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Boon Companion:(feat, Animal Archive)The abilities of your animal companion or familiar are calculated as though your class were 4 levels
higher, to a maximum effective druid level equal to
your character level.
Ascendant Recollection: (Magic Trait, Ultimate Campaign)Your first bloodline power is particularly strong. Your sorcerer level is considered to be 1 level higher when determining the effects of your 1st-level bloodline power.
I plan on making a sylvan sorceror. I want to know if the feat and the trait work together. The feat making the animal companion level equal to the character HD and then the trait making it the animal companion one level higher by increasing the bloodline ability.
So, I'm building a sylvan sorcerer currently, and am wondering about this some more. It seems you need to pay attention to what ability alters what specific rules.
Sylvan Bloodline 1st Level Power Animal Companion (Ex):
...you gain an animal companion. Your effective druid level for this ability is equal to your sorcerer level – 3 (minimum 1st).
Ascendant Recollection:
Your sorcerer level is considered to be 1 level higher when determining the effects of your 1st-level bloodline power.
Boon Companion:
The abilities of your animal companion or familiar are calculated as though your class were 4 levels higher, to a maximum effective druid level equal to your character level. If you have more than one animal companion or familiar, choose one to receive this benefit. If you lose or dismiss an animal companion or familiar that has received this benefit, you may apply this feat to the replacement creature.
We'll use an example of a 3rd level sorcerer with the above. Without feat or trait, the Bloodline Power parses out to be:
...you gain an animal companion. Your effective druid level for this ability is equal to [3] – 3 (minimum 1st).
- This means the character gains an animal companion with a EDL of 1.
The boon companion feat doesn't modify the bloodline power, it modifies the animal companion itself. This brings the AC's EDL up to 1 + 4 (max 3), so an EDL of 3.
If you had JUST the trait, it modifies the bloodline power to be:
...you gain an animal companion. Your effective druid level for this ability is equal to your [3+1] – 3 (minimum 1st).
- This is still an EDL of 1.
Combining both, you have the bloodline power still providing a 1st level animal companion, which boon companion still brings up to just 3rd level max (since the HD that boon companion is maxed by is still 3).
I do wish they stacked better, but it really looks like they are redundant here - which is a real shame, because my 3rd level build was depending on a 4th level AC (big enough to ride).
The situation where I DO see both providing a benefit, is in multiclassing with at least 2 non-companion class levels. Assume a Sorc 4/Fight 2:
Bloodline: 4-3 (min 1)=1
Boon Companion: 1+4 (max 6) = 5
Bloodline w/ trait: (4+1)-3 (min 1) = 2
Boon Companion: 2+4 (max 6) = 6
And of course, the trait would work if you WEREN'T using boon companion on any sorc over 3.
Sorc 4
Bloodline: 4-3(min 1)=1
Bloodline w/ trait: (4+1)-3(min 1)=2
They wont end up stacking. Boon companion turns off if it would raise your animal companions effective level above your own, you can't choose to apply it in an advantageous order and pretend like it doesn't have a rule that it shuts off if it goes over the cap.
For your situation, the trait effectively does nothing if you also have boon companion.
CraziFuzzy, as for wanting to be able to ride a mount you normally wouldn't, there is the undersized mount feat.
They wont end up stacking. Boon companion turns off if it would raise your animal companions effective level above your own, you can't choose to apply it in an advantageous order and pretend like it doesn't have a rule that it shuts off if it goes over the cap.
For your situation, the trait effectively does nothing if you also have boon companion.
CraziFuzzy, as for wanting to be able to ride a mount you normally wouldn't, there is the undersized mount feat.
Yeah, I know about the undersized mount - the issue is more of strength - and it's only delaying the size increase by one level - so not really justifying the feat - just disappointing, because of starting the game with the small, and then just 1 level later getting medium sized.
Boon caps at character level so you would need to multi class to gain benefit of the trait.
Boon does still help for single classed characters that run with an Level-3 EDL, like the Sylvan Sorcerer, that wasn't really the question, it was more how ascendant recollection interacted with it. It is a strange interaction, where one ability has a cap, and the other does not, but they DO apply differently (one directly, one indirectly).