Author Topic: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?  (Read 4057 times)

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Banaticus

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Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« on: May 08, 2010, 12:06:36 AM »
Yes, I know there's a wild cohort which lets a person with a cohort get an animal follower, but is it possible to combine animal follower and cohort?  I'm seeing a way to combine familiars and animal companions and special mounts, but not an animal companion and a cohort.

Havok4

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2010, 12:43:18 AM »
There is no real way to do that as those functions are not meant to be interchangeable, the cohort is meant to be a separate entity.  Also wild cohort was in a web article and therefor gets no support.

Surreal

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2010, 06:19:50 AM »
Best I can think of is combining a cohort and special mount (DMG p.200). It's kind of ambiguous in terms of what you get... the most liberal interpretation is that you combine all the benefits together, which is pretty darned nice. Stack it all up onto a supermount build for extra silliness.
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OblivionSmurf83

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2010, 08:10:49 AM »
I'm not sure I understand the question. Do you want to combine your animal follower you get from Wild Cohort with your normal follower you get from Leadership? I'm not sure of any feats to do that, though a Psion with the Fusion power could manage it.

Prime32

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2010, 10:56:30 AM »
Best I can think of is combining a cohort and special mount (DMG p.200). It's kind of ambiguous in terms of what you get... the most liberal interpretation is that you combine all the benefits together, which is pretty darned nice. Stack it all up onto a supermount build for extra silliness.
The Devoted Tracker feat lets you combine your animal companion with your special mount. Combine it with this to get what you're looking for. Note though, that treating your cohort as your special mount gives it +2 LA.

I recommend prestige paladin for accquiring the mount.

EDIT: A wild cohort is treated as an animal companion for most purposes, not a cohort.
« Last Edit: May 08, 2010, 11:05:03 AM by Prime32 »
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PlzBreakMyCampaign

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2010, 05:03:53 PM »
Yup everyone has mentioned the first, more obvious way. The downside is you have less bonus HD to the mount.

There is a second (similar) way as well, but its not optimal just like the above. This is the reason it was stricken from my (HD) supermount world record. The method is the Dragonrider PrC.
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Sohala

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2010, 01:40:13 AM »
Devoted Tracker feat lets you combine your animal companion with your special mount.
If only he feat worked the other way around...or would the feat as is cancel the summoning and duration?
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OblivionSmurf83

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2010, 03:14:19 AM »
As others have suggested, combining the Leadership cohort and Special Mount is your best bet. If you don't want to take 5 levels of Paladin to get a Special Mount, Harmonium Peacekeeper from Dragon 315 gets at 1st level, as per a 5th level Paladin (What's more, levels of Paladin stack with Harmonium Peacekeeper, ie, a Fighter 5/Paladin 3/Harmonium Peacekeeper 1 has the special mount of a 8th level Paladin - REALLY useful for Supermount builds).

Anklebite

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #8 on: May 09, 2010, 03:23:00 AM »
As others have suggested, combining the Leadership cohort and Special Mount is your best bet. If you don't want to take 5 levels of Paladin to get a Special Mount, Harmonium Peacekeeper from Dragon 315 gets at 1st level, as per a 5th level Paladin (What's more, levels of Paladin stack with Harmonium Peacekeeper, ie, a Fighter 5/Paladin 3/Harmonium Peacekeeper 1 has the special mount of a 8th level Paladin - REALLY useful for Supermount builds).

ie, a Fighter 5/Paladin 3/Harmonium Peacekeeper 1

Fighter 5

Fighter 5

5 levels of fighter

...explain this one.
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PlzBreakMyCampaign

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #9 on: May 09, 2010, 04:18:04 AM »
ankle, u gave me a good long chuckle.
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An interesting read, nice to see a civil discussion
The point of Spell Resistance is to make it harder to get buffed.
And healed. Don't forget that.
Huge amounts of people are fuckwits. That doesn't mean that fuckwit is a valid lifestyle.
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Your a shifter... you have all you ever need.
It blows MoMF out of the water

But if your greedy for more [Wish] for something that only effects you, like another class level or two that doesn't count against your ECL.
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OblivionSmurf83

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #10 on: May 09, 2010, 05:17:13 AM »
As others have suggested, combining the Leadership cohort and Special Mount is your best bet. If you don't want to take 5 levels of Paladin to get a Special Mount, Harmonium Peacekeeper from Dragon 315 gets at 1st level, as per a 5th level Paladin (What's more, levels of Paladin stack with Harmonium Peacekeeper, ie, a Fighter 5/Paladin 3/Harmonium Peacekeeper 1 has the special mount of a 8th level Paladin - REALLY useful for Supermount builds).

ie, a Fighter 5/Paladin 3/Harmonium Peacekeeper 1

Fighter 5

Fighter 5

5 levels of fighter

...explain this one.

Every build needs 5 levels of fighter. Every build. I know Fighter 4 is a more traditional breakoff point, but that's only because people seem to think that not gaining any special abilities, feats, increases to saves, or anything at all besides 1 point of BAB somehow makes Fighter 5 undesirable. Crazy buggers.

More seriously, I got nothing. I was going by memory in trying to just put down the Dragon Magazine leadin to the class, but a review of Dragon 315 shows that even it's got Fighter 6/Paladin 3/Harmonium Peacekeeper 1 as its example build.

Anklebite, if it makes you feel any better, how about Crusader 5/Paladin 1/Harmonium Peacekeeper 1, for illustrating the point that Paladin and Harmonium Peacekeeper levels stack?


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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #11 on: May 09, 2010, 05:27:18 AM »
Hey, play nice. It was probably a typo or just a mistake or something.
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OblivionSmurf83

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #12 on: May 09, 2010, 05:39:49 AM »
In fact, I take it back.

Commoner 12/Harmonium Peacekeeper 1. So there.

No, wait, Commoner 6/Fighter 3/Harmonium Peacekeeper 1.

McPoyo

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #13 on: May 09, 2010, 06:45:09 AM »
Commoner 2/Survivor 5/Fighter 3/Harmonium Peacekeeper 1.
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Anklebite

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #14 on: May 09, 2010, 02:48:29 PM »
you know, it isn't going to piss me off if I know you are joking.  :P
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ninjarabbit

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #15 on: May 09, 2010, 03:36:20 PM »
An extra d10 hit die is nothing to laugh at. That's 5 hit points on average and that's 3 more hit points on average than the supposed Tier 1 class wizard gets.

Anklebite

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Re: Is it possible to combine an animal companion/cohort?
« Reply #16 on: May 09, 2010, 03:47:37 PM »
An extra d10 hit die is nothing to laugh at. That's 5 hit points on average and that's 3 more hit points on average than the supposed Tier 1 class wizard gets.
warblade was here.
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