My PFS gnome cavalier just hit level 4, appart from the breath of fresh air at finally having 16 strength (putting him at 16-12-16-12-10-9), I'm ditching the wolf (because it decided to grow from medium to large for absolutely no reason) and grabbing a boar.
Now from what I understand, (since I didn't really do the wolf in the earlier levels) I take the boar's stats as is from the bestiary, and slap on the upgrade given to an AC for a level 4 druid? And then I give it +1 to it's stats for being *lvl 4* ?
Well perhaps, but still, a boar goes from small to medium, it's better this way then medium to large. And they don't have to grow? I mean, from a druid, growing to unnatural sizes is ok, all with the magics of nature and stuff, but for a cavalier, that's wierd.
Correct, you can choose for your critter to not grow.
Instead of taking the listed benefit at 4th or 7th level, you can instead choose to increase the companion's Dexterity and Constitution by 2.
By and large that's a lot weaker than the normal gains (especially for a wolf!), but you can take it if you need to keep your critter a manageable size.
Anyways, you'd take the boar animal companion stats listed here and advance from there.
But the boar is already small, so I'd get a medium one at level 4? The stats there are lacking in a lot of things, mainly skills and feats and such.