Good animal companion for ocean / jungle adventure

[DSRMT]

My friend is starting a campaign where all the characters are essentially pirates, having left military life to strike out on our own. Obviously, a good portion of the adventure is going to take place on the open ocean.

However, another good portion is going to take place in the jungle and on land. I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas for a good Druid animal companion (Half-Orc if it matters) to take that would be useful in both places

[hogarth]

A boa constrictor snake would be pretty useful; it can swim and climb.

[DSRMT]

Yeah, I looked at the boa, and you're right, it is a good one.

[Name Violation]

any snakes, possibly croc/gators, and maybe a bird could all work.

or just get a shark and name it knightshark, that way there will always be a convieniently placed stream, or inlet, or canal, ect.

[LazarX]

DSRMT wrote:

My friend is starting a campaign where all the characters are essentially pirates, having left military life to strike out on our own. Obviously, a good portion of the adventure is going to take place on the open ocean.

However, another good portion is going to take place in the jungle and on land. I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas for a good Druid animal companion (Half-Orc if it matters) to take that would be useful in both places

Consider forgoing the companion entirely and take a domain instead. Given that you're talking two very extremely different environments you're not going to find a companion that's happy in both.

[Brother Elias]

I tend to favor the gorilla. He can take swim as a trained skill, and his strength is high enough for him to be comfortable doing so. He also has a climb speed, so he can take a look from the treetops if you want him too.

(And we won't even get into the whole joy of opposable thumbs bit.)

[Black Moria]

To be clear, the open ocean probably means being on a ship, not swimming. So a water creature is not a good choice unless you like conversing with your animal companion over the ship's railing.

Players choose the animal companion for either:

1) combat advantage (animal companion is selected on its ability to give and take damage)

2) mobility (animal companion is selected on it ability to move around)

3) utility (animal companion is selected to act principally as an extra set of hands)

Given the open ocean and the confines of a ship, later to be a jungle, I would go with a flying companion (like as osprey). The flyer gives has excellent mobility over the water and will be best suited for recon/scouting and can be used to deliver ordnance (like alchemical fire flasks) against hostile ships.

The nature of the jungle makes difficult terrain the norm and mobility becomes an issue. A flyer can also excel in this terrain. The only time the flyer's air mobility becomes cramped is dungeon settings.

The downside is a flyer is not a hard hitter like a dire tiger or a shark or squid but the tiger would be nearly useless in a principally water portion of the campaign and an aquatic creature would be useless in the land portion of the campaign.

Personally, I would go with a flyer because the mobility would be a better choice that damage potential for this type of campaign.

Besides, a pirate with a parrot is so clique that no one's first reaction to you is 'druid with an animal companion', which can give you the element of surprise.

YMMV.