Celestial Servant Tiger too strong. What's a DM to do?

[Captain Morgan]

So I've got a player who is using the pre-errata favored class bonus Aasimar Lunar Oracle. That is, increasing a revelation by 1/2 a level. (The errata changed it to 1/6 for some races but not all.) At level 6, He's devoted all of his FCBs into buffing the tiger, making it effectively the animal companion of a 9th level character. On top of that, he's taken the feats Celestial Servant and Evolved Companion, getting magical natural weapons from the latter so the tiger can maul ghosts.

Dude has devoted most of his build to making this tiger the biggest murder machine possible, and it is a little out of hand. Party is going through Carrion Crown Book 2 now, and the tiger did over 100 damage to one of the bosses in one round. Now, there's lots of things I can do to make the enemies harder to kill. I'm not worried about the book becoming too easy per se. Rather, my concern is letting the party's dedicated martial PCs feel relevant.

Potential ideas I'm playing with.

1)Try Innate Item Bonuses. The tiger doesn't get many item slots and this might give the PCs more room to catch up with her.

2) Make him use the updated errata for the Aasimar FCB, with an option to rebuild. Either he can switch to one of the races which still has the 1/2 FCB but lose access to celestial servant, or he can stay an aasimar and let his AC be merely a 7th level critter.

3) Add things to make the tiger less effective. Creatures that damage you when struck by natural attacks. Terrain that prevents pouncing.

4) Be more stringent about running the animal by RAW, and applying common sense to situations where the tiger can't behave like a person. I let the tiger benefit from spider climb last night. Thinking about it, how would the tiger know how to use that? Or as another example, the tiger has narrow frame. That doesn't mean you can keep riding it as it jumps out a window without risking getting you head smacked on the way out.

5) Some other way of powering up the other PCs, while also powering up all the encounters in the book I guess?

It is a tough thing to figure out because the guy invested a lot in making his tiger this potent, so I don't want to make it useless. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Ryan Freire]

2, 3, and 4.

Animal companions aren't summoned monsters, your summoned monsters really shouldn't outlevel the pc, and terrain that blocks charges/pouncing is pretty important.

Also, do your best to have a survivor report to whatever big overarching evil organization is behind the module about the tiger so that they can implement countermeasures.

[JohnHawkins]

Before doing any of these talk to the player and maybe the other players. Explain to him the problem (also make sure the other players feel there is a problem. Then discuss a solution 2,3 and 4 all look like good basics for the solution but by talking to the player first hopefully you can avoid him feeling like you are suddenly 'picking' on him.
I agree you almost certainly need to do something and I would do something. I just think you need to make sure you avoid too much stress

[Claxon]

Step 1) Talk to your player about your concern.

Step 2) Suggest that the Tiger be capped at animal companion progression as though it were a regular animal companion (yes that means some of the FCB is likely a waste, and you should let him choose a different FCB).

Example: A level 10 druid has a level 10 animal companion which has 9 HD and uses those stats.

If you force the maximum to be the same as though the character were a druid and unable to go above that, the problem should resolve itself.

[Gummy Bear]

The player will probably be upset if you dock their companion two levels or disallow tactics that worked before but don't work now.

A couple of things to consider:

Celestial Servant gives the companion SR. It isn't very good, but SR is a standard action to turn iff for a round and even friendly spells have to roll against it. Healing and buffs may not always go through.

The people of Ustalav are likely to FREAK OUT when that thing walks into their town. They don't know who you people are or why they should trust you, much less with your mysterious tiger. They don't know it is celestial and PC's trying to explain may not be able to get their point across or people might not believe them.

Make sure the tiger has the appropriate tricks to do what the player wants it to do. I'm the same vein, make sure the player is shelling out those skill points for handle animal and ride. Having the animal perform tricks while injured for someone without ranks can be difficult. Don't blindside the player with the rules, but you can explain that you've been doing it wrong and from now on are following the rules for it.

Is combat a heavy focus for your campaign? If so, adding other elements to the game so others can have the spotlight might be worth while.

[Carla the Profane]

I second the SR thing, I played an aasimar oracle with a celestial dire tiger for a while, then it got confused (low will save) and ate half the party including myself. The reason?

I couldn't penetrate its SR with the status removal spells I had prepared for this occassion. My party members hated the tiger so much after that encounter that I switched to a celestial crocodile instead.

[Ridiculon]

^ what carla said. if the tiger is really as much of a powerhouse as you describe then the badguys should be taking measures against it specifically. all you need is one caster who knows its weaknesses to debuff it or mind control it or whatever

[Lady-J]

if you change anything step one for the player to retain what he has currently done stay aasimar, get racial heritage with a race that gets 1/2 level with revelations, and hes right back were he was before you tryed to nerf him

[Pizza Lord]

If the actual rules call for 1/6 FCB for an aasimar, that is what should be getting used. Sure, there may be another way to get that FCB, as another race or getting racial heritages or something, but those are by-the-rules ways to do it. Unless you're allowing the 1/2 as the GM, then he's not following the rules (granted, he may not have known about any errata or updates, but he should understand when you point them out).

Like the others say, the animal should know the tricks, including the 2nd form of the attack command if it's expected to attack all kinds of creatures. Granted... it likely does have all the tricks and even it doesn't you can try and 'push' it into doing something reasonable that it isn't trained for (which is also easy if it's your animal companion and you have even a little Handle Animal).

As for letting it benefit from certain spells that would be unusual for it, those require a whole other trick. For instance, teaching an animal to air walk is pointed out as requiring special training, so I would also say that teaching an animal to understand how and when it can spider climb is also fair (I wouldn't require it for a spider or something similar, but even creatures that can climb, like most cats, aren't used to functioning the same way that spider climb works). It would be the same for wind walk or a gaseous form spell. The animal probably doesn't have the wherewithal to consciously make the shifts between normal and incorporeality unless trained to recognize a signal or somesuch.

As for enemies dealing with it, word will likely get around, as mentioned and there are plenty of animal-centric effects. For instance, a simple hide from animals spell will have a PC pointing and commanding an animal to attack a foe that he sees perfectly clearly (no idea he's hiding from animals) and that animal will stand there confused (animals don't just 'attack the air or the space' unless you've taught them to do that as a specific trick and command). Bad guy is standing there, PCs are yelling, tiger looks confused (until the bad guy touches an animal or attacks, but healing or support NPCs could benefit safely). PC might even use 2 or 3 actions trying to get the animal to do what he thinks is perfectly reasonable and getting mad at you because he thinks you're just being a jerk when there's a valid in-game reason.

Adding some creatures with Unnatural Aura, like a wraith or spectre, can also interrupt animal companions for a time. The master must make a DC 25 Handle Animal check (which, again, is probably fairly easy with an Animal Companion and even mild focus in the skill, but that's how it works). It could at least pause the beast for a round or two. In the case of a spectre, if it surprises the party or suddenly comes within 30 feet, the beast panics and flees at top speed (which is usually pretty far and fast). Normally ACs will go on their master's action, but a GM is perfectly fair in rolling separately in this case (since the beast in not awaiting an order or command from it's master) and if it beats the PC, they may not have a chance to try a Handle Animal check because the tiger is off to the races. Even if the panic wears off, it will not willingly go back towards such a creature (yes the aura is only 30 feet, but since this is an animal it's not believably go that close.)

Edit The animal stuff won't work in your case, since the tiger counts as a magical beast due to Celestial Servant. Just saw that, but for anyone else with a similar animal problem, still good advice for others. So new plan for your situation! You give the aasimar amnesia; that makes him forget his feats and class abilities, and the tiger stops being a magical beast (I wouldn't have it disappear), it also loses all benefits from his class (whether that's 1/6th or 1/2 FCB). Good news though... apparently forgetting you have an oracle curse means it no longer applies due to the horribly worded and executed version of the amnesia affliction.

[blahpers]

I'm just happy to see someone stomping Carrion Crown after our TPK in book 1. Go, murdercat! For great justice!