Won't rangers have weaker animal companions now?

[dunii_rgr]

Maybe I'm wrong... but looking at this:

i. Animal companions: The animal companion rules have changed; it's no longer purely a "HD = level" link. (There's a lot more to it than that, of course.) Since an awakened animal isn't an animal any more (it's a magical beast), it won't be able to serve as an animal companion (or a familiar or paladin's mount, for that matter). The animal friendship spell is no longer on spell lists. Characters with the animal companion class feature will only have one animal companion at a time. Rangers use the druid rules for animal companions, at ½ their ranger level. Animal Companion ability changes by level (Bonus tricks required no training time):

1-2: HD+0 AC+0 Str/Dex+0 Bonus Tricks 1 Link (+4 Wild Empathy and Handle Animal checks), Share Spells
3-5: HD+2 AC+2 Str/Dex+1 Bonus Tricks 2 Evasion
6-8: HD+4 AC+4 Str/Dex+2 Bonus Tricks 3 Devotion (+4 Save vs. Enchantments)
9-11: HD+6 AC+6 Str/Dex+3 Bonus Tricks 4 Multiattack (if no multiple attack forms the creature gets an addition strike at -5)
12-14: HD+8 AC+8 Str/Dex+4 Bonus Tricks 5
15-17: HD+10 AC+10 Str/Dex+5 Bonus Tricks 6 Improved Evasion
18-20: HD+12 AC+12 Str/Dex+6 Bonus Tricks 7

So, if a level 20 ranger takes a wolf, wouldn't the wolf only have 8 hit dice? Two for being a wolf and the +6 for being a 20th level a ranger (since the ranger uses the druid's rules but at half their level). An 8 HD wolf for a 20 HD ranger?

With the old rules, wouldn't the ranger have been able to have up to 20 HD worth of animal companions instead of one 8 HD animal companion?

Maybe I'm out of it and not understanding right but it seems like with all the good rangers got, they still got screwed.

 

[Plane Sailing]

It certainly seems to restrict the survivability of ranger companions - maybe they expect rangers to use scouts while druids use melee companions?

I'll still be using my house rule for rangers and paladins which gives them caster level = level-3 rather than 1/2 level, and I'll probably be using the same thing for ranger companions too.

 

[Marimmar]

Since you could only take 1HD/Lvl of Animal Companions along on your adventures unless you stayed in the animal's home tarrain your companion would have been max 10HD. So it's not as much of a power loss.

~Marimmar