Naming Animal Companion

[Darksavant]

I rolled a druid for my first character and I couldn't find a way to name my animal companion. Did I miss something? If anyone knows of how to do this please let me know. Any good companion needs a real name, like Bearsy McBearFace.

[Valerie Kyrie]

Yes. I would love to name my pet, too. It seems strange having my Bonded Animal Companion called "Dog" following me around ...

[wulfster42]

Sadly they don't let you buff your animal companion almost at all. Augment summoning doesn't affect it (which I guess makes sense), and while it gets more hp as you level up, it only gains stats at level 7 (still making it not very effective at all).

I went with a summon focused Sorc to play around with a summon build, but yeah, at least from my experience the animal companions are not very effective....and you can't name them:(

I do think your animal companion should get the augment summoning bonus even though you don't actually summon it exactly......and I wish there was some other feats to boost summoning and animal companion abilities as well (some way to make them more effective).

You usually have to trade something to have one...so it should be possible to make it useful fo rmore then just the first few levels.

[Ventus]

Agreed, old "Dog", or as the game calls him "918939943bf32ba4a95470ea696c2ba5" needs to get more love.

1) Should be able to rename animal companions
1.5) The ability to pick fur/scale color a bit wouldn't go unloved.
2) WTF is with the idle animation spam loop for animal companions (sometimes indefiniate).
3) Shared spells would be nice, but I can live without them.

[Cokomantis]

we're talking about animals that follow us around for the rest of their lives. they could've gone started a family. live in peace. raise pups. teach them how to hunt and howl and whatnot.

instead, they picked our character. they made a choice to jump into deadly situations headfirst. with us. for us. for the rest of their lives.

and we call them dog. or wolf. or bear.

are you serious? they dedicate their lives to ours, when all we have to give them back is our love. of which right now i'm not seeing any. that's very... sad.

we must AT THE VERY LEAST be able to name them.

[Batailleuse]

Originally posted by wulfster42:

Sadly they don't let you buff your animal companion almost at all. Augment summoning doesn't affect it (which I guess makes sense), and while it gets more hp as you level up, it only gains stats at level 7 (still making it not very effective at all).

I went with a summon focused Sorc to play around with a summon build, but yeah, at least from my experience the animal companions are not very effective....and you can't name them:(

I do think your animal companion should get the augment summoning bonus even though you don't actually summon it exactly......and I wish there was some other feats to boost summoning and animal companion abilities as well (some way to make them more effective).

You usually have to trade something to have one...so it should be possible to make it useful fo rmore then just the first few levels.

Can't buff them? Lol?

My leopard lvl10 has +21 hit with 52 AC buffed

and 150ish hp How is that not effective?
They also Trip every attack (or try to) and have 3 attack around 20 each per Round.

How your tank lvl10? 52ac 60dmg/round and 150hp too?

Pet are extremely good as decent tank + decent dps depending which one you pick.

Also. Worth mentioning but each pet adds their strength to the team carry.

I have a 5 pet team (4 leopard 1 mammoth) and I have 5500 carry. That saves a loooooot of time not doing round trip to get gear. I just pick everything.

[Cokomantis]

bumping for furry justice!

[Ghost]

Jerry the Bear?

[Cokomantis]

how about berry the jear?

[Woeful]

I also support this motion. Unlike a lot of other changes people are suggesting, this sounds actually possible.

[Woeful]

Originally posted by wulfster42:

Sadly they don't let you buff your animal companion almost at all. Augment summoning doesn't affect it (which I guess makes sense), and while it gets more hp as you level up, it only gains stats at level 7 (still making it not very effective at all).

I went with a summon focused Sorc to play around with a summon build, but yeah, at least from my experience the animal companions are not very effective....and you can't name them:(

I do think your animal companion should get the augment summoning bonus even though you don't actually summon it exactly......and I wish there was some other feats to boost summoning and animal companion abilities as well (some way to make them more effective).

You usually have to trade something to have one...so it should be possible to make it useful fo rmore then just the first few levels.

that's one specific buff that doesn't applie to them. The sorc/wiz spell lsit is more meant for humanoid buffing than animal buffing, but it's still really good.
scaling stats happen seemingly every level, with your animal companion getting the tough skin and physical prowess abilities (at lv 5, my bear has +3 naturla armour, and +4 to str/dex/con), which is much better than the tapletop. what happens at 7th level is a size increase, meant to represent your animal becoming more adult
animal companions and summons are icnredibly useful in this game, particualrly on higher difficulties

[꧁༺๓คɭ༻꧂]

Soo.... can we rename them somehow yet?

[Bob of Mage]

I think one of the issues is that it is so easy for them to just die and be replaced. I mean there have been many times when I'll notice after a battle that my buddy is now just a sack of meat. All I need to do is rest and this is fixed. Since clearly I didn't raise them from the dead it seems like a total new animal just showed up for no reason.

Personally I would support naming them, but I would also want their death to be more meaning full. In many ways they are like another memeber of the party and not just some cheap cannon fodder.

EDIT: Also you should be able to give them items that they could use. https://www.d20pfsrd.com/Magic-items/#table-magic-item-slots-for-animals
I mean why can't my bear wear some bracers of armour? I mean magic items shift to fit the size of the wearer, so they would fit on a bear.

[GrandMajora]

Druids don't need names for their animal companions!

Names are a tool of the establishment, meant to feed your pride and vanity with thoughts of individual worth and self importance. Your dog should be focused on supporting the pack as a whole, not trying to stand out from the crowd!

[Icedfate]

sorry for the necro, i only ended up here because i was looking for a way to rename the pet.
i'd love to be able to rename the pets, since I leveled Amira as a sacred huntmistress. . and seeing as she is obviously this game's version of Minsc, I would rename her leopard "Giant Miniature Extraplanar Kitty Kat"
.
.
but, I felt the need to comment on "Dog".
the game dialogue explains that character name to you.
first of all "Dog" is a wolf, so technically "Dog" is a name.
secondly, Ekun makes it a point to explain that he does not own Dog. He just calls the wolf "Dog". Dog is just there. Dog chooses to follow him. If he gave Dog a more "proper" name, it would imply ownership.
Ekun explains this to you in the dialogue you have with him after doing his personal quest.

now, on the other hand, I think the player made Main character at least they ought to be able to name their animal

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by Icedfate:

sorry for the necro, i only ended up here because i was looking for a way to rename the pet.
i'd love to be able to rename the pets, since I leveled Amira as a sacred huntmistress. . and seeing as she is obviously this game's version of Minsc, I would rename her leopard "Giant Miniature Extraplanar Kitty Kat"
.
.
but, I felt the need to comment on "Dog".
the game dialogue explains that character name to you.
first of all "Dog" is a wolf, so technically "Dog" is a name.
secondly, Ekun makes it a point to explain that he does not own Dog. He just calls the wolf "Dog". Dog is just there. Dog chooses to follow him. If he gave Dog a more "proper" name, it would imply ownership.
Ekun explains this to you in the dialogue you have with him after doing his personal quest.

now, on the other hand, I think the player made Main character at least they ought to be able to name their animal

Naming animal companions was something they made possible in WotR. You can also select their feats and ability score improvements as they level up.