Building a better Animal Companion.

[Soilent]

I have a campaign in which I wish to build the most powerful Animal Companion possible.

I am using a level 20 Hunter as the basis, and have 500,000gp to throw at it.

What can I do with this to make the most powerful pet possible?

I've started with a Tyrannosaurus, to start with.

[Threeshades]

Step 1: go back and make it a big cat instead. I'm not very good at minmaxing but big cats as far as I know are the best choice when it comes to raw power in animal companions.

[Damanta]

Switch to a Spinosaurus. You may lose the pounce from big cats, but you get the highest strength animal companion in return.

[Soilent]

I have to use the Tyrannosaurus, I can customize it, but it was already chosen.

[Mathius]

Do you have to be a hunter?

[Ellioti]

Aasimar Nature Oracle will probably win, because you Mount revelation will progress at 1.5 your character level.Just figure out the stats of a lvl 30 ac

[Cap. Darling]

Primal companion hunter if possible. Give it more armor make it huge and give it more attacks and cast animal growth on it.

[Cap. Darling]

Ellioti wrote:

Aasimar Nature Oracle will probably win, because you Mount revelation will progress at 1.5 your character level.Just figure out the stats of a lvl 30 ac

But the table only goes to 20 so this is making your own rules. Not a bad thing but then there is no reason to do find a trick.

[Threeshades]

Ellioti wrote:

Aasimar Nature Oracle will probably win, because you Mount revelation will progress at 1.5 your character level.Just figure out the stats of a lvl 30 ac

As a clarfication: the aasimar's preferred class option for oracle is adding half your level to the effect of one revelation.

Making lvl 21 through 30 ACs would be firmly within homebrewing though.

[Claxon]

Actually, they added an FAQ saying that your animal companion can only have a maximum amount of HD equal to the character's HD + 1, so the Aasimar favored class bonus isn't nearly as strong as it used to be. Also, yes the animal companion (nor anything else) scales beyond 20. There is no where to go without making up the rules yourself.

To be truthful, animal companions grow weaker and weaker the higher level you are. They are strong through level 6, useful through level 10, and then not particularly relevant without such heavy investment that your character is gimped.

You pretty much have to decide to invest at least half your WBL into your animal companion to allow them to keep up. Further the tyrannosaurus is a pretty terrible choice because it only gets one attack until it gains the Multiattack ability, which then only gives it a single iterative-ish attack with it's bite.

As you're playing a hunter you really have to focus on smart feat selection. By that I mean you need to focus on teamwork feats (that you and your animal companion automatically share) to make him stay relevant.

[Mathius]

I think that a sacred huntmaster with the chivalry inquisition grows as double level. That can be useful if you want to multi-class.

Does large AC with the large evolution become huge?
Does strong jaw stack with INA if the AC is gargantuan?

[Mathius]

Just a crazy a thought for the primal companion.

Feats: Evolved companion (pounce)
Extra evolution x2

This grants a pool of 28 points for evolutions.

10 points for huge.
12 points for 6 extra heads.
6 points for 6 bites.

Every bite does str x2 damage.

Base Str 14 +16 huge +6 AC increases = 36
Animal growth adds 8 more 42
+6 item as well for 48
+4 inherent for 52
+5 amulet
strong jaw is nice as well

So far that is a 7 bites +34 (8d6+49) That works out to 539 HP average per round and only needing a 2 to hit a standard CR 20 monster. Power attack is -4 penalty for +12 damage. Some DMs might make it +16. That is either an additionally 84 or 112 damage.

Feat wise I like to increase int to make thing more available. I might invest 3 feats into heavy armor prof since dex is low anyway. Barding will really help to increase AC.

Like many bruisers his will save will be bad. At 20th level that often means 1 spell and he out of the fight.

[Just a Guess]

Soilent wrote:

I have a campaign in which I wish to build the most powerful Animal Companion possible.

I am using a level 20 Hunter as the basis, and have 500,000gp to throw at it.

What can I do with this to make the most powerful pet possible?

I've started with a Tyrannosaurus, to start with.

Do you have feats from your pc to spend, too? If so take spirit's gift and, if you meet the prerequisites, evolved companion.

Spirit's gift can give you constant blur or DR5/adamantine.

With evolved companion you can give it pounce (if you get additional attacks through something else) or claws or other nice things.

Talons of leng can give your T-Rex claw attacks if you give it the hands slot via the extra item slot feat. They would be secondary when used with the bite but their secondary effect (insanity or confused) is nice.
If you do that find a second hand slot item and give it to the companion as a magical tattoo. For example poisoner's gloves. Best use for them is to load them with an alchemist infusion of skin send, if available. Fire sneeze can be good, too as the target can do nothing else than to sneeze fire. But again, only available as infusion because it is personal.

Give it at least 1 stat increase to int so it can take every feat. After that give it additional traits: Fate's favoured and a second one you like (if you manage to give it resistaces give it unscathed). Then buy it a luck stone.

[arcanine]

CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON DITCH THE HUNTER GO INQUISITOR!

Go to http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rwqw?APE-WITH-RANGED-WEAPON-3-ANIMAL-COMPANION S#1

Their is a space in there and I don't know why. At the end N and the S.

[Cap. Darling]

Mathius wrote:

I think that a sacred huntmaster with the chivalry inquisition grows as double level. That can be useful if you want to multi-class.

Does large AC with the large evolution become huge?
Does strong jaw stack with INA if the AC is gargantuan?

it most likely would work like the animal domain. There was a FAQ about stacking virtuel size increases.

[Kaouse]

Be an Inquisitor instead. Sacred Huntsmaster archetype. Chose the Rage Subomain. Get Ferocious Mount Rage Power. Take the Amplified Rage Feat. Win at Pathfinder.

[lemeres]

Never forget Spirit's gift. Because constant blurr or DR 5/adamantine are rather nice boosts to defense.

Anyway, forget what people say about going with big cats. If you go primal companion hunter (which is the way to go for a maxed out pet), then they can be easily be made obsolete.

Big cats are nice...but they have almost nothing that you can't replicate with evolutions. So picking animal compaions with unique abilities will give you better options.

T-rex is interesting, if you interpret its powerful bite ability applying to all bites, and then go with the hydra build above (visually, I would go with one main head, and a bunch of snake like side heads sprouting off)

Ankylosaurus is also nice with that stun ability on its tail. Just outfit it with the big cat's typical set, and you can have a pouncing terror with a nice debuff.

[Kaouse]

The best Animal Companion is either the Spinosauraus, which has blatantly the best stats AND a swim speed because why the F not, or the Roc, which can fly without you needing the undersized mount feat or whatever that the other flyer needs. Be wary of the small hit to CON though.

Still sticking with Inquisitor as best class for best Animal Companion. Access to Rage and an Animal COmpanion that shares your teamwork feats is OP. Make Fighter's cry with their wimpy attack bonuses in comparison. Well worth giving up your limited Judgement ability IMHO.

[Ughbash]

Threeshades wrote:

Making lvl 21 through 30 ACs would be firmly within homebrewing though.

Not really....

Core Rule book pg 407 wrote:

Scaling Powers: Hit dice, base attack bonuses, and saving throws continue to increase at the same rate beyond 20th level, as appropriate for the class in question. Note that no character can have more than 4 attacks based on its base attack bonus. Note also that, before long, the difference between good saving throws and poor saving throws becomes awkwardly large—the further you get

from 20th level, the more noticeable this difference grows, and for high-level characters, bolstering their poor saving throws should become increasingly important. Class abilities that have a set, increasing rate, such as a barbarian’s damage reduction, a fighter’s bonus feats and weapon training, a paladin’s smite evil, or a rogue’s sneak attack continue to progress at the appropriate rate.

Animal companions scale at a fixed rate so continuning to scale them would fit in fine for the core rules in the "Beyond 20th level" section.

[TheTheos]

Well, I'm gonna give you some building blocks for your character that might help:
-Humans can exchange 1st lvl feat for +2 to any ac stat (Eye for talent)
-Aasimars have feat "Celestial servant" - it grants celestial template to ac (DR, resists, smite once per day)
-Dhampirs and Vampires (it requires you to be evil) can have fantastic Vampiric companion - feat with the same name
-You can combine two out of these three into your build via racial heritage feat. Don't forget aasimars can count as humans via alternate racial trait.

-If you buff with items or inherent bonus your AC's charisma it can take eldrich heritage. Best options imho would be: Draconic, Abbysal, Ghoul
-Consider AC taking IUS, Ferral combat training and choosing and using one of combat styles. Some are really neat.

-Don't forget to give some armor (barding) to your AC.

-Consider taking a few lvls in prestige class Mammoth Rider to boost your AC's power.

-High INT + ring of eloquence and your ac might be able to speak.
-Feat that grant extra magic slot is useful...