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So, I have a druid with a lion animal companion, and I will shortly be turning 9th level. This means that my lion will get multiattack as a feat. This leads to a couple of questions:
1) According to this oft referenced 2012 post by Sean Reynolds, multiattack gives all animals companions an extra attack at -5. So, my lion would in theory have two bite attacks, one at +12 and the other at +7. Is this widely accepted in PFS, or should I expect the dreaded “table variation?”
2)Alternatively, PFS now allows animal companion feats to be retrained. Is there any reason I couldn’t/shouldn’t retrain multiattack into something more useful and less likely to cause controversy?
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1) That is almost unknown in PFS, i don't think its official, and really goes against a lot of the stated rules. Your lion is very likely powerful enough already and really doesn't need the boost. In so far as there's table variation, i think its pretty rare for tables to vary in the "yes" direction for that. I would not even ask, just ignore it.
2) You cannot retrain something you get from a class into something else, like heavy armor proficiency from a fighter is the faq i think. So you're stuck with it.
I think the point of multi attack may be to even out the one bite critters with the pouncekitties some, so if the ability doesn't do anything for you it's really not the end of the world.
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It is widely believed (even by other developers) that Sean made a mistake when statting out some of the higher level animal companions in the NPC Codex.
Animal companions without secondary attacks ARE supposed to get an iterative attack from multiattack, but only if they have less than three primary attacks. So a wolf (which has only one attack, a bite) would get the iterative but a lion (which has three primary attacks, a bite and two claws) would not. If you look at the higher level modules published after the NPC Codex, you will find animal companions with the correct implementation (no extra attack if they have three primaries).
Sean notes later in the thread that he’s looking into the issue (i.e. “I forgot that”) but he left Paizo before officially correcting himself.
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Uh, if it's in the rules, it shouldn't be table variation. That being said, I think you are misreading the feat. A lion would get less of a penalty for secondary attacks as it has 3 natural attacks. It's virtually useless because all the lions attacks are primary. It only grants the extra attack for creatures with less than 3 attacks. An Axe Beak would get an extra bite, and that should never be table variation.
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Thanks, my search of the forums hadn't turned up the 2015 post walking back Sean Reynold's 2012 post.
Also, I now realize what I didn't understand about getting multiattack as a feat. It's a bonus feat, so I could only retrain it for an alternative bonus feat, and animal companions don't get any other bonus feats. A lesson in the importance of adjectives.
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If you look at the NPC Codex, all of the lvl 9+ animal companions in there (in Appendix 1) do indeed get an iterative attack once they get Multiattack (Those with more then one natural attack and no secondaries)... (matching what Sean described in that post)
Just more fuel for the discussion. =)
That’s actually the same data point, not a second source. Sean’s post is in response to someone asking “What’s up with these iterative attacks for animals in the NPC Codex?”
It is widely believed (even by other developers) that Sean made a mistake when statting out some of the higher level animal companions in the NPC Codex.