Wizard Animal Companion - Animal Ally

[Vaercious]

I know it's not optimal. I was wondering what kind of builds you could do with this. Just looking for ideas

Assume feats as taken:
1 - ?
3 - Nature Soul
5 - Animal Ally
7 - Boon Companion

7th level wizard
All paizo
25 pt. Buy

[Northern Spotted Owl]

Consider a sylvan sorcerer

[Trokarr]

Yeah taking animal ally is definitely not optimal for a wizard. You’d be better off going with a mauler familiar probably. That said if u are set in Animal Ally I would suggest taking the Curious Companion feat (retrain ur 1st lvl feat to get it at 7th lvl). It gives u access to plant and vermin companions in addition to the small list available to Animal Ally (ur GM should probably approve this tho). The Sapling Treant and Crawling Vine plant companions are pretty good (the stats for both are found under the Treesinger Druid archetype but I don’t think they are prohibited for other characters capable of taking plant companions). The Giant Mantis and Giant Solifugid(which gets pounce and rend at lvl 4) are good vermin options. You would probably want to take the unexpected intellectual archetype for the vermin options so they gain an INT score so the can take feats and skills.

[Northern Spotted Owl]

Northern Spotted Owl wrote:

Consider a sylvan sorcerer

My early morning comment was pretty brief (since I was on my phone), but I'd like to call out the Sylvan Sorcerer again. You just take Boon Companion as a 1st level feat and you're set.

Now a sorcerer isn't of course interchangeable with a wizard, but it's in the same ballpark and gets you a much better animal companion much sooner with far less investment.

The bloodline also has pretty good spells and gives you wings at 9th level. So, you know, cool.

[Vaercious]

Northern Spotted Owl wrote:

Northern Spotted Owl wrote:

Consider a sylvan sorcerer

My early morning comment was pretty brief (since I was on my phone), but I'd like to call out the Sylvan Sorcerer again. You just take Boon Companion as a 1st level feat and you're set.

Now a sorcerer isn't of course interchangeable with a wizard, but it's in the same ballpark and gets you a much better animal companion much sooner with far less investment.

The bloodline also has pretty good spells and gives you wings at 9th level. So, you know, cool.

Beyond the Human FCB, what ways are there to gain more spells known? The only issue I have with sorcerer is a limited spell list.

Edit: I'm also too used to being a wizard in that the sooner I get the next grade of spells, the happier I feel.

[Azothath]

Vaercious wrote:

Beyond the Human FCB, what ways are there to gain more spells known? The only issue I have with sorcerer is a limited spell list.

Edit: I'm also too used to being a wizard in that the sooner I get the next grade of spells, the happier I feel.

technically it is the choice of spells castable by the sorcerer that's the limiting factor, not the spell list. Spontaneous casters pay more for spell level storage than prepared casters. Amulet of Spell Mastery $22000 doesn't work for spontaneous casters and it's half price as a bonded object. Wizards start to gain the upper hand at 5th level and get better from there.

Familiars are a liability past 11th level as collateral damage will kill them off.

Samsaran's Racial Mythic Past Life is one way to poach a spell list and add specific spells to a caster's spell list. You should spread them out across the spell levels.
Prestige Classes tend to limit benefits from your main class.

Leveling up is great but I think it's how you respond to challenges using various spells than just gaining levels and casting more spells.

IF I HAD to do a familiar, I'd just devote one feat to it (Improved Familiar) and go for one that can cast (Faerie Dragon, Tidepool Dragon ) or humanoid with hands such as Brownie or Soulbound doll as that opens magic items & reuse, armor and weapons along with UMD.

[Senko]

I rather like figment for my familiar to keep it from being killed off. Less powerful but as its literally an imaginary friend if its killed you can bring it back the next day and then spend a few hours apologizing for getting it killed if its a cat.

[Vaercious]

This is about the animal ally feat with wizard, or Sylvan sorcerer.

I'm not concerned about the familiar.

----------

Returning to the original post, what interesting builds can you guys think of utilizing animal ally with wizard?

If you vote for Sylvan sorcerer, what ways do you know of to increase the spells known to compensate?

[Java Man]

Mnemonic vestments and pages of spell knowledge are the primary ways to increase spells known for a sorcerer.

As for interesting builds, a cornerstone I'd focus on is the ability to cast Personnel range buffs on your furry-buddy. Assorted polymorph spells, shield, overland flight, transformation, fireshield, see invisible, lots more.

[Senko]

Vaercious wrote:

This is about the animal ally feat with wizard, or Sylvan sorcerer.

I'm not concerned about the familiar.

----------

Returning to the original post, what interesting builds can you guys think of utilizing animal ally with wizard?

If you vote for Sylvan sorcerer, what ways do you know of to increase the spells known to compensate?

Ah I saw "familiar" used in Azathoths reply and thought you were trying to combine the two my mistake.

[Wonderstell]

Vaercious wrote:

Returning to the original post, what interesting builds can you guys think of utilizing animal ally with wizard?

If you vote for Sylvan sorcerer, what ways do you know of to increase the spells known to compensate?

The issue with getting a companion through Animal Ally as a wizard is that you won't be able to target it with personal spells.

"Share Spells (Ex): The druid may cast a spell with a target of “You” on her animal companion (as a spell with a range of touch) instead of on herself. A druid may cast spells on her animal companion even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the companion's type (animal). Spells cast in this way must come from a class that grants an animal companion. This ability does not allow the animal to share abilities that are not spells, even if they function like spells."

To cast high-level transmutation spells on it (which is really why you want it) you'd also need to take the Share Spells teamwork feat (and presumably choose the Familiar option). So that's a lot of feats with a worse selection of companions just to emulate what the Sylvan Sorcerer gets.

[Vaercious]

Wonderstell wrote:

Vaercious wrote:

Returning to the original post, what interesting builds can you guys think of utilizing animal ally with wizard?

If you vote for Sylvan sorcerer, what ways do you know of to increase the spells known to compensate?

The issue with getting a companion through Animal Ally as a wizard is that you won't be able to target it with personal spells.

"Share Spells (Ex): The druid may cast a spell with a target of “You” on her animal companion (as a spell with a range of touch) instead of on herself. A druid may cast spells on her animal companion even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the companion's type (animal). Spells cast in this way must come from a class that grants an animal companion. This ability does not allow the animal to share abilities that are not spells, even if they function like spells."

To cast high-level transmutation spells on it (which is really why you want it) you'd also need to take the Share Spells teamwork feat (and presumably choose the Familiar option). So that's a lot of feats with a worse selection of companions just to emulate what the Sylvan Sorcerer gets.

In that case, archetypes are on the table since sharing spells isn't efficient.

Any ideas with those?

edit: So far for adding spells, we've got -
Pages
Vestments
Human FCB

Any others?

[Trokarr]

VMC oracle can grant a small number of spells to your list thru the Curse feature depending on the curse selected. Gonna eat up a huge amount of feats for a few spells. Choosing Nature mystery Bonded mount can also get u a companion tho so that balances out but you would need to be small size to get anything useful like a wolf. However since ur mystery thru VMC is always lvl -6(min 1) even with boon companion u won’t progress ur mount past lvl -2 which sucks. But the mount has INT 6 so ur mount will have lots of tricks known. If ur GM is cool they may let u take Lunar mystery which isn’t normally available thru VMC. Lunar has a companion mystery with a better selection of pets including Large Cat which is generally considered to be the best.

[Trokarr]

No matter which way u go to get a pet I would recommend getting the Totem Beast feat to get one of the Hunter animal aspects permanently on ur pet.

[Trokarr]

Another potential way to get what u want on a wizard is to take the Exotic Heritage feat which lets u take the Sylvan Bloodline with Eldritch Heritage feat. You would still need Boon Companion to get to u up to Lvl -1 progression (which is the best you will get without something like the Horsemaster feat). Some people don’t think this is legit because the archetype also trades out ur Bloodline Arcana for ur pet but it is still ur 1st level bloodline power which is all eldritch heritage grants so check with ur GM on that one. If your GM is cool maybe ask him if u could take the Sylvan Bloodline with VMC sorcerer that’s another potential way to get a pet maybe.

[Lelomenia]

Ring of Spell Knowledge
Arcane Bloodline (extra spells known theough the bloodline powers)
Expanded Arcana feat
Paragon Surge spell to take the Expanded Arcana feat

[Vaercious]

I'll conclude this thread.

It's a better option to cast mount or any other similar spell than to spend three feats as a wizard to get a viable animal companion. Looking through the threads of the forum, the point is taken.