Re-Balancing the Animal Companion

[RobbyPants]

How about a flat one hit die per druid level?  If you look at the list of "appropriate" animal companions by level, they're roughly equal hit dice to the level you can attain them at.  Some are a few higher and some are a few lower.

Really, I think the biggest abuse-preventer of this method is to control what abilities the AC can get, how many it gets, and when it gets them.  The hit dice aren't a big issue, and it helps the thing soak up some damage.  If it's HD are roughly 1/2 the druid level, you've effectively got a familiar with a slightly better BAB.

[Kuroimaken]

[Psychic Robot]

Kuroimaken: 3/4.

Here's Paizo's solution.

[AndyJames]

So can a wizard. Augment and Fortify Familiar can make things... interesting.

[RobbyPants]

Just for the record, in case it gives you any ideas one way or the other about balancing the HD:

The animal type per the SRD:

Animal Type

An animal is a living, nonhuman creature, usually a vertebrate with no magical abilities and no innate capacity for language or culture.

Features

• 8-sided Hit Dice.
• Base attack bonus equal to ¾ total Hit Dice (as cleric).
• Good Fortitude and Reflex saves (certain animals have different good saves, for instance dire animals have good Fortitude, Reflex, and Will saves).
• Skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die.

Traits

• Intelligence score of 1 or 2 (no creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher can be an animal).
• Low-light vision.
• Alignment: Always neutral.
• Treasure: None.
• Proficient with no armor unless trained for war.
• Animals eat, sleep, and breathe.

[Risada]

What are the stat suggestions people have?

An example: use your stat block but with a bonus: when the druid/ranger gets her animal companion, she can assign a +2 bonus to any 2 stats (If this is too much make it a single +2 bonus to 1 stat) of the Animal companion (except Int).

[SiggyDevil]

Well I mean Constrict would be fine as by AD&D wording but this ain't D&D. As discussed with Frank months ago, he pointed out this error (?) in 3e while I pushed that the intent of the rules, as in AD&D, only allowed 1 Constrict each round.
Sure enough, AD&D had just that, while Frank did a play-by-play showing this 'mistake' in 3e.

Nothin' wrong with a snake tail for everyone. Wrath-Amon (http://images.google.com/images?&q=wrath-amon

[Psychic Robot]

Okay, I've tweaked some things and added options.  Thoughts?

[Elennsar]

Is the Aquatic "instead of" or "addition to" his land speed? Having both a land speed and swim speed is probably going to be too tempting. Particularly when you get to pick a different ability too.

Seems like a good set of abilities otherwise.

[BobismyRhino]

Nooooo! Bob likes being a bully!

You're taking away Bob's fun. And mine.

[Psychic Robot]

Is the Aquatic "instead of" or "addition to" his land speed? Having both a land speed and swim speed is probably going to be too tempting. Particularly when you get to pick a different ability too.

Seems like a good set of abilities otherwise.

Instead of.  I fixed it.

[AndyJames]

Nooooo! Bob likes being a bully!

You're taking away Bob's fun. And mine.

I don't know. A spawn of Cthulu just screams "INTIMIDATE" to me...

[RobbyPants]

All in all, I like the changes.  The maneuverability categories work well for flying limitations.  That's something I think some DMs forget about when running fliers.  Once your category gets too low, it really limits what you can do in combat.  If you have to waste one or two rounds to turn around and get back, you're seriously hurting in your economy of actions.

Looking at the templates, it seems the Bestial template comes at a fairly high cost.  Other than that, the ones I'd be most likely to consider are  Burrower, Hearty, Riding, or Flier.  I don't know that the others are bad, but I'm not sure I'd get as much out of them.

That being said, I have two questions:

1) With the Riding template, do the two 1d4 attacks replace the standard 1d6 attack, or are they in addition to?

2) Is the only point of the War Trained ability (other than the +2 Str) to make it so you can wear armor?  Not that it's a bad ability; I just wanted clarification.

[Psychic Robot]

1. In addition to.
2. The main point of the war trained was so that one could ride around in combat without having to control one's mount.  I realize that there's a trick for this, but it just seemed good to give it to players at first level without having to worry about it.

I bumped up the bestial template to +4 Strength.  Does this make it more worth taking?

[Risada]

I feel like this animal companion just suffered Strength, Dexterity and Constitution drain....

Why the nerf to the base stats?

[RobbyPants]

I bumped up the bestial template to +4 Strength.  Does this make it more worth taking?

So the total would be +4 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Con?  It's certainly better, but I think I'd take +2 Str, +2 Dex over that, if it were an option.  That Con penalty rubs me the wrong way...

[Psychic Robot]

I feel like this animal companion just suffered Strength, Dexterity and Constitution drain....

Why the nerf to the base stats?

Balance?

So the total would be +4 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Con?  It's certainly better, but I think I'd take +2 Str, +2 Dex over that, if it were an option.  That Con penalty rubs me the wrong way...

Well, I suppose that could work.  The idea was a low-HP animal that can do a fair amount of damage.

[RobbyPants]

All in all, I really like the current version of this.  Are you pretty happy with it, Psychic Robot?

Would you be okay with me including this in my balancing project, if I give you credit?

[Psychic Robot]

Have at it.  It's pretty much open content.

[SiggyDevil]

Lookin good.