Need Advice for Hunter Animal Companion

[Oompa Loompa]

Hey folks. I need some help with choosing the right animal companion for a ranged hunter (Primal Companion). I've been playing around with the following ideas:

-Roc
-Tyrannosaurus
-Allosaurus
-Warcat

I've asked my DM and they're all allowed. I understand that they all have different roles to play, so I was wondering if I could get some advice on the benefits of each, and maybe also a role description for each. If it helps, I've picked up Eye for Talent and I'm going to add that +2 to the companion's intelligence score. I'll also pick up light armor proficiency for the first feat. Our party make up is an oracle (picking up an animal companion as well), a magus, and a fighter.

Thank you for your help in advance! If you guys need any other information, I can happily provide it.

[SanderJK]

There are 3 basic ways to take advantage of a hunter:

- Ride your animal companion as a mount, either as an archer or a charge build. To do this at level 1 you usually have to play a small race.
- Have it be your melee buddy
- Have it be your screen while you're an archer

Roc: Amazing for Flying on, especially as an Archer. If you are outside. Inside dungeons, it's going to be a lot of effort to deal with flight paths, Fly skill checks. It has high armor class and 3 attacks, so it will do well at lower levels attacking enemies and surviving.

Tyranossaurus - level 1-6, these aren't amazing. But Powerful Bite is strong, at level 7 it will lay down some pain. Still, in pure damage pounce/rake is usually better:

Allosaurus/Warcat - The Warcat wins slightly because of the rake, but they're very close. Amazing for riding on as a small creature. Once they hit level 7 they hurt a ton

On my own hunter I chose to use Eye for Talent for extra strength, because getting animal companions to hit at low levels can be a struggle. Then I used the 4HD stat increase to give them 3 int, at which point they qualify for most feats/morale buffs.

A flank buddy build works out way better with a reach weapon, I found.

[Oompa Loompa]

SanderJK wrote:

There are 3 basic ways to take advantage of a hunter:

- Ride your animal companion as a mount, either as an archer or a charge build. To do this at level 1 you usually have to play a small race.
- Have it be your melee buddy
- Have it be your screen while you're an archer

Roc: Amazing for Flying on, especially as an Archer. If you are outside. Inside dungeons, it's going to be a lot of effort to deal with flight paths, Fly skill checks. It has high armor class and 3 attacks, so it will do well at lower levels attacking enemies and surviving.

Tyranossaurus - level 1-6, these aren't amazing. But Powerful Bite is strong, at level 7 it will lay down some pain. Still, in pure damage pounce/rake is usually better:

Allosaurus/Warcat - The Warcat wins slightly because of the rake, but they're very close. Amazing for riding on as a small creature. Once they hit level 7 they hurt a ton

On my own hunter I chose to use Eye for Talent for extra strength, because getting animal companions to hit at low levels can be a struggle. Then I used the 4HD stat increase to give them 3 int, at which point they qualify for most feats/morale buffs.

A flank buddy build works out way better with a reach weapon, I found.

Thank you! I really appreciate your insight. My plan was to have the +2 go into int and then at 4th level put that +2 elsewhere when I put the ability score increase into another category. Would this be considered "legal"?

Also, DM just said that there would be caves but we're mostly exploring an uncharted island. If that's also helpful.

[Reksew_Trebla]

Oompa Loompa wrote:

DM just said that there would be caves but we're mostly exploring an uncharted island. If that's also helpful.

Oh, make sure that if you choose the advancement that makes your animal companion large, that you have spells of reduce animal ready to use. Don't want to leave your buddy behind.