Best Animal Companion for a 7th Level Lunar Oracle?

[Oracle of Sunder]

The Campaign starts at Lvl 7. My character will be a gnome Lunar Oracle with the Blackened Curse. I plan on casting fire spells while my AC melee attacks.

I dont know what the party makeup will be yet, nor do i know what the GM plans to throw at us.

Im looking at the Bear, tiger or wolf, but I am still open to other Ideas. Im limited by the Lunar Oracle Companion List, and don't know if i'll be able to talk the GM into expanding it.

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

Also im looking at the Gnome Oracle Favored class bonus... Is it worth it to lose out on 7+ skills/HP to get Wall of fire 3 levels early?

Thanks again.

[Remy Balster]

How set are you on Gnome?

Aasimar or Elf FCB are... better.

Either way, the Tiger is the strongest choice you have. At 7th, no matter what race you pick, a Tiger would be Large, and have pounce. So... it'd be really wickedly fierce in combat.

Remember! You can buff him with your tasty cleric/oracle self-only buff spells!

[Rerednaw]

Remy Balster wrote:

How set are you on Gnome?

Aasimar or Elf FCB are... better.

Either way, the Tiger is the strongest choice...

W. Blake wrote:

Tiger, tiger burning bright!

Tiger is generally considered to be the best in terms of features with regards to its combat prowess.

Wall of fire 3 levels early? Pretty nice. Do you plan on using it every combat, every day?

Compare to a 7th level Aasimar Oracle who has a 10th level animal companion all the time (2 extra HD, Multiattack, ability score increase, BAB progression, etc.)

By 12th level, the AC for the Aasimar is 18th. It caps at 20th level but that just means you spend your 13-20 bonus on something else. :)

And if you prefer a small race...Aasimar (and tieflings for that matter) have small variants. Same stats, small size. (found in sidebar in Blood of Angels and Blood of Fiends splatbooks)

[Protoman]

Remy Balster wrote:

How set are you on Gnome?

Aasimar or Elf FCB are... better.

Either way, the Tiger is the strongest choice you have. At 7th, no matter what race you pick, a Tiger would be Large, and have pounce. So... it'd be really wickedly fierce in combat.

Remember! You can buff him with your tasty cleric/oracle self-only buff spells!

Or look at half-elf. They count as elf for favored class benefit too, and the half-elf or human's favored class benefit of extra spell known is also pretty sweet for spontaneous casters.

[Oracle of Sunder]

Rerednaw wrote:

Remy Balster wrote:

How set are you on Gnome?

Aasimar or Elf FCB are... better.

Either way, the Tiger is the strongest choice...

W. Blake wrote:

Tiger, tiger burning bright!

...

And if you prefer a small race...Aasimar (and tieflings for that matter) have small variants. Same stats, small size. (found in sidebar in Blood of Angels and Blood of Fiends splatbooks)

Well I already have a Half-Elf Oracle, and I have a Aasimar Paladin (both built on str/dmg), but I don't have any small characters, so I figured I'd build around a small character who didn't have to worry about his strength score because he cast Blasty spells and had an Animal Comp to soak for him...

That small Aasimar looks really good though..I'll have to see which benefit I want more...

But there is no benefit where the Bear or Wolf out shine the Tiger past level 7?

[Rerednaw]

Oracle of Sunder wrote:

...

That small Aasimar looks really good though..I'll have to see which benefit I want more...

But there is no benefit where the Bear or Wolf out shine the Tiger past level 7?

Side by side advanced, not including ability adds from levels:

==============================================================
All: low-light, scent
Bear:
Medium, Bite 1d6, Clawsx2 1d4 Spd 40 Str 19 Dex 13 AC +2 NA
Woof:
Large, Bite 1d8 Spd 50 Str 21, Dex 13 AC +4 NA
Special atk Trip

Kitty(big):
Large, Bite 1d8, Clawsx2 1d6, Str 21, Dex 15 AC +3 NA
Special atk Grab, Pounce, Rake.

Kitty has the most attacks for the highest damage, ties for the highest AC, has a higher dex (and therefore init and reflex save), has an extra attack (rake), can grab and has one of the holy grails of multiattacking, pounce.

The wolf trip is nice at low levels, but CMD scales drastically plus Trip is one of the most countered by other monsters from other abilities.

Pretty much kitty is the king of the jungle.