The Non-Cat or Dinosaur Companion Repair Project

[Marco Polaris]

Just a Guess wrote:

The Problem I see with an AC that has a dangerous poison is that it will, most likely, result in someone in the party buying a chalice of poison weeping to gather the poison and use it on his weapons.

Not to say the poison shouldn't be buffed, just as a warning against abuse.

Wait... is it against RAW to milk a venom gland for poison?

As for the companion stats themselves, I understand why you made them Dex-based mechanically, but it seems kind of strange to me in terms of fluff. Constitution is the de facto ability score for effects that rely on body chemistry more than force or agility. But animal companions don't gain a scaling bonus to Constitution like they do Dexterity, so the poison wouldn't stay competitive, and a racial bonus that increases only once, at Level Advancement, feels clunky for progression. I'm not sure how to scratch this itch.

[Just a Guess]

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

There's not much you can do about that. It's not a great gathering means, though. You still have to take the damage at least once before the chalice can be used. Who's gonna volunteer to take 1d3 Con damage for the team?

A random rat/bunny you carry in a familiar satchel?

Marco Polaris wrote:

Just a Guess wrote:

The Problem I see with an AC that has a dangerous poison is that it will, most likely, result in someone in the party buying a chalice of poison weeping to gather the poison and use it on his weapons.

Not to say the poison shouldn't be buffed, just as a warning against abuse.

Wait... is it against RAW to milk a venom gland for poison?

There is not RAW on about how to do it. So it is GM fiat whether you can do it and how it works.

[Kobold Catgirl]

Actually, animal companions get scaling bonuses to Strength and Dexterity, which is part of the reason Constitution gets snubbed.

shadowkras wrote:

Quote:

Large Bear Progression Ability Scores Str +8

+8? Isn't that too much?

A grizzly bear is large and has 21 STR, that one would have 25 STR before any animal companion bonuses.

EDIT

On the other hand, that matches the polar bear's stats.

Indeed. And like I said, I'm not at all afraid to make an animal companion exceed the original creature.

Also, +8 is the standard increase for Large size. Everyone but the default constrictor gets it.

[Ethereal Gears]

I feel like the viper's poison DC should be boosted in some other manner than by basing it on Dex. I mean...how does a Dex-based DC make sense, thematically? I would just base it on Con and then have it increase as the viper gains HD. Just my 2cp on that. I think it would be really cool if the viper could make a single bite attack as a full-round action and inject a number of poison doses equal to its Con mod or something if the bite hits. If that's too powerful, it could be usable once every 1d4 rounds or something.

[Azothath]

8 yrs... hmm...
lol... while I agree that the animal familiars are a bit of a mess there are two core design issues;
1) Familiars are your little buddies that help scouting and give you a pet
2) they are occasionally useful for combat, crafting, skill checks but this is not their focus or use.

from
"A familiar is a magical pet that enhances the wizard's skills and senses and can aid him in magic ..." and
"A familiar is an animal chosen by a spellcaster to aid him in his study of magic. It retains the appearance, Hit Dice, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, skills, and feats of the normal animal it once was, but is now a magical beast for the purpose of effects that depend on its type. Only a normal, unmodified animal may become a familiar. An animal companion cannot also function as a familiar."
Familiar details and scaling with level

There are differeing approaches;
1) use existing monster descriptions.
2) creative top down model
use existing monsters & familiars and try to create a monster description that represents the animal and meets the pet criteria as familiars may be more/less powerful than the standard description.
3) systemic model using some math
choose a standard set of ability scores and attacks then modify it slightly for MIBS/forms so you cover all the animal forms & movement types keeping them statistically within a few points ability point buy, attacks with 1pt average damage per round vs AC10, etc. There is the monster/race creation system using points which helps scale the various abilities.

Then provide some reasonable scaling with level so they don't die in mid to high level combat from colatteral damage.

[Warped Savant]

One of my players, in Reign of Winter, decided he wanted to play a ranger with a giant weasel as an animal companion that specialized at grappling.
That beast could take nearly any enemy out of the fight and it was fantastic!