Druid Companion Dinosaur??

Jfrickey21 · Post by **Jfrickey21** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 12:33 pm

In SoZ the NPC Druid has a !Dinosaur! animal companion... can player druid character's also choose a dinosaur?

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 12:42 pm

Jfrickey21 wrote:In SoZ the NPC Druid has a !Dinosaur! animal companion... can player druid character's also choose a dinosaur?

With SOZ installed, yes - so long as you spend a feat on it.

As a "pet" it scales pretty well (Attack numbers, Strength, Dex., Con., AC), as you increase your Druid level. Also, with some of the "buff" spells a Druid has - can almost equal a Fighter of the same level (..though without magical equipment/weapons). This makes it *very* worthwhile at lower levels, and still useful at higher levels.

It also means that some of those companion spells are finally worth something to use, in particular:

Barkskin (on your Dino),
Jagged Tooth, and
Awaken

All of which last for quite some time unless dispelled.

These *short-term* "buffs" are also useful:

Magic Fang OR (latter) Greater Magic Fang, and

(much latter) Nature's Avatar.

..and finally it's worth it to actually heal your Dino - so the spell "Heal Animal Companion" is actually useful. (Also these "protection" spells at higher levels: Spell Resistance, Deathward, and (short-term) Regenerate - are useful for a Dino.)

In other-words, it can be more than simply a "distraction" summon and is worth the feat expenditure.

Jfrickey21 · Post by **Jfrickey21** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 3:03 pm

Cool, could a Cleric that took animal domain get the feat as well?

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 3:43 pm

Jfrickey21 wrote:Cool, could a Cleric that took animal domain get the feat as well?

Yup.

Dinosaur Companion - NWN2Wiki, the Neverwinter Nights 2 wiki - Races, classes, skills, and more

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 4:00 pm

Interestingly enough a Cleric with BOTH:

1. Animal Domain (Dino with Dino feat), AND

2. Death Domain (Shadow)

..can have two *strong* companions simultaneously! :speech:

It's too bad that you don't have access to the better companion spells that a Druid has.

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 4:18 pm

Ah, it's not as sweet a deal as I had hoped..

The Death Domain Shadow acts as a *summon*, not as a companion.

What this means is that you can't summon an ADDITIONAL summon (from a spell) while you have your Shadow summoned. On the other hand the feat "Augment Summoning" works with the Death Domain Shadow whereas the Dino does not.

Oh well.

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 5:57 pm

One last important thing to add:

Neither the Animal Domain nor the Death Domain summons "scale" in power with anything *other* than the Cleric class.

EX. say you have 10 Levels of Cleric and 10 Levels of StormLord; ONLY the Cleric levels count toward improving your summon (..so it's like having a "companion" summon that's only as powerful as if you were level 10).

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 12:38 am

Here is something really sad:

Dragon Companion:

Dragon Companion - NWN2Wiki, the Neverwinter Nights 2 wiki - Races, classes, skills, and more

vs. the 30th level Dino. (previous link above.)

The Dino is overall stronger.

That's just pitiful.

(..and it doesn't even have the "presence" of a Mega Raptor.)

I tested the Dino with maxed buffs and the epic animal companion feat and the thing was better than many level 30 fighter-type builds with average equipment.

You can even put a persistent "flame weapon" spell on the Dino. (..and vigor, and blindsight for that matter.)

Once fully buffed the thing was doing crazy damage that would "cut" through damage resistance with ease. An *additional* +25 pure physical damage to each attack (a portion of which was Strength and other physical damage from Nature's Avatar and Greater Magic Fang).

The real "kicker" to attack bonuses came from the 9th level spell: Nature's Avatar. **+10** hit and damage. This +10 hit was added to I believe the first attack number of *38*. :speech:

Ok, so where is the let-down?

You can get past most magical issues with Spell Resistance on the Dino. Deathward is also necessary against some opponents.

With the exception of *extremely* high AC opponents, one-on-one combat was the Dino's forte. It excelled at this, rather like a decent Frenzied Berserker build using Power Attack against a single opponent.

The problem though, (unlike the Frenzied Berserker), is that it didn't have any Cleave (or Whirlwind) effect. Multiple melee opponents (or "mobs") took a while to cut-through. This could leave the Dino exposed to the occasion critical hit (..though note however that they were exceedingly rare overall).

IMO this makes the full Druid + Dino the only *viable* true summoner in the game. Gotta have that Natures Avatar though.

(..and yes, fully buffed it took down a demilich in less than 30 seconds.)