect its owner even without any tricks, though only after he was attacked or otherwise realized his owner was threatened. He most likely will protect himself regardless.

I meant defend not guard. My bad. Handle it so it defends you and it will defend you forever against all creature types. You can't do anything advanced though like attack the spellcaster first and whatnot, but it's your only choice if you don't have any ranks in handle animal.