Pathfinder (2e): Basics of Animal Companions

Great video! Unrelated question... where are you from? I'm trying to guess your accent.. I'm thinking mid-west but have a feeling I'm way off.. :P

Okay glad to hear all of this cleared up. I just joined a PF2E game as a halfling ranger mastiff rider, and when I watched your other videos about animal commands, I was worried that I was going to end up drowning myself in nature checks and spending more than half my actions simply commanding the dog. That being said, do you think having the ride feat is redundant then, if a companion will automatically follow all stride command actions?

Hi, i have 2 questions.
If you don use command animal and move, the companions move or stay in the site.
And if you use a companion how mount, you and your companion share MAP?

should animal companions get an exploration activity? if yes, does the master need to get the train animal feat (none of the exploration activities are in the list of basic actions animals know)?

I am fairly new to Pathfinder and I was using Pathbuilder to help me build my first character. I spent too long trying to find Command an Animal under spells until I found it staring me in the face under actions.

Errata: Nimble no longer get Expert Unarmored Defence

one thing about command animal is still required for things ur animal is not prepared to do, thats why u can teach it new tricks in downtime

When my companion gain const, i have to recalculate all hitpoints? for example in lvl 4, i got 1 more const, so now the companion life shoud be base health + (6+ new const)*player level?

lv 20 badger can kill an orc

I feel like Neo in the Matrix when he’s like “I know kung fu” after watching your videos.

Excellent video! Im playing a Ranger with a Bear and I needed all this info, thanks so much. But I have a question, what type of sheet do you use for the Animal? Just a normal sheet?

I have some confusion here when it comes to commanding them. Commanding an animal as listed under the nature skill is limited to a few basic actions, but the animal companion is trained in multiple skills. Can they be commanded to use the actions for those skills without needing more training?

The rule that says that animal companions only benefit from item bonuses to speed and AC is quickly forgotten, as Horseshoes of Speed grant that animal companion an item bonus to athletics checks for jumping. xD

I feel dumb for asking this but, when you run with an animal companion and it's your turn, does it work like this:

You use 1 action to give your animal companion 2 actions, and that counts as your 3 actions per turn

or

You use 1 action to give your animal companion 2 actions, and then you still can use 2 actions in addition to the 2 actions your companion gets

So i have a question about the Ranger animal companion. If u pick Precision in Hunter's edge, does that mean both you AND your animal companion deal bonus 1d8 on the first attack that hits?

I personally fix the issue with animal companions being automatically one action slower than non-companions when used as mounts by allowing specifically in a mounted situation the riding owner can spend one more action to grant one more action that can't be used for anything but Stride, Step, Strike. This would require the normal nature check to Command an Animal. And this specifically doesn't stack with anything added later to do a similar thing. This does make Companions a fair bit stronger, but better them be better mounts than automatically much worse in a fairly common situation. If one wants, they can pin this mechanic to the Ride feat and/or the Mount trait to balance it a smidge.

What happens when you Animal Companion Dies? The rules are: If your companion dies, you can spend a week of downtime to replace it at no cost. However, the doubt is: what does replace mean? I get a new one exactly as the dead one? Do I have to make the choices again about its specialization  and race?

If a Bear supports a PC and the PC critically hits, is the Bear support damage doubled?

One question. If a ranger has an animal companion, do they share the multi attack penalties? Could not find that info in the book. Example: the ranger attacks twice and commands his animal to attack twice as well. Will both the animal attacks suffer -10?

I could use a tutorial on how to fill out a stat block for an animal companion, Ranger class specifically.

When it comes to the support action do they have to be next to enemy? I ask with the Bird in mind as it does damage to the target but the bird also has the Flyby ability and I was thinking it would be nice to had the bird do it's support damage and then return. But with only 2 actions it would need to move in range then use 2nd action as support leaving it next to the enemy for a turn.

Hello, Excuse me I have a doubt about where I can find in the rulebooks, the part you say the animal companions do not panic when in danger? I'm just curious.
Thanks a lot for the info.

Is it possible for your animal companions to use skills actions if they're trained with them? Such as demoralize or trip?
Can you use your animal companions perception instead of yours for initiative?

Can not teach your giant bear the mount type/ability ? With train animal
And what happens with beast master archetype multiple companions and mature giving them all always 1 action to use not limited to your current animal companion?

Can Animal Companions be injected with Mutagens?

I'd be willing that if a player had access to that same type of movement like burrow, swim fly to let the animal companion to use that movement while mounted. wouldn't be game breaking

Your videos are so informative and don't have a bunch of fluff. Just straight information and examples. I appreciate that immensely.

Why Comman an Animal skill says you have to make Nature check and animal has 1 action per command used and Animal companion on page 214 says it acts on its own and has 2 actions and acts on its own.

Note that per RAW the Magic Fang spell provides an item bonus and your companion can't gain any benefit from it. RAI it is clearly supposed to work but if your GM is a stickler for the rules be sure to double check with them.

Can you give a companion two "Command an Animal" to give it four actions?

You did not mention that Mature AC's get" During an encounter, even if you don’t use the Command an Animal action, your animal companion can still use 1 action on your turn that round to Stride or Strike"
When do they get the extra Action?
On your turn? After your turn when you haven't used Command an Animal?
If you choose to take the extra Action, then you simply cannot do the normal Command an Animal on this turn?
Maybe this is just the thing that makes the AC defend itself, and of course that if it stands on hot coals it won't do that forever till it dies just because it happened to end up there.

Bonus question:
Can you Ready an Action to Command an Animal? What if you already got the free Action on your Turn?

I'm curious about what "use no actions except to defend itself" actually means for a minion. "Defend itself" is not an action AFAIK. So does this mean that a minion can use a strike action in response to an attack (since the "or escape" seems to imply an option)? Does it rather mean only that the minion doesn't suffer penalties (such as being flat-footed or some other condition) that are often described as being applied when a creature "cannot defend itself," but otherwise can not use a strike action?

It's extremely frustrating that the only table top rpg content out there is 5e D&D. Glad I finally found something in Pathfinder 2e because it's hard to learn and keep everything straight in my head with reading alone.

Your channel is absolutely underrated. I wait for your videos every week as an addict XD

Another excellent and informative lesson! You really do a great job making complex subjects easy to digest. As a new Pathfinder 2e GM, your channel is one of the most valuable resources in my GM toolbox. Thank you for all your hard work.

Love the videos!

We ended up ditching the command action and animals get 3 actions of their own(2 if the animal is slow). They’re sentient creatures that you train with regularly, and we treat them as such.

Need one on Familiars now, that stuff REALLY seems like it was tacked on last minute to the end of Animal Companions...EG: PLAYER: I want an Owl as a Familiar? PATHFINDER: Yep No problem, PLAYER: OK now I want my Owl Familiar to fly... PATHFINDER:WAIT it cant fly. PLAYER:What do you mean it cant fly? Its an OWL? ...PATHFINDER: NO its a familiar, it "use" to be an OWL and therefore can do none of the stuff it use to do when it was an owl. PLAYER: WTF!? FAMILIARS SHezzzz. (well the owl actually does still have fly but it means you loose one of the powers you can assign to it)

Best pathfinder videos out there

Once again, an fantastic summary of a quite complex topic. There are a few things, that can be added here:


1) Mature animal companions for rangers can during an encounter still use 1 action that round on the ranger's turn to Stride toward or Strike the prey that the ranger has marked with Hunt Prey, even if the ranger does not use the Command an Animal action. For druids, the animal companion also can use 1 action to Stride or Strike, but is not limited to a specific target.


2) After becoming Nimble or Savage, an animal companion can also become Specialized. You can chose between 6 different specializations, which grant the animal companion higher ability modifiers, proficiencies, more damage and other benefits. For example, a Badger with the Wrecker specialization can ignore half an object’s Hardness.

Man, I hyperlink this stuff to my Roll20 handouts. You're a lifesaver!