Legacy of Dragons added a
Drake Companion feature so players could have their very own dragon as a specialized companion. The dragon was more powerful than a regular animal companion but came at a price of drake companion archetypes having to sacrifice a lot to obtain it. Then an editor pulled a Jason Bulmahn, panicked at seeing such a strong feature, and proceeded to nerfbat the Drake Companion heavily before print, making all the Drake Companion archetypes collateral damage in the process. It seems the Drake Companion was initially supposed to receive full HD and likely full BAB too, seeing as the Drake Companion's skill ranks explicitly scale with HD and yet the skill rank chart increments by 3 for
every level not just when HD increases. Similarly the Drake Companion tops out at 15 HD instead of 16 like the regular AC, which is conveniently concurrent with the BAB. Probably it used to receive drake powers more often and had a better initial starting shape too. So instead they have trash stats and abilities.
Even so, I think Drake Companions have a solid optimization ceiling. They just look like shit by the standards of regular animal companions, but the important part is that Drake Companions are solid skill monkeys, get 15 BAB unlike the usual twelve, are intelligent creatures that can take any feat they want, and
get UMD as a class skill. That's important in case you want to give them
Skill Focus (Use Magic Device),
Magical Aptitude, equip a
Circlet of Persuasion (4.5k gp) (does not stack with
Greater Hat of Disguise, however, as they both use Head slot) or
Cracked Magenta Prism Ioun Stone (800gp), add a
Cracked Pink and Green Sphere Ioun Stone (200gp), and they will have +9 to UMD, not counting favored class bonus and skill ranks or charisma modifier. Seeing as the Drake Companion is PFS legal and it explicitly gets UMD as a class skill, this is a very reliable means of getting a UMD companion without worrying about table variation.
In addition to that, you can also deck out your drake companion with Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Deadly Aim, Rapid Shot, Manyshot, equip a
Greater Hat of Disguise and
Lesser Bracers of Archery (they function as
Greater Bracers of Archery aside from the lowered bonus, so wearer can use any bow as though proficient) and turn them into your very own pet archer. Or you can give them Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, Greater Two Weapon Fighting, and Rapid Shot which means you need to equip a
Blinkback Belt with the Quick Draw feat or a
Belt of Mighty Hurling with either a
Rope Dart or
Shuriken, which allow you to full attack without special support. Use a
Flawed Opalescent White Pyramid Ioun Stone (3k gp) to gain proficiency with the weapon of choice while taking a -2 dex penalty, which is a non-issue on Mighty Hurling builds (alternatively burn a feat on weapon proficiency). If you add a Wayfinder you get +1 attack with the weapon too, assuming your 25% chance gives you a working resonance power. The main pain of this build will be stacking dex bonuses high enough to qualify for all the feats.
Archer Variant:1. Point-Blank Shot
3. Precise Shot
6. Rapid Shot
9. Manyshot
11. Deadly Aim
TWF Variant:1. Two-Weapon Fighting
3. Point Blank Shot
6. Rapid Shot or Precise Shot
9. Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
11. Deadly Aim or Rapid Shot
14. Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
I feel like there should be more ways to take advantage of the Drake Companion, so anyone have any thoughts? I think Intellect and Keen Mind are the best drake powers to get.