Animal Ally feat, and the ultimate animal companion


Rules Questions


I just found the animal ally feat.

One thing i immediately noticed: Let's say you go with 5 levels of fighter, at 5th level you get Animal ally as your bonus feat, then you multiclass to cavalier, hunter or druid and go with that class from 6th level onward.

Because it says:

Quote:
If you later gain an animal companion through another source (such as the Animal domain, divine bond, hunter's bond, mount, or nature bond class features), the effective druid level granted by this feat stacks with that granted by other sources.

You would then have a level 4 animal companion. (CL-3=3 + Druid Lvl 1) Pretty tame so far but then as you gain levels your AC catches up and eventually surpasses your character level.

At level 10 (Ftr 5, Drd 5) you have a level 12 AC (7+5)
And at level 14 (Ftr 5, Drd 9) your AC is already at Effective Druid Level 20 (11+9).

Am I forgetting something or is that an oversight in the design?


This feat does not give you effective druid levels in the classes that grant you an animal companion already. So the feat itself would give you only your "fighter level -3", which then stacks with your druid level.


Yeah, you misunderstood the leveling of the AC. Your AC will always be at least 3 levels behind a normal Druid AC. So using your example of a 5th level fighter taking that feat would provide the character with an AC of a 2nd level Druid. Say you then take 5 levels of Druid, you will be CL 10 with an AC of a 7th level Druid.

Hope that clarifies it for you.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

Faelyn wrote:

Yeah, you misunderstood the leveling of the AC. Your AC will always be at least 3 levels behind a normal Druid AC. So using your example of a 5th level fighter taking that feat would provide the character with an AC of a 2nd level Druid. Say you then take 5 levels of Druid, you will be CL 10 with an AC of a 7th level Druid.

Hope that clarifies it for you.

I'm afraid that is incorrect.

Animal Ally wrote:

Your respect for nature is so great that you can form a deep and lasting friendship with an animal.

Prerequisites: Nature Soul, character level 4th, must not have an animal companion or mount that advances as an animal companion.

Benefit: You gain an animal companion as if you were a druid of your character level –3 from the following list: badger, bird, camel, cat (small), dire rat, dog, horse, pony, snake (viper), or wolf. If you later gain an animal companion through another source (such as the Animal domain, divine bond, hunter’s bond, mount, or nature bond class features), the effective druid level granted by this feat stacks with that granted by other sources.

Emphasis mine. It specifies that the effective druid level of this feat is equal to your character level-3, and also that it stacks with other sources of animal companions. Therefore, if you obtain one effective druid level from another source, we'll assume an actual level of druid, your effective druid level for the animal companion would be equal to your character level-2. It explicitly states that this is the case. Given that it states that it is your character level, not your character level at the time you took the feat, it will continue to progress, even if you take levels in a class that otherwise grants you animal companions.

So, yes. It works exactly how you believe it does, Threeshades.

To further abuse this, after your 5 levels of fighter, begin leveling as a Sacred Huntsmaster Inquisitor (ACG archetype) with the Chivalry Inquisition (Magical Marketplace). At level 20, you would have an effective druid level of 47 (15+15+17) for the purposes of your animal companion.


Reading further, I can see the developers have said your effective druid level can exceed your own level for an animal companion, but that companion's HD cannot exceed your own HD+1, so it effectively does not increase in abilities beyond that.


RAW, Yes this works. RAI, absolutely not, and expect it to be FAQ'd at some point.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

Calth wrote:
RAW, Yes this works. RAI, absolutely not, and expect it to be FAQ'd at some point.

Most assuredly. John Compton stated some time ago that this would be FAQ'd so that it could not occur, using the exact mechanics described by Brf. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your position, this has not yet occurred.

Grand Lodge

Brf wrote:
Reading further, I can see the developers have said your effective druid level can exceed your own level for an animal companion, but that companion's HD cannot exceed your own HD+1, so it effectively does not increase in abilities beyond that.

If one were to supply links to such text, it would be extremely helpful to others reading this thread.

Shadow Lodge

I doubt the authors intent was to revive ubermount builds


claudekennilol wrote:
Brf wrote:
Reading further, I can see the developers have said your effective druid level can exceed your own level for an animal companion, but that companion's HD cannot exceed your own HD+1, so it effectively does not increase in abilities beyond that.
If one were to supply links to such text, it would be extremely helpful to others reading this thread.

Here is the post brf was referencing. It hasn't been applied to the faq yet. If you are building your character for Society play, I believe the post is enough of a ruling to limit this. If not society, well you can ignore it because it isn't in the FAQ yet, but it is clear how it is intended to work.


I'm just curious how the feat is actually supposed to work when it exists in a perpetual state of on/off. Once you get an animal companion you no longer meet the requirement of "must not have an animal companion or mount that advances as an animal companion." so the feat no longer functions for you (like going below 13 STR when you have Power Attack). That's not even the stacking part, that's just the feat itself.


Bob Bob Bob wrote:
I'm just curious how the feat is actually supposed to work when it exists in a perpetual state of on/off. Once you get an animal companion you no longer meet the requirement of "must not have an animal companion or mount that advances as an animal companion." so the feat no longer functions for you (like going below 13 STR when you have Power Attack). That's not even the stacking part, that's just the feat itself.

The text has an exception to the prerequisite, stating if you later gain a class that does grant an animal companion the levels stack. The exception needs to be written to instead: "If you later gain levels in a class that grants you an animal companion, you do not gain an additional animal companion but instead may ignore the prerequisite of this feat requiring no animal companion class features."

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

claudekennilol wrote:
Brf wrote:
Reading further, I can see the developers have said your effective druid level can exceed your own level for an animal companion, but that companion's HD cannot exceed your own HD+1, so it effectively does not increase in abilities beyond that.
If one were to supply links to such text, it would be extremely helpful to others reading this thread.

Here you go.


Thanks everyone, that clears it up.

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