I could be totally off on this so someone please set me straight. If i understand the druid animal companion table, the column with "skills" displays the total skill rank points that the companion has at that level.
Assuming this is correct then a 10th level companion has 9 skill points to disperse? I have to be misunderstanding this, because under the beastiary regular animals are listed as having these traits:
An animal has the following features (unless otherwise noted).
d8 Hit Die.
Base attack bonus equal to 3/4 total Hit Dice (medium progression).
Good Fortitude and Reflex saves.
Skill points equal to 2 + Int modifier (minimum 1) per Hit Die. The following are class skills for animals: Acrobatics, Climb, Fly, Perception, Stealth, and Swim.
this would give a regular animal running around in the world 2x as many skill ranks as a druid's companion.
i know i've gotta be wrong about this, but could someone give me a point in the right direction?
Because they barely have an intelligence score. That is part of the very in game definition of an animal: a creature with 1-2 int (so it has a -4 to -5 to skill ranks). There is more to the definition, but this is the relevant part.
ah yes i knew it would be something obvious; however, that means the regular animals still get one more point than companions. well i guess i don't feel quite as bad about the companions, but they don't seem to be worth it.
thanks for the feedback.
Nefreet is right: it has nothing to do with the negative intelligence, as everything gets at least one skill point per HD, and everything to do with animal companions having only 9 HD when the Druid is level 10.