Are familiars "animal companions?"

[MUKid]

If I am a 3rd level wizard with a familiar who then picks up a 1st level of druid, and I get an animal companion, does my animal companion start at 1st level or 4th level? The rules say that any class that allows an animal companion counts toward the druid's animal companion advancement. If the familiar is an animal companion, then the druid starts at 4th level (3 levels of wizard and 1 of druid) but if it's not an animal companion, then the animal companion starts at 1st level.

I think it starts at 1st level but I want to be sure.

Also, I know this has been asked, kinda, but you can have a familiar and an animal companion at the same time, right? But you cannot have both a ranger animal companion and a druid animal companion at the same time, right?

Thanks!

[Mauril]

Familiars are not animal companions. WotC dedicated at least one prestige class that I can think of to turn your familiar into an animal companion (or vice versa). Familiars are quite simply familiars. Your Wiz3/Drd1 would have a level 3 familiar and a level 1 animal companion.

And yes, you can have both of them. The ruling about animal companion granting classes stacking for animal companion progression was so that your Druid/Ranger (or similar) multiclass builds wouldn't have two crappy companions.

[Set]

Your DM might be kind enough to allow you a kind of Familiar Companion combination Feat, getting a combined set of bonuses in a single critter.

[MUKid]

Well, I'm the DM, so I think... no!

So you can have both a familiar and an animal companion. But can you have more than one animal companion at a time (if you are a 4th level ranger and you pick up a druid level for example, do you get a second animal companion?) I think not because there are feats that specifically say that they allow multiple animal companions - but I can't find this limitation in the rules.

[Studpuffin]

I think they stack with one another, so a 4th level ranger, 1st level druid would be effectively a 2nd level druid on his animal companion since the ability works like a druid of level -3. They wouldn't gain a 2nd animal companion as a result. Don't quote me on that though.

[Velcro Zipper]

In 3.0, Druids and Rangers had a HD limit for AniCos so, instead of one critter, you could have multiple animals of differing power. Basically, if your druid had a limit of 8HD, you could have a 4HD panther, a 2HD hawk and two 1HD ferrets (ala Beastmaster) or any other combination of beasts.

I like the concept, but I can see how it might get a little crazy when the level 20 cat-lady druid fields her pack of 40 1/2HD felines.