Hi,
The Power Attack feat allows one to trade attack accuracy for damage. Is there a similar feat that does the opposite?
Is there any feat that increases my animal companion's chance to hit, possibly in exchange for something else? I don't need the extra damage, but I really want the special attack to hit.
For those interested, my game master was kind enough to provide my neutral evil druid with a vermin companion (a giant scorpion), and to bless it with an 8 Intelligence (actually, it's just as intelligent as its human companion). :-)
Thanks in advance for any advice!
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Nothing that trades damage for attack, no. Weapon Focus adds to attacks, as will an Amulet of Mighty Fists (an excellent item for animal companions) or the use of Greater Magic Fang or one of many other spells. What level are you? Because I'd expect your Animal Companion's attacks to be relatively decent all things considered.
The Reckless Abandon rage power trades accuracy for AC, at a 1:1 ratio and scales like Power Attack.
However probably won't help you since animal companions can't become barbarians.
Thats the only thing I can think of right now though
You could summon (or be) a flanking buddy for your AC, that's an easy +2.
What level are you? Because I'd expect your Animal Companion's attacks to be relatively decent all things considered.
I'm fourth level, but my animal companion is brand new (ie: 2HD), since I got it through the animal domain.
You could summon (or be) a flanking buddy for your AC, that's an easy +2.
My giant scorpion is brand new. For now, I just want it to survive while it's still quite vulnerable. It's only got one trick so far (attack), so i'll try to keep it safe until I've found the time tp teach it the heel trick.
I was thinking of giving it the spring attack feat, so it may use hit-and-run tactics. However, I was wondering whether prerequisites also count for animal companions. More to the point: would my animal companion first need to have mobility and dodge, or not?
The PHB under "Animal Feats" only says:
Animal companions can select from the following feats: (...). Animal companions with an Intelligence of 3 or higher can select any feat they are physically capable of using. GMs might expand this list to include feats from other sources.
Animal companions must me prereqs, that line simply means that it can't select the hover feat for instance if it doesn't have wings. Don't forget your companion must have an int of 3.
So your companion would have to have dodge and mobility prior to taking spring attack.
However probably won't help you since animal companions can't become barbarians.
Could an animal companion gain class levels at all? Don't they just gain HD as you increase in levels, yourself?
However probably won't help you since animal companions can't become barbarians.Could an animal companion gain class levels at all? Don't they just gain HD as you increase in levels, yourself?
Animal companions don't get class levels. If you wanted to do such a thing it would be in a home-game with house rules.
But you are looking at this the wrong way I think. Instead invest in feats such as:
Boon Companion (yourself)
Weapon Focus (pet)
Weapon Finesse (pet, depending on pet dex)
Outflank (pet and yourself, pet needs 3 int)
Your pet should be accurate enough if you get all of this.
For those interested, my game master was kind enough to provide my neutral evil druid with a vermin companion (a giant scorpion), and to bless it with an 8 Intelligence (actually, it's just as intelligent as its human companion). :-)
My giant scorpion is brand new. For now, I just want it to survive while it's still quite vulnerable. It's only got one trick so far (attack), so i'll try to keep it safe until I've found the time tp teach it the heel trick.
OK, there's a conflict here, which actually resolves in your favour.
Your animal companion has an intelligence of 8. This means he no longer needs to learn tricks. He can understand language and you can just tell him what to do. Tricks are for animals of animal intelligence, i.e. INT 1 or 2.
Could an animal companion gain class levels at all? Don't they just gain HD as you increase in levels, yourself?
Normally an animal companion cannot take class levels. However, since your companion is an intelligent being, technically he ought to be able to. If he did this would replace the companion's normal advancement.
Note though on the Table: Animal Companion Base Statistics that an animal companion does not gain a HD at every level. So if your GM allows your companion to take class levels it should not be at a 1:1 rate per level. Rather, for levels where it takes 2 levels for the companion to gain a new HD, it should also take 2 levels for your companion to gain a class level. Your companion would gain no benefit from the "intermediate" level if he was gaining class levels instead of companion HD.
Peet
However probably won't help you since animal companions can't become barbarians.Could an animal companion gain class levels at all? Don't they just gain HD as you increase in levels, yourself?
Normally no.
You could cast Awaken on them, but then they stop being your AC and become a sentient being.
Best feat to give your companion a boost? Boon Companion since you delayed your gaining of said companion.
That will also give you animal companion 2 feats (since it will suddenly jump up to your level of HD). One of those feats will be after the ability score increase (placing that in INT will make it possible to take just about any feat it can physically do and qualify for. Also, you can drop a skill point into linguistics. then it can understand a language. It can finally respond to the question "is timmy in the well?")
(...) invest in feats such as:
Boon Companion (yourself)
Your pet should be accurate enough if you get all of this.
Where would I find that feat?
It was recently republished in Animal Archive.
It was recently republished in Animal Archive.
I just hope my GM will allow that source...
Normally no.
You could cast Awaken on them, but then they stop being your AC and become a sentient being.
Since the companion in question already has an intelligence of 8 it effectively has already had awaken cast on it, though it hasn't been given the ability to speak.
If the GM has already allowed this I see no reason for this to disable the AC class feature of the character though; instead the feature functions as if the creature is a cohort obtained with the leadership feat (strictly speaking you could have an animal as your cohort so it's not a big deal). The progression should continue to follow that of the animal companion feature though since mechanically they work a little differently.
Peet
Hi,
The Power Attack feat allows one to trade attack accuracy for damage. Is there a similar feat that does the opposite?
Is there any feat that increases my animal companion's chance to hit, possibly in exchange for something else? I don't need the extra damage, but I really want the special attack to hit.
For those interested, my game master was kind enough to provide my neutral evil druid with a vermin companion (a giant scorpion), and to bless it with an 8 Intelligence (actually, it's just as intelligent as its human companion). :-)
Thanks in advance for any advice!
There isn't a reverse Power Attack option, probably because the forum trolls would complain about how under-optimized it was. :)
There are plenty of feats that can increase your chance to hit. If your Dexterity is much better than your Strength, Weapon Finesse can significantly augment it, but I can't imagine a dexterous scorpion. You could take Weapon Focus with any of its natural attacks for an additional +1 bonus to hit. You could invest in the teamwork feat for you and your companion that increases the flanking bonus from +2 to +4, netting a +2 to hit. You could also buy a necklace of mighty fists and flavor it as a collar or harness and give your scorpion an enhancement bonus to its attack rolls.
All of this said, a creature with an 8 Intelligence isn't really an Animal anymore, it would probably be more appropriate to classify it as a Magical Beast (augmented animal), in which case this would be a creature that would better serve as a cohort from Leadership, and therefore be able to take class levels in things like fighter and barbarian. If its just as smart as you, your druid level progression (representing your ability to train your animal) isn't a great fit.
There are plenty of feats that can increase your chance to hit. If your Dexterity is much better than your Strength, Weapon Finesse can significantly augment it, but I can't imagine a dexterous scorpion.
Which brings up the following question: I'm thinking of giving my new pet the following feats: dodge, mobility, spring attack.
However, it starts with a 12 dexterity, so it can't take dodge until it's had its first stat increase. Luckily, with Boon Companion, this doesn't take that long anymore.
However, upon reaching 7 HD, my giant scorpion grows, gaining a +8 on Strength but also a -2 on Dexterity. By that time, it would already have the whole feat tree mentioned. But what happens when its Dexterity drops from 13 to 11? Since it no longer has the prerequisites for Dodge, would it lose all three feats? If so, would it be allowed to replace them?
It would retain the feats but lose all benefits from them until such a time as it's Dex got back to 13. I recommend buy it a belt of Dex +2.
It would technically lose the feat chain if the dex fell below 13.
However animal companions passively get str and dex bonuses as they level. You would not even need to add the first assigned ability stat to dex to give it the dodge feat.
This causes a weird effect where the companion would loose the benefits of the feat chain when you are level 8 (pet level 7), but would regain it passively when you are level 9 (pet level 8).
This could be handled a couple different ways -
Add the dex early to avoid the problem altogether.
Ask your DM to handwave the situation away for the one level
Suck it up and loose the feats for a level. RP it as 'adjusting to it's new size'
Druids can dismiss pets and spend a day to get another which allows them to get new pets which means new feat selections. Some people don't like dismissing Fido to get Fido#2 however. In your case I think it would be in especially bad taste since you have a 'blessed' pet.
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There are plenty of feats that can increase your chance to hit. If your Dexterity is much better than your Strength, Weapon Finesse can significantly augment it, but I can't imagine a dexterous scorpion.Which brings up the following question: I'm thinking of giving my new pet the following feats: dodge, mobility, spring attack.
However, it starts with a 12 dexterity, so it can't take dodge until it's had its first stat increase. Luckily, with Boon Companion, this doesn't take that long anymore.
However, upon reaching 7 HD, my giant scorpion grows, gaining a +8 on Strength but also a -2 on Dexterity. By that time, it would already have the whole feat tree mentioned. But what happens when its Dexterity drops from 13 to 11? Since it no longer has the prerequisites for Dodge, would it lose all three feats? If so, would it be allowed to replace them?
At 3 and 6th lvl and so on you'll gain a passive +1 str and dex so by the time you hit level 7 and grow large, it will have a passive +2 dex (and str). So if you put another point into it it will have 15 dex so after it grows large it will still have 13 dex and you will be good.
I just hope my GM will allow that source...It was recently republished in Animal Archive.
I'm fairly sure it's also in the Core book or APG. As he said, it's re-published.
If you dont mind having a smaller AC, you could keep him small and it will get + on his DEX and CON if I remember correctly. That would make the feat Weapon Finesse on your pet worth taking if the dex is still higher.
For those interested, my game master was kind enough to provide my neutral evil druid with a vermin companion (a giant scorpion), and to bless it with an 8 Intelligence (actually, it's just as intelligent as its human companion). :-)OK, there's a conflict here, which actually resolves in your favour.
Your animal companion has an intelligence of 8. This means he no longer needs to learn tricks. He can understand language and you can just tell him what to do. Tricks are for animals of animal intelligence, i.e. INT 1 or 2.
I just spoke to my GM and he reminded me that although the scorpion has Int 8, it is still no animal, but vermin instead, so my 7 daily rounds of speak with animals from my animal domain are useless with it.
Anyone know of a way to speak with it? The only thing I can think of right now is to spend one of its skill points on linguistics, but then, it might still take a few weeks for it to learn to speak common (could it learn common from me, or am I also prhibited of learning my own animal companion druidic?)...
I just hope my GM will allow that source...It was recently republished in Animal Archive.
I'm fairly sure it's also in the Core book or APG. As he said, it's re-published.
Did a quick search - it's not in Core, APG, UC, or UM. Not sure where else to look, bestiaries maybe?
Peet
I just spoke to my GM and he reminded me that although the scorpion has Int 8, it is still no animal, but vermin instead, so my 7 daily rounds of speak with animals from my animal domain are useless with it.
Anyone know of a way to speak with it? The only thing I can think of right now is to spend one of its skill points on linguistics, but then, it might still take a few weeks for it to learn to speak common (could it learn common from me, or am I also prhibited of learning my own animal companion druidic?)...
1. With an intelligence of 8 your companion can take Linguistics skill and learn languages. This will not grant him the ability to speak but he will understand. I don't think scorpions have vocal chords.
2. Cast ventriloquism + permanency or perhaps magic mouth + permanency on the scorpion. Presto he can speak!
;-P
Peet