Animal Companion and Druid help needed

[superfluid]

I cannot figure out how in the world to get my Druid character to be useful in our party. She has a leopard animal companion, but we can't figure out how to use it properly. She must teach her companion tricks to be useful correct? In order to have her animal companion follow through on those tricks she must make handle animal skill checks correct?

Her character is already nonviable for physical combat and has specialized spell-casting abilities. I thought the animal companion would help fill in these deficiencies, but it appears it's mostly unresponsive and weak to boot.

Am I misinterpreting something? Are animal companions effectively useless at the get-go? I'm at a loss for how to get her more involved :/

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[7heprofessor]

1. Yes, she must teach the animal companion tricks except for the "bonus tricks." Those the animal learns automatically for free. Most DMs are cool with you starting having your animal companion already know the tricks you want it to know. Otherwise you have to say, hold on guys, I'm gonna play with my cat for three months before we do anything.

2. Yes, she must use the Handle Animal skill to make her companion do something. Luckily, it's super easy. For a Druid, it's a free action to handle her animal, it's only DC 10 to make it do one of the tricks it knows and she gets a +4 bonus automatically. With one rank you'll be at +8 if your Charisma is 10 so you only fail on a one. Not too shabby.

3. You do not appear to have misinterpreted anything mechanical, but perhaps overlooked the few things I pointed out.

4. Animal companions are very powerful at the get-go, rivaling even some low-level warriors.

Now, the small cat is not the best form at level one, so I would recommend having her swap it for a big cat if possible. You could even keep it the "same animal" and just use the big cat stats. Doesn't matter if you call it a leopard, but use the tiger stats to most DMS.

Even if you can't change it, the small cat gets some good stuff at level one:
A bite that trips and an uber charge speed.

If you can spot your foe from a distance, have the leopard charge the enemy from 100 feet away and bite the big guy. If she can trip it then you have the drop on 'em. Even if you can't round two it full attacks with claw, claw, bite for mediocre damage and the enemy probably tries to chop it up. The big cat is even better because at level seven it gets pounce so it can full attack after a charge. Combine that with rake and you're dealing awesome damage.

Either way, you have prevented the enemy from targeting you which is way better than the alternative. If the kitty dies, you go get another one.

I recommend sticking to animal companions with a 2 Int though. That way, when they hit 4HD they can boost Int to 3 and take any feat they want. Also, handle animal becomes moot.

Hope that helps!

[Reynard_the_fox]

A lot of GMs just handwave the whole trick thing unless you're trying to get your AC to do something extraordinary. If you feel like those rules are holding you back, talk to your GM about them.

What level are you? As a druid with an AC, you're going to run out of spells a fair amount in the early levels. Even if you can't deal damage, as long as you have a decent armor class, picking up a weapon and using Total Defense or Aid Another while giving an ally flanking and diverting attacks can make you pretty useful. At higher levels this gets pretty dangerous, however.

Also, make sure to get your AC a set of barding. Masterwork studded leather has an armor check penalty of 0, so it doesn't matter if your AC is proficient with it. Same for Mithril Chain Shirts later on. And if you're relying on your AC to deal damage, supply some buffs - Magic Fang, Barkskin, Bull's Strength, etc. (Grab a Belt of Str for it when you can, too.) Trading out for a big cat would definitely be a good idea.