Strongest Animal Companion possible?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


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So I saw a thread in Reddit about the strongest Animal Companion possible (from now i'll call it AC) and I realized it's not only wrong, but it's also missing a lot of things. Here's my improvement. If you have any way of making the AC stronger comment here.

Human Hunter 9, Mammoth Rider 9, Barbarian 2 (Boon Companion to make the AC level 20)
He has the Divine Hunter and Primal Companion archetypes (they stack)

Baluchitherium with starting STR 14 (best AC in the Mammoth Rider list), Level 7 advancement +8, Ability increase +4, level progression +6, human alternate racial trait Eye for Talent +2, Animal Growth +8 (size bonus), Atavism +4, Improved Eldritch Heritage +6 (inherent bonus, with Headband of Mental Prowess +6 to INT and CHA and +3 to CHA from wishes, the AC's INT is grater than 2 so he can choose whatever feat he physically can and so he can take that path, and take the Abyssal bloodline), Poppy tears (I'd rather Fury Drops but they don't work on intelligent animals) +2 (alchemical), Rage (from the rage power Ferocious Beast) +4 (morale), Belt of Giant Strength +6 (enhancement), Divine Hunter +2, Primal Companion Hunter +6 (even without Mammoth Rider I couldn't take the large evolution because one of the requisite is being medium), Mammoth rider +10.

Total: 14+8+4+6+2+8+4+6+2+4+6+2+6+10=82 Strength


Abyssal Bloodline only gives +4. AC only reaches 16 HD, and the +6 is at 17th level even before the Eldritch Heritage penalty.


QuidEst wrote:
Abyssal Bloodline only gives +4. AC only reaches 16 HD, and the +6 is at 17th level even before the Eldritch Heritage penalty.

I didn't notice that. I guess it's only +5 inherent bonus from wish.


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That's still 78 strength though, right? Also, what's the reflex save on thrown rulebooks? Asking for a friend.


I wish I had something to contribute to this discussion, but I just had to comment: Damn! So jelly right now...

As a friend once told me when I was going too far for them to effectively manage: Congratulations, you have won Pathfinder -what should we play next?

Nothing like looking at the forums to make me feel humble as a Player -I was just happy to be allowed a T-Rex without being questioned 'Why?'. Level 7 made me feel like a badass when Princess and I achieved it together. She bite-trips and sets up flanks for the team while I am free to happily cast or join in on the carnage. I love Atavism for example and wish I could've used it on myself when Wild Shaped to be a more badass duo supporting the group.


The Mammoth Rider bonus is a size bonus and therefore does not stack with Animal Growth. You'd probably be best off dropping Mammoth Rider entirely. Then you can get +4 Str by having your companion be a Spinosaurus, and you can put those 9 levels to whatever other devious use you can concoct.

You'll want to give your companion a hand, literally, with the evolution or through some other way. This, when combined with anything that lets your companion learn a language and a bunch of investment in Use Magic Device, will allow your companion to use some extremely useful spell trigger and spell completion magical items.

For example, after dropping Mammoth Rider you can still get the +8 size bonus from Animal Growth, but you could get +10 if your companion UMD'd a scroll of Form of the Dragon III.

And let's not forget sacred and profane bonuses! The classic source of profane bonuses, demon binding, only works for humanoids. But you can still get a +2 profane bonus with a wand of enemy's heart, as well as a +4 sacred bonus with bracers of might or a wand of eaglesoul.

You can get a +5 to strength by increasing your rage morale bonus to +9 with Amplified Rage and a Ring of Tactical Precision.

If you're okay with buffs that only work for a very short period of time, Moment of Greatness will double that rage bonus to +18 for a single roll. Along that line, a Blood Reservoir of Physical Prowess can give you another +3 for one round..

Scarab Sages

Yeah, but what happens when the evil wizard planar gates it to the elemental plane of fire?


...it dies?

I don't think anyone's been saying that maximizing an animal companion's strength score above all else was actually a good idea. I'm pretty sure "strongest" in this thread is just being used to mean "having the highest Strength." If you want to create a stupendously powerful animal companion, there are lots of threads for that already, and you'd probably just want to use the stuff from here that strikes you as the most efficient.


Can someone do the same thread with a mauler familiar? I'm horrible at optimizing but I have this dream of running a kobold adept NPC with a mauler familiar dealing all his damage and acting as his mount.


I just found out that a wizard level 20 with Idealize rcane discovery could cast bear's strength on the AC for +8 enchantment bonus.


If we're taking that sort of thing into consideration, a level 20 brown-fur transmuter can hand out +14 str with Form of the Dragon III.

The Exchange

so how many pounds can this thing drag?


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Let's assume Hunter 18/Barbarian 2, implementing my suggestions and with all buffs active. And we'll let him have a couple of level 20 casters standing around to give him a hand as described above, because why not? But no moment of greatness, because there's no roll involved.

82 Strength in the earlier version
+2 inherent from dropping abyssal strength and using the blood reservoir
-10 size from losing mammoth rider
+4 from two more Ability Increase evolutions
+4 from switching to spinosaurus
+6 size from dropping animal growth and gaining the brown-fur's form of the dragon III
+2 profane from a wand of enemy's heart
+4 sacred from bracers of might or a wand of eaglesoul
+5 morale from amplified rage and a ring of tactical precision
+2 enhancement from the idealistic wizard

82+2-10+4+4+6+2+4+5+2=101

Your stegosaurus now has 101 strength.

Because of Form of the Dragon III, it is a huge quadruped. To make things even more fun, let's give it Muleback Cords and a Heavyload Belt.

Effective strength score of 109, which is equivalent to 29 strength + 8(10 strength). For each increase of 10 strength, the max load is multiplied by 4.

1400 lbs (max load with 29 strength) x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x6 (huge quadruped) x3 (heavyload belt) x5 (dragging)

Your stegosaurus can drag 8257536000 lbs (4128768 tons).

As Wolfram Alpha helpfully tells us, that is about 62% of the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza.


Avoron wrote:


Your stegosaurus can drag 8257536000 lbs (4128768 tons).

As Wolfram Alpha helpfully tells us, that is about 62% of the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Or about the weight of 40 modern aircraft carriers.

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