How to stat an animal companion

[rungok]

I'm trying to figure out how my animal companion is supposed to work out (first time ranger)

I have the basic stat block, but also there's the stats of the base creature above it. AND theres a table for animal companions that changes most of that.

How do I know what to use?

For example, I want to have my character choose the Dire Bat Animal companion now that he gets his hunter's bond. But I feel the three different sets of numbers confuse me.

Can someone please help me make sense of this?

[Apraham Lincoln]

Take the animal companion stats from the bestiary block

Dire Bat Companion

Note that you won't be able to ride it as a mount until 7th level when it becomes large, or you area small ranger.

[astura]

Ah, and an advice, the first time it gets a stat point, put it in Intelligence, to make it 3 (if it´s intelligence is 1 is a tricky choice, cause you would need two stats to increase it to 3), so it can understand you speaking, without the need to teach him tricks to attack and other alike.

[Eric Mason 37]

As a ranger, you are limited to the ranger animal companions unless you are taking an archtype that specifically changes that.

"A ranger who selects an animal companion can choose from the following list: badger, bird, camel, cat (small), dire rat, dog, horse, pony, snake (viper or constrictor), or wolf."

BTW you do still need to teach tricks to Int 3 animals, there was a blog about what int 3 entails with regard to animal companions a while back. The int of 3 does open up the feats it can choose.

Assuming you have a beastmaster so can take a dire bat at all...

Dire Bat Animal Companion

Starting Statistics

Size Medium;
Speed 20 ft., fly 40 ft. (good);
AC +0 natural armor;
Attack bite (1d6);
Ability Scores Str 9, Dex 17, Con 9, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6;
Special Qualities blindsense 40 ft.

Then you combine with the level 1 animal companion chart in the druid section to get.

Fifi the Dire Bat
Size Medium;
Speed 20 ft., fly 40 ft. (good)
Init +2;
AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex, +0 natural, +0 size)
hp 7 (2d8-2)
Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +2
Melee bite +0 (1d6-1)
CMB +0; CMD +3
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Ability Scores Str 9, Dex 17, Con 9, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6;
Feats, Pick 1 from the list of animal feats in the druid section
Skills, Pick 2 from the list of animal skills in the druid section

Fifi can learn 7 tricks from the Handle Animal skill section, 6 for having Int 2, and a bonus 1 for being an animal companion.

Be very, very careful with Fifi. She's a bit fragile.

[astura]

Eric Mason 37 wrote:

BTW you do still need to teach tricks to Int 3 animals, there was a blog about what int 3 entails with regard to animal companions a while back. The int of 3 does open up the feats it can choose.

You are right, my bad http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lc1y .

[Tilnar]

Just as an aside, some of the "new" companions in the Bestiary say that druids or rangers could take them (expanding the list from that shown in the CRB) -- the Roc, for example, states:

PRD wrote:

Rocs taken as animal companions by druids or rangers are typically newly hatched birds—a baby roc is the size of a person and ready for flight and hunting within minutes of hatching. Unfortunately for druids seeking animal companions of legendary size, an animal companion roc is limited to Large size—still large enough for a Medium druid or ranger to use the flying beast as a mount.