questions about druid companion

[alkatrazshock]

alright, so my druid member chose to go with a companion, and even after reading the section over and over, I cannot figure out all the details on having an animal companion, so really, if someone could summarize but detailed what all a companion means and can do, what would be nice, questions such as, if we use a board, does it get its own pawn to move on the board? does it get its own separate initiative in combat? its a lion so would it block line of sight? what all does the lion have? like just a set of ability scores and attacks and such, or would it have things like intiative and CMD and would its AC be found the same way, all of that? what about skills? also its 2 attacks, 1 bite, and 2 claws, are those used together? or do you choose before you attack, does it suffer some sort of penalty when using 2 claws and does it get 2 attacks? etc. as you can see, I was very lost as to what it could do

[Umbranus]

It does have a separate pawn. Some groups play it with a shared initiative, some with a separate initiative.

the companion can learn tricks, later the druid can command it to use such tricks, for example Attack.
You find all the rules for animal companions here.

The lion starts out with:

Big cat wrote:

Starting Statistics

Size Medium; Speed 40 ft.; AC +1 natural armor; Attack bite (1d6), 2 claws (1d4); Ability Scores Str 13, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 10; Special Attacks rake (1d4); Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.

Modified by the 1st level column in the Table: Animal Companion Base Statistics under the link I've given.

It starts out with 2d8 hp plus con modifier, has a BAB of 0, 2 skills, 1 feat (from a special list under animal companions) and 1 trick.
The hp are not maxed for 1st level unlike PCs.

[Umbranus]

For attacks it depends. It can make a full attack action (no move action) with one bite and two claws. All at full attack bonus and with the strength bonus applied to damage (+1 at 1st level)
Or it can move and make a standard attack action. Then it has to choose which weapon to use (bite or one claw).

For armor it has 10 base +1 natural armor (listed for the big cat)+3 (dex) = 14

[Melkiador]

Umbranus wrote:

The hp are not maxed for 1st level unlike PCs.

Note that in Pathfinder Society, the rolled hp will instead be the average of the hit dice, rounded down. A d8 has an average roll of 4.5, so 2d8=9. Of course you add other sources of hp, such as con and feat, as normal for a creature of that hit die.