Make My Animal Companion Not Suck, Please

Playing a DnD setting as a ranger, and I'd very much like to avoid having my animal companion end up an Obnoxious Trinket/Waste of Space as the game progresses. Any advice on preventing that?

I'm already planning on getting some magic items to boost its AC, but if there's any other items -magic or otherwise- to make an animal companion more useful, or just general advice, I'd appreciate any help.

This one time, the MVP of the campaign was a Warlock's Sprite familiar, because the warlock took a single level in druid to get goodberry, and the sprite could, while invisible, feed unconscious allies goodberries to get them back up (and, honestly, is getting up at 1d4+stat THAT much different than getting back up at 1?)

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>Any advice on preventing that?
Are we just talking mechanics here? I can't help you if we are.

But if we aren't, the first thing would be what animal do you want to have as a companion? Forget about usefulness and think about what would be cool to have and why's it a honey badger.

It has to be an animal that matches your character's personality. Your ranger's sleeping all cuddled up with an animal. What animal is it? Your ranger's hunting to feed your party alongside your animal. What animal is it? Your ranger is sitting outside the tavern, talking to the party through the window because he can't go inside with his animal. What animal is it?

In many ways, the animal companion is an extension of the ranger's personality. As new age as that sounds, you have to "find" your animal companion. If you don't go choosing it based on stats, there's a much higher chance you won't be thinking of it as an Obnoxious Trinket/Waste of Space further down the line.

Oh I'm not worried about loving it, and petting it, and calling it George. That's EASY.

I'm looking for ways to have a companion be more useful/dangerous/durable/mobile, so the other party members aren't asking me to just let it stay behind (or die) when we get to higher levels. I want it to be able to pull its weight as much as possible.

My love for a fictional animal is unconditional, my party's patience is finite.

In that case, can you give it magical items? Like, an earring or a pendant on a leash or something?

Personally i think that animal companions are a nice way to add more depth to a character and will always support them.

I vote for birds and dinosaurs as best companion choices.
colourfull velociraptors are patrician choice and should be full characters on their own

ask your DM if you can give your animal companion the same number of hit die as you, maybe less.

ask if at some point (level 10?) you can make your animal companion one size class larger, which comes with better hit die, probably lets you use them as a mount and might let them deal slightly more damage.

Ask your GM if you really have to use an action to command your animal companion.

Ask if at some point it can get multiattack.

I think animal companion is pretty weak. If your DM has read the rules for them and thinks this as well then you could probably get a couple buffs if you ask.

That makes sense given birds are dinosaurs.

Have the creature slowly but surely familiarize with the party. If the little buddy is able to see them as companions to you, the animal might do something badass like take a hit or Detect Evil with the right skill set. Even if it’s just your party throwing him a treat every now and again or taking it to the tavern as a fuzzy wingman it’ll feel like less of a drag if everyone is engaged.

First we'd have to know what edition you're playing.

DM is more important than edition, in my experience.

Threaten to attack the party with it if they don't like it.

According to wizards of the coast, animal companions can wear the following magic items (restricted by anatomy - a snake can't wear a pair of gloves):

One skull cap or helm
One pair of lenses or goggles
One collar
One saddle blanket or vest
One saddle or jacket
One belt or strap worn in front of or over the haunches
One pectoral or harness worn over the chest or shoulders
One pair foreleg bracers
One pair of foreleg shoes or mitts -- hoofed creatures wear shoes and creatures with paws wear mitts
Two rings -- creatures with toes wear rings on the toes and creatures with hooves wear "rings" just above fore hooves
One pair of hind leg shoes or mitts -- hoofed creatures wear shoes and creatures with paws wear mitts

The question is really what items are most useful for an animal. They can't say command words (except for parrots maybe), so anything that has to be activated by the voice of the user is worthless.

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Didn't they basically release a patch in Unearthed Arcana?

Condor: "HERE LET ME GET ON THE MOST UNSTABLE PART OF YOU, KTHNX"

3.5 Rangers were kinda crap, so were animal companions.

5 utterly nerfed both to the point of stupidity.

Unearth Arcana patched Rangers a bit (although they're still not great), but animal companions are still fairly hobbled unless you get a sympathetic DM.

If you're playing 5th Edition, ask your DM if they will let you use the Revised Beastmaster from Unearthed Arcana, as it makes a number of changes to the way your companion scales that helps it keep up with the party.

>When you gain a hit die from leveling, your companion also gains another hit die
>Your companion shares your proficiency bonus, and adds it to its AC and Damage, to help it keep up in damage output and help prevent it from getting insta-gibbed

These are good, but there is another thing that I would specify which is that animals with abilities that impose saves such as Pounce or Trample, should scale in the same way that Battlemaster maneuvers scale, that being
>DC = 8 + STR/DEX + Proficiency
This keeps your animal's "special ability" relevant in higher levels instead of getting to a point where enemies always make the save because you're level 12 and the DC is still stuck at 11 or whatever.

For standard gear, amulet of natural armor +3 is useful for an animal companion.

Most animals can use belts, so belt of giant's strength is a great find.

Might want to see if you can get away with a language pearl. Depends on your DM, but worth a shot.

Out of curiosity, is it common for a DM to tell players "I'm going to decide your animal companion for you"?

I mean, I can sorta understand wanting to incorporate finding your companion into an ongoing story, but my "this isn't how it's meant to go down" alarms went into overdrive when my DM did that to a player a while back.

Yeah, like this user has said. The revised ranger beast master is a lot more interesting and useful. Wolf is a good choice because if you are able to get barding armor for your companion your wolf can easily have a higher AC than you and do about as much damage as you.. Its AC with studded leather barding at level 4, with the ASI dumped into dex gives it an AC of 17. Jump it up to medium armor barding and you're talking potentially 20 AC on an animal that can be resummoned for 25gp and would be doing 2d4+5 with a +5 to hit and advantage with pack tactics with a potential to knock something prone.

Mechanically speaking, in base ranger, the DM has the power to decide if they want to because its an animal called forth from nature. With the revised ranger, the companion is magically summoned so the DM would not be able to chose for them.

In either case, unless the player said they didn't have a preference of their animal and left it to the DM, the DM should only say a few which could not be chosen based on current region, but not choose just 1.

I have to admit, I hate it when someone's familiar ends up more effective and dangerous than some of the players thanks to loopholes. It's nice to hear about one that ended up the MVP due to providing support.

Just too bad they didn't think it was good enough to include in XGTE.

Yeah i know, can't go wrong with either one.

It even gives him a couple bird kisses for it.
It truly is grateful for standing on his head.

Get a giant spider, and teach it to wield daggers. Then set it loose on your foes.

They'll be too freaked out to do anything.