Non-typical Animal Companion

[Varent]

The Ranger in my group has just hit level four and he has decided that he wants a chameleon for his companion.

The only stats i can find is for a Giant Chameleon (CR3-i think) and that would be a bit much for a fresh companion. Later, i don't mind it growing into a Giant Chameleon but it needs to be a much smaller, younger one to begin with.

I figured i could use some of the general stats behind the Giant one and change things like size and lower stats per level, but I'm not sure how well balancing it would work, and it could be that the stats exist and I've just managed to completely miss them.

Help is appreciated.

[Dafydd]

First off, when you pick an Animal Companion, you do not just pick an animal from the beastiary. There is a specific list (and stats for each) of animals you may pick up with the class feature.

Good News, Giant Chameleon is one of them.
Bad News, you are a ranger, and thus might not be able to select one of them.

Technically, the list of companions a ranger may select is in the CRB and has not been updated with the additional options from the beastiarys. That said, it is hardly game breaking for the GM to allows them. (The Roc description even talks about rangers taking them as pets)

The Chameleon stats are:

Chameleon, Giant

Starting Statistics

Size Medium; Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.; Attack bite (1d6); Ability Scores Str 12, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 11, Cha 7; Special Qualities +10 Stealth when still, low-light vision.

Plus what it gains from being an animal companion (HD, STR/DEX boost, Nat AC Boost, bonus tricks etc)

AT 4th (in ranger's case 7th) it gains the following:

4th-Level Advancement

Size Large; Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft.; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite (1d8); Ability Scores Str +4, Dex –2, Con +2; Special Attacks pull (tongue, 5 ft.), tongue.

Tongue (Ex)

A giant chameleon can grab a foe with its tongue and draw the victim to its mouth. This tongue attack has a reach of 15 feet. The attack does no damage, but allows the creature to grab. A giant chameleon does not gain the grappled condition while using its tongue in this manner.

[Varent]

Solved.

[Markov Spiked Chain]

Wow, Giant Chameleon is actually a pretty good AC.

Large at 4th, 10' reach for a mount-worthy quadraped, 15' reach for the tongue.

15' of AoO coverage with a pretty solid grapple check, not getting grappled yourself, and no dead zone is a lot of control.

[Varent]

So, for some reason when i said solved i didn't see your earlier post. Sorry about that, i didn't want it being from the set list so my players had more variety. I ended up taking the Giant Chameleon stats and changing them to a small one.

Thanks for the help but i probably should have been more specific on what i was doing.