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I am working on an Aasimar Oracle character with the Bonded Mount revelation from the Nature Mystery, and trying to achieve the highest possible Effective Druid Level I can for the purposes of his animal companion, but so far I have only found two ways to do this.
First, I plan to use the Aasimar favored class bonus to increase his effective Oracle level for Bonded Mount by 1/2 per level.
Second, since he has the Scion of Humanity alternate racial trait, he qualifies for the Huntsman racial feat, which increases his effective Druid level by 1 for the Horse animal companion choice.
Is there any other way to increase his Effective Druid Level with regards to his animal companion's advancement?
Oh, I was going to say that I seem to remember that aasimars can use a small sized race such as halfing as their base and that would allow you to have a wolf instead.
But you are going scion of humanity, and while there is nothing that says you can't have both by RAW.... well, what was your mortal parent? A three-quarters-ling?
Anyway, here is something you absolutely can use: Celestial Servant. This aasimar feat makes your animal companion into a magical beast with the celestial template (but it still counts as an animal for spells and skills and such). So this would give your animal companion d10 hit dice and full BAB per HD, as well as smite 1/day and DR x/evil. So if you do raise your animal companion's level, this will pretty much make him the strongest member of the party. So if you pick the mount first level, then this would be a fairly strong choice for a first level feat.
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It's Pathfinder Society, so I can't be a Small Aasimar. Medium size part-humans only.
I... I did not realize that Celestial Servant increased Hit Dice and BAB. I was definitely, definitely planning to take it.
Wow, that is amazingly powerful.
Four hit dice Celestial Horse at level 2.
Six hit dice at level 4.
Nine hit dice at level 6.
Eleven hit dice at level 8.
Yikes. All with Share Spells and all the buffs of a full-caster Oracle. No level dipping, Charisma of 20. Wow.
Its actually a matter of contention whether it grants increased Hit Dice, BAB, and good saves. But I'm of the party for/against it. For because thats whats written. Against because I despise racial feats for optimization.
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And, of course, all of the amazing Nature Oracle revelations. Friend to the Animals = free Divine Grace for my horse. Nature's Whispers = what is "Dexterity" and why do you think I need it? Transcendental Bond = no need for most handle animal checks - my Intelligence 6 horse can just telepathically chat with me. And my party members.
I might even give him the Totem Guide archetype and be like a "Horse Shaman" or something. This character needs a concept. Hmmm.
...I need to somehow give the horse a Gore attack from some feat or spell. That, or wings. :3
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Morphling, I just want to give you a heads up if you decide to go this route. It is very very strong.
We have someone who does this for PFS at our local shop, but she understand how strong it is, and does not send her horse in unless she is certain some one is about to die. She does that because that thing can easily wipe the floor with any PFS scenario by itself, especially if facing something evil.
I am not saying you have to do that as well, just always remember that you are there for everyone to have fun.
Its actually a matter of contention whether it grants increased Hit Dice, BAB, and good saves. But I'm of the party for/against it. For because thats whats written. Against because I despise racial feats for optimization.
I'm pretty sure that either the devs or at least someone from MJM for PFS clarified that it doesn't work that way. Keep the chart as written, gain the type in name alone.
As far as I can tell, it doesnt affect saves and bab. It does however give you energy resistance and smite evil 1/day, which is not negligible. I did a check when I was building a stonelord (a paladin arcehtype that gets a celestial earth elemental as companion) and as far as I could tell the template did nothing to bab, saves, or hit dice.
As far as I can tell, it doesnt affect saves and bab. It does however give you energy resistance and smite evil 1/day, which is not negligible. I did a check when I was building a stonelord (a paladin arcehtype that gets a celestial earth elemental as companion) and as far as I could tell the template did nothing to bab, saves, or hit dice.
Oh, I know the template doesn't do that, but the feat does say that your animal companion becomes a magical beast thanks to some words tacked onto the same sentence as seen in this link: right here. That is a term with its own definition in game, which is why I was lead to believe it gained the statistics of that type. So according to: this link, it could gain d10 hd, full BAB, and low-light and darkvision.
But I can understand that the celestial template does enough already to improve the companion. Most likely, the change to a magical beast was simply meant to give it defenses against manipulation by other spell casters using things like charm animal. I can understand that the developers might not have intended for the animal companion to also gain all of those extra bonuses from the feat, but the language underestimated us munchkins of this board greatly. The struggle between clearly specific rules and simple rules is eternal.
I seem to remember that the whole "using awaken on an animal" made them magical beasts (for the purpose of spells and such) but not otherwise. There are a lot of cases like this, though usually it doesnt change much (like the feat that lets half-elves be considered human or elven). Then again, I've seen threads go on forever arguing such considerations.
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Morphling, I just want to give you a heads up if you decide to go this route. It is very very strong.
We have someone who does this for PFS at our local shop, but she understand how strong it is, and does not send her horse in unless she is certain some one is about to die. She does that because that thing can easily wipe the floor with any PFS scenario by itself, especially if facing something evil.
I am not saying you have to do that as well, just always remember that you are there for everyone to have fun.
Well, I actually am planning now to drop the Horse (and the Huntmaster feat) companion in favor of the Axe Beak reward from one of his chronicle sheets, which drops it down to only one attack (but a stronger attack, with reach). I feel like that goes a long way to reducing how absurdly powerful it is - one attack is less of a nightmare than three.
The concept is an Aasimar actually born and raised in heaven (no scion of humanity trait this time), who wished to travel the mortal plane when he came of age. His family agreed, but they insisted they send the family pet (a gigantic celestial flightless bird) down to protect him and keep him out of trouble. So the bird can just step in and lay down the law if his master gets in over his head. :)
