How do I fill out the sheet for my druid's animal companion?
I don't know if there is an official animal companion sheet, but when I played a 3.5 druid, I made a complete character sheet as if the animal companion was a PC.
I statted out regular ability scores, feats, skills, saving throws, attacks, special racial features, speed, AC, hit points, equipment, magic items, etc. etc.
I'm a primitive Luddite and use loose leaf paper for my character sheets, so your mileage may vary (YMMV).
I prefer the character sheets (including the special sheets for animal companions/familiars/etc.) from Dyslexic Studeos.
I do, however, get the feeling that you Heather 540 are unsure of the rules governing animal companions rather than the mechanical bit of writing the stats down on a sheet. »How do I figure out my animal companion's hit points?« rather than »Where on the sheet do I write down my animal companion's hit points?«. Am I right?
Exactly. I can find sheets easily enough, but I have no idea what to put down. Do the companions get skill ranks at each level? How do I figure out the size bonus? How many tricks does it get? And how do I figure out the hit points?
Ok, thank you.
Let's see if I can walk you through the process.
First, let's grab some base stats for an animal companion. Say for a big cat, a popular choice of AC.
Starting Statistics: Size Medium; Speed 40 ft.; AC +1 natural armor; Attack bite (1d6), 2 claws (1d4); Ability Scores Str 13, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 10; Special Attacks rake (1d4); Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.
7th-Level Advancement: Size Large; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite (1d8), 2 claws (1d6); Ability Scores Str +8, Dex –2, Con +4; Special Attacks grab, pounce, rake (1d6) .
At level 1, we're only interested in the starting statistics and will ignore the 7th-level advancement.
Then we look at Table: Animal Companion Base Statistics. This table tells us what happens for an AC at every level. We can see that an AC for a druid at level 1 has 2 hit dice (HD), +1 base attack bonus (BAB), +3 fortitude and reflex saves, +0 will save, 2 skill points, 1 feat, +0 natural armor and Str/Dex bonus, one bonus tick and the special rules Link and share spells.
This should be all we need to make a stat block.
Medium animal
Init +3; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +6
DEFENSE
AC 15, touch 12, flat-footed 13 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural)
hp 11 (2d8)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +2
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee bite +2 (1d6+1), 2 claws +2 (1d4+1)
Special attacks rake (2 claws +2 1d4+1)
STATISTICS
Str 13, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 10
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 15
Feats Dodge
Skills Perception +6, Stealth +7
I put the two skill points in Perception and Stealth. Both are class skills for animal companions. 1 skill point plus 3 class skill bonus plus ability score modifier gives the total skill modifier.
I chose Dodge as a feat. A decent choice, but probably not the most optimal. Didn't care to research what that would be =) Note that feats are really annoying for 1st level animal companions. They start with 2 HD, which gives them +1 BAB. But at an imaginary stage before they where animal companions they had only 1 HD and thus +0 BAB, and this is where we imagine they got their first feat. Therefore, you can't chose Weapon Focus or anything else with +1 BAB as a prerequisite at level 1.
Hit points is slightly tricky. ACs start with 2 HD and they use d8's. They use average die rolls, which is 4.5 for d8's. They also gain additional hp from high Con modifiers, just like PCs. The big cat has Con 13, therefore a modifier of +1. So one additional hp per HD. (4,5+1)*2= 11. That's what the AC starts with.
Stats are calculated just like for PCs. For example, the Con modifier +1 is added to the base save (+3) we found in the table for a total Fortitude save of +4. Same with the attacks. The bite as a hit modifier of +2 because BAB is +1 and Strength modifier is +1.
Best animal companion or familiar sheet for Pathfinder!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByTbC6wV2yCsc2dCeU5NMHYyQ0E/view?usp=shari ng
I made it!