Animal Companion Saves

[Shaden]

As a new GM im wondering how fort, ref and will saves work with animal companions. Mainly when concerning traps, spells haunts etc. For instance some traps say Character(s) need to take a reflex save or with haunts that haunted characters are affected with .... My question is do animal companions take the same saves as their Humanoid Companion. Or do I need to wait for something to specifically target Animal companions. Thanks for the help.

[Flutter]

Animal companions have their own base saves and statistics, so they have their own saves, and should have their own character sheets.

Animal Companions are characters (how much they're a PC (player character) and and NPC (non player character) is a little blurry and open to interpretation but they are very much characters no matter what.

[Brian Turner 355]

Awesome Thanks. That's what I thought but I wanted to be sure. Here is another question on Animal Companions. I'm trying to set up another game to GM. one of the characters has an Elk that's listed as CR 2. It says I can find the info in the Bestiary Three but I don't have that one and cant afford it yet so im trying to find it on the PRD. On the PRD an elk is listed as a CR 1 creature. But Im wondering if the Elk there talking about is an animal companion. Its not specifically mentioned as one. Just as an animal that the person could get to help him with his task. Am I right assuming its an Elk Familiar.
Thanks for the help again.

[DesolateHarmony]

Animal Companions don't have their own CR, as they are class features and part of the character who has them. Purchased animals do have their own CR, and it might affect how things are calculated.

PRD link for Herd Animal, Elk

PRD wrote:

Numerous species of elk exist. Some larger species can stand up to 6 feet tall at the shoulder and can be used as mounts by Medium humanoids; these elk have 3 Hit Dice and are Large. One particularly unusual species of elk, the river elk, is an excellent swimmer—these elk gain a swim speed of 30 feet. All elk of this size are CR 2 creatures.

[kinevon]

On examination, if you are looking at the adventure I think you are, it looks like the elk got mis-stated form beginning to end.

CR 2, but only 13 hit points, where the regular elk is CR 1 and 15 hit points...

Sigh.

Edit: Overall, I would leave it as a normal elk, just give it 2 point of non-lethal from the rush to get there first, so 15, 2 NL, medium size. And no need to mess with any of the numbers but the hp.

[Dafydd]

Brian Turner 355 wrote:

Awesome Thanks. That's what I thought but I wanted to be sure. Here is another question on Animal Companions. I'm trying to set up another game to GM. one of the characters has an Elk that's listed as CR 2. It says I can find the info in the Bestiary Three but I don't have that one and cant afford it yet so im trying to find it on the PRD. On the PRD an elk is listed as a CR 1 creature. But Im wondering if the Elk there talking about is an animal companion. Its not specifically mentioned as one. Just as an animal that the person could get to help him with his task. Am I right assuming its an Elk Familiar.

Thanks for the help again.

Sounds like it is a riding Elk (or an elk ridable by medium humanoids). Easiest way to get it is apply the giant template to the standard elk.

I agree, it is a little confusing as the Elf is listed as a mount creature in the Animal companion book, but the animal from the beastiary is not large enough for most pcs to ride.