Druid’s Log: Animal Companions
By Flutter, Grand High Secretary of Druid Local 704
(Open to All Friends of Non-Humanoid Pathfinders Regardless of Class)
Few things require as much DM adjudication as the diverse and wonderful world of animal companions. Part class feature, part PC, part NPC, Animal companions, their actions and abilities exist in a nebulous intersection of rules, player control, and DM control. So it’s no surprise that organized play has its own rules about how these non humanoid pathfinders function in the party.
I recommend that you read this whole document through at least once -- your animal friends will thank you for it! If you have questions or want to discuss this guide, check out the Druid’s Log: Animal Companions thread on the Paizo Forums. Consider the above link your Druid Local 704 Union Card!
A few Random Points and less frequently asked questions
Part II: Selecting the companion that's right for you.
Part III: We can build it stronger... faster....
How to train your “not a dragon”
Most tricks are pretty self explanatory but a few bear mention
Part V: Handle Animal and You.
Part VI: Hocks, withers, fetlocks, toes -- Magic Items & Animals
Part XI: Additional Resources and Other Guides
Part X: Animal Companion Etiquette
The druid for basic information about your companion. It is very important to note that the animal you see here IS your animal companion species. If the ability isn't listed here then your animal companion doesn't have it. If for example, the bestiary lion gets a stealth bonus in tall grass while your animal companion lion does not because it’s not a listed ability.
The feats spelled out here as animal companions count as access for those feats, so your animal companion can take improved natural attack even if your druid can't.
Handle animal skill - Very important to point out that the DC to push a critter is 25. The DC to get an animal to do a trick it knows is 10. These are regardless of the DC's listed next to the trick, which are only the difficulty of TEACHING the critter the trick.
The Monkey See Monkey do Blog - Which, among other important information, clarifies that your ape animal companion will not use a manufactured weapon for you. Please respect his or her right to choose their own natural weaponry. It also spells out that raising a critters intelligence to three does NOT mean you can stop making handle animal checks.
According to the guide to organized play, You can only have one combat animal active at any time. This makes archetypes and multiclassing options that grant you multiple companions less viable in organized play.
Mergy's Blog on animal companions Notes that critters need to know the flank and aid trick from the animal archive to use aid another or to go out of their way to flank. One minor note about the animal not learning extra tricks is in error.
The diverse fauna of Golarion offers a myriad of animal companions choices, most of whom have found a ready home with members of the society. Always check the Additional Resources page to make sure the Decemvirate doesn't object to your choice of animal companion. Something to do with allergies...
The most important piece of advice anyone can give you is to pick the animal that fits YOU best. If you think a particular animal fits your character, looks awesome, and would make a great sidekick (or would be great to be a sidekick to) then take it. Many of us are full casters with a very powerful and versatile shape shifting ability. An animal companion can be an entire course unto itself but even if it’s just icing on the cake then you still have cake. Bears are, objectively, pretty bad compared to other options but they're still great for a class feature. PFS is not so deadly that you NEED to take the pouncing kitty/velociraptor of mangley death (unless you want to.)
With that said, here are a few ups and downs of common choices.
Kitty! Awwww they're so cute. Don't you just want to belly rub them? Well, watch your arms. On pure math the kitty probably does the most damage. Pounce + rake and large size means that these adorable bundles of fluff pack a whallop. The grab ability is amazing against spellcasters, who have very limited options once they're grabbed.
I cannot stress enough how good pounce is. Melee fighters usually suffer a great deal from their need to move up and damage, but lose a lot of ability to damage from doing so, especially if they dual wield. Pounce gives you all the mobility of an animals high movement AND the ability to take advantage of the full attack.
Horses: The good news is that you can ride them and they're accepted everywhere. The bad news is that they often have trouble doing things like getting up stairs, climbing down holes, and getting their lil tushies into the teleportation tapestry we keep in the basement.
The society tends to either send us into a dungeon where no one minds the giant cat, or into a fancy party where neither the giant cat or the horse are allowed without a lot of middleground, negating one of the horses advantages.
Wolfy: A good mount for a companion. Having one big bite usually does less damage than having multiple attacks, but your fighters and rogues will thank you when the free trip attack lands the bad guys on the ground. One advantage to one attack is the 1.5 x strength damage for going through Damage Resistance. Even more things hanging out at our dig sites have damage resistance than fly, and animal companions can't carry a golf bag full of different weapons to use. One thing to remember is that a bite is Piercing, Bludgeoning, and slashing, so whether you're chomping on a skeleton or a zombie you're good to go.
Dire bat: Awww.. its an adorable giant fox with wings. While a horse is great for riding down foes on the ground, it seems every other dig site I'm at has either flying wizards, harpies, demons, or flying wizard harpy demons. If you're a little more inclined to beat on things than most druids and have learned how to use a lance at some point you can do a lot of damage on the back of one of these.
Now to get onto Sith's point...
Velociraptor/deinonychus. Whether your cute lil hatchling comes with scales or feathers, they function much like the cat. The bad news is they don't hit quite as hard or grab. The upside is that they have pounce when medium sized, which is handy because the society tends to send us into underground ruins that aren't big on feng shui. The charge rules hit large creatures acting in a group hard. They don't charge as hard but they can charge more often.
Stegosaurus/Ankylosaurus. While I find the term "meat shield" to be a warning sign that someone isn't taking their responsibilities as a caretaker seriously these two companions are excellent choices for defending your party. The ankylosaurus has a lot of natural armor, and the stegosaurus's are incredibly agile for their size. The society doesn't always remember to send along enough body guards, and the ones that they do send tend to just charge off into the middle of things with a big honking sword and leave the casters alone and vulnerable.
Building or leveling your an animal companion can be tricky. Fortunately most of it is on the druid page. I highly recommend an animal companion have its own character sheet, and a bit of graph paper for scrap wouldn't hurt.
Start with the statistics listed for your animal companion to get its base stats. Remember to use the statistics for the animal companion, NOT the bestiary critter. If you're leveling, or using DM protoplasm to start at a higher level, your animal companion may advance. Adjust the stats accordingly.
One often overlooked option is instead of taking the listed benefit at 4th or 7th level, you can instead choose to increase the companion's Dexterity and Constitution by 2. This doesn't make sense for many companions, who get powerful abilities like stun or pounce for taking the standard leveling package. If you want a scout, or you have a dex based companion like a giant weasel it may be viable though.
Hit Dice:
Animal companions have 4.5 Hit points per hit die, round down
Since they do not have hit dice from a PC class they do not get the automatic maximum on the first d8. Its important to recalculate the hit points every level. If you just add 4.5 and round down every time you're costing yourself a hit point every other level.
Remember that you add the Constitution bonus and toughness based on the number of hit dice, not your druid level. At first level your critter will have 9+ twice their con bonus. For a companion with a good constitution this can give them more hit points than some first level fighters.
Skills:
Animal companions can have ranks in any of the following skills: Acrobatics* (Dex), Climb* (Str), Escape Artist (Dex), Fly* (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Perception* (Wis), Stealth* (Dex), Survival (Wis), and Swim* (Str). All of the skills marked with an (*) are class skills for animal companions. Animal companions with an Intelligence of 3 or higher can put ranks into any skill.
Since you have so few skill points one option is to put 1 rank into a few skills like Acrobatics swim and perception to round out the animal's abilities and take advantage of the +3 for being a trained skill.
It’s weird to note that intimidate, escape artist, and especially survival don't get the +3 from being class skills. Acrobatics is especially handy since animals almost always have to move into melee range to attack, which often involves moving through threatened squares and jumping over the inevitable bottomless chasm.
Feats:
Critters are limited to the listed feats listed and those in the animal archive unless they up their intelligence score, at which point they're in the slightly murky area of "any feat they can physically use". For PFS the only known hard limit on that is that they can't take weapon feats. When selecting your feats make absolutely sure you meet the prerequisites of the feat at the time you take it. Note that your animal had a BAB of 0 when it got its first feat, so it can't take the ever popular power attack until it has 3 hd.
Natural Armor bonus:
Remember that this is additive from three sources: the amount you get from the chart, AND the amount each animal companion species comes with, AND the amount (most) companions get for advancing at 4th or 7th level. The three together can add up quickly.
Str/Dex bonus:
Your animals strength and dex increase. This is in addition to the "floating" increase it gets every 4 HD.
Bonus Tricks:
Tricks will be its own section, but do remember to add tricks as your companion levels up.
Link:
You get a +4 to handle your animal companion and can do it faster than "normal". This is incredibly handy at lower levels as it lets you automatically succeed on tricks with even a minimal investment in handle animal.
Share spells:
Note that this has changed from 3.5. A buff spell you cast on your self is NOT automatically cast on your pet as well. That ability is now covered by the Improved share spells. What it does let you do is cast both personal spells (such as the Aspect of the ____ ) and spells that don't normally affect animals. The latter isn't normally an issue for druids, but it lets a sylvan sorcerer use enlarge person.
Spells used this way have to come out of your spell slots. You have a special bond with your soulmate that lets you break the normal laws of magic. The wands and scrolls you dug out of the basement of the society do not.
Ability score increase:
Just like a character, your animal companion can increase any stat they want including intelligence. This doesn't turn them into magical beasts or stop them from qualifying as your animal companion.
I would highly recommend the intelligence boost at least once for a few reasons. First off with the more literal minded DM's you need a trick for the animal to do anything. More intelligence = three more tricks to use. With the more freeform DM's you can usually have more leeway in what actions your animal will take if it is preternaturally smart compared to others of its kind. Secondly strength and dex increase automatically via the chart, strength and con go up when the creature advances, but this is about your only chance to increase its intelligence.
Most importantly it opens an entire new world of feats your companion can take. Remember when planning your companions feat progression that unusual feats can't be taken sooner than 5th level because you need to up your intelligence score and THEN pick the feat. Even if you acquire your companion latter in its life it still developed organically with the restrictions in place.
Multi-Attack:
For "one big bite" companions like the wolf or spinosaurus (thanks Sithis) this is amazing, giving you a second attack at your full 1.5X strength bad guy chomping goodness.
One really bizarre result of the changes in primary/secondary attacks from 3.5 is that creatures that already have multiple primary attacks like the cat and velociraptor also benefit from this extra attack. This ruling is, to me, a little counter intuitive and tucked away in a really obscure place so I don't usually spring it on DMs.
Tricks are the primary way your character (and thus your player) interact with the animal companion. Selecting the right tricks and understanding how they work is paramount to making effective and fast use of them.
The first time you acquire a companion it starts with Intelligence X 3 tricks, plus bonus tricks. If your Animal is a mindless vermin (such a derogatory word!) it has 1 trick + the bonus tricks. Animals start off knowing their tricks. Bonus tricks you gain as your companion levels don't require any training time or Handle Animal checks. This means the only time you should need to train the animal is if you increase their intelligence score or are replacing it after being lost (to what had better have been unavoidable circumstances!!) or dismissed.
You can attempt to train an animal one time per scenario per rank in handle animal. The rules don't say whether this is before or after the scenario so you'll have to ask your GM. You can take 10 on the check, and the +4 bonus from the link does apply.
One way to make your life easier is to use bonus tricks or starting tricks for the DC 20-25 tricks and use handle animal for the lower DC tricks.
For a starting mount I would suggest combat training (attack attack come defend down guard and heel) and then getting it the attack twice. This should upgrade a horse's hooves to primary attacks. Flank is largely irrelevant because you tell the mount where to go.
For an independently acting animal, I highly recommend Attack, attack, come, defend, down, seek, and heel. If you have access to the animal archive (which i cannot recommend enough if you have a pet) I would replace come with the flank trick and simply use heel to keep the animal in your general area and defend to watch your immediate person.
Without getting the attack trick twice animals will only attack humanoids, monstrous humanoids, giants, or other animals.. meaning plants undead oozes constructs elementals ie, the things you're mostly likely to find in your way, can't be attacked without succeeding at a very hard move action dc 25 check to push them into it.
Fetch can be pivotal in society play, where often you need to retrieve an object from the clutches of the bad guy rather than collect the bad guys liver. Even pets that can't fly are typically more mobile than most characters.
Seek is very useful. Not only can you send your critter. who probably has a good sniffer, into the room looking for the ubiquitous invisible antagonist but is also the only way to get your companion to "go over there"
Defend is amazing. If you can only get two tricks, get defend and down. You won't be able to tell the spider who to attack the caster in the back, but if he sees someone threatening you he'll start chewing on someone at least.
Maneuver (from the Animal Archive) is incredibly interesting. It lets you do everything from letting a snake grapple without having to get through DR to enabling a dirty fighting gorilla or a raccoon who likes the steal pretty shiny holy symbols. Some cool maneuvers to consider: grapple, trip, disarm & steal.
Exclusive from Animal Archive will limit the control the GM has over your special friend if they charm your animal.
Serve is useful if you always play PFS with another player, could become incapacitated, or if you would like your animal companion to work with someone else from your party. It allows the person you designate to give orders to your animal companion, and do rolls on handle animal based on your skill level.
Bombard is a blast (sorry) for any flying creature.
Hidden trick! In addition to the tricks in the animal archive and core rule book, you can train a mount to move with the aid of air walk with a DC 25 Handle Animal check as mentioned in the Air walk Spell. By the time you can cast it, air walk lasts long enough to get through most dungeons and enables your critter to ignore difficult terrain, not step on traps, and of course go after the more than ubiquitous flying harpy wizards.
The DC to handle an animal to do a trick it knows is 10, the DC to push an animal to use a trick it doesn't is 25, both are regardless of how hard the trick is to teach.
Thus, getting your animal the right trick for what you want it to do is effectively a whopping +15 bonus to your handle animal check and should be your first priority. Nothing else gives you that huge of a boost. Even maxing ranks, prioritizing charisma, and picking up helpful items won't make a DC 25 check all that reliable.
Since most of the time you only need a DC 10 you want to get your handle animal up to +9 as soon as possible. Remember a natural 1 is only a fail on saving throws and attacks rolls, not skill checks.
This is partially a reliability issue but even more importantly its a time saving one. A critter and a druid effectively give you two turns, and both characters can be very complicated and thus time consuming. One less die roll means you can have fluffy the terrible leap right into the action without stopping the combat to see if he'd rather chase his tail than bite the wizard.
Fortunately getting to a +9 is fairly easy
1 Rank
+3 for it being a trained skill*
+4 from Link (Note link comes with the pet, so you get it even if you're not a druid)
+2 from a training harness.
Animals that are injured effectively give you a -2 to the check, and unfortunately they're injured quite frequently. Pathfinders also have a rather disturbing tendency to be nauseated, sickened, poisoned, level drained, hung upside down or otherwise accrue penalties so you shouldn't rest on your laurels and assume you have "enough" handle animal as soon as you hit +9.
For druids that were raised by wolves** and have less than... outgoing personalities they may need to spend a little more time putting another rank or two into handle animal. Its not the end of the world. At the start of the day set the animal to "defend" either yourself or the party mea.. front line warriors. That way your companion will attack something at least, even if its not the most important target.
These druids especially can benefit from a few extra items to help their relationship.
Cracked Pink and Green Sphere Ioun Stone. A real gem. 200 GP for a +1 competence bonus to any one charisma based skill.. including handle animal. It’s a little inefficient but you can pick up one of these for 2 prestige points after your first mission, or just wait till after 3 or so missions to be able to buy it.
Beast Scent. A lovely perfume that provides +2 circumstance bonus to wild empathy and handle animal. If you're hovering around +11 they're good to keep on hand in case you get sickened. You can also throw it on people running away to track them down later.
Circlet of Persuasion A little pricey but for 4,500 you can negate having the worst charisma in the game with a +3 competence bonus.
The resonance from a Turquoise sphere ioun stone is a +2 competence bonus. A nice bonus if you bought it for the ride skill, but not worth the 6,000 GP price tag for the handle animal bonus alone. If you routinely make ride checks to have your animal dodge though it’s worth slotting.
Remember that a lot of these are competence bonuses and won't stack with each other. Figure out which bonus you think you'll need and budget for that.
Bridle of tricks Teaches your animal extra tricks. Somewhat ambiguous as to what (if any) animals besides horses can wear it.
Collar of obedience A +4 bonus to push or train is ok. The good thing is that its an unnamed bonus. I usually only keep this one on hand for animals I run into in the wild that want to follow me home. A resistance bonus against their worst save without having to get the back slot feat is really nice. (This will come up again in the shopping spree segment.)
Training Whip Gives a +2 circumstance bonus to push a trained animal. Despite the fact that one normally cracks the whip above the creatures head, I consider the use of this item to intimidate a pointy stick offense, but it can also be used as a cat toy to fascinate an animal.
War saddle can instantly give a mount combat training (and I believe the tricks that go with it.)
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* If you have a pet from a class that doesn't have handle animal, I'd highly advise being legally adopted by gnomes and getting Animal Friend. (It not only gives you Handle Animal as a Class Skill, but it also gives +1 to your will save.) Gnomes are very friendly and welcoming families, and a 16 year old human really is a child to them.
If your social or race trait is already taken, consider being a Savannah Child from lovely Katapesh or a Jungle Guide from Sargarva.
** Please don't blame the wolves for the way these druids turned out. Wolves are very loving and kind parents, but aren't always equipped to help a child fully overcome the trauma of the circumstances that lead to their (usually hasty) adoption in the first place.
Given the almost infinite plethora of magical accoutrement out there its no surprise that a system as open as pathfinder society needs to be worried about magical items that were primarily designed with humanoid adventurers in mind being overpowered when wielded by our multi armed fuzzy friends. How animals wear and use magical items is thus one of the areas where the standard and PFS rules diverge the most.
Axe beak, dimorphodon, dinosaur (pteranodon), dire bat, eagle, giant vulture, hawk, owl, quetzalcoatlus, roc.
Starts with Neck/Armor.
Can take extra slot: belt, chest, eyes, headband, neck, ring, wrist.
Dinosaur (allosaurusB2, deinonychus, iguanodon,pachycephalosaurus, parasaurolophus, spinosaurus,
tyrannosaurusB1, velociraptor), kangaroo.
Starts with:Armor & Neck
Can take extra slot: belt, chest, eyes, headband, ring, shoulders, wrist
Ape, baboon.
Starts with: Armor, Neck.
Can take extra slot: Anything.
Tylosaurus, dolphin, manta ray, orca, shark, stingray, walrus.
Starts With: None.
Can take Extra slot: Belt, chest (saddle), eyes.
Badger, bear, cheetah, dire rat B1, dog, giant weasel, goblin dog, hyena, leopard, lion, panda, thylacine, tiger, wolf, wolverine.
Starts with: Neck and Armor.
Can Take extra slot: belt (saddle),chest, eyes, headband, shoulders, wrist.
Camel, dinosaur (triceratops), elephant, giant ant,giant mantis UM, giant wasp, hippopotamus, mammoth,mastodon, megafauna (arsinoitherium, baluchitherium, megatherium), rhinoceros.
Start with Armor & Neck.
Can take extra slot belt (saddle),chest, eyes, headband, shoulders, wrist.
Antelope, aurochs, bison, boar, buffalo, elk, horse, llama, megafauna (megaloceros), moose, pony, ram.
Starts with Neck & Armor. Horses, ponies & donkeys ONLY start with horse shoes. Can take extra slot Armor, belt(saddle), chest, eyes, head, headband, shoulders, wrist.
elasmosaurus, giant frog, giant snapping turtle, archelon, glyptodon
Starts with: Neck and Armor. Can get Extra slot headband, shoulders, wrist.
Alligator, crocodile, dinosaur (ankylosaurus, brachiosaurus, dimetrodon, stegosaurus), giant chameleon, giant gecko, megafauna (megalania), monitor lizard[ B1]
Starts with Armor and neck. Can take Extra Slot: belt (saddle), chest, eyes, headband.
Constrictor snake, electric eel, gar, giant leech, giant moray eel, giant slug, megafauna (basilosaurus)
Starts with: None.
Can take extra slot: Belt, eyes, headband.
Giant beetle, giant centipedeUM, giant crabUM, giant scorpion, giant spider, octopus, squid
Starts with: none.
Can take extra slots Belt, Eyes.
One of the most common and most important pieces of equipment your animal companion can have is a set of armor. Few companions are very effective if they're not going toe to toe with the bad guys, and as Sage Murphy is fond of pointing out, if the bad guy is in biting range of the companion then the companion is in biting range of the bad guy.
Not only do most companions come with this slot, but many armors can be worn without proficiency with little to no penalty. If you are not proficient with armor you take the Armor Check penalty on attack rolls as well as on all Dex- and Str-based ability and skill checks.
Druids local 704 Highly frowns on sending your companions into combat without regard to their safety -- tap tap taps pointy stick.
Leather Armor Barding: Cheap Toile, but better than nothing for the adventurer on a budget. Costs a mere 20 gp for medium companions for 40 GP for large ones.
Masterwork Studded leather: Prêt-à-porter armor you should invest in after your first or second adventure. In Pathfinder Society there is no way to resize the armor, so if your companion is going to have a growth spurt at 4th or 7th level you shouldn't spend too much money upgrading this, since you have to sell it back for half. (Note: Finesse animals that are scouts rather than combat-focused could avoid the growth spurt by taking the alternate power up to dex and con.)
Darkleaf cloth studded leather: More expensive than regular studded leather, but if you're worried about encumbering your mount it may be worth it.
Mithral Chain Shirt barding: No armor check penalty, light weight and a hefty +4 armor bonus.
Mithral Kikko Armor: Haute couture for the animal companion. The extra 3,000 for medium mithral armor is a serious initial investment for +1 over the Mithral chain shirt, can pay off in the long run as it becomes more and more expensive to add +1 to the armor through magic.
Mithral Agile Breast plate + Comfort enchantment. Outrageously expensive, and very hard to upgrade into without the animal suffering the -1 penalty for a little bit, and for most of your PFS career will probably be worse than adding an additional +1 enhancement.
Heavier armors: If your animal companion doesn't so much fight on their own as act as a method to get you into the fight you can always put them in heavier armors to protect them while they take you into the fray and deal with the attack and skill penalties.
Remember that while you can add any number of +1s, + equivalents, and flat values to the armor you cannot get specific magical armors such as rhino hide or celestial armor as barding.
Neck: The most common and probably the most important slot after armor.
If your companion is primarily for getting you into the fight, invest a little in an amulet of natural armor. Note that this is an enhancement bonus to natural armor, so it will stack with the creature's existing natural armor but not other enhancement bonuses like barkskin.
If your friend likes to bite things then they need an amulet of mighty fists. These come in too many enhancements to list all of them, but a few popular ones include
Note that if you're shopping out of an old book, the prices may be higher. The prices were errata'd a while back in the Monkeying around blog.
One stupid druid trick, especially if your companion uses one big bite, is to use the amulet of mighty fists for special abilities and then use greater magic fang for the strait + to hit and damage. Remember that the spell magic fang won't bypass damage reductions other than magic though.
Belt. (requires a feat) As physical combatants its hard to go wrong with increases to ability scores. If you're on fluffy the IV you may want to consider increasing his constitution score before strength. Again, make sure your companion isn't limited to the belt (saddle) slot before he or she invests in a feat.
Headband (requires a feat): Wisdom adds to their will saves, Intelligence gets them more tricks.
Back (requires a feat): A cloak/blanket of resistance is cost effective and indispensable for avoiding spells, which have been the most common thing I've seen rain on an animal companions parade. Instead of iron will, open up the cloak and give them bonuses to all 3 saves.
Slotless
Stone of alliance Lets you go the extra mile to protect your animal companion, and know how they're doing if you get separated. Great for snakes.
Beast Bond Brand great for healing your pet at range, or buffing them in combat while you stand where you don't need concentration checks.
Ioun stones: If you have more cash than feat slots on your animal companion AND you've increased their intelligence upping their physical stats never hurts.
Dusty Rose-5k for 1 point of AC. At the higher levels it may be cheaper than enchanting armor.
Cracked Pale Green Prism- 4k for +1 competence bonus to attacks or saves. Buy one for each.
Often pathfinders find themselves unhappy with some aspect of their character. A feat that looked bright and shiny may rarely be of any practical use when you try to use it, you may have missed some fine print, or a new option may be just perfect for your character. Fortunately the ultimate combat training rules allow you to spend prestige to swap the feats.
The same thing is just as likely to happen to your four (or more, or less) legged friend.
Unfortunately for our scaley and fuzzy friends you cannot retrain your animal companion because they don't have prestige...
What you can do however, is release the animal companion from service and acquire a new one. The mechanics for this are pretty straightforward. You release the animal companion and you get a new one next session.
Your critter only comes fully trained when you first acquire the ability to get them, so this fuzzy friend will show up only knowing the free bonus tricks you get based on your effective druid level. If you are really short on tricks, defend, heel, and down will give you a somewhat useful bodyguard, even if you won't be able to send them after specific targets and it might not be willing to bite a zombie for you.
To train them you can, in the nebulous time in between scenarios, make 1 attempt to train the animal per rank in handle animal. You may take 10 on this check, and if that will let you succeed you should do so, since there's no benefit in getting a higher result. There's no word on whether this is before or after the scenario, so you'll have to ask the DM when he wants to allow you to train. Training for a purpose isn't that much different than training each trick individually. Get the tricks you absolutely need first (attack twice), and then worry about the other ones.
This is infinitely easier for higher level characters, who can retrain their new friend twice over in one session, and very hard on lower level characters who may have to spend multiple sessions with a half trained half wild beast as they inch their way towards obedience. To avoid this (and having druids local 704 break out the pointy sticks) see the beginning of the thread for armor and items for your non humanoid pathfinder.
Remember when picking your new feats that just because your animal companion appeared fully formed right next to you doesn't mean you can take any feat he qualifies for NOW. You weren't always the center of his life. He grew up organically and has to qualify for the feats when they select them. This is also a good time to decide what kind of armor your friend will be wearing for the rest of his career now that his size has stabilized.
A bigger concern is, oddly enough, the role playing aspects of such an action. If you release a level 7 grey cat with black spots named Fluffy the Terrible with weapon finesse who likes tuna and long walks on the beach and acquire a level 7 grey cat with black spots named Fluffy the Terrible with toughness and power attack who likes tuna and long walks on the beach... are they the same animal?
I think ultimately that question is up to the player and how they feel about it. The only mechanical effect I'm aware of is the Stone of Alliance, which definitely dissolves along with your bond anyway. Some other players and DMs might make a few jokes about the cat "Not being the same anymore" or "Does he look different to you?" but they'll die down after a few sessions and the Fluffy you have and love will be the same fluffy you've always had and loved.
This is additional content provided by Hmm & Damanta, Liaisons to the non-druid members of Local 704.
Be sure to check your race’s favored class bonuses. Some offer the possibilities for extra skills, hit points or other options for your animal companion. Note: the Favored Class Bonus for Oracle Revelations for Elves, Half-Elves and Aasimar will only raise your animal companion / mount to one Hit dice higher than your character level. It’s still a great option to buff your buddy!
The following is a list of resources by other people.
Since there are so many classes that now grant animal companions, here are a couple places to find excellent class guides:
Animal Companion Etiquette -- How to make your animal companion part of a team, and not step on toes, paws or other body parts. This piece is a “companion” piece written by David Bowles and Hmm to accompany this guide.