Wolf:
Wolf Pack- Every 5 levels after getting the first wolf companion, one other is added to the ability, to a maximum of four wolves total. Since the vanilla wolves are rather weak, I’d make them all equal, stats wise.
Howl- You can send a message in a range of X areas that any wolf ranger / druid can hear and understand.
Hunger - The animal consumes raw meat and thus regains a small portion of health points.
Grizzly Bear:
I am having a hard time thinking of stuff for this one as, in my opinion, this is the most decent of the companions, but:
Fishing-You can command your bear to fish for you, on the proper places.
Hibernate- A boost of sorts to rest while in cave areas?
Ursine Mount - You can ride your bear. I know it is likely impossible without haks,but, it is cool to think about.
Hunger - The animal consumes raw meat and thus regains a small portion of health points.
Lord of the Forest - Every other Animal, besides other brown bears, avoids conflict with the grizzly.
Hawk:
Advanced Scout- You can send your Hawk up to two areas ahead of you. On its return, it will tell you what sort of tracks exist in the transitions of those areas.
Aerial Hunter-You send your companion on a hunt. As it progresses in levels, the chances of it returning with small/medium meats increases. Also a small chance of it returning with an artifact of sorts.
Hawk Messenger- As suggested to me by Dalenger, once per day the hawk can be sent with a message to someone else.
Spider:
Climb- Due both to its ability to scurry up walls, and to produce silk, your spider automaticly helps you up climbable spots.
Poison- X times a day, you can coat a blade with your spider’s poison. Its power increases with X ranger levels.
Silk- X times a day, the spider gives you X ammount of silk strands.
Panther:
Ambush- You mark a spot for the panther to stealth in. While it waits, it gets a +10 to both hide and MS. Whenever a hostile creature passes within 5 feet, the panther automaticly sneak attacks.
Nocturnal-While resting at night time, with the panther by your side, your chances at getting ambushed are reduced.
Hunger - The animal consumes raw meat and thus regains a small portion of health points.
DireRat:
Give it the normal rat appearance, and rather than enlarging it..what about making it even smaller?
HouseMice-You can send your rat through locked doors,according to a lock dc/ranger lvl ratio. You can not interact with things, but you can see what’s on the other side.
CityLife- While inside settlements, the rat gets +20/+20 to hide/Ms. You can also send it to find food, and track within settlements.
Badger
Honey Badger Don't Give A S#*%- When in combat, the Badger gets bonuses to attack, hp, and AC, according to the size category of its enemy. The bigger the enemy is in relation to the badger, the greater the bonuses the badger receives.
Dire Wolf
..I would completly remove the dire wolf. I've never been a big fan of the whole "dire" animal category. Not only are their descriptions odd, they are very close to being unnatural all together. And we've already got the Wolf to fill the canine slot.
Boar
There's an actual Boar in the toolset. The dire boar skin could easily be replaced by the natural one, and perhaps then the Boar could have its size increased, just to look a bit more menacing.
I still intend to come up with a few more ideas for a bunch of these.msterswrdsmn wrote:A few other random ideas. Gonna try to stay away from blatant mechanical advantages. Most of these will go around a druid/rangers ability to survive in the wilderness.
Foraging: While your animal companion is active and you're in a wilderness area, your food/water meters drop at a slower rate, or automtically raise themselves at a slower rate (+1% per tick?)
This is avaliable to ominvore creatures, or creatures that excel in foraging (Boars, bears, badgers)
This is avaliable to carnivore creatures