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As the title says. I was looking at some of the wildblooded sorcerer options and the Sylvan version of the Fey Bloodline looked interesting. Combined with the Boon Companion feat, I can get a FULL LEVEL animal companion at level 1 on a sorcerer! Thus, I have decided I may toy around with a sylvan sorcerer some day in the future and would like advice on how to build a good animal companion for them. For flavor reasons, I like the wolf, A LOT, so I'd like advice on how to build a good wolf animal companion for my sorcerer. The main thing I am looking for is advice on what feats to give the wolf(sadly, improved trip would require the wolf to have decent int, which I don't think is possible.), as well as any sorcerer/wizard list spells that I can abuse with the wolf via it's share spells feature. Anybody got any ideas for a Sylvan sorcerer and their wolf friend?
As the title says. I was looking at some of the wildblooded sorcerer options and the Sylvan version of the Fey Bloodline looked interesting. Combined with the Boon Companion feat, I can get a FULL LEVEL animal companion at level 1 on a sorcerer!
Not quite. Boon companion has a cap at your hit dice. You have druid level -3 +4 minimum 1 maximum your level so the critter will just be your level if you don't multiclass.
The main thing I am looking for is advice on what feats to give the wolf(sadly, improved trip would require the wolf to have decent int, which I don't think is possible.), as well as any sorcerer/wizard list spells that I can abuse with the wolf via it's share spells feature. Anybody got any ideas for a Sylvan sorcerer and their wolf friend?
Stupid druidsorcerer tricks:
If you're human (which is almost a given for the extra spells ability) you can swap out your extra human feat for eye for talent, and up the critters strength by 2.
For share spells, the spell you want is enlarge person. More strength, bigger bite, harder bite, better trip. Since you're a single attribute caster, one thing you can do is set your con to absurd levels and use shield animal companion to take half of your critters damage.
Get studded leather armor barding after your first adventure, if not with your starting cash. Once the critter advances to large invest in mithral chain shirt barding. He's not proficient, so he takes the armor check penalty on a lot of rolls. The armor check penalty is... zero. You can also do this with mithal Kiko barding, or if you want to go REAALY nuts medium breastplate with the comfort ability.
Start off with attack attack (you need it twice to go after unnatural critters.. and there are a lot of them), defend, down, guard,heel and seek. Up his int to 3 with the first stat boost you get. There';s a lot of interesting tricks in the animal archive, and the more tricks you have the better.
For feats (based on his hit dice):
1st: Toughness. He's a front line fighter with d8 hp, and will have fewer HP when he levels up. Every point counts.
3rd: weapon focus bite. He hits things. Hitting things is good. Also helps his trip.
5th: Narrow frame from the animal archive: lets a creature squeeze without attack penalties.
7th: improved natural attack. More dice= more damage. This is the earliest you can take this because of the +5 BAB requirement.
9th: Vital strike
Your puppy can use the following slots
Armor, belt (saddle), chest, eyes, headband, neck, shoulders, wrist
Not sure that Dodge is worth it. If you're worried about his AC, cast Mage Armour on him. Or get him Light Armour proficiency and a chain shirt. But otherwise, you might be better off with Improved Natural Armour than Dodge. INA is better when flat-footed, Dodge better against touch attacks. Take your pick.
I wouldn't bother with Cleave. By the time you get it most of your opponents will be too big to cleave or trip.
I'd take Furious Focus before Imp Nat Attack (in fact, before Weapon Focus). At 8th level a wolf is Large so has a 1d8 bite. INA makes that 2d6 (=+2.5 damage) but FF is +2 to hit (you are using PA for +6 damage, of course) which is needed for a worse-than-medium-BAB creature and benefits the trip chance too.
[EDIT: just realised that you can use Enlarge Person, so the bite damage is more. Not sure that changes my argument much, except that you definitely want real armour]
Iron Will is good because wolfie has bad Will saves, which will be a nuisance. Lightning Reflexes is generally a mediocre feat, but you have Evasion so it would be a shame to waste it. And no combatant ever went badly wrong with Weapon Focus, given a free slot.
So:
1 Light Weapon Prof
2 Power Attack
5 Furious Focus
8 Imp Natural Attack
10 Vital Strike
13 Iron Will or Lightning Reflexes or Weapon Focus
16 Iron Will or Lightning Reflexes or Weapon Focus
18 Imp Vital Strike
You can't use Enlarge Person on wolfie, even with Anthropomorphic Animal
Share Spells: The wizard may cast a spell with a target of “You” on his familiar (as a touch spell) instead of on himself.A wizard may cast spells on his familiar even if the spells do not normally affect creatures of the familiar's type (magical beast).
The "awaken" spell does interesting things to your animal companion, although a druid spell and a tricky one. Find a way to cast it on it (i think you need to be the one casting it) and there goes the "int" problem. Many more problems might emerge, since it is no longer an animal companion, but I advice you to read the whole description of the spell in order to see where i am getting at. Beware!
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Ok, thanks for the tips everybody! They have been very helpful. I have another concern, though, thats related more to the sorc then the wolf. While UMD can allow me to use cure wands to heal wolfy eventually, at low level I have no way to heal my companion. Thus, I am wondering, would it be useful to take ranks in the heal skill and possibly get it as a class skill via traits to keep wolfy alive at low levels? If so, how much should I invest in the heal skill? If not, how can I keep my companion from dying until UMD kicks in and allows me to use wands of cure X wounds? Since I am thinking about making this a PF society character I have no guarantee the party(ies) he will play in will have a character with healing abilities, so I can't really count on having somebody else to heal wolfy at low levels. Thus, do you all think I should invest some in heal and, if not, have ideas on how to get wolfy patched up before UMD cure X wands kick in?
how many of your own feats are you willing to sacrifice for your pet?
Taking a teamwork feat or two can be pretty handy. Escape Route for example would give you some nice mobility
Dodge is a filler, Toughness is going to be better in the long run, Dodge has a bigger value at low lvls. Light Armor proficiency is actualy worse than Dodge, because a master work studded leather has 0 ACP which menas that can be worn withour proficiency. Chain shirt is the ebst thing that proficisncy buys you and it is only a +1 AC increase. Tha fact that DOdge applies to touch AC too makes it a better investment.
Furious Focus is actually illegal and cannot be obtained. Narrow frame and Iron Will are great canditates for the feat slot.
Why Furious Focus is illegal?
Why Furious Focus is illegal?Dodge is a filler, Toughness is going to be better in the long run, Dodge has a bigger value at low lvls. Light Armor proficiency is actualy worse than Dodge, because a master work studded leather has 0 ACP which menas that can be worn withour proficiency. Chain shirt is the ebst thing that proficisncy buys you and it is only a +1 AC increase. Tha fact that DOdge applies to touch AC too makes it a better investment.
Furious Focus is actually illegal and cannot be obtained. Narrow frame and Iron Will are great canditates for the feat slot.
Prerequisites: Str 13, Power Attack, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: [b]When you are wielding a two-handed weapon or a one-handed weapon with two hands[b], and using the Power Attack feat, you do not suffer Power Attack’s penalty on melee attack rolls on the first attack you make each turn. You still suffer the penalty on any additional attacks, including attacks of opportunity.
Natural attacks are nor two-handed neither one-handed weapons.
Ah, i thought it had to do with the prerequisites.
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I know it's not a sorceror, but if you are really keen for a powerful wolf companion, have a look at a nature oracle halfling or gnome. They get a full progression wolf with int 6 base, can take the animal friend revelation to give the companion your charisma to all saves, they have some great buff spells that they can lay down on the companion, and can more easily heal the companion after fights.
True about FF, especially for PFS. A lot of people houserule it to include all melee attacks (why not? it's a lot less powerful for 1H than 2H) but PFS has to be RAW.
You can heal hp with the Heal skill (Treat Deadly Wounds) but it's really slow, expensive and inefficient, especially as it's not a class skill and Wisdom is not a good stat for you. Don't bother.
As I understand it, the usual protocol for healing in PFS is to carry a couple of potions and/or a wand of CLW and hope that there will be someone who can use the wand. Otherwise get a wand of Infernal Healing, though the price for that is unclear.
UMD is OK as a last resort, but unless you have more Int than the average sorcerer, you'll never be great at it. You'll also need to spend points on KA, Spellcraft and Handle Animal, plus a few luxuries like Intimidate, Perception and Fly. A single point gets you about +7 at 1st level so you need to roll only 13 to work the wand, and you can probably retry a few times. So it might be OK, but certainly not reliable.
Great thread!
I really love the wolf (almost as much as bears, but don't get me started on the lack of large bears) but can never get to a build I am happy with that makes them comparable to the stock standard cat offerings.
I am watching with great interest! :)
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UMD is not int-based, it's cha-based and thus, as far as I know, Int has no bearing on UMD. As for the Oracle, I like that idea, except that I am terribly racist against gnomes and only a bit less racist against halflings(Hey, at least I admit it.) It's mostly the -looks- of said races I don't like, but the Oracle idea won't work as a result of that. Anyway...low-level healing for the companion is still an issue, and a big one. I MAY forget running this character in PF society and instead make another one and use this idea for a game where I know there will be at least 1 healer in the party...would that be a better idea?
EDIT: Oracle, in this case, would actually be better then sorc and Halfling or gnome is actually -NOT-required. The Lunar Mystery is 100% PF society legal and gives you an animal companion as a druid of your Oracle level from a small list which includes the wolf. The Lunar Oracle gets cure spells and can use cure X wounds wands, so low-level healing for wolfie is a non-issue. Using the Lunar Oracle also gives me the cleric list, which is a good list for buffs. Lunar mystery is seemingly focused on both buffs and debuffs spell-list wise, and has some very good revilations(such as Cha to AC in the same vein as nature.). So Lunar Oracle looks like a better option for a non-druid fullcaster with Wolfy for PF society at least.
Good point(s) XMorsx
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Wolf is comparable to the small cat for the first 6 lvls and becomes way better from the 7th lvl and onwards. The big cat is stronger indeed, but then again it is only available to druids and beastmaster rangers, which means that it is not a direct competitor.
Tiger (big cat) is also an option for the Lunar Oracle, which is a nice addition indeed, and big cats are also available for the Sylvan sorcerer.
UMD is not int-based, it's cha-based and thus, as far as I know, Int has no bearing on UMD.
A sorcerer has a grand total of 2 skill points per level, and Int is not a high priority (maybe 4th, probably 5th). Any sane human would use his favoured class bonus for extra spells or in this case to improve his wolfy (rather than skills), and the other races get no extra skill point. So you're probably looking at 3 skill points per level, tops. Which means that after this sorcerer has paid for Knowledge-Arcana, Spellcraft, Handle Animal and a face skill, plus any luxuries like Perception, Ride and Fly, there's not a lot left for UMD. Understand?
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Yeah, but I'm not using sorcerer now anyway. I've decided Lunar Oracle would be better for multiple reasons that you can find in my other thread "Wolfy's best friend" which is all about building the Oracle side of the Oracle + Wolf team. I would appreciate if you looked at that thread, since I want more input. This thread has mostly been about building the wolf companion and thus I've decided to make a separate thread for building the Oracle.
Don't forget that weapon focus (bite) would benefit the wolf's trip roll! He is using his bite as the weapon to trip someone, so enhancement bonuses to bite (from magic fang) and attack bonuses from other effects (inspire courage, bless, heroism, weapon focus) would all make the trip better too.