|
I’d like to see a few more animals added to the list of available animal companions (and for druids as well, of course. Why not include some other choices: baboon, bat (good for subterranean druids), cat (good choice for a stealthy ranger), hyena (not much different from wolf), monkey, rat (good for urban rangers), raven (good for dwarves), and weasel (another good choice for gnomes). In addition, you could add manta ray and octopus (no different than a squid) to the aquatic companions list. All of these animals are SRD and are CR 1 or below, like the ones already on the list.
In addition, I’d like to see some clarification on the following animal companions:
Horse (light or heavy): does this include war horses? (although the heavy warhorse, as a CR 2 creature, should perhaps be bumped up to the 4th level list with the other CR 2 animals)
Pony: does this include war ponies?
These should be spelled out to make it clear.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
|
I've got some additional feedback on animal companions.
First, as has been suggested elsewhere on the forums, I think that since the ranger level is counted at half value for animal companions, it's pretty hard to have a useful companion. Because of this, the suggestion was made to use ranger level -3, similar to how paladins channel energy as a cleric at their paladin level -3.
Also, as I posted on the general playtest forum, this came up when I was leveling up my druid who had an animal companion, but since the mechanics for an animal companion are the same for both classes, I'll copy the suggestion here. (Just imagine that all references to druid actually say ranger.)
While I'm enjoying playing a druid so far, leveling from level 1 to level 2 as a druid was a bit underwhelming. Many of the other classes in pathfinder have had their dead levels filled with some sort of new ability. Going to level 2 as a druid, I got woodland stride. It's not a bad ability, but it's pretty limited if you're not somewhere with overgrowth. It's certainly not as sexy as getting the 2nd level domain power as a cleric (which I guess applies to a druid that takes a domain, but I have an animal companion.)
With this in mind, I do have a suggestion on how to make leveling up as a druid a bit more exciting. I'd suggest altering the animal companion table so that at each increased tier, you don't get an increase in every category, but instead split the tiers up into smaller ranges, and give some increases at some break points, and others at different ones.
There are 12 increases in HD, 12 in natural armor, 6 in Str/Dex, 7 in bonus tricks, and 6 in special abilities. You could re-design the advancement table to spread these out, so that at every level, there's at least an increase of +1 in one of these.
Just using levels 1-5 as an example, you could do something like:
Lvl HD Nat AC S/D Tricks Special
1 +0 +0 +0 1 Link
2 +0 +0 +0 2 share spells
3 +1 +1 +0 2
4 +1 +1 +1 2 Evasion
5 +2 +2 +1 2
Yeah, ranger animal companions cropped up in the playtest I ran last night. Specifically, the question: "What would it break to give Rangers druid-quality animal companions?"
We thought that stronger v. weaker animal companion wasn't a case of "doing 10 damage" vs "doing 5 damage", it was more having a companion that can hit vs a companion that can't contribute.
I'm a fan of the -3 option myself. It makes them functional in a battle situation. However, I wonder how that would balance out with the Hunter's Bond party option.
-Steve
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
|
I'm a fan of the -3 option myself. It makes them functional in a battle situation. However, I wonder how that would balance out with the Hunter's Bond party option.
-Steve
No need to change hunter's bond (allies) at all, since it's keyed off of favored enemy.
You can have a hunter's bond (animal at ranger level -3 = druid level) or you can have HB (allies) that gives them 1/2 your FavEn bonus vs. a target when you spend a move action.
No conflict at all that I see.
|
|
I think Rangers should have the same Animal Companion progression as Druids.
If you take the Animal Companion away from both of them the Druid can do more cool things, and is superior (in and out of combat). So why on earth, or on Galorian, should the Ranger's Animal Companion be weaker?
Also, in story terms, it makes no sense for the ranger to have a weaker companion.
|
|
I think Rangers should have the same Animal Companion progression as Druids.
If you take the Animal Companion away from both of them the Druid can do more cool things, and is superior (in and out of combat). So why on earth, or on Galorian, should the Ranger's Animal Companion be weaker?
Also, in story terms, it makes no sense for the ranger to have a weaker companion.
Ranger Level -2 is what I'd want, but even the same would be OK with me.
There's currently an option in the Campaign Guide to have level -2 if you restrict your animal companions to one sort; how about a standard -2 and then with the option of restricting to one sort of companion and getting the same level progression as the druid?
I think that we all agree that half ranger level is just bad, at least so far. Your animal companion just dies all the damn time at half level; if a ranger likes animals so much, why would you do that to them? The practical result of the current/3.5 rule just doesn't match the narrative intent.
|
|
I think Rangers should have the same Animal Companion progression as Druids.
If you take the Animal Companion away from both of them the Druid can do more cool things, and is superior (in and out of combat). So why on earth, or on Galorian, should the Ranger's Animal Companion be weaker?
Also, in story terms, it makes no sense for the ranger to have a weaker companion.
I am of the mind of Level -2, like a cohort. The druid has spells, and mid-level combat abilities, the Ranger has excellent combat abilities and weak spells...equal trade...thus even a druid level companion would be balanced in my opinion, but 1/2 level companion sucks.
I agree ... 1/2 level for animal companion makes it not usefull ... should be at least level - 3 or better ...