Apes don't have the vocal chords to talk to others, no matter how smart you make them.
base 2
+5 wishes (inherent)
+6 headband (enhancement)
+4 Animal Companion: Ability score increase
= 17
There's the "basics" at level 20 druid.
If you want to make this Gorilla the most badass thing ever, consider the Goliath archetype. You can cast Enlarge Person on your Animal Companion.
Give your AC an AoMF with w/e enchants you want.
Even without Goliath Archetype, figure out a reliable way to cast Strong Jaw and Enlarge Person or Animal Growth upon it.
Strong Jaw is +2 Size bonus. Enlarge Person or Animal Growth is +1 Size bonus. That makes a cumulative +3 Size bonus, so if your AC is Large, your natural weapons become Colossal.
The alternative human racial trait eye for talent gives a +2 to any stat for an animal companion.
As far as the Intelligence thing with your Gorilla, give it Hand Sign Language as a Language from Linguistics, and give your own character the same Hand Language as well, so you two can communicate. You two have obviously spent some time together, and there's gotta be a backstory about this. So go nuts with that...
You could even spend some time roleplaying-wise teaching your allies to command your Gorilla as well, if you want to.
The alternative human racial trait eye for talent gives a +2 to any stat for an animal companion.
Halflings have a similar alternative trait called Care Taker.
Helm of telepahy could be fun if you want it to speak ala Grodd. If you want it to phsyically speak then there is Circlet of Speaking
The animal companion archetype Precocious specifically increases an animal companion's intelligence, though for an ape this would be instead of the normal physical boosts it gets at 4th level.
Of course, you could just cast the spell Anthropomorphic Animal on your ape and make it permanent it would raise it's base intelligence to 3 and grants it the ability to talk. I don't know if the spell stacks with the bonuses from eye for talent/care taker and Precocious. Even if it doesn't since the ape starts with an int of 2 you're only missing out on a +1.
So now it would have an int of 6/7 and could talk.
if you apply the things Valandil Ancalime mentioned (for a +15). The ape is now sitting at an int of 21/22.
Edit: as a side note, if you don't care about it talking to anyone but yourself hunters gain the ability to talk with their animal companion at 11th level.
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If you're not absolutely tied to the druid, a courtly hunter gets an animal companion with the intelligence of a familiar (which could be further enhanced in the same ways as a normal animal companion), and the ability to share your skills like a familiar too.
Doesn't the Awaken spell grant 3d6 Int? You could also throw that into the mix.
Unfortunately, the Awaken spell specifies that the awakened creature can't serve as an animal companion. That said, this doesn't necessarily kill us in the crib.
I will preface this by saying that the following method is some fairly funky cheese. Maybe not a Limburger, but probably at least a Blue.
You could use Flesh to Stone to transform the creature into a stone version of itself, and then get a ranger friend with Construct as a favored enemy (druids and rangers must know each other, right?) to cast "instant enemy" on it, treating the stone ape as a construct. We could then use a scroll of Maximized, or Empowered (or Both) Awaken Construct on the stone ape, which has no such limitation on whether or not the creature may serve as a familiar/companion. That grants an Intelligence score of 3d6, and additional 2d6 Charisma points.
Maximized makes the ape's base Int 18, and adds +12 Cha
Maximized/Empowered makes the base Int 27, and adds +18 Cha
Then we just turn our friend back to flesh and add his Animal Companion bonuses to his new stats. He also gains a bunch of new languages from the Awaken Construct spell, so that's something too. You'll probably have to buy him some drinks to make things up to him, since he's probably smarter than you now.
Ah. My apologies.
Then we just turn our friend back to flesh and add his Animal Companion bonuses to his new stats. He also gains a bunch of new languages from the Awaken Construct spell, so that's something too. You'll probably have to buy him some drinks to make things up to him, since he's probably smarter than you now.
wouldn't casing stone to flesh on the construct instantly kill it?
Seems to me if you did this all you would do is waste a bunch of time and money on an effect that goes away as soon as you restore the animal companion.
At best, you have an animal companion when it's fleshy and an awakened stone construct when it's stone. Both with completely different stats abilities, etc. If the stats some how combined then why wouldn't the stone construct get the animal companion's stats?
At best, you have an animal companion when it's fleshy and an awakened stone construct when it's stone. Both with completely different stats abilities, etc. If the stats some how combined then why wouldn't the stone construct get the animal companion's stats?
I'd assume that the statue would technically have all the stats of the petrified creature, save for its intelligence, as the Flesh to Stone spell specifies the creature becomes mindless. At least, it would be mindless until awakened. As to whether or not reversing the transformation kills the gorilla, or renders it like unto an "incarnate construct" of old, I couldn't say. I suppose it would be an issue for your DM, who likely wouldn't allow you to attempt such a thing, I'd be willing to bet.
I would argue that the only thing being altered via "instant enemy" is the ability of the ranger to treat the statue as an appropriate target for the "awaken construct" spell, which is an appropriate use of the ability by "instant enemy's " own wording. While I will admit, "instant enemy" requires a creature for its target, I would say the ape still qualifies, despite being technically nonliving. I can't immediately point to any evidence for this, however, except to say that dead creatures can be similarly targeted.
That said, my GM had a similar reaction when I posed it to him, so I'm reasonably certain I'm in the wrong on this one. Still, it was an interesting thing to consider.
A 16th level shaman with the nature spirit takes the form of an animal companion. So if you had a sage familiar as your spirit, they'd have an int of 21 when they became an animal companion. That's a bit of a long wait. A halfling shaman can make their effective level 1.5 per level for determining their familiar's effective class level for "natural armor adjustment, Intelligence, and special abilities", and, while that won't make them an animal companion any earlier, it will give them an int of 29 at that point. If the halfling takes caretaker as well, then we're at 31 as the base.
Take two levels of eldritch guardian fighter to grant your familiar your combat feats, and now he can wear armor and wield weapons.
A much simpler solution would be to have the druid take a familiar granting archetype or domain, take improved familiar making it a fey-touched familiar. Then have the fey familiar chose Charau-Ka as their one humanoid form. That's one feat and a domain choice for an apeman companion.