| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Well met,
I've expanded a little treatise on the sylvan sorcerer and how it redeems polymorph spells into a full-blown guide on nice things you can do with an animal companion if you're not a druid.
The guide is to be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1ucWfFId04lNYLrJTh_E_keRTk3X-Ouchgy SE--2udr4
And a pdf version can be obtained from
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24085032/AbusingAnimals.pdf
Looking forward to comments, critique and improvements.
The "heavy metal battle cat" is brilliant! A creature covered in Spell Tattoos would be a secondary caster in its own right, and well worth the investment. No need to be able to speak, no need for UMD... which animal can see and touch the largest surface of its skin? 'cause That'll be my next pet.
Hm. On second reading... Spell Tattoos tattoos are spell completion magic items. Oh well, I guess it was too good to be true.
And a Reservoir Tattoo remains a good idea.
I think you made a mistake in the ability scores in the recommended sorcerer AC.
A wolf companion has the following ability scores before AC bonus to str/dex at lvl 8:
Str 21 Dex 13 Con 19
A spinosaurus:
Str 26 Dex 13 Con 19
With the normal AC bonus it is just +2 str and dex for both.
The ability scores given in that list were normalized to medium size, i.e. those were the relevant base scores you would apply the size bonuses from polymorph spells and the modifiers for an animal companion to. I have failed to make this explicit enough, which has be remedied now.
Also you may want to add that at low levels the Ape for sorcerers gains reach just by being Enlarged, and that would make it the best AC until level 7.
Are you certain about this? If so, this would be a good addition.
For the animal companion clerics, it's worth noting that the Theologian archetype improves your companion's level by 2.
I don't think that helps to increase your effective druid level beyond your character level, if that is what you had in mind. Boon Companion would be the limiting factor here. It would help a cleric with the saurian or scalykind domain to do without taking Boon Companion, though.
EDIT: Also, because it really does deserve saying, great guide! Cool idea and good execution.
Thanks :)
Just curious but did you make the arcane list purely based on what spells are good for animal companions or what spells are a good choice for a sylvan sorc ?
because with a limit on known spells the choice of spells is very important. what if your animal companion goes down, which of your known spells are still as useful to you or the party.
It doesn't really say anything about the ape getting reach when it grows large in the animal companion rules. That is why I am doubtful that it works.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
|
I'll admit, when I first saw that you wrote a guide on animal companions for non-druids, I rolled my eyes a bit, but I'm pleasantly surprised by your guide. Well done, and I'd like to thank you for opening my eyes to Mighty Strength, which I had never noticed before, and HOLY CRAP THAT'S AN AWESOME SPELL.
Just curious but did you make the arcane list purely based on what spells are good for animal companions or what spells are a good choice for a sylvan sorc ?
because with a limit on known spells the choice of spells is very important. what if your animal companion goes down, which of your known spells are still as useful to you or the party.
True, but there are guides for general spell selection for the respective classes and those of course still apply. The guide is more about a method than about a build. There are interesting, varied and unexpected options for benefiting from an animal companion not available to druids and that is what was to be pointed out and analyzed.
So to answer your first question: The spells are covered regarding whether they are useful to buff your animal companion. Even a non human sorcerer will have man more spells known than just those dedicated to improved the companion, but this is not a guide to those spells.
I'll admit, when I first saw that you wrote a guide on animal companions for non-druids, I rolled my eyes a bit, but I'm pleasantly surprised by your guide.
You're welcome. I was counting on some incredulous stares and mild surprise on the choice of theme ;).
Well done, and I'd like to thank you for opening my eyes to Mighty Strength, which I had never noticed before, and HOLY CRAP THAT'S AN AWESOME SPELL.
It is indeed. I guess it's borderline OP when used on a companion, but doesn't really cross that line imho.
I don't see any mention of the ranger class. They get an animal companion and also have some casting capabilities.
I'm planning a revision and hopefully will present something with a lot less typos and grammar issues.
Animal Archive is of course on the list as well as evaluation of the forms available via polymorph spells.
Expect something over the next couple of weeks.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm planning a revision and hopefully will present something with a lot less typos and grammar issues.
Animal Archive is of course on the list as well as evaluation of the forms available via polymorph spells.
Expect something over the next couple of weeks.
Hey, I'd really love to read this guide, but both the googledocs and dropbox links are dead..... :-/
I'm planning a revision and hopefully will present something with a lot less typos and grammar issues.
Animal Archive is of course on the list as well as evaluation of the forms available via polymorph spells.
Expect something over the next couple of weeks.Hey, I'd really love to read this guide, but both the googledocs and dropbox links are dead..... :-/
Then your necromancy skills only extend to threads...lol
I couldn't find anything. A cursory search for it just turned up the same set of dead links and a phishing site that looks like a forum where:
--------------------------------------------------------------
Person 1 asks about it
Person 2 provides a link to a paywall site
Person 1 complains that it requires a credit card
Person 3 says its fine that the credit card is just to make sure you're not a bot.
Person 4 thanking everyone because the link was exactly what they needed.
--------------------------------------------------------------
what tipped me off is when I started seeing the same result for different guides where everything was exactly the same except the name of the guide in question.
Not sure why the link is not working. The file is set to public and Link still works for me. I'll make a PDF copy and make it available here.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSBMLK4sSzwxArk3ow_wMYL1xeUFnCV rP_2OPqe-5wG30wIoddJ8B1JctUCCgP3dHIMLFWu0cMqKS6Z/pub
Maybe this works.
Keep in mind that Paizo.com brakes links by inserting spaces. So to use the link you need to copy it to a text file and manually find the inserted space and remove it.