*What are the guidelines for animal companions?
*What do you pay for specific animal companion abilities like trip, natural armor, great strength, or rage?
*What is the most armored animal companion?
*What is the most damaging animal companion?
*What is the most tool-box/useful animal companion?
I'm helping my wife work up her Tyrantmaker campaign, and for the aberration laden continent down under, we're trying to come up with new and alien wildlife for people to take as animal companions and familiars. Beyond floating jellyfish, plant-frogs, and furry snakes, I want to know just what I can 'get away with' for the value of any given animal companion without upsetting the balance.
In so doing, that means finding the benchmarks and value levels for the animal companions as they exist, and I'd love to get some input.
Thus far I know NO ONE SHOULD EVER TAKE A THYLACINE. Apparently Tasmanian Tigers went extinct for a reason... they're crap animal companions. Apes, on the other hand, do a bang-up job with decent AC, and heavy damage as a large sized creature with three attacks and excellent strength. The Roc seems to lead the pack for AC, with a 17 base dex and 8 natural armor before any other considerations for animal companions are added at level 7. So what does this all mean? Other than Roc and Ape, what are the 'good choices', and is there any mechanical reason (outside of flavor!) that someone would want to pick a wolf or cat?
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Not entirely sure on what you mean about "What do you pay" for abilities. If you check D20PFSRD.com and open the bestiary database, there is a field a little bit in that is called Companion Flag. This will list all animals that have a companion block. This is a good way to check the options.
Big cats are good for their first round pounce/rake and then grab/rake the rounds after. Wolves are good for tripping, but the damage dice on the bite is relatively small. Both have d8's on damage dice.
T-Rex are my favorite for high AC/High Single attack. My current druid has one with these feats: Light Armor Prof, Power Attack, Combat Reflexes, Vital Strike, Improved Nat Attack). With a +1 chain shirt sized for him, he is at 30 AC. Power attack + Vital strike = +11 6d6+22
Overall, I am a big fan of dinosaurs, as companions and just in general. They will give you the best AC and good abilities (ankylosaurus=Daze/stun, Stegosaurus=Trip, T-Rex=Powerful Bite/Grab,
Not entirely sure on what you mean about "What do you pay" for abilities.
As in "If you have trip, do you need to have lower damage? How much lower? If you have pounce, do you pay for it in armor class?" As a design philosophy there needs to be a trade-off to prevent everyone from picking the same thing. There needs to be at least some kind of tiered choices for Striker, Skirmisher, Tanker, Controller, and Utility pets.
If you check D20PFSRD.com and open the bestiary database, there is a field a little bit in that is called Companion Flag. This will list all animals that have a companion block. This is a good way to check the options.
AWESOME! Thanks, this is exactly what I needed. I always forget to use the PFSRD resource. Wouldn't have even thought to check there for analysis and comparison.
Overall, I am a big fan of dinosaurs, as companions and just in general. They will give you the best AC and good abilities (ankylosaurus=Daze/stun, Stegosaurus=Trip, T-Rex=Powerful Bite/Grab,
Are you planning to upgrade him to Mithril Breastplate? There are only two kinds of armor worth wearing! Mithril Breastplate and Adamantine Fullplate trump everything else. The Breastplate for highly nimble creatures, the full plate for the incredibly tanky ones. With an Armor Check Penalty of only -1 (to attacks as well without proficiencies!), your Tyrant King could have substantially better AC.
Edit: I originally asked how you got him into the dungeon, but looking that up reveals that you get a Mini-Rex! He only ever gets to large size. Neat.
Okay, thanks for the help with the PFSRD, Shar Tahl.
From a fairly in-depth analysis, it looks like big cats are the best skirmishers: (21 native strength at L7, bite and 2 claws, pounce, grab, rake).
Ankylosaurs are hands down the best tanks AND controllers (Single target stun, decent damage, rinse and repeat, str based save FTW!!!) with the highest armor plus HP available.
Single Target Damage is going to be the T-Rex at the highest end of smash with the powerful bite bonus and his whopping 22 native strength (a +12 damage bonus on the bite!) before any other modifiers, but no secondary attacks, though he does have the handy Grab special ability.
The best alternate appears to be your allosaurus (skirmisher with better AC than the big cats, but no rake) and Roc (for flying tanks) or Snapping Turtles (for swimming tanks).
Many of the other choices are downright laughable.
Even for 'flavor reasons' I couldn't justify taking a giant beetle or thylacine. Badgers appear nice until you do the basic maths. Birds seem attractive until you realize the Roc out damages and out ACs them all, only being unable to fly indoors because of his large size.
It would appear that dinosaurs rule the roost, as it were. Aren't you glad they're extinct in modern day?
You could always have your custom animal companions face the most powerful companion options that currently exist. If yours consistently wins, then it's probably too powerful. The actual combat advantage of tripping, or other abilities, will be accounted for here, since they will play a part in the simulated combat.
