Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack Simth" data-source="post: 3158487" data-attributes="member: 29252">And we have a winner.Combination of letting Natural Spell work with advanced animal companions, and actually spending spells and money to buff up your animal companion, and you get an Animal Companion which out paces a generic fighter in combat.  Expanding on my work before...Letting Natural Spell work for them, though is... well...At 7th, you can have:A Wolf with 4 bonus HD (bringing it to 6), +4 natural armor, +3 armor bonus for 30 gp with Hide, +2 Str/Dex, some tricks, Evasion and Devotion; giving it an AC of 20, Bite +15 for 1d6+2, and 39 HP (average)Or a Dire Wolf with 0 bonus HD (6 total), AC 14, +3 armor bonus from Hide armor for 60 GP (AC 17), bite +11 for 1d8+10, and 45 HP.If you let natural Bond work for such, that Dire Wolf now has 2 bonus HD (8 total), AC 17, Bite +14 for 1d8+12, and 60 HP. At 7th, no buffs, no items.  Add Hide barding and you get AC 20 for 60 gp.  Animal Companions don't technically have the armor restriction the druid does, but Hide and Studded Leather are about the best for them anyway until you get to Mithral and enchanting.  With Mithral, Scale Mail works about best, at 4,200, 8,200, or 16,200, depending on when your DM multiplies.  Still, though, boosts that Natural Bonded Dire Wolf to an AC of 21.  Enchant it for another +1, and it's up to 22.  And you've still spent considerably less on your Animal Companion than the NPC fighter has.  And your Dire Wolf is better in almost all ways - moves faster, hits harder, harder to hit, better saves, more HP, Evasion; doesn't get iterative attacks, though.  And you have spellcasting to add, say, Greater Magic Fang or Barkskin to up him even more.  At 7th, should a class feature + some cash + one feat really outshine a dedicated fighter, even if he's an NPC?  Shucks, the Druid has Ride and Handle Animal as class skills - the Druid can cast all his buffs on himself and share them with the Animal Companion, free of charge.  So yes, he could easily seem to out-pace the Fighter for some levels if you permit Natural Bond to cover the Level Adjustment for the stronger animal companions, or if you put equipment on your animal companion.</blockquote>

Verification