Ranger Animal Companion Bonus HD special/custom?

[Mindcloud]

I have a special/custom ability that I am attempting to add to a modified ranger class for a NPC that effectively removes the 3 hit dice penalty that their animal companions have. It also needs to follow the HD progression of the "Race, Animal Companion".

So far I have tried
1. modifying the cBonHDHelp on the animal companion in a dozen different ways
2. modifying cRgrComp and replacing the original thing.
3. Adding the druid under allow custom ability's and using the cDrdComp instead of the rangers. This one seams to work at first but then randomly subtracts the 3 hd later.
4. A bonus HD bootstrap

I have been banging my head against the wall on this for several days now so any help would be appreciated!

Mindcloud

I have added my user file for the class. It has several other things in it as well.

[Mathias]

I added a level of your new class, and selected the "Do not pick animal companion G" custom ability. The animal companion it lets me generate is the same as a first level druid would get, but with the ranger's list of allowed companions.

Isn't that what you wanted?

I'd recommend not making it a replacement for cRgrComp - just change the "available to class" to your new class, and then it doesn't have to interfere with the animal companion ability for regular rangers.

[Mindcloud]

I have attached a example portfolio with two characters to show you the problem. With both characters I when I initially add the animal companion they show 6 HD as they should. However as I start to spec out the character at some random point the animal drops to 3 HD. So far I have not been able to isolate an event that causes it.
Note: One is made with the druid helper and the other with my duplicate "Do not pick animal companion G".

Thank you for your time!

[Mindcloud]

I realized I didn't actually answer your question. Yes I want the HD progression of a druid on the Anm-Comp with the selection of the ranger plus the one extra "Dire Pseudodragon" for the NPC I am running as the DM. The replacement custom ability was more out of desperation to find anything that would work and I would prefer it didn't interfere with the normal ranger as this is a very over powered class.

mindcloud

[Mathias]

Deleting the Animal Domain from those characters solved the problem. Since the Animal Domain adds its own animal companion, at an effective level of -3, that was interfering with your regular animal companion pick.

Create a new version of the Animal domain specifically for this class that doesn't grant an animal companion.

[Mindcloud]

*Smack's forehead* Duh! So simple how did I miss that!!!
Thank you!!

also as an aside is there anyway to add HD through a script?

I was wondering if there is any word and or eta of the bestiary addon that Colen was talking about? I understand if you cant share anything.

Anyway Thank you again!

[Mathias]

You mean adding HD to an animal companion?

On the cAnimComp pick that's bootstrapped by the cRgrComp custom ability, there's a field called CompClAdj. You'll note that the cRgrComp pick bootstraps cAnimComp with a CompClAdj of -3, which is why ranger companions act as a druid companion of 3 levels lower. You could alter that field to alter the effective level of the companion. Do so before First/499, though. That may restrict the places where you can run that script though. Scripts can't start running until all the live/non-live tests on a thing are done, and I'm pretty sure class specials are still running tests at that point.