My character just picked up a level a Druid, and I elected to give her an animal companion, a male cougar named Esuark.
What I would like to do is check out some assumptions I have about how animals companions are intended to work in Pathfinder, so I don't end up making dumb choices.
1. As the companion of a 1st level Druid, Esuark gets one bonus trick. I would assume that as a "companion", he would naturally follow, fight, and make perception checks at night. (If I were DM, I'd probably roll 50% chance of the animal being awake and getting his normal Perception bonus, otherwise asleep and taking a penalty of -1d6. I don't know how my DM plans to run this though.) Therefore I picked "Down" as the bonus trick, on the assumption that, being a carnivore, she would be more likely to need to get him out of a fight than to get him into one.
(One thought, "Flank" is not listed as a "trick", but I'm wondering if it could be taught to my companion.)
2. As a "small cat", Esuark gets the "Scent" ability. The description of this ability says "A creature with the Survival skill and the scent ability can follow tracks by smell, making a Survival check to find or follow a track."
Since Esuark is a carnivore, I would assume he is able to find and catch prey as is normal for the species, without my having to specifically give him the Survival skill. Of course, without the skill, Nora might not be able to use Esuark as a bloodhound, especially if he doesn't learn the Track trick. But he still should be able to track and catch deer.
3. For skills, I gave Esuark 1 rank in Stealth and 1 rank in Swim. (I should probably have Nora teach him a Hide trick.) I assume that he gets these in addition to skill bonuses that a cougar would normally have. I would expect cougars to be able to survive, jump, stealth, jump, etc.
I see the Bestiary lists Leopard as having Skill Focus (Stealth), Weapon Finesse, Acrobatics +8, Climb +11, Perception +5, Stealth +11 (+15 in undergrowth). I would assume Esuark gets that, but then, being based on the Leopard rather than the Cheetah, only gets 30 ft base movement instead of 50 feet, and this would be modified by the difference in stats between the Beastiary and the Player's Handbook.
According to Wikipedia, Leopards are strong swimmers. It doesn't say that about Cougars.
So putting this together, I think Esuark would get the following skill bonuses: Acrobatics +9, Climb +9, Perception +5, Stealth +13, +17 in undergrowth, Swim +4
4. The Beastiary says that Leopards get Skill Focus (Stealth) and Weapon Finesse as feats. I would assume that Esuark would get these in addition to the feat granted by the animal companion table. Skill Focus (Stealth) would have been included in the calculation of the Stealth bonus above. Weapon Finesse, I would assume, applies to Esuark's natural attacks.
5. Already I've thought of two tricks that are not on this list under the Handle Animal skill. I think I should be able to teach Esuark the tricks Flank and Hide, given enough time. I'll probably get other ideas for tricks as well.
Flank (DC 20): The animal moves into position to flank a designated target. The Attack trick is still needed for the animal to attack the target.
Hide (DC 15): The animal hides. You may designate a hiding place, otherwise the animal will find one in the area.
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actually animal companions only get whats listed for the animal in the animal companion section, no racial feats or skill bonuses. technically it would have to make survival checks to hunt like anything else would, doesn't get any nifty bonuses to skills, no free skill focus or weapon finesse, no racial bonus to skils, nothing. the wild animals are not the same as the animal companion versions.
your pet has Starting Statistics: Size Medium; Speed 40 ft.; AC +1 natural armor; Attack bite (1d6), 2 claws (1d4); Ability Scores Str 13, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 10; Special Attacks rake (1d4); Special Qualities low-light vision, scent and 2 skill points and 1 feat. 2 hd Bab of 1 and base saves of 3/3/0. thats it
sorry to be the bearer of bad news like that.
Unfortunately, Name Violation has it right. Animal companions are worse starting out than their base animal counterparts.
It's actually more like they get to have whatever you decided to give them, as opposed to being locked into what's there.
The reason they have most of those feats and skills in the bestiary is because of their hit dice.
About the only thing that hasn't carried over (that I feel should, for sake of verisimilitude), is racial bonuses to certain skill checks. In this case, the +4 to stealth for being in undergrowth.
Here's why the base stats in the bestiary look like they do:
3 HD (so 3 skillpoints and 2 feats)
Skill Focus (steath) and Weapon Finesse take up the two feats.
Acrobatics at +8 is 1 rank, +4 Dex and +3 Class skill.
Climb at +11 is no ranks, +3 Str, and +8 for a climb speed.
Perception at +% is 1 rank, +1 Wis and +3 class skill.
Stealth at +11 is 1 rank, +4 Dex, +3 Class skill, and +3 from the feat.
Now, the +8 to climb should carry over because that's a factor of climb speed, not a racial thing. If you had PC with climb speed, he'd get the +8 too, so it should stay there.
Now, you get your Animal Companion at 2HD to start with. In this case, you can roleplay that as meaning that your cougar (or leopard, whatever), is a bit younger, and thus inexperienced compared to the average leopard. It does start off Small instead of Medium, too.
On top of this, you can get to decide how to allocate your skill points and feats directly! You want swim? Go right ahead! He's not locked in to taking perception, stealth or acrobatics.
He *is* locked into taking skills that are animal skills though. Now if you give him a +2 Int item and he gets smart enough, there's that line in the Animal Companion text about animals with 3 Int or higher can choose any skill to put ranks into (note, Awaken specifically doesn't allow animal companions so it HAS to be a magic item increasing Int).
Now, he'll only start with 1 feat, but this also can be of any feat in the list in the animal companion entry (once again, 3 or higher Int can mean full feat list to choose from).
The Animal Companion entry for a small cat has it's own ability scores that deviate from the leopard anyways (higher Dex, lower Str, Small sized), so you really can't follow the bestiary stats directly for anything.
If you are really interested in doing a tree cat instead of a plains cat, you could ask you DM if you can substitute these stats for your small cat: Change the speed from 50 ft. down to 30 ft. but include a climb speed of 20 ft., swap trip with grab, and swap the sprint (at 4th level advancement) to pounce and rake (damage = claw damage).
It's like a halfway combination between the small and large cats.
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Now, regarding Tricks..
It doesn't detail exactly what tricks your animal companion can start with, however here's how I handle it as a DM:
If the player is starting the game with a new animal companion, he can start with the 3 or 6 (depending on Int score) tricks as if he had already trained it before the beginning of play.
This can give the Fighting or Hunting general purposes, or a specific selection if desired (combat training, etc).
These take up the tricks it can know by virtue of being a trained animal (see the Handle Animal skill).
If a player picks up a level of Druid in the middle of play and gets an animal companion, unless it's one that had been trained already (say, a horse from a stable, or if you visited some kind of menagerie of trained animals), then you'll need to do the training (or pay to have it done by an NPC).
Almost all animal companions have 2 Int (other than Sharks and the two Snakes), so your animal companion can be trained up to 6 tricks before his bonus trick from being a druid's animal companion.
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Regarding your unique tricks, they are something you can do by the wording of the Handle Animal skill (the list in there is not limited to those ones).
Flank: As DM, I already allow an animal to move into flanking positions during combat. Now, what this feat could do over and above that, is to start fighting by moving as quickly and efficiently as possible into a flanking position (great with Acrobatics skill), and go to an opposite side of the enemy regardless if they can get their attack.
In other words, flanking is the goal of the action, and if they don't need to spend two move actions to do it, they'll still try and attack at the end.
Typically, creatures will spread out when fighting something (more room to maneuver, it's natural). An animal being told to attack though, will likely just charge in and attack, and then after others approach, they might move in a way that assists with flanking. This trick would be to initiate combat with flanking.
Hide: This is a great trick you've come up with if you want your animal companion to hide on it's own. I already allow the animal to stealth if you are stealthing and it's following you, but this might be a good one to go hand in hand with seek or track.
Remember, as a Druid (or Ranger) you have a limited link with the animal. This means you can get feelings across, and while that doesn't allow very specific instructions, you can get away with emoting some things like "run away" or "don't get caught/seen", etc.
The Hide trick would allow specifically hiding during other actions, or when you don't want them to get confused with your emoting (it might hide, but if you want it to hide before attacking or hide while tracking/fetching...).
One final note...
Keep in mind that if you want your animal companion to attack things other than just humanoids, giants, monstrous humanoids and other animals, you'll need to spend a second trick on "attack" to expand that to attacking anything weird (such as undead or aberrations).
Okay, so maybe I can take this from the biographical point of view.
The animal companion starts out as an immature cougar (I can see that, since the size, strength, and dex scores indicate an animal that has not grown to full cougar size).
I am set on giving the companion the Toughness Feat, especially since we have a level 1 companion joining a level 5 party. Perhaps, as a slightly larger and tougher specimen, he is not quite as good at hiding (i.e. does not get Skill Focus, Stealth), and did not learn to rely on Dexterity for attacks (i.e. does not get Weapon Finesse).
I might want to ask the DM about swapping 2 points of STR for 2 points of DEX based on that theory.
Since he only gets 2 skill points, and I want to keep it to a plausible biography, perhaps he is skilled in acrobatics and stealth as his kin, but hasn't yet mastered the art of perception. I don't really need a swimming companion; I chose that skill at random. I would like an acrobatic one though.
Cougars are more of a jumping cat than a climbing cat, so I can live without the +8 Climb bonus for having a climb speed.
This would give Esuark the following:
+9 Acrobatics: 1 rank, +5 Dex, +3 Class skill.
+1 Climb: 0 ranks, +1 Str.
+1 Perception: 0 ranks, +1 Wis. Maybe Esuark needs glasses.
+9 Stealth: 1 rank, +5 Dex, +3 Class skill.
+1 Swim: 0 ranks, +1 Str.
Now if the DM accepts swapping 2 points of Dex for 2 points of Str, that would change Acrobatics and Stealth to +8, and Climb and Swim to +2. Apparently, from a min/max point of view, this isn't the best move.
I think I would like to swap Sprint for Grab. Based on Wikipedia, I'd say cougars could grab creatures up to one size category larger. (Cougars, which full grown are Medium size, can catch moose, which are large.) Also, I would say that they always grapple normally. This doesn't come into play until 4th level.
Not to derail the post too much, but if you are picking him up at level five I would suggest getting the feat Boon Companion. It is a Paizo feat and legal for Society play. HERE is the feat for your review. It will really help you pet with the level of your party.
The small cat entry for Druid's animal companion was modeled after the Cheetah, not the leopard.
If anything, I'd almost say that the leopard should use the Big Cat abilities instead of the small cat's (no trip at 1st, and grab+pounce+rake at 4th).
And I can't see it being a big issue to drop 20 speed off land speed, to gain 20 climb speed instead. Slower cat that pounces from the trees... not a cheetah that runs down his target.
The leopard will already gain +strength at 4th level, and then bonuses to Str and Dex for being an animal companion. Just put the 4th HD ability score bonuses into Strength and he should be good (this means your leopard will eventually have 26 Strength before any magical bonuses from a magic item or animal growth spell... which can bring it up to 40).
So if I decide I want a cougar instead of a leopard or cheetah, should I ask for a substitution from the Small Cat template, and if so what?
I am okay with having an animal with a 50 ft base speed, unless there is something to swap that for that better represents the cougar? According to Wikipedia:
"Though capable of sprinting, the cougar is typically an ambush predator. It stalks through brush and trees, across ledges, or other covered spots, before delivering a powerful leap onto the back of its prey and a suffocating neck bite. The cougar is capable of breaking the neck of some of its smaller prey with a strong bite and momentum bearing the animal to the ground."
So I think keeping 50 ft base speed and replacing Sprint with Grab should work.
So if I decide I want a cougar instead of a leopard or cheetah, should I ask for a substitution from the Small Cat template, and if so what?
My two cents: if you think the Small Cat companion doesn't simulate the cougar well enough, use the Big Cat companion and at level 7 you can decline to advance it to size Large, if you like (instead adding +2 Dex and +2 Con, as noted under "Animal Choices").
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Animal Companion: Cheetah/Leopard Pathfinder Error and Hero Lab Bug?
Has Paizo issued an official errata to correct the data presented in the Druid class description regarding the Small Cat (Cheetah or Leopard)? I made the obvious pen and paper corrections for a leopard using the data from the Bestiary, adjusting the mature leopard's statistics to comply with a younger animal.
Using Hero Lab to build a character, I noted that the software lists the same statistics and abilities for both the cheetah and the leopardPathfinder Core Rulebook information. I suspect Hero Lab won't modify content until Pathfinder does so first.
Absent a software update by Hero Lab, I'd like to make the custom corrections myself. I haven't found a "Hero Lab for Dummies" guide to work custom builds. I'd appreciate anyone pointing me to a good one. The Hero Lab site's "how-to" links are not very helpful.
Animal Companion: Cheetah/Leopard Pathfinder Error and Hero Lab Bug?
Has Paizo issued an official errata to correct the data presented in the Druid class description regarding the Small Cat (Cheetah or Leopard)? I made the obvious pen and paper corrections for a leopard using the data from the Bestiary, adjusting the mature leopard's statistics to comply with a younger animal.
Using Hero Lab to build a character, I noted that the software lists the same statistics and abilities for both the cheetah and the leopardPathfinder Core Rulebook information. I suspect Hero Lab won't modify content until Pathfinder does so first.
Absent a software update by Hero Lab, I'd like to make the custom corrections myself. I haven't found a "Hero Lab for Dummies" guide to work custom builds. I'd appreciate anyone pointing me to a good one. The Hero Lab site's "how-to" links are not very helpful.
this is because the rules for an animal companion follow the description under the core rulebook. the druid rules are ENTIRELY SEPARATE from the listings in the bestiary, and the same rules are used for all small cats. if you have an animal companion, you use the druid rules and build your animal companion using them, not the bestiary stat block.
Real world and Wiki have little bearing on Animal companions other than as suggestions to where you will want to put skill points. But YOUR animal Companion can be as different from a wild Animal as you can make him with feat and skill selections.
Animal Companions are not Bestiary entries. They have different stats and abilities as indicated under Animal Companions.
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this is because the rules for an animal companion follow the description under the core rulebook. the druid rules are ENTIRELY SEPARATE from the listings in the bestiary, and the same rules are used for all small cats. if you have an animal companion, you use the druid rules and build your animal companion using them, not the bestiary stat block.Animal Companion: Cheetah/Leopard Pathfinder Error and Hero Lab Bug?
Has Paizo issued an official errata to correct the data presented in the Druid class description regarding the Small Cat (Cheetah or Leopard)? I made the obvious pen and paper corrections for a leopard using the data from the Bestiary, adjusting the mature leopard's statistics to comply with a younger animal.
Using Hero Lab to build a character, I noted that the software lists the same statistics and abilities for both the cheetah and the leopardPathfinder Core Rulebook information. I suspect Hero Lab won't modify content until Pathfinder does so first.
Absent a software update by Hero Lab, I'd like to make the custom corrections myself. I haven't found a "Hero Lab for Dummies" guide to work custom builds. I'd appreciate anyone pointing me to a good one. The Hero Lab site's "how-to" links are not very helpful.
Thanks for your response. I understand your comment, and I realize that the animal companions differ from their entries in the bestiary. But those differences in stats represent an animal companion beginning play as a younger version of its mature counterpart. The listing of cheetah stats for a leopard is like listing a dog and a wolf as a "Canine, Small" and giving the wolf the same stats as a dog.
Here's the response I got from Hero Lab today: "Core Rulebook, pg 54 - Both Leopard and Cheetah animal companions use the same "Cat, Small" statistics." As expected, the company won't modify anything until Paizo does.
Just thought it would be worth mentioning to Paizo, so a correction could be considered in future errata or editions of the Core Rulebook. Until then, I'll just do what makes sense.
i don't think you are grasping the concept. it is because of issues with game balance, so that players are not overpowered.
you, as a player, cannot use the bestiary for stats of any of the druid animal companions, paladin mounts, etc that you are capable of getting. paizo, as a company, does not want to have to limit the creation of animals with the idea that druids can turn into them or have them as companions. this would make a lot more work on paizo employees in creating new animal statistics and make animals overall too weak to use as monsters for players to fight. remember druids keep a lot or all of their magical items/spell buffs when turning into an animal(if they paid for the ability to do so for items), and also can enchant or equip their animal companions in a somewhat similar manner. so paizo would have to either design animals base stats normally(as they are in the bestiary now), which means that druids would be very powerful when they turned into them/used them as animal companions, or design the animals with typical druid animal magic items in mind to keep them from being overpowered, but then normal animals wouldn't have those magic items and would therefore be pretty weak. (note this would also effect tactics too because a druid in animal form can make a lot more intelligent, tactical decisions than a typical animal of that type)
this was a major problem with 3.5 D&D so pathfinder completely revamped the rules for polymorph to fix that issue of druids(or wizards for that matter) turning into that form, and created an entirely new system for creating an animal companion for druids instead of using the statistics from the bestiary. this makes both bestiary separate from those two abilities (polymorph and animal companions) and allows for better balance between classes. the only way to get bestiary creatures is o use summon spells, which have a very short duration.
this does cause a conflict in that your cheetah animal companion is entirely different from the stats on the cheetahs you summon with a spell, but it was necessary for game balance.
hope this helps explain the discrepancy between the bestiary and animal companion stats.