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

[GreenBob]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von 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.

*slaps table* ill take 3 of her! ... now im going to have to figure out what to do with that lumbering oaf they call Valerie.

[zero4us]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von GreenBob:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von 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.

*slaps table* ill take 3 of her! ... now im going to have to figure out what to do with that lumbering oaf they call Valerie.

Turn her into Feyspeaker Druid with Animal Companion like i do! :-)

[Lycurgo]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von GreenBob:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von 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.

*slaps table* ill take 3 of her! ... now im going to have to figure out what to do with that lumbering oaf they call Valerie.

lvl 2 thug lvl 5 fighter(for SD) rest stalward defender and you have a scary valeria.

[AzureTheGamerKobold]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von GrandMajora:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von 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.

.... yes but did you even bother to read the arcana?... bonus spells are nice but they are just that BONUS spells...

If you match up a serpent summoner next to an abyssal summner they will win every single time, because there Arcana and bloodline powers BENEFIT summoning. Serpent summoners can use enchantment vs beasts, magical beasts, ect

Serpent Bloodline Arcana: Your powers of compulsion can affect even bestial creatures. Whenever you cast a mind-affecting or language-dependent spell, it affects animals, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids as if they were humanoids who understood your language.

They are designed to be enchanters not summoners, if you are running them as a summoner you are probably doing it wrong. Can they be summoners? yes, can they cast summon spells? absolutely! but they literally have NOTHING to make it stronger...

Abyssal is better because they give ALL summons a natural innate damage reduction on top of always summoning an extra creature, which STACKS with supiror summoning. So they summon more monsters, and those monsters are just harder to kill unless you are a paladin or cleric with the right spells to damage them.

Abyssal is the better pet class, serpentine are better enchanters

[Babbles]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von 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?

Smilodon has one bite and FOUR claw attacks :)

[Iridescence]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Babbles:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von 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?

Smilodon has one bite and FOUR claw attacks :)

Yes...Hence 1D6 + 4D4 :) Still less total damage than the mastodon can do because it gets extra 2D6 trample attack at lvl 7.

[Iry]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von AzureTheGamerKobold:

but they literally have NOTHING to make it stronger...

Nitpick: Serpentine can cast Buff Enchantments on summoned monsters because they become valid targets for certain buffs. But the only one worthwhile is Heroic Invocation. =D

So, that one specific circumstance aside... I would take Abyssal 10 times out of 10.
Just a shame you have to wait until 15 for the extra summon.