I got Races of the Wild, you got the questions

[Steverooo]

I know they had a feat on the Wizards site that gave someone an animal companion-like bond to an animal...

At least, it was better than Handle animal.

The Feat that you want, if you're sixth level or above, is Leadership. With that, you can get any animal of levels less than your own. Otherwise, what you want (and was referred to, here), is Wild Cohort (almost, but not quite as good as a Druid's Animal Companion):

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a

(Now remember yer ol' Ranger buddies when it comes time to save someone's bacon... or divvy up treasure! )

 

[The Shaman]

Maybe i just find it annoying and a tad ridiculous that if i want to play a character with a powerful, kick-ass animal buddy, i have to play a shapeshifting spellcaster.

It seems to me that the same could be said for most any class ability - "I just find it annoying and a tad ridiculous that if I want to play a character who has bardic knowledge I have to play a singing rogue," or, ""I just find it annoying and a tad ridiculous that if I want to play a character who can rage that I have to play an illiterate barbarian."

It's just the way the class system works. A classless d20 in which character abilities are skill-and-feat based gets around this, but as long as I'm running D&D, in my games I avoid undermining the abilities of characters who've chosen to invest levels in a class by not making those same abilities into feats.

 

[Steverooo]

Maybe i just find it annoying and a tad ridiculous that if i want to play a character with a powerful, kick-ass animal buddy, i have to play a shapeshifting spellcaster. (No, rangers, with only half their level adding to the animal companion, don't count here; it simply isn't a big enough boost to make the companion viable as anything more than a scout.) Sure, PrCs can help a bit here, but every single one, except the Beastmaster, requires you have an animal companion beforehand. But then again, i don't see animal companions as some important, class-defining ability for either the druid or ranger; both have such a host of abilities that animal companions are little more than an add-on.


Sure, if you don't mind watching weeks of hard work go down the drain when you're animal friend bites it in his first combat; normal animals are simply too weak to survive high level combat. I once had a fighter focused on mounted combat who went through over a dozen warhorses by the time he hit 6th level.

This is kind of a sore point for me right now, though; i guess i'm just frustrated. I've spent the last couple weeks trying to make a barbaric, dino-riding halfling build for an Eberron campaign, and it just isn't coming together.

If you're trying to make a Kicker-of-Assets dinosaur, at low levels, no; you're not going to be able to do it... If all you want is a 1 HD War-trained mount, then talk to the GM. I would allow one to be bought from some Halfling animal trainer (although replacing it outside the Halflings' area within the game would be tough).

In other words, it's about balance. If you want to ride a T-Rex, you're going to have to wait many levels to get one (see the Druid's Animal Companion table... it's 16th level!) The Deinonychus is only 6th (but by then you could take Leadership), and the Monitor Lizard is third...

 

[Steverooo]

It seems to me that the same could be said for most any class ability - "I just find it annoying and a tad ridiculous that if I want to play a character who has bardic knowledge I have to play a singing rogue," or, ""I just find it annoying and a tad ridiculous that if I want to play a character who can rage that I have to play an illiterate barbarian."

It's just the way the class system works. A classless d20 in which character abilities are skill-and-feat based gets around this, but as long as I'm running D&D, in my games I avoid undermining the abilities of characters who've chosen to invest levels in a class by not making those same abilities into feats.

Apparently, WotC disagrees that Animal Companions is enough of a Class Ability to worry about... You can take Wild Cohort at first level!

 

[The Shaman]

Apparently, WotC disagrees that Animal Companions is enough of a Class Ability to worry about... You can take Wild Cohort at first level!

...provided the GM lets it in the game in the first place.

Spell it with me now: O - P - T - I - O - N - A - L.



Besides, since when does having "WotC" stamped on something mean it can't be bad or broken?

:\

 

[Klaus]

Maybe i just find it annoying and a tad ridiculous that if i want to play a character with a powerful, kick-ass animal buddy, i have to play a shapeshifting spellcaster. (No, rangers, with only half their level adding to the animal companion, don't count here; it simply isn't a big enough boost to make the companion viable as anything more than a scout.) Sure, PrCs can help a bit here, but every single one, except the Beastmaster, requires you have an animal companion beforehand. But then again, i don't see animal companions as some important, class-defining ability for either the druid or ranger; both have such a host of abilities that animal companions are little more than an add-on.


Sure, if you don't mind watching weeks of hard work go down the drain when you're animal friend bites it in his first combat; normal animals are simply too weak to survive high level combat. I once had a fighter focused on mounted combat who went through over a dozen warhorses by the time he hit 6th level.

This is kind of a sore point for me right now, though; i guess i'm just frustrated. I've spent the last couple weeks trying to make a barbaric, dino-riding halfling build for an Eberron campaign, and it just isn't coming together.

For this character type, go with Ranger until 6th level, take Nature Bond feat at 6th (Complete Adventurer, adds +3 to your effective druid level for animal companion purposes) and then proceed to, say, Wild Plains Outrider (provided you want to ride your animal companion in battle). A Rgr6/WPO5 with Nature Bond has an 11th level animal companion.

Or you could be a Paladin/Ranger, take the Divine Hunter (once again, Complete Adventurer) feat and designate your animal companion as your special mount, in which case all the bonuses stack.

 

[boolean]

Don't forget the Beastmaster prestige class, also from Complete Adventurer. This gives you the Animal companion of a Druid whose level is equal to the beastmaster's class level +3.

A Ranger 6 (Effective Druid Level 3)/Beastmaster 1 (EDL 4) gets the animal companion of a druid of the same level (EDL 7). Follow with more levels in Beastmaster , Wild Plains Outrider levels, or simply more Ranger levels (taking Natural bond to make up for 1/2 advancement.)

Sure, you can't get that T-Rex until 16th level, but you can get a Megaraptor at 10th.

 

[JoeGKushner]

The closest we have to an archer PrC here is the Whisperknive, but they are focussed on throwing daggers, who by the way can flank with thrown weapons.

There are some feats and substitution levels for archery, though. And the deepwood sniper is still good...

This PrC is sounding better and better. I can see some combination between this and the Invisible Blade and the Master Thrower coming into focus in my brain.

 

[iwarrior-poet]

The closest we have to an archer PrC here is the Whisperknive, but they are focussed on throwing daggers, who by the way can flank with thrown weapons.

There are some feats and substitution levels for archery, though. And the deepwood sniper is still good...

Sorta, but the Deepwood Sniper has some problems converting to 3.5---
1. Cover/Concealment got reworked for 3.5 and defeating Cover/Concealment was one of the DWS's class abilities--thus there's a problem using a DWS in a 3.0 setting (not a huge problem---but would have been nice to have an official rewrite)
2. The other, more considerable problem is that the DWS adds multipliers to Critical Hits and also increases Crit Range via Keen Edge. I have seen in several places that one of the underlying prinicipals in the 3.5 rewrite was to eliminate/minimize toying with Critical hits. Therefore the DWS kind of flies in the face of 3.5.
I was hoping for a good rewrite that kept the flavor of a strong Bow focused Ranger. I guess I will have to stick with Mongoose Publishing's "Bowman" from Quintessential Ranger II. I just pray that CMP adds Mongoose datasets for its new RPG Toolkit software (due out sometime between now and the end of the world----crazy monkeys!!)

 

[qstor]

Sorta, but the Deepwood Sniper has some problems converting to 3.5---
1. Cover/Concealment got reworked for 3.5 and defeating Cover/Concealment was one of the DWS's class abilities--thus there's a problem using a DWS in a 3.0 setting (not a huge problem---but would have been nice to have an official rewrite)
2. The other, more considerable problem is that the DWS adds multipliers to Critical Hits and also increases Crit Range via Keen Edge. I have seen in several places that one of the underlying prinicipals in the 3.5 rewrite was to eliminate/minimize toying with Critical hits. Therefore the DWS kind of flies in the face of 3.5.
I was hoping for a good rewrite that kept the flavor of a strong Bow focused Ranger. I guess I will have to stick with Mongoose Publishing's "Bowman" from Quintessential Ranger II. I just pray that CMP adds Mongoose datasets for its new RPG Toolkit software (due out sometime between now and the end of the world----crazy monkeys!!)

I have a DWS (Ftr/Rgr levesl too) in Living Greyhawk. I took Improved Critical Bow feat at ninth and Improved Precise Shot at 12th. Kinda gives me some of the bonuses of the DWS. But I lose the x4 crit modifier and the extra range.

Mike