Animal Companion broken

[em2wob]

First off, wanting to verify this game is supposed to be based on pathfinders rules, if I am not mistaken.

L15 druid should have a L15 animal companion which has 12HD. and the animal is not suppose to be L12 for multiple levels.

further testing at L16 brought the animal companion to L13 (again suppose to be HD not Level). sooo, when it suppose get imp evasion at L15 has now been pushed back to L18 because it's HD is now it's level. Instead of it's HD being deterined by level

[grognardgary]

And yet as is almost every believes animal companions are hugely over powered as they are. Oh and while I am at it the game is based on path finder but it is not an exact copy of it.

[forkofspite]

Level, when used generically, means total hit dice. Perhaps it makes more sense to use the term "Effective Druid Level", but that would confuse the hell out of new players using a sylvan sorcerer. (Why does my pet have Druid levels?)

However, you're correct that the implementation is inconsistent with tabletop - never noticed that before. The base attack bonus and base save bonuses are correct since those are based on hit dice, but the special abilities seem to be based on this hit die as well. Okbo gains improved evasion upon gaining HD 12 which happens when Ekun (with bonded companion) reaches Ranger 14.

I don't have a convenient save to test, but I suspect the same thing happens at "Level 2" - gains evasion immediately rather than needing the Druid (or effective druid) to be level 3.

Not sure what you're talking about regarding being pushed back to level 18. The companion gets improved evasion one level early - when the effective druid level is 14.

[em2wob]

When looking at the animal class page and comparing it with https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/druid/animal-companions and did not notice any differences (so it's documented correctly in game, just doesn't follow it). Thinking about this thoroughly, they recognized this problem and never fixed it until WotR, and it doesn't look like this is going to fixed it in kingmaker.

[forkofspite]

Kingmaker follows the table much more closely than Wrath.

* The Class Level column is the level of the druid (Effective Druid Level), so when your druid is level 15, look at the 15th row.

* The HD column is the hit dice of the animal companion. In Kingmaker (and Wrath, if I'm remembering correctly), this is the "Level" you see on the animal's character sheet. This is why your level 15 druid has a "Level 12" animal companion. Just read "Level 12" as "12 HD".

The apparent mistake made in Kingmaker is that the animal companion gains all of its HD 12 abilities when it first reaches HD 12 (same as "Level 12"). This happens when the druid is level 14, but it shouldn't happen until the druid is level 15. So, the animal gains improved evasion when the druid is level 14 rather than needing to wait until the druid is level 15. I suspect the same thing happens when the druid is level 2 (gaining evasion instead of waiting until the druid is level 3).

Wrath doesn't follow the tabletop progression at all. The animal companion gains a hit die (level) at every level. So, a Level 15 druid in Wrath would have a 15 HD animal companion (with a +11 base attack bonus, +9 base fort and reflex, +5 base will).

[diogoqv83]

Animal companion? Is it a leopard? No? Delete the game and start again with a leopard.

[em2wob]

Originally posted by diogoqv83:

Animal companion? Is it a leopard? No? Delete the game and start again with a leopard.

I agree with you 100% , and even checked, they get finesse 1st lvl also, so well worth and try to mix in 5lvls of mad dog Barbarian to up it's trip attack sadly you can't give it fury's fall (and unlike WotR you cannot have your dual wielding halfling ride it)

and very important the spell animal growth should not be used, as the last time I checked I am pretty sure that debuff for dex based animals (atk, dmg, ac)

[Babbles]

Originally posted by diogoqv83:

Animal companion? Is it a leopard? No? Delete the game and start again with a leopard.

This.

[Babbles]

Originally posted by em2wob:

Originally posted by diogoqv83:

Animal companion? Is it a leopard? No? Delete the game and start again with a leopard.

I agree with you 100% , and even checked, they get finesse 1st lvl also, so well worth and try to mix in 5lvls of mad dog Barbarian to up it's trip attack sadly you can't give it fury's fall (and unlike WotR you cannot have your dual wielding halfling ride it)

and very important the spell animal growth should not be used, as the last time I checked I am pretty sure that debuff for dex based animals (atk, dmg, ac)

Incorrect. Animal Growth adds to stats, just not to the visual model. As you *literally* stated, they start with Finesse :)

[em2wob]

just double checked - the supposed 2x's size increase is just flavor text it seems. which is the very first line of animal growth. so your d6 bite n d4 claws stay the same damage. It also says +8str n +4 con but does not say anything about the -2 dex. In the end you get roughly the same dmg and 1ac (spell 2nat ac and lost 1 from dex)since running around with mass, cats grace unless you want to start carrying bulls. So what is the points of a spell that leave you with the same dmg and ac? Overall is it really needed with a leopard.