I have a PFS character who is an 8th level ranger / 1st level Cavalier (with the emissary archetype). The level of Cavalier (Emissary) was to permit my ranger to move at full speed in medium armor and thus take full advantage of his maxed-out Acrobatics score.
The ranger has long had a leopard animal companion (a small cat, mechanically). But when I added cavalier, Hero Lab wants the animal companion from the two classes to be the same companion, and disallows small cat because that's not an option for a cavalier.
Is that the correct rule? Should my character have two animal companions or one? and if only one, does the addition of cavalier really make my leopard companion no longer a legal choice? Or is Hero Lab just wrong on this?
You only get one animal.
Mount (Ex): A cavalier gains the service of a loyal and trusty steed to carry him into battle. This mount functions as a druid’s animal companion, using the cavalier’s level as his effective druid level.
This ability functions like the druid animal companion ability (which is part of the Nature Bond class feature), except that the ranger’s effective druid level is equal to his ranger level – 3.
Unlike normal animals of its kind, an animal companion’s Hit Dice, abilities, skills, and feats advance as the druid advances in level. If a character receives an animal companion from more than one source, her effective druid levels stack for the purposes of determining the statistics and abilities of the companion.
So, you are getting Animal Companion from two sources, the two sources stack.
Note: Herolab is correct, you cannot have two animal companions. But, if it is not allowing a leopard it is wrong in that regard. You can have a leopard but you would only be able to count the ranger levels.
As another example: a Halfling Cavalier/Ranger would not be able to count the Ranger levels towards a Boar since Boar is not on the ranger list.
- Gauss
That sounds about right, Gauss. Thanks.
Is there a rule, FAQ, etc saying that a character who gained an animal companion from two classes has to pick from the more restrictive list for the effective levels to stack? It doesn't seem like an unreasonable assertion, but I can't think of where it comes from.
Honestly I thought that the Mount class feature was different from the Animal Companion class feature and you could therefore have both. Looking more closely I think I might have been mistaken. I've certainly seen builds with multiple animals from different classes posted before, but perhaps they were in error too.
I can think of one particularly weird situation. The Paladin's bonded mount has "an Intelligence of at least 6". What would happen if you played a Cavalier/Paladin though?
- You can apply the levels from both classes, and the mount has Int6
- You can apply the levels from both classes, but since the Cavalier's ability is more restrictive the mount has Int2
- You can only apply the levels from one class, and depending on which one it is the mount has Int6 or Int2
Devilkiller:
There is no statement that overrides the existing restriction of a class's animal companion choice. Without such a specific statement then the default is the most restrictive option.
So based on that we have Class A which allows animal companions X and Y. We also have Class B which allows animal companions Y and Z. Since levels of the same animal companion stack you get X (A only), Y (A+B), and Z (B only).
However, since there is really no hard rule here it might be reasonable for GMs to rule that you get X, Y, AND Z at the combined levels of all. I would expect table variation on this.
Your mount would be Int6 in the case of the Cav/Paladin. The mount is the same type, it is just enhanced via the paladin ability.
- Gauss
It seems like you could get into weird situations where the permitted companion types for the two classes have no available matches, say a Scalykind domain Cleric crossed with a Cavalier. I guess such combinations should just be avoided.
Or have permissive GMs, but yeah :)
- Gauss