Rangers Animal Companions

[The Souljourner]

My ranger just reached 4th level and I'm thinking "cool, I get an animal companion". I'm already resigned to the fact that since it's half my level for the druid chart, it'll never be useful in combat, but that's ok, an eagle makes an excellent scout.... except I can't actually talk to the thing, so it actually makes a pretty poor scout, since it can't report.

Also... as far as I can tell, it comes knowing only the bonus trick it gets for free for being an animal companion. One trick probably means it knows *either* heel *or* come, but not both. ...this should be interesting. And now I have to spend 6 weeks of downtime just so I can get it to do a few basic things? What the heck?

Is there something I'm missing here?

-The Souljourner

 

[Stalker0]

My ranger just reached 4th level and I'm thinking "cool, I get an animal companion". I'm already resigned to the fact that since it's half my level for the druid chart, it'll never be useful in combat, but that's ok, an eagle makes an excellent scout.... except I can't actually talk to the thing, so it actually makes a pretty poor scout, since it can't report.

Also... as far as I can tell, it comes knowing only the bonus trick it gets for free for being an animal companion. One trick probably means it knows *either* heel *or* come, but not both. ...this should be interesting. And now I have to spend 6 weeks of downtime just so I can get it to do a few basic things? What the heck?

Is there something I'm missing here?

-The Souljourner

You can push your animal companion as a move action. This lets it do any trick its capable of performing, but doesn't actually know.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

You can push your animal companion as a move action.

You can push it, but it should learn to walk by itself

 

[Plane Sailing]

My Rangers animal companion is a small, tough terrier. Think of Milo in "the Mask"

Another particularly good option if you are not a dungeon delving ranger is the warhorse.

 

[The Souljourner]

Pushing is DC 25... even with the +4 bonus I get for it being my companion, I only have +13 to my check, which means take 10 fails. That's pretty sucky. I have to get a little lucky just to have my companion heel?

Now let's assume I eventually train it. Now what? At 4th level it is woefully underpowered in combat, since it gets absolutely no benefit from being my companion until I reach 6th level. Even the best combat animal, the wolf, only has a single attack at +3 to hit. That's pretty pathetic.

So if they can't fight and they can't scout, what can they do? What do you use your animal companion for? Sure, it's a fun little thing, but anyone can get a trained pet... where's the use from the whole special ability thing?

-The Souljourner

 

[LordAO]

I'm playing a Ranger 6/ Wizard 1/ Arcane Archer 2 and his animal companion is a light horse. Its actually pretty cool. I gave it a collar of cleverness so it knows virtually every trick in the PHB, and with horseshoes of speed it is very, very fast (It can run at a speed of 450!). It isn't too shabby in combat either. I can whistle for it to come if I ever need an extra hand in battle or need to make a hasty escape. Right now my horse has 48 HP, an attack bonus of +8 and the improved natural attack feat. Not bad at all. My familiar is a hawk, and serves as my scout. Since it is intelligent and has empathic link, it serves this purpose very well.

That said, I do strongly disagree with the Ranger having only half of his level count toward his animal companion. The Ranger was always the beastmaster of legend, and even in second editon ADnD the Ranger had the animal empathy, not the druid. This was simply a silly leftover from the 3.0 Animal Friendship spell and the Ranger's half caster level, and keeping it in 3.5 was a mistake, IMHO. I am still extremely pleased and grateful for the other changes to the Ranger class though, so this isn't a really big deal to me.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Well... they are good for... for... CANNON FODDER ?

If you have a Rogue in the group the wolf can provide flanking opportunities... and the best use... Aid Other to your PC... +2 AC or Attack bonus.

Wolves and Dogs can AID your tracking... giving you a +2 in that department too.

 

[Plane Sailing]

My house rule is that rangers use level-3 for determining animal companion abilities.

I agree with Rashak, that their use for providing Aid Another is a great option. My ranger uses his dog to help with tracking by scent

 

[The Souljourner]

Aid another requires the animal be theatening an opponent, which means the opponent can attack the animal. The wolf with his phat 13 hitpoints and 14 AC is going to be a prime target that won't survive two normal hits, or one solid hit.

I just wish they had given rangers the ability to use their animals to scout... Druids can take the big fighty ones, bears and wolves and all that... sure. But the ranger ought to be able to scout with his hawk, dammit. I see a ranger's animal companion as being a midpoint between a wizard's familiar and the druid's animal companion.

But alas, without a racial ability to speak with animals, rangers can only communicate with their companion for a minute per level per first level spell per day. Sucky.

-The Souljourner

 

[Stalker0]

Aid another requires the animal be theatening an opponent, which means the opponent can attack the animal. The wolf with his phat 13 hitpoints and 14 AC is going to be a prime target that won't survive two normal hits, or one solid hit.

I just wish they had given rangers the ability to use their animals to scout... Druids can take the big fighty ones, bears and wolves and all that... sure. But the ranger ought to be able to scout with his hawk, dammit. I see a ranger's animal companion as being a midpoint between a wizard's familiar and the druid's animal companion.

But alas, without a racial ability to speak with animals, rangers can only communicate with their companion for a minute per level per first level spell per day. Sucky.

-The Souljourner

I agree, overall the ranger's companion is pretty crap now. I liked the old version where I could have tons of critters as my companions as my little eyes and ears