Druid Animal Companions

[Rasman]

I'm currently working on a 13th level Pathfinder Druid. I don't really want to be a primary caster, so I'm going the "rawr! I have big pointy teeth" path. I took at look at Treantmonk's guide on the pfSRD site and he gives a good list, but I was wondering if there was a COMPLETE guide to all the possible companions for druids or if anyone had some suggestions from their personal favorites.

[Eldariel]

Nobody has compiled a complete list far as I can tell, but Druid Handbook has a good selection of alternatives. Personally I really love Dire Bear:
1. It's a bear!
2. Dire animals have all good saves, which comes in very handy with a brute.
3. It has quite impressive stats (aside from AC which you can buff quite easily) and a very respectable Grapple-score...and then you cast Animal Growth.


Other viable options include:
Fleshraker (yes, still; the NA increases allow you to ramp up its AC to obscene numbers)
Horrid Bat (want a flyer?)
Allosaurus
Dire Tortoise

It's all in the guide though.

EDIT: Seems Pathfinder has knocked two HD off the Dire Bear. Ugh. Makes it far less useful. Stats dropped too. It's plain lousy.

[sonofzeal]

I'm currently working on a 13th level Pathfinder Druid. I don't really want to be a primary caster, so I'm going the "rawr! I have big pointy teeth" path. I took at look at Treantmonk's guide on the pfSRD site and he gives a good list, but I was wondering if there was a COMPLETE guide to all the possible companions for druids or if anyone had some suggestions from their personal favorites.

PHB2 has a pretty complete list of animal companions, that's where I'd go. As to suggestions, not really. Riding Dog is always great at low level for combat, but Horses and Ravens have their own uses and sometimes that can be better. Depends what you're going for.

[Rasman]

Nobody has compiled a complete list far as I can tell, but Druid Handbook has a good selection of alternatives. Personally I really love Dire Bear:
1. It's a bear!
2. Dire animals have all good saves, which comes in very handy with a brute.
3. It has quite impressive stats (aside from AC which you can buff quite easily) and a very respectable Grapple-score...and then you cast Animal Growth.


Other viable options include:
Fleshraker (yes, still; the NA increases allow you to ramp up its AC to obscene numbers)
Horrid Bat (want a flyer?)
Allosaurus
Dire Tortoise

It's all in the guide though.

EDIT: Seems Pathfinder has knocked two HD off the Dire Bear. Ugh. Makes it far less useful. Stats dropped too. It's plain lousy.

I see "Magebred Ghost Tiger" where are the rules for Magebred anything, I've heard the term, but I don't think I've ever actually seen them or the source.

EDIT: NVM found it on crystalkeep, didn't realize it was a template

[IonDragon]

I also enjoy bears. Bear's are awesome and cuddly, and will maim anything under 2 tons. The are also the best grappler build available. Black bears are skip, but once you get Brown bears (in 3.5 anyway) they get the more HD, and a higher grapple mod than Polar.

[Frosty]

Can you cast Animal Growth on yourself if you wildshape into a dire bear?

[Another_Poet]

I'm currently working on a 13th level Pathfinder Druid. I don't really want to be a primary caster, so I'm going the "rawr! I have big pointy teeth" path. I took at look at Treantmonk's guide on the pfSRD site and he gives a good list...

I thought PF removed the option for alternative animal companions? Are you sure you're allowed to take something other than the basic list?

[Rasman]

I thought PF removed the option for alternative animal companions? Are you sure you're allowed to take something other than the basic list?

as far as I can tell, it hasn't, I think you might be thinking of Rangers who have to take their companion from a specific list

[Runeclaw]

I thought PF removed the option for alternative animal companions? Are you sure you're allowed to take something other than the basic list?

Various Animal Companion choices are listed in the Core book. The Bestiary contains rules for several more. Dire Bears are not one of them, sadly. There really aren't rules for taking an animal companion that isn't either from the list in the Core book or has a specific "companion" block in its Bestiary text.

Speaking of bear companions, though, how crazy is it that bear companions start as small and only grow to medium, while, say, a wolf starts as medium and grows to large.

I haven't done an exhaustive study, but I'm currently thinking that large cat (tiger/lion) is probably the most attractive option. It seems like you'd really want one of the ones that gets +8 strength from increasing to large size, and the large cats have three natural attacks, plus pounce, rake, etc. Or roc, if you want a flyer, that looks pretty sweet.

[Rasman]

Various Animal Companion choices are listed in the Core book. The Bestiary contains rules for several more. Dire Bears are not one of them, sadly. There really aren't rules for taking an animal companion that isn't either from the list in the Core book or has a specific "companion" block in its Bestiary text.

Speaking of bear companions, though, how crazy is it that bear companions start as small and only grow to medium, while, say, a wolf starts as medium and grows to large.

I haven't done an exhaustive study, but I'm currently thinking that large cat (tiger/lion) is probably the most attractive option. It seems like you'd really want one of the ones that gets +8 strength from increasing to large size, and the large cats have three natural attacks, plus pounce, rake, etc. Or roc, if you want a flyer, that looks pretty sweet.

I've been looking at the cat for a few hours now and, other than for flavor, I'd say I agree. Not to mention I can enhance him with spells and such, so...it can get crazy with a cat...the only thing I'm not sure I understand at this point is "Animal Tricks" and the like. I get that you can teach it to attack, defend and such, but is it limited to ONLY the tricks it knows, or is that what the "Push Animal" thing is for?

and exactly how many tricks would a 13th level Cat with at least a 3 Int get?

[Danin]

3 int implies that it is sentient, capable of conscious (albeit limited) thought, and is thus beyond skill tricks. Find a way of communicating with it and tell it what you want ("Go eat him" *Points at unfortunate wizard*).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Dire Eagle in Races of Stone is probably the best flyer, and Fleshraker dinosaur from MM3 is the best full attacker. Take Natural Bond from Complete Adventurer and you can apply the 'level -3' first, then the +3 for the feat to use your full Druid level for its extra HD and other benefits. If you want a grappling companion, I'd just stick with Summon Nature's Ally IV for 1d3 lions (1d4+1 with a Ring of the Beast) and cast Animal Growth on them.

Animals never have an Int score above 2: "Intelligence score of 1 or 2 (no creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher can be an animal)." If your animal companion puts a +1 on Int at its 4th/8th/etc. HD, it stops being an animal and can no longer serve as an animal companion. There are a few ways around this, such as taking the feat Celestial Companion from BoED to apply the Celestial Creature to it, which makes its Int score 3, though you'll take a 'level -1' to its HD and other benefits for it being stronger than a normal companion. This also allows your animal companion to take the feats Sacred Vow and Vow of Poverty.

If you want to use RAW cheese, take the feat Wild Cohort and make your animal companion also your cohort. It says the benefits of the feat and the animal companion class feature must be tracked separately, but nowhere does it say that they cannot be the same creature. A Wizard could take Improved Familiar and Leadership to recruit a Hellhound as both his cohort and familiar, and this is no different. This will give it additional HD and other benefits, making a much stronger companion than you otherwise would have had. If going this route, consider dipping a level into Beastmaster from Complete Adventurer to be counted three levels higher for your animal companion's HD and bonuses.

[Greenish]

Can you cast Animal Growth on yourself if you wildshape into a dire bear?

Wildshape doesn't change your type, so unless you were an animal before wildshaping you aren't a valid target for Animal Growth.

[Runeclaw]

Dire Eagle in Races of Stone is probably the best flyer, and Fleshraker dinosaur from MM3 is the best full attacker. Take Natural Bond from Complete Adventurer and you can apply the 'level -3' first, then the +3 for the feat to use your full Druid level for its extra HD and other benefits.

This advice, while excellent for 3.5, is not really applicable to Pathfinder. Pathfinder doesn't have level penalties for companions - it just provides the base stats for different animals and then specifies improvements that occur at a certain level. Stating out an animal companion in Pathfinder for any animal that didn't have specific Pathfinder companion rules available would require working with your DM.

I'm fairly sure that in PF, Roc is the best flying animal companion available thus far. It starts as Medium and grows to Large at level 7. It won't get any bigger than that, but that's enough to make it pretty solid. It has three natural attacks and gets the +8 strength bonus for being large. And you can ride it.

[Runeclaw]

exactly how many tricks would a 13th level Cat with at least a 3 Int get?

How are you getting its Int to 3? Typically a large cat companion has an Int of 2 and can learn up to 6 tricks (which must be taught to it by using Animal Handling normally) plus the number of bonus tricks (which need not be trained) based on your Druid level (5 for a 13th level Druid, giving you a total of 11 tricks assuming you take the time and make the skill checks to teach the base ones).

Yes, pushing can be used to get an animal companion to perform tricks beyond what it actually knows.

In my game, we tend to just assume the companion can follow reasonable instructions - I haven't even bothered to select tricks.

Hint: get the Combat Training package. Proficiency with armor is a good thing, and you're going to want most of those tricks anyway. Make that your base 6 and then select your 5 additional ones.