For PFS Hunter, I had a question about creating the Animal Companion and its base Hit Points.
It begins play with 2 Hit Dice, but how many HPs does it get for each HD, and which "dice" am I using? D8 for HPs, d10?
Thanks!
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Animal companions get 4.5 HP/hit dice round down.
So , 9 hp for 2 hd. When you go up to three, add another 4. When you get up to four HD, add 5. You add four HP on odd HD, and five on even.
You also add in the animal's con bonus, toughness, and other goodies.
For yet more information on animal companions in PFS, check out:
Druid's Log: Animal Companions
Hmm
The information is all under the druid class entry for animal companions.
But for reference, it's d8's and I believe for PFS you assume average dice rolls for animal companions, but you should double check that as I am not a PFS player.
Animal companions traditionally have the Animal type, which uses d8s, per the Beastiary Glossary on Monster Types. Technically, there is no rule anywhere in the books supporting Hmm's claim for causal games. (EDIT: Though there is such a rule in PFS organized play). It's up to your GM to decide whether you should roll for them, get max at 1st hit dice, get a set amount each level, or whatever--just as he would for the PCs themselves.
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Animal companions traditionally have the Animal type, which uses d8s, per the Beastiary Glossary on Monster Types. Technically, there is no rule anywhere supporting that Hmm's claim. It's up to your GM to decide whether you should roll for them, get max at 1st hit dice, get a set amount each level, or whatever--just as he would for the PCs themselves.
Krell mentioned that this was for PFS, which has some really specific rules for all of this.
Hmm
Thanks All!
Hmm, its for my son in a game that I am going to try to GM for he and a few of his friends. He's playing a halfling and wants a great big kitty! Specifically he wants a lion. He gave it Light Armor Proficiency as its first feat and bought it some leather armor.
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Krell --
I don't believe you need light armor proficiency feat for the AC so long as the armor check is zero. So light leather, masterwork studded, and mithril chain shirt barding all could likely be done without the light armor proficiency feat.
I like big cats. I have a tiger!
Will your son's halfling be riding the lion?
Other great feats: toughness, combat reflexes.
Has he picked out its tricks yet? They start our with 7 tricks, and come completely trained. Remember that his lion will want to take attack twice, and that down and heel are really important. If you have animal archive, I'd add flank to the list so that the beast does not get in the way of other melee.
Hmm
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Krell --
I don't believe you need light armor proficiency feat for the AC so long as the armor check is zero. So light leather, masterwork studded, and mithril chain shirt barding all could likely be done without the light armor proficiency feat.
I like big cats. I have a tiger!
Will your son's halfling be riding the lion?
Other great feats: toughness, combat reflexes.
Hmm
To expand on this slightly. If you (or your pet, as the case may be) are not proficient with armor, the only extra penalty that does is when you're wearing that armor, its Armor Check Penalty also applies to attack rolls. If the armor doesn't have an armor check penalty, then there is absolutely no penalty to apply to someone that isn't proficient with that type of armor.
'absolutely no' as in attack or skill rolls. Obviously there's still encumbrance and weight and the like to worry about.
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Thanks for clarifying, Claude!
Basically, I'd spend the precious feat on something else for the lion.
Oh, and be sure to put a skill point into perception for the animal companion. Big cats have good wis. A single skill point give them a really good perception, which you can use for tracking as well as finding invisible foes.
Hmm
WOnderful advice.
So his cat looks like this:
Skills: Acrobatics, Stealth (he wanted sneaky)
Feat: Toughness
Tricks: Attack, Attack, Defend, Come, Down, Guard, Flank
Wearing Leather armor.
He will most likely not be riding his cat during combat, but will ride him around until combat begins. He wants to be an archer who sends his lion into melee. His party composition will be very interesting, assuming everyone shows up regularly. Paladin (melee/tank), Rogue, Druid (feral build), 2 Hunters (both Archers), and a Wizard. The healing will be very sporadic as they will have a couple Cure Light Wounds spells until someone gets a wand.
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With 3 divine casters it shouldn't be that hard :)
Also, a small correction on calculating the hitpoints for an animal companion in PFS.
Every level you recalculate. It basically boils down to what Hmm said about every odd hitdice adding a 4 and every even hitdice adding a 5, but that's the way the PFS FAQ has it noted. See here