Fighter and animal companion

[Ciaran Barnes]

What class feature or features would a fighter have to surrender in order to gain an animal companion? Would the armor training class features do it?

[boring7]

3rd party splatbook already did the Bonded Pet which replaces either armor training or weapon training.

Or you get Leadership and pick up a cohort and give it class levels at appropriate intervals.

[Elghinn Lightbringer]

And yet, you have paladins that get full mounts at 5th (plus spells), rangers that get them at 4th but at level -3, and cavaliers at full power (no share spells of course) at 1st.

I think if you swapped bravery plus the 1st level and 20th level bonus feats (so there are no dead levels) you could get a cavalier's mount at 1st. Or swap bravery + 4th and 20th level bonus feats and gain it at fourth, still full cavalier's mount.

Mounts don't seem to be huge swaps from what I've read in various archetypes. I think that would be pretty balanced. Might even need to go level -3 if its too powerful, but I don't think it will be.

[Malwing]

A Player Companion gives an animal companion in two feats. Full companion with boon companion so three feats I guess.

[Arachnofiend]

Bravery. The animal companion is gonna be better than anything the Fighter can give up for it so you might as well give it for free.

...But as Malwing said, this technically already exists with the Nature's Ally feat, though it's a General Feat so you're not really using your class features to pick it up. Eldritch Heritage: Sylvan is also an option if you're willing to bend the rules a bit (and have charisma as a Fighter for some reason).

[Barathos]

Nature Soul -> Animal Ally -> Boon Companion

DONE.

[blahpers]

Faiths & Philosophies provides the feat progression:

Nature Soul (small perk, feat tax)
Animal Ally (animal companion, restricted list, reduced effective druid level)
Boon Companion (from an old supplement; boost EDL back up)

There's no real way to get the full range of animal companions this way; but horse, badger, and wolf are on the list, or bird if you're looking for something more utilitarian instead of a mount or murder machine. You might want to invest in boosts to the Handle Animal skill; fighters don't get a lot of skill points, and they aren't known for great Charisma.

Edit: Oh yeah, this is the homebrew forum. I find fighters fairly modular in their swaps. Trading any two of: bravery, weapon training I, armor training I, and one or more bonus feats should suffice for a reduced-level companion; Boon Companion can raise it back up to full. Smooth out the progression so that there aren't any dead levels.