Thoughts on allowing a druid player to have a dinosaur (a small one?)animal companion?
Well, mechanically, they seem about par for course. Raptors are around small cat levels, pterosaurs are poor single attack flyers, and most other dinosaurs are just 'meh'.
I might be wary of ankylosaurs and allosaurs though. Allosaurs have pounce, and they have extended reach when they get large (they are bipeds, so they have 10 ft reach, unlike most other animal companions), so they get a lot fo attacks. Ankylosaurs have a tail attack with the ability to daze (that is the one where you can take no actions- can really mess up a fight against a single foe with stun locks) and it has a fairly good scaling fort DC (it starts out at about 18 DC when you get it at level 7); plus, they are the livin tanks of the dinosaurs, and have a ton of natural armor.
If you are asking from a flavor perspective (ie- "...you find a t-rex in the woods?")... well, I think random dinosaurs in the woods are about as believable as owlbears and griffons. So lets admit it- it is a fantasy world, it is easy to write off.
I'm asking more from a rules perspective, I think.
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I'm asking more from a rules perspective, I think.
Again, have you read the core rule book?
Dinosaur (Deinonychus, Velociraptor)
Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed 60 ft.; AC +1 natural armor; Attack 2 talons (1d6), bite (1d4); Ability Scores Str 11, Dex 17, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 14; Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.7th-Level Advancement: Size Medium; AC +2 natural armor; Attack 2 talons (1d8), bite (1d6), 2 claws (1d4) Ability Scores Str +4, Dex –2, Con +2; Special Attacks pounce.
It's in the Druid class description in the crb. From a rules perspective, it's allowed.
I'm asking more from a rules perspective, I think.
Well, I've listed the only two that seem like immediate concerns. If your druid wants a pet velociraptor, then I would say it has little effect balance-wise compared to the other published animal companions.
Just as a reminder, most official published animal companions can be found :here
Note that a lot of the animal companions start out and may remain smaller than their bestiary contemporaries. This often indicates that it is an animal that grows over a long period of time, and you are merely grabbing a young member of the species and rearing it up.
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I made my player who wanted one be from the Realms of the Mammoth Lords, since we were in Ustalav and that is the closest place for dinos. He faced some prejudice in the form of higher prices for goods and services. That's all. He had a spinosauraus which was pretty good since I had some underwater encounters.
Now he has a large size gorilla with feats for armor and weapons, wielding a pole arm, now THAT I find more ridiculous than a dinosaur.
Dinosaurs are allowed from a straight rules perspective. Most Dinosaurs in the bestiaries even have animal companion rules, maybe one or two don't.
It will be about your setting/game which ones you allow. Just remember to factor them in when you build encounters.
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From a setting perspective i find it easy to fluff as the druid conducted a ritual over a reptile egg, a crocodile or some such egg, that is similar to a summon spell where it imprints the form of a primordial ancestor on the egg and it hatches as a dinosaur instead. sounds druidy to me and explains away a dinosaur in your not 1400s europe.
+1 to Dino-Bros.
Unnecessary hoops to go through when dinos are not extinct on Golarion. Still, cool story.
I made my player who wanted one be from the Realms of the Mammoth Lords, since we were in Ustalav and that is the closest place for dinos. He faced some prejudice in the form of higher prices for goods and services. That's all. He had a spinosauraus which was pretty good since I had some underwater encounters.
Now he has a large size gorilla with feats for armor and weapons, wielding a pole arm, now THAT I find more ridiculous than a dinosaur.
Well, I am unsure whether that is appropriate comparison for balance. Any animal companion can get armor feats... and depending on which source you are using, animal companions don't really get to use manufactured weapons (going off the 'Monkey See, Monkey Do' FAQ)
So if the slightly crazy thing you decided to allow ended up being crazy... eh. But my sympathy and perspective on the matter might be colored by my rather conservative approach to the rules.
Well that particular guy went human and Eye for Talent to buff the Int of his pets. Allowing them access to skill points and feats regular animal companions are not. I have that faq memorized by now I think.
I was just mentioning it since you sounded like it ended up being a problem for you from the post's tone.
And the faq does still say this (edit- it is also backed up by the 'intelligent animal' section of ultimate campaign):
few animals would choose to use an artificial weapon in place of the natural weapons that have served them all their life. It's what they were born with, after all, and virtually no amount of training will change that.
So while the devs ultimately left it up to GM choice, you are perfectly justified to not allow manufactured weapons if you aren't comfortable with what it does to your game (again, it sounded like you had trouble with this). Even if the animal can take weapon proficiency feats, it doesn't mean it will use that weapon when the fight actually starts (although, as GM, one should obviously warn them not to use the feat if weapons won't work)
And even if you do feel compelled to allow weapons (because the player made an investment and you have had weapons up until this point) , it doens't mean you have to allow polearms. Again, the FAQ does allow you to go so far as to ban weapons entirely. So you could also be rather within your right to only provide a limited selection of weapons (such as clubs, and weapons that are similar to the crude tools used by lesser primates). The complete mastery of reach tactics could very well be beyond gorrillas.
Dinos are some of the coolest animal companions! Gorillas? Eh, lame (IMO). Not exotic enough.
Ankylosaur for the win! Stun those BBEGs! Seriously, my favorite. Once they have the BAB for it, get Vital Strike!
...You do all realize there's a druid class SPECIFICALLY for having dinosaur companions, right? It's called Saurian Shaman, and it's in Ultimate Magic...
by RAW the druid can have a dino as an animal companion, most of the dinos in the bestiaries have animal companion stats