Comeau's page

Really glad to see so much contribution, thank you.

I understand that Boon Companion essentially solves all of my problems, but as a single feat I still think it is overpowered by itself when compared to most feats from non-accessory sources (it is unlikely that anyone in my group will be using accessories in character creation). Let me repeat that I am comparing this feat right now not to losing a spell list but rather to another feat.

On average, taking boon companion (let's call it BC) will grant your pet:
HD: +2.1
BAB: +1.65
Saves(good): 0.9
Saves(bad): 0.6
Skill ranks: +2.1
feats: +1.05
natural armor: +1.8
str: 0.9
dex: 0.9
any ability score: 0.6
tricks: 0.9

There are of course other class goodies that this feat brings you closer towards, such as the 4th level advancement, evasion and multiattack. Is it overpowered compared to the average feat? Well it is certainly at the top of the power curve, but there are only a few golden feats like this for a reason. Is it overpowered compared to a golden feat like Power Attack? I think BC and Power Attack probably yield a comparable increase in damage per turn for a player (if not more in favor of BC), and BC comes with the added bonus of more health, saves, armor, and even a feat (such as Power Attack) for your animal.

Introducing another golden feat like this one will of course make a class a lot more powerful: you wouldn't let someone take Power Attack twice, and have it stack with itself, would you? BC is also problematic because only very few classes can benefit from it. For example, compare a ranger with this feat with a fighter.

I am going to try to reel things back in. You are more than welcome to try to convince me that BC is not overpowered, but for the purposes of this class that I'm making let's assume that I will not be using Boon Companion.

Honestly, giving up spells will nerf him far more than the animal companion will help. Lead blades, gravity bow, instant enemy. . .

After looking at those spells I realized that, yeah, the ranger isn't only losing versatility (like allfood, definitely the best spell in any game) but also losing a fair amount of damage.

Nerfing spellcasting would be a good option, but I simply want to get rid of spellcasting altogether. TL;DR: Along with the druid pet, what buff do you guys think would be valid to make up for the loss of spellcasting? The Skirmisher archetype's Hunter's Tricks seem like they could be fitting, probably of a lesser amount than the Skirmisher gets.

And Foghammer, you're right, the wolf isn't so good compared to other animals. I'll probably just take lion stats and put them in a wolf's body or something. I'll work it out.

The spells make for a more versatile character, but the pet allows for more damage.

Since the pet benefits from the favored enemy boost it will hit really hard at times. It really depends on how much damage you deem to be acceptable.

A normal wolf(ranger level) can push about 35 points of damage per round when favored enemy is up.

Good point. Also, I didn't know that about the favored enemy bonus on the pet, thanks for the heads up. Even with 3 favored enemies at level 10 though, favored enemy might be a somewhat situational ability in my campaign, as I plan to have quite a variety of monster types for the players to face. Also, damage considerations are likely to be rather generous as I know one of the other players will be playing a charging cavalier.

If it turns out the pet is doing too much damage, I could simply remove the favored enemy bonus from it, or perhaps swap ranger's whole feature out for some bonus feats.

If the character is starting at 10th level then why is it so important that he has the companion at first level?

Because the animal companion is as strong as a druid companion of the same level, instead of 3 levels lower.

Now if you would rather keep things fair then instead of changing things up look into the boon companion feat from, Pathfinder Chronicles: Seekers of Secrets... the feat can also be found online, but basically from what I understand is it let's your companion be treated up to 4 levels higher as if he were a druids animal companion. I could be Interpereting it wrong though so check it out for yourself, if it does work that way then he can have his spells and his companion by pathfinder rules

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/boon-companion

It's sounding like I'm on the road to something that could be pretty balanced, especially if I play the part of the smart GM and adjust things as we play, but if anyone else has any ideas or opinions I'd love to hear them.

Salutations gentlemen.

I seek ideas or advice for creating what is essentially a ranger but with no spells and the Hunter's Bond (Pet) at level 1, with ranger level equal to druid level for purposes of calculating the strength of the animal companion.

The player that I am designing this for wants to be focused around using a big knife in melee combat, alongside a wolf.

An important design consideration to keep in mind for the character is that the group is starting out at level 10, so the tumultuous sector of lower-level balance can be disregarded. This means that the extreme bonus of the pet at lower levels is lessened, whereas the loss of higher-level spells might be a more significant nerf to the ranger.

With this in mind, does the loss of spells balance with the much more powerful pet? Or do I need to nerf something else (HD, BAB, skills, proficiencies or class features)?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.