Companion Rules

Gaining Companions

When purchasing a companion talent there are two different situations for how they come into play. The first is when the talent is purchased at character creation, when this is done the character starts with a character designed by them and described in their backstory. This is the easiest way to start with a companion as gaining a companion during the game requires other conditions to be met. When gaining a companion during game play, you must first purchase the talent, giving you the ability to recruit a companion, after which you must then locate the creature you want to bond with. Depending on what type of companion you are recruiting, this can be done in different ways from being as easy as finding a horse or other wild animal to going on a quest to discover the true name of a outsider. After working with your DM to identity the companion you are going to bond with, you must perform a bonding ritual or have someone perform the ritual for you. The ritual requires 10 GP worth of [WOOD NAME HERE] per point of base spirit score of the creature you are attempting to bond with. This material is used in the ritual to overwrite the creatures spirit score and replace it with your own. You then decide what type of bonding you are performing. Either a mutual bonding, or an enslavement bonding. A Mutual bonding leaves the creature with free will, and they may refuse to act depending on circumstances, while an enslavement bonding bends the creature to your will, forcing them to act as you wish. You then require whoever is performing the ritual to make a base DC 20+Creatures fellowship mod + 2 per attitude step below friendly ritualism check to successfully bond a creature to you. If this check fails the materials are wasted, and if the creature is hostile the creature may go on a rampage and attack.
Once a companion has been successfully bound to you, it is then empowered by your ability and you may design it with the companion rules as appropriate, depending on the talent you purchased. Any abilities these basic creatures had before being bonded are overwritten for generic creatures, and if you are attempting to bond a creature that is more powerful than normal (ex, a griffin) that would require you to have talents such as the monstrous or advanced companion talents. However even in those cases some abilities may be overwritten. It you want to bond or command a creature with all its base abilities refer to the contracted summoning rules.

Replacing Companions

When a companion dies or is otherwise lost, the ritual that bound them to you is broken and after one week of time the slot they occupied will be available again for a new companion. At that point you must go through all the steps of gaining a companion in game. From finding a creature and collecting the materials to the ritual to bind it to you.

Companion Action Economy

Any companion that your character has, be it familiar, ediolon, animal companion, or summoned creatures, (Not contracted summons) acts as commanded within reason of their Intellect. To command your creature in combat you must spend a action to give them a command at which point the companion will spend their full turn acting out the command to the best of their ability, and within reason of the command given. Most creatures will not willingly do suicidal acts unless convinced to. Once commanded, the creature will continue to act out the command until a different command is given or it has been able to act out the command given. For example if you command your animal companion to attack the enemies it will attack the enemy that you initially target with the command, and once that enemy is defeated will move on to another enemy until it or another enemy are dead or unconscious. More complex commands or commands that go against the creature's normal nature, such as having it run through a wall of fire, may require skill checks such as handle animal for a animal companion, up to DM discretion.
Companions with higher than animal intelligence still require a action to be spent to give them the initial command, however they can complete much more complex commands, and will do so with more finesse than a companion with animal intelligence. This usually comes into play with creatures such as eidolons and familiars, and certain summoned creatures at higher spell levels. If you are unable to give a command to your companion for whatever reason it will act in the best interests of itself and its master as appropriate for the situation, however it may not act perfectly in a tactical sense under those conditions.

Command Actions & Intellect Thresholds

Commanding a companion is broken down into two categories, basic and complex commands. With basic commands being simple actions such as attack, defend, run, etc. and complex commands being more in depth commands such as moving in a specific path or performing actions in a specific order. The action required to issue these commands depends on the Intellect of the creature and is further modified by any talents or abilities you posses. The base command economy can be found in the chart below.
Basic commands correspond to most one word actions: Fight, Guard, Stay, Push, Pull, Swim, Howl/Roar, etc.
Complex commands correspond to actions that would require more input or are against a creature’s basic nature: Fight with flanking, Move through fire, Dive underwater, etc.
This chart is for creatures with animal intelligence, if your companion does not have an animal intelligence or takes a trait to remove its animal intelligence it treats the chart as starting 2 steps higher. For example given a basic command as a basic action starts at 2 Intellect instead of 4. In addition commanding a companion that does not have animal intelligence no longer uses handle animal by default, and instead uses either diplomacy or intimidate depending on your relationship with the companion. If you are on good terms with your companion, you may not require a check up to GM discretion.

INT SCORE	BASIC COMMAND ACTION	BASIC COMMAND CHECK	COMPLEX COMMAND ACTION	COMPLEX COMMAND CHECK
0	Basic Action + Quick Action	Handle Animal, DC 15	Two Basic Actions	Handle Animal, DC 25
1	Basic Action + Quick Action	Handle Animal, DC 15	Two Basic Actions	Handle Animal, DC 25
2	Basic Action + Quick Action	Handle Animal, DC 15	Two Basic Actions	Handle Animal, DC 20
3	Basic Action + Quick Action	Handle Animal, DC 15	Two Basic Actions	Handle Animal, DC 20
4	Basic Action	Handle Animal, DC 10	Basic Action + Quick Action	Handle Animal, DC 20
5	Basic Action	Handle Animal, DC 10	Basic Action + Quick Action	Handle Animal, DC 20
6	Basic Action	Handle Animal, DC 10	Basic Action + Quick Action	Handle Animal, DC 15
7	Basic Action	Handle Animal, DC 10	Basic Action + Quick Action	Handle Animal, DC 15
8	Quick Action	Handle Animal, DC 5	Basic Action	Handle Animal, DC 15
9	Quick Action	Handle Animal, DC 5	Basic Action	Handle Animal, DC 10
10+	Free Action	Handle Animal, DC 5	Quick Action	Handle Animal, DC 10

HANDLE ANIMAL DC MODIFIER	DC ADJUSTMENT
Interacting with Unnatural creature or Environment (ex, undead)	+10
Dangerous Environment (ex, fire)	+5
Multiple Targets	+5
Preferred Environment	-5

Companion Actions

Unless otherwise noted for an ability or power, companions use the same rules that monsters use for attacking. This means that if a companion has multiple natural attacks they must spend a full round action to attack with all of them, unlike players who can attack with all their attacks as a standard action.

Multiple Companions

The number of companions a character may have is equal to their soul binding pool. For more information on soul binding, refer to the Attributes page (Statistics and Attributes). If you have multiple companions, you must spend a action to command each of them separately, unless you have another ability that lets you command multiple creatures at once. In addition, a companion can not take a talent that gives them command of another companion. Ex: A eidolon can not take the familiar or a bound weapon talent. If you have multiple companions with the ability to assist with a skill, you may only be aided by a single companion at a time.

Animal intelligence Companions

If a companion has the Animal intelligence Trait they use fellowship in place of INT for Survival, Perception, and Heal adventuring skills and starting adventuring skills.