Druid Animal companion..another question from a n00b

[scottys72]

So I am an 11th level druid and I have the Natural Bond feat along with the Improved animal companion feat. I have a dire bear and I have read and read thread after thread about leveling up your companion. Could anyone please help me out with stats? Please?


Hit Dice: 12d8+51 (105 hp) - since I went up 10HD should it be 22d8+88, and if so why did it go from 105 to 88?)

Initiative: +1 - I think this will go to +8 because I will bump the dex and get improved initiative
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)

Armor Class:17 (–1 size, +1 Dex, +7 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 16 - I think it will be 31 (-1 size, +4 Dex, 17 Natural)

Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+23 - NO idea on how to factor this with new HD and str increase

Attack: Claw +19 melee (2d4+10) - Same as above

Full Attack:2 claws +19 melee (2d4+10) and bite +13 melee (2d8+5) - again I'm a n00b

Saves: Fort +12, Ref +9, Will +9 - Will these really only go to Fort 12 Ref 10 and Will 10?

Abilities: Str 31, Dex 13, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10 - +5 str and dex plus 2 stats from levels?

Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Run, Toughness, Weapon Focus (claw) - +2 more feats?

— Also I should get 6 extra tricks correct?

Thank you all!!!

 

[scottys72]

Can anyone please help me out please???

 

[eggynack]

Nope on all of that. Your effective druid level, assuming that your reference to improved animal companion means that weird dandwiki homebrew feat, for the purposes of the dire bear would be five. You have a base of eleven, essentially bumped by six through your feats, and then dropped by twelve due to the dire bear's reduction. Anyway, now on to the actual stats.

Hit Dice: 12d8+51 (105 hp)

The HD should rightly be 14d8, and because there is no increase in constitution, you should get a +8 on the other side, leaving you with 14d8+59.

Initiative: +1 -

You get to go up to +2, cause of the dex bonus. No feats from 12 to 14 though. Might be able to convince your DM to let you retrain something to improved initiative, and that'd help some on this count.

Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)

This does indeed stay the same.

Armor Class:17 (–1 size, +1 Dex, +7 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 16

The AC goes up to 20, with +2 of that coming from natural armor, and +1 coming from dexterity. Touch AC would go up by one, and flat-footed up by 2.

Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+23 - NO idea on how to factor this with new HD and str increase.

For BAB, you basically just take the HD, translate it into the equivalent level, and look at the BAB of a druid of that level, or of any 3/4 BAB class. For your purposes, that means a BAB of +10. As for grapple, your BAB is getting a +1, as is your strength mod, so grapple would get a +2, for a total of +25.

Attack: Claw +19 melee (2d4+10) - Same as above

Full Attack:2 claws +19 melee (2d4+10) and bite +13 melee (2d8+5) - again I'm a n00b

The only thing that would change these is strength, and you're getting a +1 to a 11 mod. It looks like bears get full strength bonus on their claws, and half on their bite, so the only change is adjusting the claw damage up by one. You can probably generalize that full/half thing to other creatures in some fashion, but I'm currently too lazy to do so.

Saves: Fort +12, Ref +9, Will +9 - Will these really only go to Fort 12 Ref 10 and Will 10?

This basically works like the BAB did. A character with good fort and reflex saves, moving from level 12 to level 14, would get a +1 to fortitude and reflex, and no impact on will. You also get a +1 to reflex saves from increased dexterity, leaving you with +13 fort, +11 ref, and +9 will.

Abilities: Str 31, Dex 13, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10 - +5 str and dex plus 2 stats from levels?

As should be reasonably clear by this point, the only change would be a +1 to strength and dexterity, leaving you at 32 and 14 respectively.

Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Run, Toughness, Weapon Focus (claw).

This is the feat list of the dire bear you will have, absent retraining.

— Also I should get 6 extra tricks correct?

And finally, you would have two.

 

[scottys72]

Wow, I totally screwed that up. So my first question is. Are those two feats worth it??? Second question is what do you mean by the dire bears reduction?

What would you have as an animal companion and what would their stats be?

I really appreciate your help!!

 

[scottys72]

Why is creating upgrading an animal companion/upgrading so confusing ?!

 

[eggynack]

Wow, I totally screwed that up. So my first question is. Are those two feats worth it???

You mean natural bond and improved animal companion? They're pretty good, yeah, though I'd personally stay away from the latter for the aforementioned homebrew issue. Those feats tend to be a bit better at early levels, when the static increase means relatively more, but having a better pet fighter is always pretty good. I'd likely go with companion spellbond at later levels though. Overall, natural bond is a good choice, though somewhat inferior to the crazier druid options like aberration wild shape or greenbound summoning.

Second question is what do you mean by the dire bears reduction?

I'm referring to the line, "a druid of sufficiently high level can select her animal companion from one of the following lists, applying the indicated adjustment to the druid’s level (in parentheses) for purposes of determining the companion’s characteristics and special abilities." The indicated adjustment in this case is -12, and it impacts your position on the animal companion ability table.

What would you have as an animal companion and what would their stats be?

The two best options at your level are probably fleshraker dinosaur, from the MM III, and magebred ghost tiger, from Five Nations. The relevant adjustments for each, assuming the same feats applied, would be 14 on the dinosaur, and 11 on the tiger.

 

[scottys72]

Since I dont have either one of those books, would you mind sharing their stats? thank you so so much!

 

[eggynack]

Since I dont have either one of those books, would you mind sharing their stats? thank you so so much!

Really can't. Anything even close enough to the specificity required to fully describe a creature would necessarily be practically a copy paste. You can find both creatures trivially through a simple Google search though.

 

[scottys72]

Thank you so much for all your help. My next question is how you know what reduction each animal get. For instance I looked at the chart and I see that dire bears and giant octopus both are at -12 level adjustment, but why or how do you know? Their hit dice is different and I am just looking for the patern so I know what to apply when I find a different animal..

How did you know what reduction to apply to the 2 pets that you recomended to me?


Also I was looking at the Greenbound Summoning feat that you recomended. Does that add +2 spell level to each of my summoning spells? ie. my call natures ally 1 is now a 3rd lvl spell?

thanks again!!

 

[eggynack]

Thank you so much for all your help. My next question is how you know what reduction each animal get. For instance I looked at the chart and I see that dire bears and giant octopus both are at -12 level adjustment, but why or how do you know? Their hit dice is different and I am just looking for the patern so I know what to apply when I find a different animal..

There's not necessarily a pattern. The creatures just say what adjustment they have, and that's the adjustment they have. If you're using a monster from the monster manual, then that adjustment is listed under the druid, and if you're using a separate monster that can be an animal companion, it's listed as part of the creature, or in the PHB II, as I'll mention below.

How did you know what reduction to apply to the 2 pets that you recomended to me?

Animals that can be animal companions say what their adjustment is. So, for the fleshraker for example, it is explicitly stated that you apply a -3 adjustment, so you do. Alternatively, the PHB II, page 41, has a nearly complete list of every monster that can be made an animal companion, along with their adjustments, and I think it has some monsters that aren't actually mentioned as capable of being an animal companion in their books. Nifty resource, that.

Also I was looking at the Greenbound Summoning feat that you recomended. Does that add +2 spell level to each of my summoning spells? ie. my call natures ally 1 is now a 3rd lvl spell?

Nope, you just summon crazy creatures with no metamagic style adjustment in spell level. I believe the feat was at one point intended to be as you say, but it certainly wasn't written that way, or errata'd later to be that way. Thus, you can toss out a greenbound wolf at first level, and have it throw out a wall of thorns, because the world is occasionally ridiculous. Aberration wild shape might actually be even more ridiculous, at least at the level you get it. It's hard to beat combining nilshai form from unapproachable east with enhance wild shape from the spell compendium, granting two spells every round. It's not like that's the only crazy form either.