Help me pick an animal companion?

[Redchigh]

I play a very animalistic Catfolk ranger, and I just realised I get a familiar tomorrow during the game.
Before you list off Roc, Dinosaurs, and cats, let me tell you a little more.

My ranger behaves like a kitten, very foolhardy and curious often running off away from the party. He also doesn't use manufactured weapons. I will eventually be multiclassing, so utility and Rp are just as (if not more) important than damage. I already have scent. I was considering giant scorpion for tremorsense. In my backstory, my character was tortured by goblins, then sold to drow to be an arena fighter. My character befriended an egg without knowing what it was, and has been carrying it around for a while. it will hatch into a familiar.
Without focusing on maxing damage, what would be the most interesting in your opinion?

Flight could be nice (since my character doesn't use a bow or anything). Something with grab or trip would be nice if the DC will still be decent later too. Not to say I don't like damage, but I already get 3 attacks around at full bab. thanks for the help.

[Threeshades]

Well as a ranger your choice is limited to Bird, Camel, small Cat, Dog, Horse, Pony, Shark, Viper, Constrictor Snake and Wolf anyway, unless you happen to have a beastmaster. So giant scorpion is out of the question.

[Shar Tahl]

As said above, you are VERY limited on choices as a ranger. With your back story, the only ones that come from eggs are Bird and Constrictor(Python specifically). The rest are live born. A wolf would fit the Trip component and is a nice combat buddy, as is the horse. The others provide a good supplement to your damage, but don't have any game-changing ability.

[Threeshades]

Horses and small cats are probably the best in damage output, while the cat can also trip.

[VRMH]

With that background story involving Goblins, a Dog makes sense.

[Yepyepyep]

i'd suggest allosaurus. probably the best dinosaur animal companion, plus it comes from an egg.

[Emmit Svenson]

I’ve been playing a swtich-hitter ranger with a constrictor companion and cannot recommend them enough: grab + constrict is a dangerous combination. You can mitigate their main disadvantage, their 20’ movement, by casting Longstrider on them.

Whatever companion you take, make sure you take Boon Companion: it turns your faithful sidekick into a formidable partner.

[Redchigh]

I'm not about to correct him- I'm allowed to pick from the Druid list.

[The Golux]

It's DM's discretion to allow the ranger more options, and frankly it's a discretion that should be exercised often.

[Whale_Cancer]

The Golux wrote:

It's DM's discretion to allow the ranger more options, and frankly it's a discretion that should be exercised often.

If catfolk are allowed, the DM would be a bit nutty to not allow a little flexibility on that ranger list.

[Redchigh]

I agree that it should be allowed, but I've had situations before where I said "Thanks!" and they realized their error. So... for utility, how well would the stegos trip ability when my familiar never levels?

[Chris P. Bacon]

I'm confused: are you getting a familiar or an animal companion?

[Mergy]

Why not go small cat and keep it small? It'll be a little kitty for you, and with an agile amulet of mighty fists will be deceptively powerful.