Please help me pick a Saurian Shaman companion

I'm going to play a Lizardfolk Saurian Shaman starting at level 6 with a focus on melee combat, but I can't for the life of me decide what I want as a companion.

The companions I'm considering are Tyrannosaurus, Ankylosurus and Allosaurus/Spinosaurus. I've also been looking at the Stegosaurus, but I can't say I know the viability of trip.

The only thing I'm really worried about is their effectiveness or perhaps lack thereof. At first I considered the Tyrannosaurus because of it's powerful bite attack, but it's just that single attack. The allosaurus will probably deal more damage on average provided I full-attack every round. I've considered the spinosaurus due to it's swim speed, but neither do I know if it will come in use or if losing pounce is a bad thing.

The stun ability of the ankylosaurus is also something I couldn't ignore; however I'm unsure if the reduced damage output compared to my other choices is worth the possibility of a stun.

I've also played with the thought of giving both the ankylosaurus and the tyrannosaurus cleave in hopes of outweighing the downsides of their single attack.

Any opinion or thoughts? My mind is a mess right now.

Pounce > any other ability a melee combatant could possibly have

I would say the decision should be between the Deinonychus and the Allosaurus. Most suggest the Allosaurus, but I find the Deinonychus to be equally viable and it is my personal choice for a Druid pet.

Pounce > any other ability a melee combatant could possibly have

I would say the decision should be between the Deinonychus and the Allosaurus. Most suggest the Allosaurus, but I find the Deinonychus to be equally viable and it is my personal choice for a Druid pet.

Firmly agree with this, the Deinonychus is usually the best choice. One of the advantages of it is the level after you start it advances to medium meaning it can go wherever you can as opposed to the rest who are large and have to stay outside when you go in a building or sewer or dungeon or a boat or go flying, etc.

Well, for what it is worth, Spinosaurus also has the highest starting strength at 18 (only the camel competes in that department).

So prior to the 7th level advancement where pounce starts to appear, it is a rather nice asset to have around (it also starts off medium sized). This is also at the range whether that extra 4 points of strength tends to be most important before various things like power attack and enhancements make it near moot as far as attack and damage rolls go.

Since you can dismiss an animal companion and summon a new one the next day, it does not seem like that much of an opporunity cost to have a spinosaurus up to level 6 (well, unless you GM is being 'realistic' and limiting how easy it would be to pick up new dinosaurs. I also admit for this particular circumstance: switching your animal companion after only one level seems...kind of cheap)

Oh man, I've been looking at all the -saruses and I totally missed the Deinonychus.

Since you can dismiss an animal companion and summon a new one the next day, it does not seem like that much of an opporunity cost to have a spinosaurus up to level 6 (well, unless you GM is being 'realistic' and limiting how easy it would be to pick up new dinosaurs. I also admit for this particular circumstance: switching your animal companion after only one level seems...kind of cheap)

My GM was positive to the idea of changing it at level 7, but otherwise he's being realistic about it.