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I was gutted to discover that, after six years, there is still no 2e option for a barbarian with an animal companion, since Command an Animal has the Concentration trait and using Moment of Clarity every round would be absolutely untenable. (IF I AM WRONG AND THERE IS SUCH A FEAT/OPTION PLEASE LET ME KNOW!)
So time to look at home rules. How does this look? Note that I am assuming said barbarian is getting the companion from an archetype, or indeed is another class using the barbarian archetype for rage.
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Raging Companion Feat 4
Common, Barbarian, Rage
You have learned to share your primal fury with your animal companion. While you are raging the Command an Animal gains the Rage trait, allowing you to use it normally while raging. Your companion automatically enters a rage whenever you do, gaining the basic effects of Rage, but not any additional benefits from your Instinct.
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What do you think? Does this look fairly balanced?
Well, you're solving the problem, but at level 4 you're also adding a big bonus to the companion. I think making it level 2 without the companion rage would be fine. Most groups use free archetype now, so it synergizes well. You could get beastmaster and this at the same time and make your build come online.
Consider a line of feats to share rage and enhancements at a higher level. I would drop it from this feat.
Moment of Clarity should be a free action in my opinion and just be a feat tax.
if they really want to they could make it a feat chain, with second feat making it a free action,
or even take a middle step with it costing you a reaction as the second feat and the third make it free.
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but in the world we are living in you can still be a mounted barbarian on a mature animal companion that gets a free action every round.
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As for your homebrew thing, it sounds cool and but maybe only give the animal rage if you also have the Shared rage feat.
adding
"If you have the shared rage feat your can use Share Rage as a part of this action but only on your animal companion."
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Thank you for your input!
Hmm. Yes, you are probably right. I was looking at it more from a 1e perspective where sharing rage with your companion was standard for barbarian archetypes. That said, I feel like just making Command an Animal useable during rage is too weak on its own. In comparison Raging Intimidation at level 1 gives the ability and two skill feats, one almost certainly right away and one much later. I do like the idea of allowing one to use Share Rage more easily with your companion, but that would not come online until level 8 at the earliest. I would like some small bonus to tack on to this feat when it is taken. I will have to think on it.
Moment of Clarity accomplishes it, but poorly.
It's also worth noting that when a companion becomes mature, they have their own action they can take without having to command.
As to your homebrew...I wouldn't let the animal benefit from rage, but I would have a 2nd level feat that expands on Moment of Clarity that allows you to use Command an Animal (single action version) as a free action, but can spend additional actions to combine into larger Command an Animal actions if desired.
Basically the goal is turn Moment of Clarity into not an action tax for being able to use Command an Animal.
I think spending a second level feat to get action compression is worth it.
Maybe you could add an additional bit, if you have Shared Rage feat you can use it as a free action but only to share it with your animal companion. I think this is potentially balanced, as the companion still needs to take the rage action themselves.
If you're willing to incorporate 3rd party things, Barbarians+ has the Untamed Instinct.
It allows the barbarian to begin with an animal companion, gives Command an Animal the Rage Trait, allows your Companion to use the Rage action (same benefits as you get) and gives them Raging Stride (1 action, the Companion can Rage then Stride). Raging resistance is piercing and slashing.
It also adds Mature/Incredible/Specialised to the Barbarian Class Feats at levels 4/8/14.
In exchange you deal the lowest rage damage, since you get no increase until Specialisation, where it becomes 4 damage, 8 if you have greater weapon spec.
There's more stuff to it like Instinct Feats and whatnot, but it's a solid base to homebrew from I think.
Or you could say that the reason your mount's getting stronger (as you level & take feats that is) is because it's raging/feeding off your rage/etc. No need for new mechanics or juggling numbers to ensure balance. Just take Beastmaster and the advancement feats, or Cavalier I suppose w/ its Trampling Mount & Rearing Display looking fierce. Then simply assert your mount rages even if there's no mechanical effect.
Hmm, there are the more fantastical Instincts where one might one the mount to absorb/represent magical themes... That's gonna be hard to balance, though note that a Commander's AC comes w/ extra abilities, paid for by the advancement feats being higher level than a Druid's. But with Share Rage being kinda high level for its modest effect, I wouldn't give grant too much rage power to a mount, just enough where people can tell its rider is draconic/elemental/spirit-based/etc.
OR, maybe it's a full-blown Instinct! That allows a pretty big budget, though it should still cost feats too.
Pardon if others mentioned these, I only skimmed. :-)
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@Claxon: Looks like you and Neizy are very much in agreement. Yeah, I know that both Moment of Clarity and the free action given at Mature are ways it can be done (extremely poorly) with vanilla rules, but I was hoping for something that actually makes it a viable build.
@TheFinish: Sounds interesting! If I get the chance to actually play this character (as opposed to what I am currently doing, theory-crafting how to rebuild some of my old 1e characters in 2e) I might have to check that out. Right now I am too poor to spend money on a supplement I am not actually using in play.
@Maya Coleman: Whoops, thanks. I had not noticed/remembered that Homebrew has its own subforum. Have not been very active on the forums for a few years. Glad you like it though, and hope Paizo eventually publishes something official to fill this niche. Howl of the Wild 2, anyone?
@Castilliano: I was looking for basic mechanical support more than flavor, but yes, others have convinced me that just giving the mount even basic rage benefits right off the bat might throw off the careful math too much.
Here is what I have landed on and am pretty happy with until and unless something official gets published:
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Raging Companion Feat 2
Common, Barbarian, Rage
You have learned to share your primal fury with your animal companion. While you are raging the Command an Animal gains the Rage trait, allowing you to use it normally while raging.
If you have the Furious Footfalls class ability your mount receives the same increase to speed that you do.
If you have the Share Rage feat you can use it as a free action as soon as you enter a rage, but only on your animal companion.
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I figure a small speed boost at early levels is not too powerful, but fulfils my itch to give the AC a small boost at early levels, the initial benefit is what makes the concept work pretty much at all, and the Share Rage benefit saves a single action if you take a specific level 8 feat. Not super powerful, but fills the niche I need.
Now I can build my giant instinct lizardman barbarian wielding a large naganata from the back of his huge (Mammoth Lord archetype) raging triceratops mount. :D Not practical AT ALL and impossible to use in dungeons, but FUN!
That looks modest as in effect it's working with a budget the Barbarian already accounts for, i.e. Share Rage & its single target. There's also precedent for PC mounts sharing the speed bonus of their riders when ridden so that's reasonable. It's already going to be kind of rough since a Barbarian lacks support/healing.
I'm a bit stingy, but even I might put that at 1st so the natural flow to getting a mount via Archetype at 2nd remains. If I'm misunderstanding and this feat also supplies the AC, I retract my comments! :-P
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Hmm. That is a good point: I use Free Archetype in every game, so I sometimes forget some people do not! :D
I could bump the level down to 1, though I would feel bad for the poor level 1 Barb who takes a feat that does nothing until they reach 2. In any game I run they will likely take this as their class feat the same level they take the archetype feat that gives them the companion.
The only reason I don't have this grant a companion is that I hate when the class AC and the archetype AC conflict. For instance I have a character in one of my games that is a Champion who wants to take the Cavalier archetype but also really wants to eventually take the Auspicious Mount Champion feat. I house-ruled that the equivalent feats between the two (aka the ones that grant Mature, the ones that grant Savage/Nimble, etc) can be interchanged for the purposes of prerequisites.
Before gaining an AC, there's the ability to Command an Animal while Raging at the level where a normal horse/wolf/etc. is significant in battle. Even if it's not a combat mount, the feat overcomes the difficulty Barbs have choosing between controlling their mount or Raging.
And yeah, if it's only for your "always FA" table, it doesn't matter; but if pitching it it does. I don't know where Plane above and others find the data confirming "Most groups use free archetype now," when the forums don't demonstrate that and ya' know, PFS. Paizo may know from polls, but since Paizo still releases Archetypes w/ gaps, I doubt it's "most" (if they even do have data that is). But yeah, if just pressure testing your ideas on the forums for your own circles there's little difference.
@Claxon: Looks like you and Neizy are very much in agreement. Yeah, I know that both Moment of Clarity and the free action given at Mature are ways it can be done (extremely poorly) with vanilla rules, but I was hoping for something that actually makes it a viable build.
@TheFinish: Sounds interesting! If I get the chance to actually play this character (as opposed to what I am currently doing, theory-crafting how to rebuild some of my old 1e characters in 2e) I might have to check that out. Right now I am too poor to spend money on a supplement I am not actually using in play.
@Maya Coleman: Whoops, thanks. I had not noticed/remembered that Homebrew has its own subforum. Have not been very active on the forums for a few years. Glad you like it though, and hope Paizo eventually publishes something official to fill this niche. Howl of the Wild 2, anyone?
@Castilliano: I was looking for basic mechanical support more than flavor, but yes, others have convinced me that just giving the mount even basic rage benefits right off the bat might throw off the careful math too much.
Here is what I have landed on and am pretty happy with until and unless something official gets published:
****
Raging Companion Feat 2
Common, Barbarian, RageYou have learned to share your primal fury with your animal companion. While you are raging the Command an Animal gains the Rage trait, allowing you to use it normally while raging.
If you have the Furious Footfalls class ability your mount receives the same increase to speed that you do.
If you have the Share Rage feat you can use it as a free action as soon as you enter a rage, but only on your animal companion.
****I figure a small speed boost at early levels is not too powerful, but fulfils my itch to give the AC a small boost at early levels, the initial benefit is what makes the concept work pretty much at all, and the Share Rage benefit saves a single action if you take a specific level 8 feat. Not super powerful, but fills the niche I...
I think with the implementation you have, since it provides a benefit to the companions speed and eventually allowing them to get basic rage benefits, that it needs some drawback. I think it needs to require moment of clarity first, and provide a free action Command an Animal when Moment of Clarity is used.
As you've written it, I think it verges on too good. And not being an official published option, I always personally lean towards homebrew should be a tad on the underpowered side.
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This feels a bit like Raging Intimidation. In general it makes sense that Demoralize has the concentrate trait, but specifically for barbarians it gets in the way. And it doesn't make super much sense that raging makes it hard to be scary. So you pay a feat tax to stick the rage trait on Demoralize, but that's a very poor deal so you also get some bonus skill feats to make it more reasonable.
Maybe the solution here is a barbarian feat that adds the rage trait to the Command action, and also gives you some other useful thing.
The design challenge is mostly, how do you time the feat/level for games without free archetype? Because if you got a Beastmaster dedication at level 2, and had to wait until level 4 before taking a barbarian feat to effectively command it, that'd be lame.
This feels a bit like Raging Intimidation. In general it makes sense that Demoralize has the concentrate trait, but specifically for barbarians it gets in the way. And it doesn't make super much sense that raging makes it hard to be scary. So you pay a feat tax to stick the rage trait on Demoralize, but that's a very poor deal so you also get some bonus skill feats to make it more reasonable.
Maybe the solution here is a barbarian feat that adds the rage trait to the Command action, and also gives you some other useful thing.
The design challenge is mostly, how do you time the feat/level for games without free archetype? Because if you got a Beastmaster dedication at level 2, and had to wait until level 4 before taking a barbarian feat to effectively command it, that'd be lame.
That's why my suggestion is that it requires you to have Moment of Clairity, but this new feat gives you action compression (using Moment of Clarity lets you 1 action command for free) and lets you share Furious Footfalls and lets you Share Rage (if you have the feat) as a free action as well, but only with your Animal Companion.
Making it a 1st level feat, I feel like this is pretty well balanced cost for benefit. Obviously it wouldn't be usable at first level, but if you have a way to get an extra feat at first level it would set you up for when you archetype.
Edit: Maybe also add that if you're trained in Nature, you gain the Train Animal feat (which would allow you to purchase a horse and train it at combat, prior to getting an animal companion).
Since Command an Animal has the Concentration trait and using Moment of Clarity every round would be absolutely untenable.
Yes the whole concentration thing is thematic but balance wise it is ridiculous. Other classes don't have these sort of penalties.
However you can get away without commanding a mature animal companion so it eventually sorts itself out.
Raging Companion Feat 4
Common, Barbarian, RageYou have learned to share your primal fury with your animal companion. While you are raging the Command an Animal gains the Rage trait, allowing you to use it normally while raging. Your companion automatically enters a rage whenever you do, gaining the basic effects of Rage, but not any additional benefits from your Instinct.
It is perfectly inline with other classes like for example the way the ranger can share their prey bonus.
Since Command an Animal has the Concentration trait and using Moment of Clarity every round would be absolutely untenable.Yes the whole concentration thing is thematic but balance wise it is ridiculous. Other classes don't have these sort of penalties.
However you can get away without commanding a mature animal companion so it eventually sorts itself out.
Having to use Moment of Clarity & Command an Animal every turn at 1 action cost each is untenable, but if you do action compression via a feat to make it so that doing Moment of Clarity gives you a free Command an Animal, along with other benefits I do think it's worth it. And there's the benefit of now being able to use any concentrate action during your turn.