Animal Companion morbidly annoying?

[sniffles]

I'm the same way ... I made the ranger's wolf more like a familiar (mental link, etc.), and gave the wizard a blink puppy (who has now grown into a full-grown blink dog) for her familiar, just 'cause it was more better coolness.

-The Gneech

You guyes are cool!

I do not understand the attitude of a GM who doesn't like companions/familiars/special mounts and expresses it by targeting them. It's fine if you don't care for them and don't want them in your game, but tell the players that up front so they have the choice of passing on those class features. Or offer them something else instead. Don't just go around killing their animals because you don't like them.

 

[VirgilCaine]

How exactly does one use an animal companion as a scout, without resorting to speak with animals all the time?

Ravens can talk.
No, really.
Their familiar ability is just a "magic" version of something they were known for before those gaudy damn parrots took their niche as the smart birds. That's why Odin had two ravens on his shoulders (Hugin and Mugin? ).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hugin and Munin, as I recall.

 

[woodelf]

The solution to this could be found a) in substitution levels that give bonus feats and minor features at the apropiate levels (bonus feat at the level the companion would be gained, then minor ability whenever the animal companion would outstrip the benefits) or b) simply creating some feats that are more powerfull than normal feats and get better with levels, but demand you to give up the animal companion class feature.
I may give the second option a shot, but I can't promise anything.

You should check out the athas.org ranger--still the best ranger for D&D that i've seen, since the AD&D1 ranger. Let's you choose a variety of cool bits, including animal companions and virtual weapon feats, but also other stuff, like terrain-related bits. If rangers must be bunnyhuggers, that's the class to use. [Personally, i prefer my rangers as commandos.] And i'm quite confident that it would slot right into an otherwise-standard D&D3.5E game.

I prefer the 3.5 animal companion to the 3.0 one on many levels, primarily because every druid player in my games has wanted to keep one animal for their entire career rather than upgrading every couple of levels.

Huh. Never seen that (upgrading, i mean). My biggest beef with 3.5E is that you can no longer have a bunch of weaker animals--every ranger or druid under any edition prior to 3.5E that i've played always kept all their animals (barring death) right from first level--they just got more and more of them. I think the solution is some way to give you X HD (or CR, or ECL, or whatever measure you want) of animal companions, and figure out a way to balance using those new HD to gain new animals, or improve your existing animal(s). The athas.org ranger sort of does this, by having one of the things you can gain with levels be feats and other new abilities for your companion.

 

[fusangite]

I'm going to have to disagree. Every animal companion that I have ever seen has been disgustingly effective. I've also seen druids combine Awaken and leadership to gain even more deadly companions. Bears with levels of barbarian or fighter are quite nasty.

Hear hear! This is just what I did a while ago. I had a horse animal companion; then I took leadership, awakened him and got a brown bear when I reached a higher level. The one downside to all this, especially if one uses Summon Nature's Ally spells a lot is that one player ends up running half the combattants. That's why Mr. Ed (that's not the former companion's real name, just my normal way of referring to him) now administers my small feif while I'm out of town.

With the Druid that I'm playing currently, Greater Magic Fang is a prep spell done far in advance of any expected combat. Once in combat, my character sticks close to his companion and casts buff spells using the share spell ability.

Having Longstrider up all the time doesn't hurt either. I got a metamagic extend rod just so my Greater Magic Fang spells can be up all day. Still, I basically use all my third level slots because between me, my animal companion and all my various wild shapes, there are a lot of individual attack types to deploy the spell on.

 

[Klaus]

I've always found it a little odd to think that a druid, especially, would send an animal companion any place that would endanger it. I mean, druids are supposed to be protectors of nature, right? Dragging a wolf into the dungeon and having it attack the kobolds doesn't seem very protective.

OTOH, I do play a druid currently, and I do have her animal companion attack opponents. I figure the animal is more than just set dressing; he's her buddy, and she might as well use his skills and talents to her benefit, just as she will use her skills and spells to help him. But she won't do it heedlessly. If things are too dangerous she'll tell him to stay behind or run away. A druid who ruthlessly uses an animal companion for advantage but doesn't return the favor should probably be subject to some kind of punishment from their druidic circle or deity.

I see the animal companion as Nature's way of helping the druid. The companion isn't a pet, it's a voluntary for the druid's crusade (hopefully the druid *is* generally fighting to protect Nature).

At lower levels the companion probably can handle most of the druid's fighting. As the levels progress, though, they're better used as scouts, flanking buddies and mounts (I mean, how cool is a druid riding a tiger?).

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I have a similar experience as kenobi65.

I have a 5th level gnome Druid and his wolf Animal Companion is working out just fine so far. Using a wolf as a mount is fun. The wolf is a solid combatant. Not great in the damage department, but a good AC (once I made her wear armor) and great mobility keeps her right in the thick of it when and where she is most needed. And those lucky Trips cause havoc.

Not sure how well she will fare after 10th level, but I am sure she will work out fine up to that point.

I could easily see playing a human Druid and picking up a wolf, bear, or lion companion.

The Animal Companion as written into the Druid class works just fine. I can see that it would not fit well will with all such characters. And I think it works pretty poorly for the Ranger unless you go Beastmaster.

If you have a concept mismatch, the DM should just let you trade the AC for some other ability/feat. It is not a big deal.