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So, I feel like it is about an even trade off. Especially if it
1) fits the character (say, he wouldn't have an animal companion, but would have some nifty little powers)
and 2) if you get a domain with a summons.
I was just curious as to the forums opinions on it, and if their are any other Ideas on a good way to trade out the animal companion without going the "I teach/tell my friends where to hit that one guy at to hurt it more" :3
also, on a slightly different subject, What do you think the better Favored enemy to put the additional +2 in is for a horror/vampire/demon driven game.
undead or evil outsider?
It's probably the best archetype that trades out the animal companion. You have some nice options in the blessings. If you really wanted to you could take one of the alignment blessings and summon creatures as a replacement for your animal companion anyway.
Keep in mind that a ranger’s animal companion is a lot weaker than a druid’s. Not only are they 3 level behind, but they have a limited list to choose from. For the most part the blessings are going to be stronger than the animal companion. You can of course use archetypes and boon companion to boost the effectiveness of your animal companion, but that means you are weaker in other areas.
In some campaigns the blessing will be incredibly strong. I am running an undead heavy campaign and the ranger is a divine tracker with both good and sun domains. The party is only 5th level so the ranger only gets the 1st blessing. When the ranger has time to prepare it is absolutely devastating against any undead. Combining gravity bow with holy strike gives a base weapon damage of 3d6. Add in rapid shot and favored enemy and you are looking at some serious damage.
I'd say it's definitely worth while if you can pick up a useful EWP or want to get IUS for free.
Also consider that not having an animal companion basically frees up your level 5 feat slot which otherwise would be reserved for boon companion. It also saves you from having to invest in handle animal or not dumping charisma.
Also there are some very strong blessings (destruction for TWF, luck for anyone). Summoning blessings seem meh as that won't come online till level 13.
That being said I think a well built ranger AC team will likely always outperform a divine tracker (at least before level 13 when you have access to quickened blessings).
I would like to add that at higher levels (10+), even with boon companion and full druid companion access that they just don't keep up. At low levels animal companions can be very strong combat contributors. However, as level increases their BAB does not increase quickly enough and unless you start putting a lot of your WBL into equipping them they will fall behind offensively at these levels. So honestly, at level 10+ I don't think they're much help at all. The only exception being for ranger archers who can use their animal companion as a mount. Mounted archery is awesome.
As a little math, lets look at one example. I don't know which animal companion has the best strength, but I know the Roc is one of the better animal companions in general (and not even on the ranger list). At 10th druid level a roc has 12 base strength, +8 bonus from it's 7th level increase, and a +3 bonus from druid levels. From the stat bonus it gets from level again lets assume strength and so it has a 24/25 strength giving a +7 bonus from strength. BAB is 6. So your animal companion has only a +13 to hit. Average AC of a CR 10 enemy is 24. You have 45% chance to hit. And as a CR character, you shouldn't be fighting anything weaker. Against a CR 14 (boss) you're looking at an AC of 29, which gives only a 20% chance to hit.
To wit; animal companion do not scale well into higher levels.
So, if you're looking more at the middle or end game, the animal companion doesn't contribute as much to a character's strength. Unless you're focus on a mounted archery or lance combat, you're probably not losing much later on. However, do keep in mind animal companions can be very powerful early in the game when many natural attacks and not much ability to hit aren't a problem because no one has much ability to hit and the die roll represent the majority of your chance to succeed.
The mere fact that animal companions allow you to get teamwork feats and profit from them is already worth a lot. And with a good teamwork set up they will contribute well even beyond level 10.
Travel and destruction sounds like a good choice of domains.
The teamwork feats work better on classes that get to grant them to their animal companions for free. They can be strong, but I'm not sure the team work feats really save them. It's more that the team work feats can be very useful to you.
If your build doesn't allow for picking up Team Work feats, then it isn't particularly helpful to have your companion have them. TWF and Archery are two such things, that just don't have many open feat slots which are also two things that Rangers are typically the best at (along with Slayers) because of their extra bonus feats and ability to pick the feats up before other classes normally could.