Being Everything: Eggynack's Comprehensive Druid Handbook

[eggynack]

A race which might bear mentioning is Changeling as with the Racial Emulation feat they can take any combination of racial ACFs and enter racial PrC's when you might not want that race (Seeker of the Misty Isle for example).

I don't think this works the way you'd really want it to. You can only emulate one race at a time, so you wouldn't be able to make use of several separate long term abilities, where those are the ones I think you're usually interested in. You need some benefit over and above just going the base race, or else you're basically just spending a feat to not play an elf.

Edit: Also maybe mention Shifter Braids in the Shifter section. They are from Races of Eberron and the most interesting one is probably the Braid of Spellstrike which for 500gp lets you cast a third level spell or lower on yourself as s swift action when you activate your shifter ability. It can be really handy in a tough spot to cheaply quicken a low level spell.

Maybe so. I have been wanting to expand out that miscellaneous section, because it's really awkwardly short. It is just alright, however, especially when you consider the fact that it's replicating utility a shifter druid already has, in the form of the prepare spell ability. My suspicion is that this item is a bit expensive before that point, and a bit redundant after it, but there might be a sweet spot for it.

ah, very nice, well done I think, glad I could contribute in some small way

Yeah, I'm surprised I forgot about that one. Or, more likely, I just kept on not putting it in because I had no idea where to put it. Anyway, still just plodding along through suggested stuff, approximately maintaining my old rate of one or so entries a day (and I don't think it's dropped below that since I started fielding these). Current problem is figuring out how to categorize magic items, because they don't fall as neatly as the feats did.

[Dread_Head]

I don't think this works the way you'd really want it to. You can only emulate one race at a time, so you wouldn't be able to make use of several separate long term abilities, where those are the ones I think you're usually interested in. You need some benefit over and above just going the base race, or else you're basically just spending a feat to not play an elf.

Maybe so. I have been wanting to expand out that miscellaneous section, because it's really awkwardly short. It is just alright, however, especially when you consider the fact that it's replicating utility a shifter druid already has, in the form of the prepare spell ability. My suspicion is that this item is a bit expensive before that point, and a bit redundant after it, but there might be a sweet spot for it.

You choose whether to take a racial substitution level at the point you level up though. Once you've taken that level there aren't any rules for reverting to normal druid if you no longer qualify so you keep the substitution level. So you can choose either of the half orc and shifter subs at 1 and 4 and take the half orc one at 6th for Augment Summoning (which if you were planning on taking it anyway makes up for the feat spent on racial emulation). Then later if you want to enter Seeker of the Misty Isle you emulate an elf until you level up (note that as you lose PrC benefits if you lose the prereqs you would have to stay an elf to retain the abilities). It's not the most amazing choice but it lets you pick and choose racial subs and can make qualifying for some things easier.

They are a bit expensive for a one use item but can be useful if you really need them. Same as with the others. If your looking at fleshing out the miscellany section then they are probably at least worth mentioning.

[eggynack]

You choose whether to take a racial substitution level at the point you level up though. Once you've taken that level there aren't any rules for reverting to normal druid if you no longer qualify so you keep the substitution level. So you can choose either of the half orc and shifter subs at 1 and 4 and take the half orc one at 6th for Augment Summoning (which if you were planning on taking it anyway makes up for the feat spent on racial emulation). Then later if you want to enter Seeker of the Misty Isle you emulate an elf until you level up (note that as you lose PrC benefits if you lose the prereqs you would have to stay an elf to retain the abilities). It's not the most amazing choice but it lets you pick and choose racial subs and can make qualifying for some things easier.

True. Still, the race itself does very little otherwise, so you'd need to pick up roughly two feats worth of value, maybe more, from these abilities. It looks like you get at least a good amount of the way there though, so it's at least worth consideration.

They are a bit expensive for a one use item but can be useful if you really need them. Same as with the others. If your looking at fleshing out the miscellany section then they are probably at least worth mentioning.

Maybe. The limit on spell type is somewhat... limiting though, as swift castings go. What're you actually casting here? My list under the substitution levels has the bite of the were X spells of the right levels, resist energy, the +4's to ability scores, and vigor. It's not necessarily a list that's massively worth making swift. I could always be missing something from both lists, a spell that's in that level range, self targeting, and which benefits from a swift casting.

[Dread_Head]

True. Still, the race itself does very little otherwise, so you'd need to pick up roughly two feats worth of value, maybe more, from these abilities. It looks like you get at least a good amount of the way there though, so it's at least worth consideration.


Maybe. The limit on spell type is somewhat... limiting though, as swift castings go. What're you actually casting here? My list under the substitution levels has the bite of the were X spells of the right levels, resist energy, the +4's to ability scores, and vigor. It's not necessarily a list that's massively worth making swift. I could always be missing something from both lists, a spell that's in that level range, self targeting, and which benefits from a swift casting.

It's just a suggestion, you mentioned the value of the various racial subs so I thought it was worth suggesting the one ability to combine them. It's not the most optimal choice but it might be a nice option. It also adds some reasonable face abilities for the very earliest levels.

The Bite of the Were-X spells are probably the best options as they are strong defensive spells giving a good bonus to AC amidst other self buffs. Dropping a defensive spell whilst also doing something offensive when you really need both urgently is useful in tough situations. I wouldn't use it regularly but if you have no item in the head slot and some gp to burn it's a useful back up.

[eggynack]

It's just a suggestion, you mentioned the value of the various racial subs so I thought it was worth suggesting the one ability to combine them. It's not the most optimal choice but it might be a nice option. It also adds some reasonable face abilities for the very earliest levels.

Yeah, I can definitely see it. It's a complicated maneuver though, and the challenge is constructing a series of trades that net you a level of value not obtainable otherwise. As you said, shifter and half-orc substitution levels are probably the starting point here, though you are definitely losing some value by not just being a half-orc or shifter. It's a racial choice that's really straddling the line of viability.

The Bite of the Were-X spells are probably the best options as they are strong defensive spells giving a good bonus to AC amidst other self buffs. Dropping a defensive spell whilst also doing something offensive when you really need both urgently is useful in tough situations. I wouldn't use it regularly but if you have no item in the head slot and some gp to burn it's a useful back up.

I suppose wererat does benefit from fast casting. I'll probably just add it under the core assumption that it's not eating much handbook real estate. Can't be as bad as aspect of the werebeast. Been considering adding wild instincts there too, despite its presence among normal spells.

[Troacctid]

Don't forget the 13th level Halfling substitution, as long as we're talking freebies.

[eggynack]

Don't forget the 13th level Halfling substitution, as long as we're talking freebies.

Yeah, makes sense in context. In any case, slowly getting through the stack of suggestions. Added leopard and that shifter item since, I dunno, yesterday.

Edit: Just did the binder gestalt entry. That one took forever. There could probably be more there, like crazy write ups of all the vestiges and how they interact with the druid, but it's a thin line between a binder entry in the gestalt section of a druid handbook, and a vaguely druid oriented mini-handbook on this one gestalt. I think it came out well though. Not sure what's up next, but there's a good amount to choose from.

Double-edit: And that's changeling done. Today was a productive day.

[eggynack]

I added the eagle today, and with that, I think I've cleared away the list of wild shape forms that have been noted. Well, not treants, but I still don't think they're all that good. I suppose that section is open for requests, if there's still anything standing between me and that most elusive thing known as "comprehensiveness". I also edited the warbeast entry to reflect the ambiguity, with input from urpriest, though I may poke at it a bit more when I get a look at the 3.0 PHB. Beyond that, the big things still missing are the entries in the gestalt section, which will probably start with warlock and move up from there in terms of complexity (incarnate and psion being the two big ones), the magic item section reorganization (which is being stymied by the fact that those things remain really tricky to categorize, with a feat-like organization likely having a vast miscellaneous section), the dragon reorganization (because there are a lot of weird passive ability sets on those things, as opposed to my current kinda inaccurate setup), and maybe the addition of the dragonhawk to the animal companion setup.

I think that's pretty much it for stuff that I put on my brain list to address, though there may be some future time where I update the FAQ section, and poke at that kinda unedited planar shepherd mini-handbook. And then, I think I'm basically done. I mean, I'm still adding by suggestion, albeit with the occasional back and forth regarding whether the suggestion merits inclusion, but it's not like there's a massive amount of stuff that I was hoping to include and didn't get a chance to.

[Troacctid]

How about Water Halflings? It's like Strongheart Halfling, except instead of one 1st-level feat, you get two epic feats! (Provided that both of them are Great Constitution.)

[eggynack]

How about Water Halflings? It's like Strongheart Halfling, except instead of one 1st-level feat, you get two epic feats! (Provided that both of them are Great Constitution.)

Y'know, I've often found myself in situations where I had cause to post arbitrary horrible epic feats that I found in the moment, but I haven't given all that much thought to the ability score boosters as members of that group. Ya gotta wonder why they went with +1 instead of +2 on those, but I guess that's just to make it balanced with all of the other awful epic feats.

[eggynack]

I think I'm getting really close to giving up on coming up with any sort of fancy categorization for magic items. I might just toss the things into some provisional cheap/moderate/expensive categories, with some kinda separated money brackets for single use versus permanent items (like, a pearl of speech is cheap for 600 GP, but a use of golden desert honey is either moderate or expensive). I think I'll just use the same old alphabet sort for things within categories, but I guess the main goal is that readers will head to the section that fits their stage of the game, presumably also picking up items from lower stages as well if starting at a high level. Only real problem is the two item collections. I think the trappings of the beast mostly fall into the same category, whatever that category is, but the raiment is kinda split between moderate for the ring and expensive for everything else. I guess I could just toss the ring in moderate, and have the entry in the collection point to that, and do the same for the trappings if I end up grouping the armor higher up.

Should work out well enough, and it might actually end up more reflective of normal play patterns than some more interesting or descriptive categorization would be. After all, you don't necessarily buy the thing that fits your exact plan. You buy what makes sense relative to your wealth on hand, because the cost is probably a bigger factor than whatever synergy bonus you'd pick up otherwise. So, yeah. I'll probably have that up by tomorrow night. Today was an unproductive day, because pretty much everything on my to do list calls for a ridiculous amount of thinking time. Figuring out that I wanted the break off for binder to happen really late took some doing, after all. Also, I forgot that revising the entry for control winds is on my list of possible future things. That spell is so damn complicated.

[Darrin]

I think I'm getting really close to giving up on coming up with any sort of fancy categorization for magic items.

My preference: By slot, ranked by lowest price to highest price. When I'm equipping a character, I start with a couple "must haves" that help reinforce what I want the character to do, and then it's mostly "Fill That Slot!" with whatever GP I have left.

[Troacctid]

My preference: By slot, ranked by lowest price to highest price. When I'm equipping a character, I start with a couple "must haves" that help reinforce what I want the character to do, and then it's mostly "Fill That Slot!" with whatever GP I have left.

This is my preference as well. I suspect it's a lot of players' preferences, if the Magic Item Compendium's tables are any indication.

[eggynack]

My preference: By slot, ranked by lowest price to highest price. When I'm equipping a character, I start with a couple "must haves" that help reinforce what I want the character to do, and then it's mostly "Fill That Slot!" with whatever GP I have left.

My problem with slot organization is that it doesn't necessarily make sense on a druid. Wilding clasps mean that you're often better off, or at least not nearly as bad off as you would be normally, putting multiple abilities on a single item. And, even if that's not in the cards for whatever reason, you still want to minimize slots filled, as opposed to typical maximization strategies, because of that same inconvenience. So, instead of picking up a +2 periapt of wisdom and a ring of counterspells, you may instead go for a +4 periapt or a ring of spell-battle. One counterargument is that a slot organization reflects common play patterns, but I dunno that it's a play pattern that I should be implicitly advocating.

[Troacctid]

But if you're combining items, it's still useful, because you want to combine items that go in the same slot in order to avoid a cost multiplier.

[eggynack]

But if you're combining items, it's still useful, because you want to combine items that go in the same slot in order to avoid a cost multiplier.

I guess, but it still mostly doesn't matter. The savings tend to be pretty close to the additional cost, I think, sometimes going over and sometimes under. The end result is that the incentives are just generally significantly weaker where body slots are concerned, as it's not like the new group slotting incentive fully replaces the old variety incentive. Consider one of my favorite examples where single slotting is concerned, which is a ring of counterspells/ring of the beast. If the ring of counterspells were placed in a separate slot, then you'd end up paying an additional 2,000 GP compared to the same slot version. But, even in that strongest case, you're mostly buying those two items because they're incredibly powerful, even if you have an extra incentive because they're good together. Swap the ring of counterspells with the ring of spell-battle, and suddenly you're paying a 2,000 GP surplus, meaning that that one example's weight in one direction is completely obviated by a weight in the other direction.

All that to say that I don't know that this organization tells you better how to play a druid. Sure, it's probably not harmful, and it may just be a factor that should be considered in both directions at once, but what you're really looking at here is an incredibly simple 4,000 GP counterweight that sometimes pushes setups differently than how they'd normally go. There's also another factor, perhaps an even bigger one, that this plan would wind up splitting a 26 page section into a ton of tiny subsections. I think some of those sections would have something like one item in them too, making said section pointless in every sense. That the likely biggest section, rings, would mostly be grouped together anyway in an alphabetical system, rendering the biggest element in favor of slot categorization meaningless (they're also grouped pretty close cost-wise, so they'd probably hang out together no matter what).

There might be a compromise, however. Basically, it would be the same organization already proposed, cost then alphabet, except with fancy spell-style brackets indicating both cost and slot. Such a system would include the same information in a readable way, without orienting the entire handbook section towards that end goal. Another benefit to this would be that I could ditch the kinda samey intro sentences to items, or at least the part indicating cost and slot, giving some room to maneuver in that sense. Also, I'd get to fit in those fancy little header paragraphs, because a cost organization really gives leave to some broad discussion of the type I already have with spell sections. Makes sense to me, at least.

Edit: I'ma do the bracketing first and then the reorganizing, so don't be struck with sudden alarm/agony when things look substantially different without being all cool with sections and junk.

Double-edit: Arbitrary thought: a section in the introduction about theming, and how different themes pull from different resources, making combination themes especially effective. Main example would probably be the aberration/necromancy druid, with aberration theming pulling from long term feat resources, and necromancy pulling from short term spell and wild shape resources. Might include some other theme combos. Dunno if it's a thing I'm gonna wind up doing, but it sounds cool, cause such combinations are a thing I sometimes advise. The main running idea of it would be that druids have so many resources that devoting yourself to a particular thing often doesn't demand anything like full allocation. Might look up some of my old posts on the topic as reference, cause I remember pulling out some massive multi-paragraph posts about this. Could also have something about specific builds, and if I do, this could maybe slot into the end of the handbook. After all, it makes a lot of sense to read about how to put all this stuff together when you already know about the stuff.

[eggynack]

Well, it took way longer than I thought I would, but magic items now have fancy labels, and should be significantly easier to categorize when I take that step (probably tomorrow). Notably, there were also some changes of various size made to the section. The most minor of these was splitting the amulet of health and the periapt of wisdom, because fitting together all the details of both was getting wildly out of hand, and was probably unnecessary in the first place (and the items each have somewhat revised write ups as a result, which I think are superior to the originals). The biggest was probably the fact that I hadn't actually written the entry for proof against transmutation completely, so now that's no longer the case. My favorite change, fitting my personality, was that I got to fix up the openings of each item to make them less wonky.

Also notable is the fact that the categorization is probably going to get rid of the ioun stones header, because first, it turns out that each of the three listed would almost certainly have a different category, and second, because I don't think the information about these being core whatevers is all that useful outside of the ability score bonus ones. Anyway, don't know what the exact breakdown will be, but my suspicion is that it'll reflect the way items are categorized in the lists of necessary magic items, though I don't know for sure. Should make the whole section a lot more readable, in any case, which I think it is already with this first wave of changes.

[Threadnaught]

Arbitrary thought: a section in the introduction about theming, and how different themes pull from different resources, making combination themes especially effective. Main example would probably be the aberration/necromancy druid, with aberration theming pulling from long term feat resources, and necromancy pulling from short term spell and wild shape resources. Might include some other theme combos.

Thanks for the reminder, Aberrations may help with the theme.


Don't forget to mention that a lot of choices that go towards following a theme are sub-optimal.

[Myou]

This is marvellous work, Eggynack.
I wish we had handbooks this good for the other classes.

[eggynack]

Just finished categorizing all the items. I was going to stick the general pricing underneath each section, but it got really wonky with stuff like the wand of lesser vigor, the item collections, and the periapt of wisdom. Now I just need those little blurby majigs, and I'll finally have a magic item section with meaningful divisions. It's not a perfect setup, but I can modify it a bit if I find that some other organization would work better.

Don't forget to mention that a lot of choices that go towards following a theme are sub-optimal.

Eh, maybe. I dunno that I necessarily want to discourage particular themes, beyond the extent to which I do that already by rating particular aspects of those themes poorly. Like, I may not discourage people from playing a vermin druid, but I'll encourage them to pair vermin up with something, because vermin theming is pretty sporadic where the spell list is concerned.

Edit: Write ups are done and the new entries have been added to all of the tables of contents, so I think that magic items are done for now. Now, maybe back to gestalt, because I've been putting that off.

[Threadnaught]

Eh, maybe. I dunno that I necessarily want to discourage particular themes, beyond the extent to which I do that already by rating particular aspects of those themes poorly. Like, I may not discourage people from playing a vermin druid, but I'll encourage them to pair vermin up with something, because vermin theming is pretty sporadic where the spell list is concerned.

That's exactly what I'm referring to.

It's not that you should encourage people not to create characters based on certain themes, but do tell them that by focusing on one area enough, they'd lose some versatility and it's the versatility that makes the Druid so powerful.

[eggynack]

That's exactly what I'm referring to.

It's not that you should encourage people not to create characters based on certain themes, but do tell them that by focusing on one area enough, they'd lose some versatility and it's the versatility that makes the Druid so powerful.

That search for versatility wouldn't really be the point though. The problem isn't that this vermin character will prepare nothing but summon swarm and giant vermin in all of their slots, converting every first level slot into child of winter summons. The problem is that they'll prepare something completely unrelated in their spell slots, because the options just aren't there. Because there's support for the concept in one of the areas of a druid, but with so many areas to work with, something's inevitably not supported by the books.

The goal in every other section of the handbook is to tell you how to increase versatility. It's right there in the title. If this section were produced, the goal would be to artificially reduce versatility by telling people how to theme in the best way possible. You can get your feats, forms, and even kinda your animal companion to fit your fancy aberration theme (I really like the fhorge as an aberration themed companion), but even with the aid of gatekeeper initiate you're not going to get full theming where spells and summons are concerned. The goal in the aberration theme, after all, was essentially to restrict your build around these guidelines, and restricting in these areas is just about impossible without really broad definitions.

So, you widen the restrictions through the addition of either broadening or an extra theme, and in so doing enable your entire build to fit the restrictions placed before you. Now, all of your long term resources are going towards the aberration stuff, and your short term resources are going towards necromancy stuff as much as possible where they would otherwise just be going towards, I dunno, heart of water. It's a piece of advice that comes up quite a bit, actually, because even though a druid can often devote what would be the full resources of another class to snake theming (which is one that's come up in the past), you're tending to leave the full resources of yet another class with nothing to do but crazy druid stuff.

[Endarire]

What about Martial Stance and Martial Study for your animal companion?

It'd help to spell it as Five Nations so people know it's a sourcebook.

[eggynack]

What about Martial Stance and Martial Study for your animal companion?

Maybe. The big problem is that it's not clear how much volition an animal companion, or at least a normal animal companion, has with regards to the use of their feats. Power attack actually feels a bit on the line to me, but it seems instinctual enough to fit, where maneuvers would be more complex in terms of timing. Stances are more consistent, and thus more logical, but the requirement of the possibly not so useful martial study reduces the viability so much. Still, if I included those, which ones in particular do you think would be worth mention? The other factor limiting the inclusion, after all, is relatively low quantities of knowledge about that system.

It'd help to spell it as Five Nations so people know it's a sourcebook.

Isn't that pretty clear from the context, as it's in the same slot as all the other source books? I think my abbreviations, including that one, are consistent with the Common Acronyms, Abbreviations, and Terms.

Edit: Wrote up the psion. This is another of those classes that I have limited familiarity with (realistically, my knowledge gets significantly less dense the further you get from druid), but my main goal was noting the udoroot, cause that's a really weird combo. Could easily be missing something worth mentioning, but I doubt I mentioned anything I shouldn't have.

[Troacctid]

Anticipatory Strike is another key action economy manipulation power: basically Celerity without the daze. Don't forget Detect Hostile Intent (AKA "Foresight as a 2nd level power") either. Psionic Dimension Door (make sure to use the augmentations from Complete Psionic) and Psionic Teleport are great too. And Telepaths have a noteworthy ACF that grants telepathy.

Oh, and I just noticed, regarding Ninja vs. Monk, while Ninjas get the ability to turn invisible as a swift action, Monks get it as an immediate action, or continuously if you take Dark Moon Disciple 7, so, eh.

[eggynack]

Anticipatory Strike is another key action economy manipulation power: basically Celerity without the daze. Don't forget Detect Hostile Intent (AKA "Foresight as a 2nd level power") either. Psionic Dimension Door (make sure to use the augmentations from Complete Psionic) and Psionic Teleport are great too. And Telepaths have a noteworthy ACF that grants telepathy.

I kinda have the teleports under a teleportation umbrella, though it's possible I shouldn't. Detect hostile intent is some admittedly cool beans. It's a really interesting facet of this sorta gestalt that you can invest into more situational or resource intensive thing, because you have so much versatility and so many resources as a baseline.

Oh, and I just noticed, regarding Ninja vs. Monk, while Ninjas get the ability to turn invisible as a swift action, Monks get it as an immediate action, or continuously if you take Dark Moon Disciple 7, so, eh.

Yeah, should probably include that. Knew I was missing some sorta ACF gestalt thing somewhere. Gotta say, this is just about the most troublesome section of anything ever, with the need to condense ludicrous amounts of information into an ideally tiny amount of space coming second to the need for large quantities of research into unfamiliar things in terms of difficulty. At least I have most of these things done. Once I get warlock and incarnate down, and maybe warblade, I think that any subsequent additions are going to be relatively easy.

One interesting thing about the process underlying this handbook was that there was a good chunk of entries constructed out of nothing but the desire to not write some other troublesome entry. I'd be staring down the barrel of, say, the planar binding entry under nightbringer intiate (crazy troublesome cross referencing the list of mabar creatures with a bunch of separate books that actually contain those creatures), and would have to put something out that day, and would just go into arbitrary research mode, or write up something somewhat frivolous and easy like the courtier's obi. Point being, I'm half inclined to just run away from this stuff for a bit and do that weird treant write up, because it'd be really frigging easy to do that treant write up. Less of a thing now, cause I stopped doing the strict daily entry thing after I submitted, but the urge to treant remains.

[eggynack]

Well, that was a headache and a half, but the monk section is now three times as long to reflect the broad array of ACF's available. There are other ACF's, of course, but I think those are the highlights. I suspect, incidentally, that I need to revise my ratings on that section a bit. It feels off that I have psion at black and both factotum and unarmed swordsage at blue. Might take some thinking. Section's getting respectably lengthy at this point, at least.

[Endarire]

Martial Stance/Martial Study: Mentioning these feats as "Ask your GM" territory seems reasonable. If a dog can be trained to carry a rider, or to trip, it seems like a logical extension that such an animal companion can be trained to use maneuver X or stance Y when doing so seems wise.

Martial Stance: Martial Spirit is a favorite, granting HP per hit to an ally within 30' including the user.

Martial Study: White Raven Tactics is a standout here. Pretty much any maneuver (offensive, defensive, or utility) good for a melee attacker that doesn't rely on a skill check would work well on an animal companion.

[eggynack]

Martial Stance/Martial Study: Mentioning these feats as "Ask your GM" territory seems reasonable. If a dog can be trained to carry a rider, or to trip, it seems like a logical extension that such an animal companion can be trained to use maneuver X or stance Y when doing so seems wise.

I think there's a definite difference between being a mount or tripper and using maneuvers. The animal version of tripping tends to be that you just attack and get an automatic trip attempt, compared to the more active improved trip version, and acting as a mount also involves essentially no decision making. That's the key difference between maneuvers and those things, that you necessarily have to make a decision. You can't even make a decision the same way every time, because the maneuver gets used up, which is as opposed to power attack which can be set at the same number every time if you want.

There's definitely no way to call on your companion to do this, either, so you'd presumably be setting it up so that, I dunno, they use a maneuver as their first attack action in any given combat? Even that seems problematic, and it turns off a lot of potential utility. Like, you mention WRT below, and I agree that it's a good maneuver, but is it still good if used without any sort of thought? Setting an arbitrary ally to a rather arbitrary slot in the initiative doesn't do much for you. It's a weird one, in any case, and probably lies somewhere between, "No, this just doesn't work," and your cited, "Ask your DM," and I'd think inclusion would rely on it falling more into asking range.

Martial Stance: Martial Spirit is a favorite, granting HP per hit to an ally within 30' including the user.

Martial Study: White Raven Tactics is a standout here. Pretty much any maneuver (offensive, defensive, or utility) good for a melee attacker that doesn't rely on a skill check would work well on an animal companion.

Yeah, those are pretty good, WRT especially (though dependent on it working in a way different from how I've noted above).

[Troacctid]

Celestial companions are intelligent, though, so they could unambiguously initiate maneuvers.

Bolstering Voice is another good stance. Gives everyone a bonus to Will saves and fills the prerequisite for White Raven Tactics.