Animal Companions (WotR)

Various classes and archetypes are able to acquire an animal companion, an additional companion who will increase in power as the character takes additional levels in classes that have access to animal companions.

## Differences from Pathfinder: Kingmaker

**Pros**:

* Animal companions no longer have arrested progression: whenever their owner gains a new level in a class that grants access to an animal companion, the animal gains a new level too, so their maximum level is 20.
* Animal companions now gain feats every other level and therefore their build can be customized. They also have their own class and 7 different archetypes.
* Animal companions have the following **class skills**: Athletics, Mobility, Perception, Stealth. But their owner can teach them any skills: yes, pets with Use Magic Device can cast spells from scrolls.
* Animal companions can use the following **equipment**: cloaks, helmets, bracers, gloves, belts, armor (barding) and amulets.
* There are much more classes and archetypes that can have animal companions in WotR than in P:K. Some of them provide unique bonuses.
* Most animal companions can be used as mounts which gives them certain synergy with the rider (such as the fact that the enemies usually target the mount with their attacks, except for attacks of opportunity, so as long as the mount is tanky enough it's relatively safe even for a character with low AC to fight on the frontline; also all learned teamwork feats are guaranteed to be in effect because the rider is always close enough to the mount).

**Cons**:

* Animal companions in WotR have *much worse* STR, DEX, CON, Armor Class, Attack Bonus and Saves than in Kingmaker. For example, this is the comparison of lvl 20 bear from WotR with lvl 16 bear from Kingmaker:
	+ 150 HP (248 in P:K), 37 AC (48 in P:K), 23 AB (29 in P:K)
	+ 28 STR (35 in P:K), 18 DEX (25 in P:K), 17 CON (31 in P:K)
	+ 15 Fortitude (25 in P:K), 16 Reflex (22 in P:K), 7 Will (11 in P:K)

By and large, animal companions became weaker on their own (because no extra traits, no enhancement belts, resistance cloaks or natural armor amulets can compensate for all the lost stats, and that equipment doesn't stack with enhancement buffs, Protection from Spells and Barkskin than could be cast on your pet in Kingmaker on top of their already high stats), but at the same time they gained quite a lot in terms of synergy with the rest of the party (teamwork feats, mounted combat) and thanks to the fact that you can teach them Use Magic Device, they can now cast personal buffs on themselves using scrolls: such as Frightful Aspect, Divine Power, Seamantle, Fiery Body and the like, which increased their potential when fully buffed.

## Classes and Boon Companion

The following classes receive animal companions:

Animal companion's level depends on its owner's total level in relevant classes. Because Rangers and Druids/Clerics/Inquisitors with Animal Domain only receive their animal companions when they reach lvl 4, their animal is 3 levels weaker than usual. It can be fixed by taking the Boon Companion feat (can only be taken once) which compensates up to 4 levels. The same feat can be taken by other classes who wish to multi-class up to 4 levels. In other words, Sacred Huntsmaster 10, Ranger 9/Fighter 1 with Boon Companion and Mad Dog 6/Fighter 4 with Boon Companion all have animal companions of the same level.

Classes/archetypes marked with "no BC" don't need to take Boon Companion feat even though they don't receive their animal companions at level 1.

## Animal Companions

A total of 13 different animal companions are present in the game, each of them having their strengths and weaknesses. Their **stats at level 20** can be found here.

Comparison of animal companions' **effective size** can be found here. Although at the moment the size only affects real-time-with-pause gameplay mode. In turn-based combat even the biggest animal companions do not obstruct others' movements.

Animal companions have a total of 8 archetypes (1 main class + 7 archetypes) that can be chosen to build them. Bear in mind that Multiattack feat that some archetypes gain at level 11 doesn't usually do anything so not having it is not a loss. The only time when it has an effect is when you use a polymorph spell to turn your pet into a dragon (or some other form, perhaps) because dragons do have secondary wing/tail attacks that have -5 AB penalty.

The general pattern of an Animal Companion's progression:

Types of damage for animal companions' attacks:

* **Bites** (iterative attack of Wolves, Dogs, Centipedes, Lizards, primary attack of Horses, Leopards, Smilodons) deal **piercing** & **slashing** & **bludgeoning** damage
* **Claws** (primary attack of Bears and most common attacks of Smilodons and Leopards) deal **slashing** & **bludgeoning** damage
* **Gore** (iterative attack of Boars and Triceratopses, primary attack of Mastodons and Elks) only deal **piercing** damage
* **Talons** (primary attack of Velociraptors) only deal **slashing** damage
* **Hooves** (most common attack of Horses and Elks) only deal **bludgeoning** damage

## Benefits of having an animal companion

Animal companions are one of the strongest features present in the game.

### General Strengths

* ***Immortal Tanks*** - while the death of a humanoid companion is a serious issue, animal companions are virtually immortal. Resting is enough for them to be resurrected (if they died), fully healed and cleansed of any negative attributes, diseases, negative levels and other permanent effects regardless of difficulty settings.
* ***Pack Mules*** - most animal companions have excellent Strength which is taken into account when the game calculates the total weight of items your party can carry.
* ***Tireless*** - animal companions never get Fatigued or Exhausted from travelling for too long. Even when every humanoid member in the party is on the brink of collapsing from exhaustion, animal companions feel great and can always be relied on in case of ambushes.
* ***Fast*** - most animal companions move a lot faster than humanoids which makes them very mobile on the field of battle and allows them to quickly reach enemy archers and spellcasters.
* ***Sturdy*** - all animal companions have fairly high AC which can be easily made even higher with spells such as Mage Armor, Shield, Shield of Faith, Barkskin, all of which stack with their natural AC.

### Particular Strengths

* **Dogs**, **Wolves**, **Monitor Lizards**, **Velociraptors**, **Boars**, **Mastodons** and **Leopards** attempt to Trip their enemy during the attack. When **Mastodons** grow up they get the ***Trample*** ability, which allows them to charge across the field of battle knocking down everyone on their way who failed to pass a CMD check.
* When performing a full attack, **Smilodons** hit 5 times, **Leopards**, **Bears**, **Elks** and **Horses** - 3 times, **Mastodons** - 2 times. All hits are made with maximum attack. Attacks of other animals work the same way as those of humanoid NPCs: the higher their BAB is, the more times they hit, but the 2nd and the 3rd hits have penalties to the attack roll.
* **Giant Centipedes** and **Monitor Lizards** poison their enemies and reduce their Dexterity (if said enemies fail the Fortitude save).
* **Leopards** have a few features that make them different from the rest of animals. While everyone else relies on Strength, Leopards prefer Dexterity. As the result, they have the best Reflex saves and the highest average Armor Class (average between AC, Flat-Footed AC and Touch AC). They also never grow too big and while every other animal in their grown-up form can be somewhat hard to use in small rooms or narrow corridors, small-framed leopards are an excellent choice for dungeon crawling.
* **Giant Centipedes** cannot be knocked down and are immune to Mind-Affecting effects.
* Grown-up **Mastodons** are so big they can easily attack enemies from behind the backs of small creatures such as humanoid NPCs.
* Grown-up **Smilodons**, **Leopards** and **Velociraptors** gain a rare feat called ***Pounce***, which allows them to perform a full attack (5/3 hits respectively instead of 1) when charging. **Triceratopses** can also perform full attack when they charge and on top of that they even deal bonus damage on the first hit.
* Grown-up **Bears** gain *Rend* which allows them to hit the enemy 1 more time per round when they successfully land 2 hits.
* Grown-up **Boars**, **Dogs** and **Wolves** gain ***Ferocity*** which allows them to stay alive even with their HP below 0 (but not below their Constitution).