Help for making a King cobra animal companion template.

[miath]

Hi, My daughter is about to make her first character soon and she want to play a Human/elf Ranger with a venomous snake animal companion. I search on Archive of Nethys to find something that can match and I found out that there is no template for venomous snake animal companion. I'm somewhatish confident in making one by mixing the snake/Scorpion together but I would like some advice.
Do I drop the bite to 1D6 instead of 1D8 to balance out the poison damage? Also I am clueless about what support ability I could give this template. I will be happy to take any feedback on it, thank you.

[Perpdepog]

I think you're on the money with dropping the d8 to a d6 to balance for poison. As for a support benefit, I think some of the other companions have benefits that let you make an enemy flat-footed or fascinated by your animal companion, which fits the swaying cobra thing IMO.
You could also steal the scorpion's ability and let your cobra drip or spit poison to make your strikes do poison damage.

I'm not sure what its advanced maneuver would be, but you haven't got to think about that for several levels, assuming you guys are starting at level 1.

I might also shift the cobra's Str down to +2 and add that to Wis maybe to raise it to +2 from the ordinary snake stats because IIRC cobras are less powerful than constrictors in terms of muscle, but that might be more granularity than you guys care about.

[breithauptclan]

Yeah, I would also use the base stats from Snake but replace the Jaws attack with the Stinger attack and poison from Scorpion.

I would also take the poison based Support Benefit from Scorpion.

For Advanced Maneuver, I actually like the Darting Attack from Dromaeosaur. That seems on point for a venomous snake.

[miath]

Thank you all for for the feedbacks, I now have a template for venomous snake's animal companion. I was thinking of maybe play with the stats mod but math seem too tight for it ( all template have +8 total or +4 with the penalty to int. ) I prefer not to touch it too much even if a venomous snake should have more dex than con. Here's the template for anyone wanting to have something like this.

Venomous Snake

Your animal companion is a venomous snake, such as a cobra or a rattlesnake.

Size: Small

Melee: ‘’1 action’’ Fangs (Finesse) 1d6 plus poison

Str: +3, Dex: +3, Con: +1, Int: -4, Wis: +1, Cha: +0

Speed: 20ft, climb 20ftt, swim 20ft

Hit points: 6

Skill: Stealth

Senses: Low-light vision, scent (imprecise, 30ft)

Special: Venomous snake’s Fangs attack deal an additional 1d4 poison damage or 2d4 poison damage if the venomous snake is a specialized companion.

Support Benefit: Your venomous snake drips poisons from its fangs when you create an opening. Until the start of your next turn, your strikes that damage a creature in your venomous snake’s reach also deal 1d6 persistent poison damage. If your venomous snake is nimble or savage, the persistent poison damage increase to 2d6.

Advanced maneuver: Darting attack

Darting attack (1 action, Flourish)
The venomous snake Steps up 10ft and then strikes or strikes and steps up 10ft.

[graystone]

miath wrote:

Str: +3, Dex: +3, Con: +1, Int: -4, Wis: +1, Cha: +0

Personally, I'd move a point out of str [cobras reply on speed and poison, not brute str like the pythons/boas in the snake entry] to con.

miath wrote:

Support Benefit: Your venomous snake drips poisons from its fangs when you create an opening.

Myself, I'd just make the cobra a spiting cobra, so instead it'd be 'Your venomous snake [spits poisons at your foe] when you create an opening.' It's just a thematic change, but for me it fits better.

PS: other than those small quibbles, looks good! ;)