Just wondering what are some ways to improve my animal companion Wolf's tripping ability. In particular I'm looking at feat selection, items and passive always on effects as opposed to buffs.
He's currently level 2 and has Improved Iron will and Light Armour proficiency.
what class are you getting a wolf companion?
3rd level take Squire which gives you a cohort that has to have martial weapon profs. Take a small sized Cavalier and let it have a wolf companion as well. The cavalier gets tactician which allows him to grant a TW feat to everyone in a 30ft radius and grants a free feat, have him take tandem trip. now every time the wolves trip they get to roll twice and take the better result. Since they get feats as well go ahead and take Coordinated Maneuvers, and Outflank as they progress.
I'm a Sylvan Sorcerer with a wolf companion
Unfortunately, an animal can't take Improved Trip, which is kinda dumb if you think about it.
Weapon Focus (bite) is the only animal feat you can use to improve your wolf trip ability.
If you are able to increase your wolf Intelligence to 3, try to pair with someone and give it Outflank to +4 flanking bonus to attack. (it could even be a free bonus from a cavalier teammate) You can also try to get Lunge and Combat reflexes to maximize the number of bite attack your wolf can make each round. An other idea his to use Furious focus :power attack with no penalties for the first attack each round.
Why can't animals take improved Trip?
Slap +1 int so they have 3 and they can take any feat they can physically preform.
because improved trip has prereq int 13
Dagnabbit, that makes sense. Silly though in my opinion, weird pre-req.