Animal companionL Rhino or Ceratosaurus?

[Edward McGee]

I'm having a tough time choosing what animal companion my Hunter will take at 7th level.



At 7th level the hunter will have high Str but Dex of 14. 16 with animal focus.
Feats will be
Combat Reflexes, Combat Expertise, Pack Flanking, Improved Trip, Broken Wing Gambit, Paired Opportunists, and Power Attack.
He will ride his mount into combat and either cast Good Hope round one or try to trip the enemy. (Greater Trip at 9th level)
The animal companion will have Combat Reflexes, Narrow Frame, Power Attack, his Teamwork feats, and probably Toughness

Both animal companion options are pretty good.

Rhinoceros
Starting Statistics: Size Medium; Speed 40 ft.; AC +4 natural armor; Attack gore (1d8); Ability Scores Str 14, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 5; Special Qualities scent.
7th-Level Advancement: Size Large; AC +3 natural armor; Attack gore (2d6); Ability Scores Str +8, Dex -2, Con +4; Special Attacks powerful charge.

Powerful Charge is double damage on a charge attack. Even with Narrow Frame I don't think that will come up very often. I like the high Con and the wisdom bonus.

Ceratosaurus
Starting Statistics : Size Medium; Speed 40 ft.; AC +4 natural armor; Attack bite 1d8; Ability Scores Str 14, Dex 17, Con 11, Int 2, Wis 11, Cha 10; Special Qualities low-light vision, scent, trip.
7th-Level Advancement : Size Large; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite 2d6; Ability Scores Str +8, Dex -2, Con +4; Special Qualities blood rage, ferocity.

Trip is fantastic and my companion will be pretty good at it. Blood Rage gives it +2 to Str and Con for 1 minute if injured and Ferocity lets it fight at 0 HP.
The higher Dex will let it take more attacks of opportunity. Not sure yet how often either of us will get enough per turn to run out. The lower Con is a bit of a worry.

[Abraham Z]

No opinions about which AnC is better but 2 notes: 1) Narrow Frame won't affect the size of your charge lane: it still needs to be 10' wide. 2) I've found that Power Attack is less desirable for an AnC, even a high STR one, than I would have expected. The reason is that their BAB lags significantly, so the to-hit penalty of PA is felt even more strongly. And lots of bonus damage doesn't help when you miss.

[Edward McGee]

I didn't know that about the charge lane. This is my first mounted character. The companions will have some bonuses to offset the penalties for Power Attack on top of the innate high Str.
+4 from flanking. And as my mount it will always be considered flanking in melee because we both threaten the target.
+1 from the Animal Focus Bull. +2 at 8th level
+1 from Greater Magic Fang +2 at 8th level since both options only have 1 attack.
+2 from Good Hope. Though as a minutes per level spell it won't always be up.
+4 on attacks of opportunity.

If I go with Ceratosaurus Power Attack is a bit worse because the penalty will apply to Trip.

[Abraham Z]

The charge lane issue isn't to do with it being a mount, but to do with the wording of the Narrow Frame feat: "You do not take penalties on your attack rolls or to your AC for squeezing through a narrow space that is at least half as wide as your normal space, though each move into or through a narrow space still counts as if it were 2 squares." If you don't have a 10' wide path to charge through, each square counts as 2 for movement, so you can't charge because it's impeded movement.

Btw, how do you have so many feats at 7? And what gets the ability for your mount to always be flanking?

[Edward McGee]

Hunter's get bonus Teamwork feats that they share with their animal companion. Pack Flanking means we are considered to be flanking when adjacent to each other and both threatening or when sharing a space.