The first is fairly specific. I'm a transmutation specialist wizard, who has taken the animal companion variant from unearthed arcana (allowing an animal companion instead of a familiar; your druid level is 1/2 your wizard level for determining the familiar). Four of my feats, with flaws and things, are all 'improved animal companion'. It reads "Your effective level for the Animal Companion ability is three levels higher than normal." Does that mean I am a druid of 8th level (4wiz + 3*4 feat = 16, /2 = 8) or 14 (4wiz/2 = 2 + 3*4 = 14)?
I am also thinking about prestige classing into beastmaster (complete adventurer) to get the extra animal companion bonuses there, and am curious how those would work out.
Also, fairly soon I would have an 'effective druid level' of over 20, what are my choices for companions after that? is there a list somewhere of companions other than in the phb?
The second question is more general. As a transmutation specialist, and for flavor somewhat, my character pretty much only casts buff spells. enlarge person, the 'animal's ability' spells (such at cat's grace), and animal power. I have so far managed to find ond feat that reads like "for any transmutation spell you cast that adds to an ability, add +2 more to that ability", which really rocks right now. But beyond that, I haven't been able to find any feats, class builds, items, or anything that really seems to help buffing. Not even a good list of spells that buff after these, haste, and the mass versions.
First of all it looks to me like you would indeed have the animal companion of a 14th level Druid. Those Wizard levels only count for 1/2. I'd go for either an advanced Tiger or Dire Lion, and roll mounted, playing it like a pouncer with a built-in buff bot.
And it's got Share Spells! Wraithstrike ought to be ok on a pounce. (Swift) Expeditious Retreat or Fly, Shield... all kinds of stuff.
Mage Armor will be good. Ray of Resurgence in a scroll for when it's strength drained or fatigued: these can mess up a pouncing charge quickly. I'd pay attention to ray defenses: otherwise Ray of Stupidity could be the beginning of a very unhealthy experience.
Man, why can't I ever seem to find a cool, crazy DM that'll let me take Improved Animal Companion a bunch of times? Some dudes have all the luck...
[grumbles incoherently about a 10HD pouncing, raking, improved grappling mount with Share Spells, until he remembers the Fleshraker.]
I am trying to stick to mostly buffing spells, mostly transmutation, just for the flavor of the character. It seems that after the animal's ability spells, the stat-buffing starts to dissapear (yes, there is haste/fly next level, but after that.. i'm forced to abuse polymorph!
) Improved animal companion specifically says it stacks with itself, in the description
Right now I'm running a brown bear (I was assuming my druid level was 8, not 14) and it is the tank for our group, as our fighter died and rerolled to a rogue last night. I'm thinking of just levelling it up with the extra hd, or running a dire bear?
I am trying to stick to mostly buffing spells, mostly transmutation, just for the flavor of the character. It seems that after the animal's ability spells, the stat-buffing starts to dissapear (yes, there is haste/fly next level, but after that.. i'm forced to abuse polymorph!
Improved animal companion specifically says it stacks with itself, in the description
I'm pretty sure that feat says UP TO YOUR HD.
So no, you can not be an effective druid any higher than your HD, which currently is 4.
If, for some reason, you could take multiples of natural bond and still stay below your character level, the math is:
(Wizard Level / 2) + (3 * Natural Bond) with a Max of your current Character level.
If you have a DM that will let you go higher than that, which is insane, but I've seen worse, I concur with the posters suggesting going the pouncing route, using the beast as a mount. Be sure to maximize your use of personal range spells and shared buffs on the two of you as you go into combat. Just ride the wave of cheese until your DM comes to his senses or you get bored with the mental masturbation.
Natural Bond does in deed have a limiter based on your character level, and for good reason. I've never heard of the 'Improved Animal Companion' feat, and I looked through the Feat index, masters of the wild, pathfinder, and dragondex and didn't see it. It's either a house-rule or third party, or someone's confusing the name.
A quick Google search reveals that this (poorly conceived) feat is from "The Netbook of Feats".
http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Improved_Animal_Companion_(DnD_Feat)
As for the precise animal, let me put it this way: the usual problem with pouncing companions is that their attack rolls aren't good enough to see a lot of hits. Your companion, however, has twice the HD of a party member, high strength all by itself, additional oomph from your buffs, and the possibility of Wraithstrike.
Against most opponents, it will hit with claw/claw/bite/rake/rake on a full Power Attack pounce, if it has Wraithstrike... that's 5 attacks that have benefited from your buffs, instead of the 1 that the bear would have gotten.