Mega fauna and the women who love them.


Advice


I saw that Lost Omens has mega fauna companions and all I wanna know is what ones are featured in the book. Thanks!


Archive of Nethys has the rules: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=795

Essentially you take a vanilla animal companion from the core book and just say it's a megafauna version of that. Then when you receive access to an advanced animal companion you have another option to choose from to upgrade it. Just one for all megafauna though.


Spamotron wrote:

Archive of Nethys has the rules: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=795

Essentially you take a vanilla animal companion from the core book and just say it's a megafauna version of that. Then when you receive access to an advanced animal companion you have another option to choose from to upgrade it. Just one for all megafauna though.

That's it? That's really lame. I was hoping for an actual mammoth or ground sloth or gigantopithecus.


rules link linkified

Hey, baby mammoths need love too!


Reads Thread Title.

Freakin' Beifeng Herault. Spreading his vile teachings around to the other rangers. You read his romance novels, didn't you?

At the very, least, try to keep it out of public places. Children could see.


Sporelock wrote:
Spamotron wrote:

Archive of Nethys has the rules: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=795

Essentially you take a vanilla animal companion from the core book and just say it's a megafauna version of that. Then when you receive access to an advanced animal companion you have another option to choose from to upgrade it. Just one for all megafauna though.

That's it? That's really lame. I was hoping for an actual mammoth or ground sloth or gigantopithecus.

The way I'd approximate a giant ground sloth is by starting with a badger animal companion and taking all of the size-advancing advancements I could.

We're probably going to need an elephant and ape base stats to approximate the other two, tho.

But for other megafauna options, you could use cat stats for a smilodon buddy, wolf stats for dire wolves or bone-crushing dogs, and bears for... well... cave bears.


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Sporelock wrote:
Spamotron wrote:

Archive of Nethys has the rules: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=795

Essentially you take a vanilla animal companion from the core book and just say it's a megafauna version of that. Then when you receive access to an advanced animal companion you have another option to choose from to upgrade it. Just one for all megafauna though.

That's it? That's really lame. I was hoping for an actual mammoth or ground sloth or gigantopithecus.

Welcome to 2nd edition ;)

Seriously: not surprised they took that route. Disappointed, but not surprised. It's easier to reflavour something then provide rules and options. Perhaps they'll revisit it in a later product and do it properly.


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John Lynch 106 wrote:
Sporelock wrote:
Spamotron wrote:

Archive of Nethys has the rules: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=795

Essentially you take a vanilla animal companion from the core book and just say it's a megafauna version of that. Then when you receive access to an advanced animal companion you have another option to choose from to upgrade it. Just one for all megafauna though.

That's it? That's really lame. I was hoping for an actual mammoth or ground sloth or gigantopithecus.

Welcome to 2nd edition ;)

Seriously: not surprised they took that route. Disappointed, but not surprised. It's easier to reflavour something then provide rules and options. Perhaps they'll revisit it in a later product and do it properly.

I just don't understand why they would even bother making it a point to mention that particular option if it was strictly just to be like "Hey! Re-skin the old animals and pretend they're all prehistoric and crap. BYE." Just seems like a complete waste.


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To be honest all of the crunch in that book seems very meh.


Sporelock wrote:
John Lynch 106 wrote:
Sporelock wrote:
Spamotron wrote:

Archive of Nethys has the rules: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=795

Essentially you take a vanilla animal companion from the core book and just say it's a megafauna version of that. Then when you receive access to an advanced animal companion you have another option to choose from to upgrade it. Just one for all megafauna though.

That's it? That's really lame. I was hoping for an actual mammoth or ground sloth or gigantopithecus.

Welcome to 2nd edition ;)

Seriously: not surprised they took that route. Disappointed, but not surprised. It's easier to reflavour something then provide rules and options. Perhaps they'll revisit it in a later product and do it properly.

I just don't understand why they would even bother making it a point to mention that particular option if it was strictly just to be like "Hey! Re-skin the old animals and pretend they're all prehistoric and crap. BYE." Just seems like a complete waste.

Mostly for the Con-focused animal option. Before that book there were no options for increasing your companion's HP. The new companion type gives people that option.


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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

I think its a very good approach to the option. They could have spent a whole page detailing 5 or 6 such animal companions that for balance reasons wouldn't be much different that what the sidebar achieves anyway. The sidebar gives us a third specialization type that will add options to every animal companion that is printed from this point on that allows many more mount sized companions that don't have to be locked into Savage. That is smart design in my eyes.


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Malk_Content wrote:
I think its a very good approach to the option. They could have spent a whole page detailing 5 or 6 such animal companions that for balance reasons wouldn't be much different that what the sidebar achieves anyway. The sidebar gives us a third specialization type that will add options to every animal companion that is printed from this point on that allows many more mount sized companions that don't have to be locked into Savage. That is smart design in my eyes.

I get that, but I guess I don't see why they couldn't have done both. They could've at least included a mammoth, which is pretty much the first animal people think of when the term "megafauna" comes to mind.


Sporelock wrote:
Malk_Content wrote:
I think its a very good approach to the option. They could have spent a whole page detailing 5 or 6 such animal companions that for balance reasons wouldn't be much different that what the sidebar achieves anyway. The sidebar gives us a third specialization type that will add options to every animal companion that is printed from this point on that allows many more mount sized companions that don't have to be locked into Savage. That is smart design in my eyes.
I get that, but I guess I don't see why they couldn't have done both. They could've at least included a mammoth, which is pretty much the first animal people think of when the term "megafauna" comes to mind.

I mean it's not like they mention mammoths 27 times in the book including mammoth riders, mammoth lords and mammoth speakers... Oh wait...


graystone wrote:
Sporelock wrote:
Malk_Content wrote:
I think its a very good approach to the option. They could have spent a whole page detailing 5 or 6 such animal companions that for balance reasons wouldn't be much different that what the sidebar achieves anyway. The sidebar gives us a third specialization type that will add options to every animal companion that is printed from this point on that allows many more mount sized companions that don't have to be locked into Savage. That is smart design in my eyes.
I get that, but I guess I don't see why they couldn't have done both. They could've at least included a mammoth, which is pretty much the first animal people think of when the term "megafauna" comes to mind.
I mean it's not like they mention mammoths 27 times in the book including mammoth riders, mammoth lords and mammoth speakers... Oh wait...

EXACTLY.


Sporelock wrote:
graystone wrote:
Sporelock wrote:
Malk_Content wrote:
I think its a very good approach to the option. They could have spent a whole page detailing 5 or 6 such animal companions that for balance reasons wouldn't be much different that what the sidebar achieves anyway. The sidebar gives us a third specialization type that will add options to every animal companion that is printed from this point on that allows many more mount sized companions that don't have to be locked into Savage. That is smart design in my eyes.
I get that, but I guess I don't see why they couldn't have done both. They could've at least included a mammoth, which is pretty much the first animal people think of when the term "megafauna" comes to mind.
I mean it's not like they mention mammoths 27 times in the book including mammoth riders, mammoth lords and mammoth speakers... Oh wait...
EXACTLY.

I guess you just take a horse and tape on some tusks and a trunk then buy some furry barding. Done! :P

Liberty's Edge

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The LOWG Megafauna stuff may be not all you're hoping for thematically, but it seems very good mechanically to me.

I think it's the only way at the moment to get Expert in barding, and Expert in barding is a big boost to a thug-style animal companion like a bear...or, once we get them, an elephant or other larger creature.


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Deadmanwalking wrote:
The LOWG Megafauna stuff may be not all you're hoping for thematically, but it seems very good mechanically to me.

Its pretty hard to introduce something unbalanced when it’s just reflavouring existing mechanics (prior to level 7 at least).


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John Lynch 106 wrote:
Deadmanwalking wrote:
The LOWG Megafauna stuff may be not all you're hoping for thematically, but it seems very good mechanically to me.
Its pretty hard to introduce something unbalanced when it’s just reflavouring existing mechanics (prior to level 7 at least).

Precisely. It feels like Paizo is just sort of farting out a few things that have very little substance. That, combined with all of the errors in the Core Rulebook, is not a good look.


Deadmanwalking wrote:

The LOWG Megafauna stuff may be not all you're hoping for thematically, but it seems very good mechanically to me.

I think it's the only way at the moment to get Expert in barding, and Expert in barding is a big boost to a thug-style animal companion like a bear...or, once we get them, an elephant or other larger creature.

Or the MEGATORTOISE.

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