Paladin can get a mount which is an animal companion with some advantages, but you are limited in what type of creature you can get. A nature oracle can also gain a mount but is again limited on the type of animal.
Feyspeaker Druid
Nature Mystery Oracle with Bonded Mount revelation
Spirit Guide Oracle that selects the Mammoth or Nature Spirit and is sufficient level to get the True Spirit ability. Likewise, a Spirit Summoner can do the same.
Any CHA class you want provided they take Nature Soul, Animal Ally, and Boon Companion.
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Nature Mystery Oracle with Bonded Mount revelation
Spirit Guide Oracle that selects the Mammoth or Nature Spirit and is sufficient level to get the True Spirit ability. Likewise, a Spirit Summoner can do the same.Any CHA class you want provided they take Nature Soul, Animal Ally, and Boon Companion.
Unfortunately with animal ally and charisma classes i noticed a similar issue, none of them have the feat slots needed to get the animal companion at fighting capacity at a reasonable time 1.E before level 6
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A Lunar Oracle can get a Primal Companion at 1st level
You gain the service of a faithful animal of the night. You can select from a bear, boar, crocodile, shark, tiger, or wolf. This animal functions as a druid’s animal companion, using your oracle level as your effective druid level.A Nature Oracle can get a Bonded Mount at 1st level:
You gain the service of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal mount. The creature must be one that you are capable of riding and is suitable as a mount. A Medium oracle can select a camel or a horse. A Small oracle can select a pony or wolf, but can also select a boar or a dog if she is at least 4th level. This mount functions as a druid's animal companion, using your oracle level as your effective druid level. Bonded mounts have an Intelligence score of at least 6.
A summoner could build an animalish eidolon. Lunar mystery oracles can get a companion from a limited list, but that list includes tiger and wolf so still a good list.
Edit: ninja-ed on the lunar oracle point.
There is always feyspeaker druid. They are a charisma based druid.
Unfortunately with animal ally and charisma classes i noticed a similar issue, none of them have the feat slots needed to get the animal companion at fighting capacity at a reasonable time 1.E before level 6
Could you elaborate on that. The majority of companions are by design pretty awful before they get their 4th, 7th, or 9th level advancement and their master having extra feats won't solve that issue.
What's the purpose of the feats?
There's a Magus archetype that switches to Cha. They can take an arcana that gets them a familiar. It's not the same, but kinda close.
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Unfortunately with animal ally and charisma classes i noticed a similar issue, none of them have the feat slots needed to get the animal companion at fighting capacity at a reasonable time 1.E before level 6Could you elaborate on that. The majority of companions are by design pretty awful before they get their 4th, 7th, or 9th level advancement and their master having extra feats won't solve that issue.
What's the purpose of the feats?
I think the OP is referring to using feats instead of a class feature to get an Animal Companion, which takes 3 feats over 7 levels to bring up to full power:
Level 1: Nature Soul (Prerequisite)Level 5: Animal Ally gives you an Animal Companion at -3 Levels, which is probably going to be painful.
Level 7: Boon Companion finally brings your companion up to 'full' level.
It's a huge investment that takes a long time to come online, which is somewhat appropriate considering it is duplicating a major class feature...
a familiar. It's not the same, but kinda close.
It really depends on what you want from an animal companion and what class you want it with. A lot of animals can be replicated pretty well with a mauler familiar, but the root class will need to have decent BAB and HP to allow the mauler to really contribute in fights.
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a familiar. It's not the same, but kinda close.It really depends on what you want from an animal companion and what class you want it with. A lot of animals can be replicated pretty well with a mauler familiar, but the root class will need to have decent BAB and HP to allow the mauler to really contribute in fights.
Yeah, the original post is kinda vague on the actual desired goal...
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Yeah, the original post is kinda vague on the actual desired goal...a familiar. It's not the same, but kinda close.It really depends on what you want from an animal companion and what class you want it with. A lot of animals can be replicated pretty well with a mauler familiar, but the root class will need to have decent BAB and HP to allow the mauler to really contribute in fights.
I was hoping there would be a faster way to get the animal ally feat online, but if a mauler familiar is the closest i can get then thats a lot easier to do.
Other than being charisma based with a fuzzy friend, what are you trying to do?
The bloodrager has the blood rider archetype. That one is pretty focused on being a mount though.
The vigilante with mounted fury archetype might qualify, depending on what you mean by charisma based.
It’s a little strange the skald doesn’t have a mounted archetype. I think it’d fit their flavor.
It’s a little strange the skald doesn’t have a mounted archetype. I think it’d fit their flavor.
If there was a Skald archetype that got them animal companion/mount, I'd probably never play another type of skald again.
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Other than being charisma based with a fuzzy friend, what are you trying to do?Synergy with Beastmaster style.
See, if you'd mentioned this up front, we could have eliminated a lot of 'mount' and 'Familiar' suggestions...
Source
Ultimate Wilderness pg. 107
Prerequisites: Cha 13, Handle Animal 1 rank, must have an animal companion.
Benefit: When you are adjacent to your animal companion and an attack is made against it, if you are also adjacent to the attacking creature, you can attempt a Handle Animal check as an immediate action to negate the hit. The hit is negated if your Handle Animal check result is greater than the attacker’s attack roll.
Special: You cannot use this style if you are mounted on your animal companion. Source
Ultimate Wilderness pg. 107
Prerequisites: Cha 13, Alertness, Beastmaster Style, Handle Animal 5 ranks, Sense Motive 5 ranks.
Benefit: If you are adjacent to your animal companion when it attempts a saving throw, you can attempt a Handle Animal check as an immediate action. Your animal companion does not attempt the saving throw, but instead uses your Handle Animal result as its result for the save. Source
Ultimate Wilderness pg. 107
Prerequisites: Cha 13, Alertness, Beastmaster Salvation, Beastmaster Style, Handle Animal 9 ranks, Sense Motive 5 ranks.
Benefit: When you activate Beastmaster Style’s benefit, you gain a +2 morale bonus on melee weapon attack rolls and +4 morale bonus on weapon damage rolls against the attacking creature. If the enemy attack dealt damage to your animal companion, these bonuses increase to +4 and +8, respectively. These bonuses last until the end of your next turn.
You don't ever need more than a 13 Charisma, which isn't normally prohibitively expensive for a non-charisma character (I mean, it will cost you, but not too much). Granted, Your Handle Animal checks will be Charisma based, but a couple of feats can boost your skill considerably...
The real issue is that you need to be adjacent to the both your AC and its attacker for the base feat to work, so what you are actually looking for is "A melee character with the 'full strength' animal companion class feature (but not used as an actual mount) that makes some use of a 13+ Charisma score."
The real issue is that you need to be adjacent to the both your AC and its attacker for the base feat to work, so what you are actually looking for is "A melee character with the 'full strength' animal companion class feature (but not used as an actual mount) that makes some use of a 13+ Charisma score."
Beastmaster style is perfectly usable with a mount as well… infact its easier to use with a mount. Creatures occupying the same space are considered to be adjacent for any effects that require adjacency.
Creatures occupying the same space are considered to be adjacent for any effects that require adjacency.
Rule quote on that please.
The real issue is that you need to be adjacent to the both your AC and its attacker for the base feat to work, so what you are actually looking for is "A melee character with the 'full strength' animal companion class feature (but not used as an actual mount) that makes some use of a 13+ Charisma score."Beastmaster style is perfectly usable with a mount as well… infact its easier to use with a mount. Creatures occupying the same space are considered to be adjacent for any effects that require adjacency.
Except for the "special" line in the feat description
"Special: You cannot use this style if you are mounted on your animal companion."
I think the OP is referring to using feats instead of a class feature to get an Animal Companion, which takes 3 feats over 7 levels to bring up to full power
Ah, that makes sense.
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Other than being charisma based with a fuzzy friend, what are you trying to do?Synergy with Beastmaster style.
So someone that can make use of 13+ Cha and isn't reliant on swift actions. How about Battle Scion skald?
1 Nature Soul
3 Animal Ally (retrained at lv 4)
5 Boon Companion, Alertness (B from Bodyguard companion archetype)
6 Beastmaster Style (B from Battle Scion)
7 Beastmaster Salvation
9 Beastmaster Ire
At lv 7, choose a Versatile Performance that allows you to use perform in place of Handle Animal. Then when you want to trigger the advanced benefit of Beastmaster Ire you can use the much lower bonus of the perform skill you don't put ranks in.
You may want to replace the 3rd and 9th rage powers with Power Attack and Step Up.
Something similar can be done as a Bloodrider Bloodrager, I suppose.
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3 Animal Ally (retrained at lv 4)
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Using retraining to take a feat you didn't qualify for originally is 'cheating' (at least in my opinion: The actual rules are kinda vague on this point): If you couldn't possibly get your specific build without retraining, it's wrong.
This also assumes you will have the necessary downtime during level 4, so there is a lot of "GM's discretion" here...
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Something similar can be done as a Bloodrider Bloodrager, I suppose.
The key issue being that you need to be dismounted to actually use the benefits of Beastmaster Style: It will work, but you have to remember not to actually 'mount' your mount...
My assumption is the OP really wants something that works from level 1, when Animal Companions are most powerful in comparison to PCs.
Using retraining to take a feat you didn't qualify for originally is 'cheating' (at least in my opinion: The actual rules are kinda vague on this point): If you couldn't possibly get your specific build without retraining, it's wrong.
There is an FAQ on this that very clearly states that this is allowed.
As Taja pointed out you only need a 13 CHA and a good handle animal skill. It is much easier to boost up handle animal than to get a CHA based character with a non-mount animal companion. Take any class that gets an animal companion make sure the character has a 13 CH and take skill focus handle animal. The +3 bonus from the feat is equivalent to having a 19 CH, when you reach 10th level and have 10 points in handle animal the bonus goes up to +6 which is the equivalent to having a 25 CHA. If you need an even higher bonus, take Animal Affinity to gain an additional +2 (+4 at 10th level) bonus. There are also traits you can take to get a bonus on handle animal. Also don’t forget that you get a +4 bonus to handle animal from the link animal companion class feature.
So, a half elf druid (or other class with an animal companion) with a 13 CHA who puts their free skill focus to handle animal and takes the trait Beast Bond has a +13 bonus with handle animal for his animal companion. the character has to put ranks into handle animal to qualify for the other feats. This puts the handle animal bonus to +25 at 10th level. How much more do you need?
Considering that only the base Beastmaster style feat is available at 1st level the character will obviously need to be higher level before everything comes online. You cannot even get the second feat until 5th level and the third feat does not become available until 9th level at minimum.
After consideration of all the information, I'd steer you towards the Spirit Guide Oracle, choosing the Lunar Mystery, picking up Primal Companion revelation at first level. At 3rd level, pick whatever Spirit compliments your intended focus in combat (which I assume is melee). You can change this everyday, so you are not locked into anything.
This lets you pick Beastmaster Style at 1st level, Beastmaster Salvation at 5th level, and Beast Master Ire at 9th level. You get to pick your 3rd and 7th level feats however you want. I would recommend the Nature Spirit for your wandering spirit and the Friends To Animals hex to give all animals near you a fairly substantial sacred bonus to their saving throws. After you 7th level, you might consider swapping the Life spirit to get access to Channel energy, or Restoration spirit to get Channel as well as the Shell of Succor hex, 'bubbling' allies with temporary HP.
If you are patient enough wait till level 3 to get your animal companion, the Warsighted Oracle might be a good option too, less versatile with healing or swapping abilities, but you get Martial Flexibility and ability to swap combat feats as needed.
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Using retraining to take a feat you didn't qualify for originally is 'cheating' (at least in my opinion: The actual rules are kinda vague on this point): If you couldn't possibly get your specific build without retraining, it's wrong.There is an FAQ on this that very clearly states that this is allowed.
Wow, that might be the worst ruling I have ever seen, but I guess that's another conversation entirely...
Wow, that might be the worst ruling I have ever seen, but I guess that's another conversation entirely...Using retraining to take a feat you didn't qualify for originally is 'cheating' (at least in my opinion: The actual rules are kinda vague on this point): If you couldn't possibly get your specific build without retraining, it's wrong.There is an FAQ on this that very clearly states that this is allowed.
Welp, the feat is "balanced" around being taken at level 4 and that's when I take it. It doesn't feel like cheating to me. It even costs extra money and time.
Consider a lv 12 cMonk with Abundant Step. The feat Dimensional Dervish is restricted to BAB +6, which you fulfilled four levels earlier, but thanks to getting late access to Abundant Step you'd be able to take Dimensional Dervish first at lv 17.
That's nine entire levels after you fulfilled the BAB requirement the creator of the feat though was a fair restriction.
Feat paths so long they can't come online when they ought to, is a fault of the system. Retraining is simply a band-aid.