Animal companions for Ranger and Clerics

[CptKracker]

Just a tad bit of back story first. My brother and i are playing the burnt offerings story line by ourselves (i am GM) and we only have one character each. Because we're low on man power, we looking at multi-classing to be able to cover all the needed roles. He plays a ranger and i play a fighter/rogue. You can probably tell that there are no healing classes. So i look at cleric and see an animal domain which has animal companion at 4th level like the ranger.

Now the question: Does a cleric's animal domain companion add the ranger's animal companion and if so does this mean that 2 levels of ranger and 2 levels of cleric animal domain would be the 4 levels need for an animal companion?

P.s. Do you have a suggestion for a class with healing to replace the ranger?

Anything helps!

[LazarX]

I really suggest that you run two characters each.

Multi-classing does not make up for sheer lack of bodies.

[AerynTahlro]

CptKracker wrote:

Now the question: Does a cleric's animal domain companion add the ranger's animal companion and if so does this mean that 2 levels of ranger and 2 levels of cleric animal domain would be the 4 levels need for an animal companion?

P.s. Do you have a suggestion for a class with healing to replace the ranger?

Anything helps!

The animal companion from the Animal Domain and the Ranger's animal companion do not stack. You end up with two companions, each of inferior level.

I've seen people suggest Oracles for healing. Personally, I always use a cleric.

What level are your characters? Rather than multi-class, perhaps you can use the Leadership feat? Another question... if the campaign is designed for a certain number of players, you can always just control a second character each.

[CptKracker]

I tried running four character in between us and it was a nightmare. My brother is not an affluent role player and having to think for two characters was too much for him. That's why i ended the previous 3.5 campaign with our character being ripped apart by a wandered monster of high strength. I'm currently trying to introduce NPCs to fight along side us such as Shalelu and i made it a point to get a combat dog just for fodder. But that's getting out of the rules section.

Anyways, thanks for your advise and ruling on the matter. It's nice to have a second opinion to back you up :)

[Duncan & Dragons]

Have you thought about Gestalt? It is from 3.5 and is giving every character two classes. You take the best of both classes for everything. This is a bit over simplified but I think accurate.

So you could be a Cleric - Druid with lots of Healing and an Animal Companion. The other person could be a Fighter - Mage. Strong both in combat and casting spells.

I think the example in the book is for this very situation where you have too few players to be versatile.

EDIT: The Fighter - Mage could specialize in Summoning and therefore usually have a Summoned 'Battle Buddy'.

EDIT 2: I know this is slightly off-topic, but it addresses the underlaying issue of only two people playing.

[Seraphimpunk]

a free Cohort each would work.

*ps.
the animal companions from both sources stack.
read the Animal Companion section in the druid portion.
And check out around the chart. there's some text that says multiple classes that grant animal companion always stack for determining the power of the animal companion.

the class would have to have the animal companion feature however.
so a cleric with the animal domain would need to be 4th level, and the ranger would need to be 4th as well. even at 8th level it would only be a 2nd Effective Druid Level companion. Boon companion feat would boost that by up to 4 i believe.

still not very powerful.
* a summoner might help even the odds of bodies vs. foes.

otherwise i'd suggest an npc or something that follows the "in game" direction of your players, but that they don't have to explicitly control during combat.

[AerynTahlro]

Seraphimpunk wrote:

a free Cohort each would work.

*ps.
the animal companions from both sources stack.
read the Animal Companion section in the druid portion.

Hm... you are right, I posted misinformation above. I recall reading that other combinations didn't stack, though (maybe it was paladin/cavalier?)...

[Seraphimpunk]

they should all work in pathfinder, since they all call out and reference the mounts as Animal companions. i haven't looked into cavalier/paladin deeply though. i have played a few ranger/druids and clerics though =X

[Thalin]

You want to stay single class; a summoner and an Oracle of Nature would be ideal. Summoner would buff, oracle would heal, both would summon, both would be "socially adept" (high charisma). Operation stand behind the pets.

Ranger can work in place of summoner if you are starting from 5-6.

[Starglim]

CptKracker wrote:

Now the question: Does a cleric's animal domain companion add the ranger's animal companion and if so does this mean that 2 levels of ranger and 2 levels of cleric animal domain would be the 4 levels need for an animal companion?

Yes and no, mostly no for your purposes.

When a character gets a companion from two classes (that uses the druid AC rules and is legal for both classes), his effective druid level in each class stacks.

However a 2nd level ranger and a 2nd level Animal domain cleric do not have animal companions and the character has a combined effective druid level of 0.

When he's Ranger 4/Cleric 4, he will have a 2nd druid level companion.