So i like many before me have found that the small to medium bear companion progression is fine and all and its cool if you want a brown bear or black bear or something, but i for one (and my new druid player) want to house rule in a medium to large progression.
i was thinking there are 2 ways i can do this, one merely change the size of the bear in the druid list and leave it as is (using the grizzly as the pint of reference for how a large bear should be and of course changing to large at lvl 7 like normal companions do)
caveat to this is that the bear when turning large would have a strength of 23 instead of 21 like the grizzly.
or option 2 size down the grizzly to medium and have it jump up to normal size at the standard level 7
caveat here is the starting bear will be a tiny bit weaker but i think a +1 to damage and to hit shouldn't be that horrible a difference
bonus thoughts: i think in the medium to large progression the bear should have a similar natural AC bonus similar to wolves in that its +2 naturally and at 7 when it sizes up gets another +2, i think the +6 of a grizzly may be a tad too high for a bear considering its combat output.
bonus thoughts 2: i also would like to give the large sized animal a couple universal monster rules, to make it more3 interesting i want to distinguish the bear as kind of a stand and fight animal compared to the cats with pounce and rake that are a charge in and take it animal. so i was thinking of giving the bear at lvl 7 rend on its claws and ferocity so even when dieing a bear is a beast and wont stop defending its place.
im looking for input on all of these thoughts so let me know which i should take and what you think about the bonus thoughts too
thanks for any help given
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Here's the version I came up with in another thread about the same topic:
Bear, Big
Starting Statistics
Size Medium; Speed 40 ft.; AC +3 natural armor; Attack bite (1d6), 2 claws (1d4); Ability Scores Str 15, Dex 13, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6; Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.
7th-Level Advancement
Size Large; AC +3 natural armor; Attack bite (1d8), 2 claws (1d6); Ability Scores Str +8, Dex –2, Con +4; Special Attacks grab (bite).
That'd be something like a grizzly or polar bear (though a polar bear should probably have a swim speed or a racial bonus to swim checks). It makes for a tanky, high-damage animal companion, but not as offensive as something like a large cat, since it doesn't have pounce or rake.
Rend is an interesting choice, and may fit better with how bears naturally behave than grab. It would increase damage output significantly, though.
I probably wouldn't give a bear ferocity by default; that's kind of the boar's only thing.
hmm, your right on the boar, maybe the monster rule that allows them to rage when they get hit? that seems a tad op though. i kinda wanted the angry bear effect but maybe rend will do fine on its own to give the bear a bit of a boost to bring it in line with the large cats.
i think i wanna just go with the down sizing of the grizly to medium, only nerf i see is the loss of 2 points of streangth over the base bear pet and really since its an odd number they can spend 1 stat point to make it in line again when the pet can take a stat point if they want. +1 isnt a huge loss really