I'm going to be starting a new PFS character soon, and I was thinking of building a character focused on making my animal companion a real combat machine while my character would be built for casting.
At first I figured it was a given that this character would be a druid, but now I'm thinking a nature Oracle might be viable, I don't have the book for lunar, which would be better. It seems the trade off is a very limited animal choice for far better buffs on the spell list, do you think this trade could be worth it?
I'm currently looking at putting several of my characters feats into evolved companion. If you have any other advice on this kind of character I'd love to hear it.
Druid makes a good caster who can get an animal companion.
I know it sounds funny and not optimal at all, but you could possibly get away with it. Hunter who is speced to cast spells. Rime Snowballs, Flurry of Snowballs, and Ice Spears make good control options.
You can use Fogs and an Animal companion with Scent and blind-fight to beat down those caught in the mists.
Produce Flame, Aggressive Thundercloud/Flaming Sphere, Call Lightning is always a good spell that last for a full combat easy enough.
SADLY tho Guided is not PFS legal or you could just shore up your melee viability with that.
ANOTHER option is the sylvan Sorcerer which has access to Arcane spells and Share Spell option. This gives you the ability to choose your list and be the type of caster you want to be while letting your AC be the fighter aspect.
Look to the feat Totem Beast. Very good buff to many Animal Companions. Evolved companion is OK but since Reach and Pounce have been removed from the choices, it is not nearly as good as it once was.
Evolved Companion is not PFS legal.
Good to know,I must have missed that, thanks. Is there anything to replace it with that will make my companion better?
Evolved Companion is not PFS legal.Good to know,I must have missed that, thanks. Is there anything to replace it with that will make my companion better?
Arguably Spirit's Gift with Stone or Bones ability. DR/5 Adamantine or Blur is a strong defensive ability. The Feat was nerfed for a 1 time use for Minutes per level. So It can last a fight or two but the feat would have been better if you could spend it in minute intervals. The old Feat use to make it Permanent. Which was super strong giving a critter DR/5 Level 1 made it tankier than PCs.
So it is arguably a Decent feat.
But Totem Beast is still very viable depending on the creature taking it. Also saves you money on magic items for your companion. Give it +2 Con to give it more health while getting them a belt to boost Str. But some Companions can not wear belts. For those companions whom can not wear Stat boosting belts the feat is a god send to boost STR.
Sadly I don't have the book for totem beast either, I'll have to consider picking it up
They are different because the buffs you can put on your animal are different.
Druids get strong jaw, barkskin and animal growth.
Oracles get divine fervor/favor and righteous might.
as some examples.
Also oracles have CHA for face skills while a druid normally doesn't.
So which buffs you want to give out and what you want to do in combat can help us give advice of which would be better for you.
I want my animal companion to be my weapon, my plan is to buff my companion and let it do the fighting. So which ones do you think would be better?
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A greater number of the druid buffs can be cast out of combat. So I would give the edge to the Druid. Either should try to get heroism to cast on the AC.
Honerable mention should go the the sylvan bloodline sorcerer because a mirrored image tiger flying for h/level with encoruaging heroism on it is intensely terrifying.
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Lunar would be much better than Nature, mainly because of Cha to AC and Reflexes (which is better than AC and CMD imho) and, mainly, because of the richer animal companion list. Lunar lets you pick a the big cat animal companion, which is probably the best one you could think of, while Nature is limited to mounts.
If you want to focus on the animal companion, Druid is probably better because of the better animal companion list. However, if you go small size (Gnome/Halfling for perfect stats) and focus on a trip build, maybe Oracle with a wolf animal companion might do the job. Compared to a Druid, you will have slower spell progression, but very good buffs (Divine Favor, Barkskin, Divine Power, Righteous Might), high AC (Breastplate + Cha) and solid social skills.
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hunter/sacred huntsmaster inquisitor are the classes that I'd choose between for an animal companion focus.
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hunter/sacred huntsmaster inquisitor are the classes that I'd choose between for an animal companion focus.
Chess Pwn is right. If you want your companion to be the focus, the animal focus and shared teamwork feats give a house boost to the companion.
However, if you want to be a caster and have a companion as a backup, I'd go with sylvan sorcerer and grab boon companion.
Out of Nature Oracle or Druid, Druid will be a better choice because of what animals you can choose. Camel and Horse aren't that good for combat. If you're small a wolf is ok, but still not as good as the best druid choices.
Oracle is one of the few that can keep a Animal Companion's Hit Dice competitive to the party's.
1/6 level Favored Class Bonus to the Revelation giving the companion, Magical Enigma storyline feat, and then Huntmaster. I think you can swing all of that with a half-elf or aasimar to have a 13 HD Animal Companion by level 12 (which is the hard limit by FAQ).
That won't necessarily be more viable than Totem Beast or teamwork feats, but it is a way to go 'all in' on an Animal Companion.
If you're ok with Horses, Genie-touched Companion out of the Qadira splatbook is a solid boost. I'm a big fan.
