Animal Companions // Pets

From the rules..

Some additional notes:

• The companions you get from the Champion, Druid, or Ranger (along with the Beastmaster and Cavalier archetypes) have the Minion trait.

Riding Animal Companions -- You or an ally can ride your animal companion as long as it is at least one size larger than the rider. If it is carrying a rider, the animal companion can use only its land Speed, and it can't move and Support you on the same turn. However, if your companion has the mount special ability, it's especially suited for riding and ignores both of these restrictions.

Which Dedication Archetype is Better: Beastmaster or Cavalier?

It depends on what you want to get out of your Animal Companion? Do you want to use it primarily as a mount or do you want to have an extra character in combat? The Beastmaster Dedication has more support for using your companion for more than just a mount while the Cavalier Dedication gives you some bonuses for using it as a mount. Both archetypes give you a free Stride or Attack action once you hit level 4 but there are some nuances.

Beastmaster Advantages

• You have more options to control the size of your mount and can be incredibly important depending on the size of the potential rider. If you are playing as a small creature, you can ride a medium creature (which your Animal Companion becomes after getting the Mature Beastmaster Companion). The drawback is that you cannot ride your Animal Companion until level 4.
• Heal Animal (4) gives you a Focus spell to heal your Animal Companion that recharges whenever you have 10 minutes to Focus (in this case, you need to interact with your pet in an affectionate way -- feed it, play with it, care for it, etc.)

Cavalier Advantages

• You want to be able to ride your Animal Companion at level 2. You don't get the flexibility of choosing it's size, it's going to start out one size larger than your character and it eventually is forced to be large when you take Impressive Mount.
• You can take Defend Mount (6) to get a proactive Reaction to protect your mount. You can take a reaction to become the target of an attack instead of your mount. This adds a considerable boost to the mount's survivability at higher levels but it might not be worth tying up your reaction to this (depending on your class).

Synergy

Being able to speak to animals turns your companion into a more useful ally -- likely turning it into a somewhat capable scout. If your party has no other way to cast Speak with Animals, there are some creative ways to do it:

• A Gnome with Burrow Elocutionist (1) and Animal Elocutionist (5).
• The Animal Trainer Dedication

Animal Trainer Dedication (with Beastmaster)

You get an extra small companion that you can use Call Companion to swap your current companion. Get a Bird with this dedication for social and exploration situations and use your Beastmaster Companion in combat situations.

Note: The Beastmaster matures all of your companions through their feats, making most of the Animal Trainer archetype redundant once you've picked up Beast Speaker.

FAQ

Does Assurance (Nature) work with Command an Animal?

It does, but it's more than likely unnecessary. If you have an Animal Companion through a feature, it has the Minion trait and you automatically succeed on the Command an Animal action.

An animal companion is a loyal comrade who follows your orders. Your animal companion has the animal and minion traits, and it gains 2 actions during your turn if you use the Command an Animal action to command it; this is in place of the usual effects of Command an Animal, and you don't need to attempt a Nature check. If your companion dies, you can spend a week of downtime to replace it at no cost. You can have only one animal companion at a time.

What does the Mount special trait do?

Animal Companions with the Mount special may use other movement speeds than just its land Speed and can take the Support action on the same turn that they moved. Animals without the Mount special trait may only use their land Speed while mounted and may not take the Support action on turns that they moved.

What happens if my Animal Companion dies?

You can spend a week of downtime to find a new one.

Also important to note, Animal Companions (and Familiars) following the same Dying rules players do.