What are the steps for creating an animal companion?

Question

I'm having some issues statting out a badger Animal Companion for a 6th level Ranger in D&D 3.5.

Can anyone provide step by step instructions that I can follow whenever I create an animal companion?

Specifically, I'm looking for things like:

1. Take the HD from the basic animal in the Monster Manual, then add additional HD based on the half the Ranger's level. These HD also add to Str...

2. Figure BAB based on....

For some reason, these rules always throw me for a loop and I always miss something.

Answer 1

You're on the right track.

Steps in creating an animal companion could be as follows:

1. Calculate your effective Druid level. (You: One-half your Ranger level, so 3.)
2. Look through the list of companions available to an (effective) Druid of your (effective) level. (You: You found the Badger.)
3. Look up the bonus HD your animal companion gets due to your effective Druid level on the animal companion bonus table. (You: Effective Druid level 3 grants 2 bonus HD)
4. Find your companion's monster stat block. (You: You will be using this)
5. Add the number of bonus hit die (see 3) to the base number of hit dice your animal has. (You: You end up with a 3 HD badger. 1 base + 2 bonus.)
6. Recalculate the animal's base attack bonus, base saves, number of feats, and number of skill points, referring to the base statistics of the animal type. How the feats and skill points are selected (whether it's you, the DM, or what) is not well defined. (You: Your badger ends up with BAB 2, F/R/W saves of 3+Con/3+Dex/1+Will, as well as two more skill points and one more feat than the stat block indicates)
7. Add other bonuses and special abilities indicated on the animal companion table. (You: Your badger gets the Link, Share Spells and Evasion special abilities, 2 bonus tricks, its Strength and Dexterity are increased by 1, and its natural armor is increased by 2).
8. Recalculate affected derived stats: HP, attack bonus, saving throw modifiers, grapple checks, and so on. (You: I shall leave it as an exercise!)