New animal companions

[nak9788]

Does anyone know a good way a find the minimum level needed to acquire animal companions that are not listed. I tried classifying a dire snake based upon CR, which is 4. By that comparision, it should go into to the 7th+ bracket, yet if you compare its abilities and what it can do to the other snakes in that bracket (Huge Viper), it should go into the next higher bracket.

I guess this is yet another case where the CR of a monster doesn't make sense when compared to other creatures with the same CR.

How would you classify this creature, and what method would you use to classify other animals (and perhaps certain beasts like dinosaurs, since they include some on the lists already).

 

[Jack Simth]

Does anyone know a good way a find the minimum level needed to acquire animal companions that are not listed. I tried classifying a dire snake based upon CR, which is 4. By that comparision, it should go into to the 7th+ bracket, yet if you compare its abilities and what it can do to the other snakes in that bracket (Huge Viper), it should go into the next higher bracket.

I guess this is yet another case where the CR of a monster doesn't make sense when compared to other creatures with the same CR.

How would you classify this creature, and what method would you use to classify other animals (and perhaps certain beasts like dinosaurs, since they include some on the lists already).

For the most part, it seems to be classified primarily by Hit Dice - things with 3 HD or less usually have no adjustment (badger 1, camel 3, dire rat 1, dog 1, riding dog 2, eagle 1, hawk 1, horse (light or heavy) 3, owl 1, pony 2, snake (Small 1 or Medium 2 viper) , or wolf 2); things on the -3 level list have 3-5 (big exception - large shark, at 7, but aquatic only); things on the -6 level list have higher HD; it would seem that the final HD of the Companion hovers around the same area pretty much regardless of which critter you go with - with maybe some adjustments for the other advantages lost, such as Natural AC, tricks, and Str/Dex bonuses (so that the Tyrrant Lizard King, while it has 18 HD, would have difficulty with a level-16 Druid's lowly wolf animal companion (at that point, the wolf has gained a size class, 10 extra HD, +12 natural armor (in addition to that coming from the size change....), +6 str/dex (again, in addition to the Str/Con boost from the size change), a whole bunch of tricks, and some nifty bonus feats, IN ADDITION TO the feats and skill points the companions get based on those bonus HD.