Can I ‘upgrade’ my Animal Companion with the Giant or Advanced Creature templates instead?

Question

I am going to play a druid in Pathfinder and I want to take a wolf as my companion. Is it possible to advance this wolf (or claim a new wolf) with the giant template?

I am aware that at level 7 it would be Large as well, but I am trying to give the wolf the template instead of leveling it the next time we get enough XP to level up. Because the giant template has a CR+1 I think adding it to my beloved companion instead of the bonus he would gain with his next level on the Animal Companion Table is not against the rules.

It would be a Wolf with CR+1 at my Character Level − 1.

Am I right?

Or, if the advancement of my actual companion is not going to work, is there a possibility to claim a new wolf with the Giant Template as my new companion after releasing my beloved follower?

We are just playing with the Pathfinder Core Rule Book, the Advanced Player's Guide, the Bestiary, and the GM book; if the rules for this question are anywhere else I don't know other sourcebooks.

Answer 1

There's no mention of the animal companion rules in the rules for the simple template giant and vice versa; the concepts simply don't interact. And in most Pathfinder campaigns the GM—not the players—determine which rules are used and which aren't. This means that while you may think it's totally legit to apply the simple template giant to your druid's wolf animal companion, it's not legit unless permission to do so is granted by the GM.

However, I can totally understand wanting a 2nd-level druid to have as an animal companion a giant wolf. Because that's awesome. But there's no way for that to happen that I'm aware of that doesn't involve convincing the GM to change the rules. A Large wolf will happen automatically at level 7, and until then, you stick it out with a Medium wolf. Maybe buy a dire collar for your wolf in the meantime?

(A player's interaction with the simple template giant is rare, but some druids do—specifically, the totemic summons ability of the ape, bat, bear, boar, and dragon shamans. But that's only for summoning not animal companions and still doesn't affect, for example, the wolf shaman.)