Dagwood96's page

Hi everyone,
I've got a druid in my group who wants his Roc animal companion to be gargantuan, and so I've decided to make a feat chain for it. What do you think? Are they too weak, too strong?

Improved Animal Companion
Prerequisite: Animal Companion (or similar) feature with an effective druid level of 10, large animal companion.
Benefit: Animal companion becomes Huge by application of the following statistical changes:
Str +2, Dex -2, Con +2, increase size 1 category, increase damage dice for natural attacks 1 category.

Greater Animal Companion
Prerequisite: Improved Animal Companion, effective druid level of 15
Benefit: Animal companion becomes Gargantuan by application of the following statistical changes: Str +2, Dex -2, Con +2, increase size 1 category, increase damage dice for natural attacks 1 category.

I'm worried about the fact that the size increases will confer natural reach on the animal companion (10 ft and 15 ft), and also the +3 increase to CMB that comes with the Greater feat. I'm also not sure whether I should build in a natural armor bonus to counteract the AC decrease due to size, or increase the str bonus to +4 to counteract the -1 to attack with the Greater feat (although this would exacerbate the CMB issue).

These feats will be available to every animal companion that meets the pre-reqs, not just Rocs.

Thanks in advance.

At the risk of sounding thick (been starting threads left, right, and centre recently), can someone clear up dragon crush attacks please?

My first question is, does the dragon have to make a CMB check against each PC to maintain the pin? Or just make one, and each PC compares their CMD against it?

My second question is, what actions can a dragon take while maintaining the pin? Is it like a normal grapple where it can also choose to inflict damage as part of the check(on top of the usual crush damage)? Or does maintaining the pin deny the dragon this?

Personally, I think the answers to these are:
1) The Dragon must make a CMB check against each PC in the pin.
2) It doesn't work like a normal grapple-- the dragon cannot attack or use its breath weapon while maintaining a pin. Its just that in a normal grapple, the controller doesn't have to refresh the pin every round, so I'm unsure.

However, I want to check how everyone else runs this.

Thanks.

EDIT: There's a similar thread on EN World, but that's 3.5, so isn't that helpful.

In my games, I'm contemplating running running grappling and pins a little different from RAW. First, I want to have it so that you can only use light weapons in a grab (instead of light and one-handed), and also so that, if an opponent puts you in a pin, escaping from the pin puts you in a grapple, instead of freeing you completely

Also if the opponent pins you and rolls badly on the maintain check, it swaps to grapple instead of them completely letting go.

Finally, I was going to allow the grappler to make 1 attack outside the grapple in place of a grapple action (damage, move, pin ect.), if they wanted to. The attack outside the grapple would be a normal attack (roll against AC), and the auto-hit inside the grapple as normal.

Does this sound ok? I have yet to implement it, making grappling a bit stronger. However, I don't want to make it completely OP, or alter the balance when it comes to constricting enemies.

Thanks!

Edit: My suggestions take some of their meat from 3.5. I think that as they worked in 3.5, they'll work in PF. Obviously you all have more experience than me though, so let me know if I'm wrong.

So I'm trying to write up some bandits to ambush the PCs in the woods. Simple enough. They're each human warrior lvl 1, giving them a CR of 1/3. However, for bandits, they get a horrendous amount of gold. 260gp total for gear, personal items, and gold?

Also, does that apply in the same way to every monster without racial HD. For example the default goblin in bestiary 1. Their gear isn't up to much-- leather armour, light wooden shield, short sword, short bow +20 arrows-- but surely that must leave at least 100 gp not spent. Don't tell me the average goblin is meant to have a few potions and a good 40 gp on their person!

I know this is up to GM's discretion, but even RAW, it seems a bit much. Am I missing something?

So, in bestiary 1 there are rules and guidelines for monster creation. If I wanted to make a new animal, are there any rules for making an animal companion version of it?