| ThatGuyDM |
Once it becomes nimble, no, but for levels 1-7, would y'all say heavy barding is good on even something like the bird?
You're trading 25gp, -3 on its checks and reduced land speed for +3 AC, and +1 after mature compared to light barding. Is that generally worth it for some companions, and if only some, which ones?
| Guntermench |
All animal companions are proficient in light barding, combat trained (up to GM) in heavy, so they should wear the appropriate set. Both Light and Heavy cap at +6 AC: heavy has +3 with a +3 Dex cap and light has +1 with a +5 Ded cap. Given Nimble no longer boosts their unarmoured proficiency to Expert and they no longer reach Master in unarmoured barding's much better now.
Errata wrote:
Secondly, the nimble animal companion had an error in converting from the playtest and should not have kept a higher proficiency with unarmored defense, which put it roughly 4 AC above other animal companions and in some cases higher than a PC can have. This is a carryover from when proficiency only gave +1 and the savage companion used to have higher proficiency in unarmed attacks while the nimble companion had higher in unarmored defense. Change it so it raises just Acrobatics to expert, putting it back in parallel with savage raising Athletics. This also adjusts Ambusher, Daredevil, and all similar specializations in other books that raise unarmored proficiency: in all those specializations, remove the part where it raises unarmored proficiency to master if the companion was nimble.