In another thread I posted a quick comment about how even a physically "weak" druid can quite easily boost up their animal companion to become a solid melee tank. But I think there's lots more than could be done to optimize the animal companion's tankiness.
If you wanted to create the best possible animal companion tank, what techniques would you use?
My initial comment on the other thread was pretty simple. Get some magical barding, throw in an amulet of natural armor and then when battle is about to start, feed the AC a potion of shield.
Using a level 9 big cat as an example you would have a base normal AC as a level 9 big cat of 25. (10 +1 original, +2 lvl 7 adv, +6 AC increase, +4 for 18 dex, +1 dodge, +1 improved nat armor).
Add +2 leather barding (+5) and a +2 amulet of natural armor and you are at AC 32 for a level 9 big cat (other ACs no doubt could do much better. I suppose you could make "chain shirt" barding to get to AC 33, which would also give a potential to go to +5 dex bonus if you could scrounge some more dex for the cat.
What else can you do for a permanent AC boost?
Add a shield potion and you should be able to get to AC 36. Would "barkskin" stack with the amulet of natural armor?
Any other ideas for how to boost an animal companion's AC?
You can not create potions of shield, because it is a personal range spell. And Seranov is correct, amulet of natural armor doesn't stack with barkskin, both are enhancement bonuses.
I don't think Barkskin stacks with Amultes of Natural Armor. They're both Enhancement bonuses, iirc.
barkskin: "grants a +2 enhancement bonus to the creature's existing natural armor bonus"
amulet of natural armor: "giving him an enhancement bonus to his natural armor".
This is why I asked. They are not worded precisely the same. One gives an enhancement to natural armor, the other gives an enhancement to his natural armor bonus.
I've always ruled that they don't stack, but the way I see people parse rules on these boards, I thought it was worth asking.
A level 9 druid gets a +4 barkskin bonus anyway, so using barkskin would be +2 more on top of the existing +2 even if it doesn't stack.
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I don't think Barkskin stacks with Amultes of Natural Armor. They're both Enhancement bonuses, iirc.barkskin: "grants a +2 enhancement bonus to the creature's existing natural armor bonus"
amulet of natural armor: "giving him an enhancement bonus to his natural armor".
This is why I asked. They are not worded precisely the same. One gives an enhancement to natural armor, the other gives an enhancement to his natural armor bonus.
I've always ruled that they don't stack, but the way I see people parse rules on these boards, I thought it was worth asking.
A level 9 druid gets a +4 barkskin bonus anyway, so using barkskin would be +2 more on top of the existing +2 even if it doesn't stack.
Even worded differently, they're still the same kind of bonus.
Yes, if you (a level 9 Druid) cast Barkskin on an Animal Companion with an Amulet of Natural Armor +2, the Barkskin would overwrite the Amulet, but not stack.
Hmm... yeah, no shield potions. Let's say my druid has UMD, could she use a wand of shield on her animal companion?
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With Share Spells, maybe? I don't recall it saying it works on spells cast from Wands, though.
Share Spells (Ex): The druid may cast a spell with a target of “You” on her animal companion (as a spell with a range of touch) instead of on herself. A druid may cast spells on her animal companion even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the companion's type (animal). Spells cast in this way must come from a class that grants an animal companion. This ability does not allow the animal to share abilities that are not spells, even if they function like spells.
Ah, lame.
I couldn't find anything to say share spells only worked with the druid's spells, but it DID say that any such spell that affected an AC had to come from a class that had an AC, which suggests that share spells works with spells other than the druid's natural spell list. So I will assume it can work with spells from wands or scrolls until someone finds out otherwise. All that is needed is to find a class that can have an animal companion and can cast shield. :)
I don't want to get hung up on shield and barkskin vs amulet of natural armor though, I am looking for new ideas on how to tank up an animal companion. What other spells or items could be useful?
For example, could an animal companion gain benefits from Ioun stones? What about cloaks or headbands?
Interesting: "At 1st level, a cleric can choose to forgo the domain power from one of his two domains in order to gain a special divine animal companion."
So, does that mean that cleric is a class that grants an animal companion?
Barkskin does stack with some natural armor, but not the Amulet. It doesn't stack with other enhancement bonuses, but it would stack with things like the Ironhide Feat (for PCs) and Improved Natural Armor (for monsters/animals). Compare those to see the actual different semantics.
That being said, there are PLENTY of ways to craft the "pet healer" type of druid. At the beginning of the fight, keep your AC close by, share spells with them while buffing, and then focus on healing them during the combat. With low STR, hopefully you have high WIS for the extra spell slots.
Even during the battle you can hit your AC with some NON-personal range spells to assist their tanking, such as the Stoneskin spell.
Also, you can look into some specific Archetypes that will assist this process along the way.
Interesting: "At 1st level, a cleric can choose to forgo the domain power from one of his two domains in order to gain a special divine animal companion."
So, does that mean that cleric is a class that grants an animal companion?
Only if you choose that option. Just like a druid that opts out of the animal companion to take cleric domains to forego his animal companion would not qualify for feats/powers requiring it. A cleric who likewise chooses the animal companion would qualify for those feats/powers.
I couldn't find anything to say share spells only worked with the druid's spells, but it DID say that any such spell that affected an AC had to come from a class that had an AC, which suggests that share spells works with spells other than the druid's natural spell list. So I will assume it can work with spells from wands or scrolls until someone finds out otherwise. All that is needed is to find a class that can have an animal companion and can cast shield. :)
I think there was a spell that gave the target a deflection bonus, but I don't remember the name. I thought it was a divine spell, but could be wrong.
As for shield, the only way you could cast it on an AC, would be an alchemist with the infusion discovery. A summoner could work if you consider the eidolon an AC.
OK, so here's my take on the best way to optimize my ninth level druid's animal companion armor class, starting from scratch:
If I did the math right, the generic big cat at level 9 with the "dodge" and "improved natural armor" feats should be 10 (base) + 2 (feat) + 1 (starting natural armor) + 2 (lvl 7 natural armor increase) + 6 (standard animal companion natural armor increase) + 4 (dex bonus) - 1 (large) = 24.
Adding a mithril chain shirt barding to that for 2,200g will bring that to 28. Putting a +2 enhancement on the barding (4,000g) would take that that to 30 armor class.
After that all of the options start getting expensive, either in gold cost or in action economy costs.
Are there any other options anyone can think of that could boost an animal companion's AC higher than this without costing a fortune or casting during combat? The best I can think of is to keep barkskin on the animal companion, but that either uses up a bunch of level 2 spell slots or else it means using pearls of power or a metamagic extend rod (or both).
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Don't forget about HP - that's an important part of being a tank, too (especially considering that druid healing spells are more expensive than cleric ones). At third level, my rhino with +1 studded leather barding and the Toughness feat has an AC of 22 and 28 HP; it's not going down in battle easily.
Remember that Cat's Grace and Bear's Endurance are both good defensive buffs on top of Barkskin.
Oh yeah, and check out the "Beast Bond Brand" from ultimate equipment - it lets you share spells at 30 feet for 100gp a pop.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/a-b/beast -bond-brand
Play an Aasimar and get the Celestial Servant feat to give your AC the celestial template.
Make that Aasimar a Nature Oracle, pick up the Bonded Mount revelation, and with their favored class bonus, you can make your effective druid level = 1.5 x your character level. My level 7 celestial Axe Beak recently destroyed one of the final villains in a tier 4-5 PFS scenario all by himself. SR is a wonderful thing.
Honestly its really easy to make animal companions tanky. I wouldnt give them the amulet of natural armor though, cast the barkskin, save the amulet slot for mighty fists, after all the tank needs its offense too. But just giving it armor feats is massive boon to an anmial companion. Even with a +4 dex, you can give it light and medium armor prof and give it mithral breastplate.
Give it light and medium armor and dodge.
So without any magical items at all its ac is:
10+4dex+6armor+9natural armor (+1 at first level, +2 at 7th and +6 for 9th level companion) + 1 dodge - Thats a 30 AC for 3 feats. Add to that a casting of barksin and its AC is 33.
Play an Aasimar and get the Celestial Servant feat to give your AC the celestial template.
Make that Aasimar a Nature Oracle, pick up the Bonded Mount revelation, and with their favored class bonus, you can make your effective druid level = 1.5 x your character level. My level 7 celestial Axe Beak recently destroyed one of the final villains in a tier 4-5 PFS scenario all by himself. SR is a wonderful thing.
Is there some pfs ruling that invalidates the sentance in the bonded mount that limits a medium oracle to a camel or horse? Becasue otherwise I dont understand how you got the axe beak.
Is there some pfs ruling that invalidates the sentance in the bonded mount that limits a medium oracle to a camel or horse? Becasue otherwise I dont understand how you got the axe beak.Play an Aasimar and get the Celestial Servant feat to give your AC the celestial template.
Make that Aasimar a Nature Oracle, pick up the Bonded Mount revelation, and with their favored class bonus, you can make your effective druid level = 1.5 x your character level. My level 7 celestial Axe Beak recently destroyed one of the final villains in a tier 4-5 PFS scenario all by himself. SR is a wonderful thing.
There's a special boon for playing 3 certain scenarios on the same character.
Even as allowed, I think Rainy Day is threading thin ice in claiming that you can have an effective Druid level grater than your Character level
I dont think so, I mean unless the favored class bonus is only supposed to be useful to multiclassed oracles, it seems to me to be justified that it can raise your effective level over your current hd. Otherwise whats the point of the bonus? Or do you think it just shouldnt apply to this one revalation?
The boon was specifically clarified to limit it to classes who get a bonded companion as a standard feature, which means Druids,Rangers (at level 7), Paladins and Cavalier/Samurai.
Huh? Where was this?