Pros and Cons for pet classes (Mad Dog vs Ranger)

[MortVent]

Looking to do a 1/2 orc with a pet (likely wolf)

Now looking at classes I am thinking mad dog barbarian, though the various ranger options do give some nice variances.

I looked into some of the others, and kinda meh on them, as planning a melee character and not a magic focused one

Druid though might be an option, but that would be a change in focus even with wild shape

[zero4us]

Monster Tactician is a better option. You can have pet as well as strong summon (Dire Wolves) as well :-)

Ranger is meh. Ekundayo is good enough as Ranger. Druid is ok. Sylvan Sorcerer or Cleric with Animal Domain are quite strong imo.

[GrandMajora]

I would not recommend the wolf at all. Ekundayo has the Wolf (it's called Dog), and the damn thing keeps dying all the friggin time!

If you want to go the melee route, I heard that Boar is the best choice for a tank. I personally had some good results with the Mastadon, as well. I think it was designed for people who want a raw power house charging into the enemy's front lines.

[zero4us]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

I would not recommend the wolf at all. Ekundayo has the Wolf (it's called Dog), and the damn thing keeps dying all the friggin time!

If you want to go the melee route, I heard that Boar is the best choice for a tank. I personally had some good results with the Mastadon, as well. I think it was designed for people who want a raw power house charging into the enemy's front lines.

We all know that Smilodon is the best follows by Leopard, right? ;-)

My Smilodon has 32 AC at level 7 (basically stronger than poor Valerie)

[GreenBob]

Mad dog over ranger bar none, you retain all your badass rage fueled heavy attacks and can put your pet on flanking for EZ sneak attacks. flame warden is actually the best warden class imo and it doesnt use pets. if you want an all out pet build you can get a sorcerer and have their focus be on conjuration they get way more uses out of their spells and unlock elemental summons at lvl3 i think. you can just stand in the back and buff your summons while they do the thing with their shiny sharp bits that make enemies cry.

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by GreenBob:

Mad dog over ranger bar none, you retain all your badass rage fueled heavy attacks and can put your pet on flanking for EZ sneak attacks. flame warden is actually the best warden class imo and it doesnt use pets. if you want an all out pet build you can get a sorcerer and have their focus be on conjuration they get way more uses out of their spells and unlock elemental summons at lvl3 i think. you can just stand in the back and buff your summons while they do the thing with their shiny sharp bits that make enemies cry.

Yeah, I was never really a fan of Rangers to begin with. Most of their class abilities seem to be situational at best. Maybe if you had an entire campaign dedicated to fighting your racial enemies, things would be different. But in a video game, Ranger just doesn't perform as well as people seem to think it does.

[AzureTheGamerKobold]

Originally posted by zero4us:

Monster Tactician is a better option. You can have pet as well as strong summon (Dire Wolves) as well :-)

Ranger is meh. Ekundayo is good enough as Ranger. Druid is ok. Sylvan Sorcerer or Cleric with Animal Domain are quite strong imo.

Abyssal Sorcerer
Aug summon
greater aug summon +1 summon( i know thats not the name i always forget what its called)
bloodline +1 summon(it stacks)
1/2 sorc level as DR/Good

The reason i chose this over the inquistor is that the inquistor can only have 1 summon spell active at a time, while an abyssal sorcerer can SPAM those summons, granted we don't get to share our teamwork feats but--- we do give our summons damage reduction.

I think this is the better route to go as you can swarm the enemy summon spells as both a distraction and they will get so many attacks soon er later someone will land a blow! I think this is the better summoner over all.

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by AzureTheGamerKobold:

Abyssal Sorcerer
Aug summon
greater aug summon +1 summon( i know thats not the name i always forget what its called)
bloodline +1 summon(it stacks)
1/2 sorc level as DR/Good

The reason i chose this over the inquistor is that the inquistor can only have 1 summon spell active at a time, while an abyssal sorcerer can SPAM those summons, granted we don't get to share our teamwork feats but--- we do give our summons damage reduction.

I think this is the better route to go as you can swarm the enemy summon spells as both a distraction and they will get so many attacks soon er later someone will land a blow! I think this is the better summoner over all.

Why do people keep saying Abyssal is a good choice for summoners? It seems to be focused on Transmutation builds, honestly.

If you want a bloodline that revolves around Conjuration, it seems like Serpentine is the way to go, as it gives you a bunch of summon monster powers

[wulfster42]

Rangers blow....that being said.

1 barbarian level (mad dog) 19 fighter is about 20x better then a pure barbarian. It's not even in the same realm actually.

Woah you say, i want a maxed level animal companion dude!!

Yeah, just use your feats to snag boon companions and you keep your animal companion leveled up, get weapon spec/greater weapon spec AND STILL have more feats then a pure barbarian.

You also get 5/- DR (as good as a barbarian).

You get +6 to hit and +8 to damage from greater weapon spec and fighter weapon focus bonuses.

You also get freaking full movement in medium armor +4 to max dex bonus in medium armor and with 1 barbarian level, +10 movement speed in medium armor (so you get 40 movement speed in medium armor, faster then a pure barbarian).

And you get so many freaking feats still, that you could actually go with both ranged and melee options if you wanted, and make it work fairly well.

Now the Inquisitor is also freaking good mind you, but no reason not to have both.

Also I find leapord the best as it gets 3 attacks, and one auto trips, AND it gets eerything based on pure dexterity (so you don't need bulls strength at all). It has very high damage, decently high defense, very fast movement speed etc. Think it's the leapord that gets that (the one with 3 attacks and 1 trips and dex for damage).

You can actually get all your characters animal companions if you want, they are pretty insane to be honest even late game, or, you can go with a party of 3 (with the exp split only between party members option) and get 2x exp for everyone. not only do your party members level up more, but your animal companions are a higher level as well lol.

Should be noted that this only really gives about 2 extra levels though, and does not compensate (or even come close) for having a full party...but it's doable.

[zero4us]

Originally posted by wulfster42:

Rangers blow....that being said.

1 barbarian level (mad dog) 19 fighter is about 20x better then a pure barbarian. It's not even in the same realm actually.

Woah you say, i want a maxed level animal companion dude!!

Yeah, just use your feats to snag boon companions and you keep your animal companion leveled up, get weapon spec/greater weapon spec AND STILL have more feats then a pure barbarian.

You also get 5/- DR (as good as a barbarian).

You get +6 to hit and +8 to damage from greater weapon spec and fighter weapon focus bonuses.

You also get freaking full movement in medium armor +4 to max dex bonus in medium armor and with 1 barbarian level, +10 movement speed in medium armor (so you get 40 movement speed in medium armor, faster then a pure barbarian).

And you get so many freaking feats still, that you could actually go with both ranged and melee options if you wanted, and make it work fairly well.

Now the Inquisitor is also freaking good mind you, but no reason not to have both.

Also I find leapord the best as it gets 3 attacks, and one auto trips, AND it gets eerything based on pure dexterity (so you don't need bulls strength at all). It has very high damage, decently high defense, very fast movement speed etc. Think it's the leapord that gets that (the one with 3 attacks and 1 trips and dex for damage).

You can actually get all your characters animal companions if you want, they are pretty insane to be honest even late game, or, you can go with a party of 3 (with the exp split only between party members option) and get 2x exp for everyone. not only do your party members level up more, but your animal companions are a higher level as well lol.

Should be noted that this only really gives about 2 extra levels though, and does not compensate (or even come close) for having a full party...but it's doable.

+1

And that's why Amiri is terrible compare to the Mad Dog ;-)

[AzureTheGamerKobold]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

Originally posted by AzureTheGamerKobold:

Abyssal Sorcerer
Aug summon
greater aug summon +1 summon( i know thats not the name i always forget what its called)
bloodline +1 summon(it stacks)
1/2 sorc level as DR/Good

The reason i chose this over the inquistor is that the inquistor can only have 1 summon spell active at a time, while an abyssal sorcerer can SPAM those summons, granted we don't get to share our teamwork feats but--- we do give our summons damage reduction.

I think this is the better route to go as you can swarm the enemy summon spells as both a distraction and they will get so many attacks soon er later someone will land a blow! I think this is the better summoner over all.

Why do people keep saying Abyssal is a good choice for summoners? It seems to be focused on Transmutation builds, honestly.

If you want a bloodline that revolves around Conjuration, it seems like Serpentine is the way to go, as it gives you a bunch of summon monster powers

Abyssal is about summoning hordes of monsters... it gets some stat boosts yes but they are not why you take abyssal. The 10DR/good at level 10 for ALL your summons, and the +1 more summons every spell is why you take it. The stat boosts are irrelevant...

Serpentine is for enchantment builds... why would you use Serpentine for summoning that makes no sense... the arcana literally so you can charm beasts and other animals with like hold person and such.

Edit: to nail this down... a serpent summoner as an example, casting a summon would get at best 5 -7 summons using empowered metamagic, abyssal can get up to 9 and they all have innate damage reduction that can't fall off. The serpent bloodline would get wrecked by an abyssal sorcerer.

[nshawmc]

My main is a mad dog barb. i like it a lot. I also went cleave reach weapon and dip into fighter and aclemist for lots of strength, shield, enlarge and sneak damage, heavy armor and more feats.

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by AzureTheGamerKobold:

Serpentine is for enchantment builds... why would you use Serpentine for summoning that makes no sense... the arcana literally so you can charm beasts and other animals with like hold person and such.

Serpentine gives you maybe like 1 enchantment spell (Hypnotism) as part of its natural progression, but gives you 3 conjurations. One of which is unique to the bloodline and summons a swarm of vermin to overrun your enemies.

[Iridescence]

Why doesn't mastodon get more love?

At 7th level 3 attacks, 1d8 +3d6 damage +good stats for tanking (slightly more raw damage than smilodon's 1d6 +4d4)Is it just the noise that bugs people or am I reading the abilities wrong?

[wulfster42]

Amiri is fixable if you level her up as a cleric (crusader) with animal domain after level 1. Put 3 level up stats into wisdom (with owls you can cast 9th level spells), and 2 into strength and your set.

Crusader gets weapon focus/weapon spec/improved crit/greater weapon spec for free (and one other for Amiri since she already has martial weapons).

Use 1 of Amiri's normal feats to snag Boon companion and you still have a maxed level animal companion which removes the penalty from not being a mad dog barbarian.

Good character that way, very useful.

[wulfster42]

Originally posted by Iridescence:

Why doesn't mastodon get more love?

At 7th level 3 attacks, 1d8 +3d6 damage +good stats for tanking (slightly more raw damage than smilodon's 1d6 +4d4)Is it just the noise that bugs people or am I reading the abilities wrong?

I get the name mixed between smil and panther, but the one that gets dex to damage, 3 attacks with the first auto-tripping....in my opinion is the best.

You only need cats grace (instead of cats and bulls on it), this is especially important if you have alot of animal companions (like 5 or 6 heh).

If one of your characters is an inquisitor, they will ALL get the teamwork feats, which means a freakton of bonus hits if they crit (and they get 3 attacks a round), or any of your characters crit (so yeah, it happens alot) as well. What is more, the bonus attacks are your main attack..which has a trip chance....so it keeps things on the ground alot.

Damage....may be the highest of them all due to the high base dex, bonus dex at 7, and bonus dex from cats grace. Also gives them the highest, or one of the highest ACs as well. Think it's the best by a decent amount tbh.