Druidity qnd other advice

[stewstew5]

Can a druid have a familiar or familiar-esque creature in 1e?

[viking vince]

There are no rules supporting a familiar for a druid, RAW.

Animal friends, via the spell, are another matter.

[LibraryOgre]

Not in the core, though there may be rules for it in supplements. As mentioned, druids have the Animal Friendship spell at 1st level, which lets them have animal friends of equal to 2 HD/level of the druid.

In practice, this usually means a druid will have a relatively powerful animal companion... a bear with 4 HD is doable by a 2nd level druid. I could see, however, allowing a druid to just continue to invest these new HD into an existing animal companion.... instead of sending Lobo off to play when you get strong enough to be friends with Ursa, you keep levelling Lobo, giving him great HP and saves, even if he's got mediocre AC and damage.

One might also allow a druid who has started receiving bonus languages to take certain animal languages as ones they can communicate in... so, again, if you have Lobo as your special animal friend, you might learn Wolf at level 3 so you can speak to him without casting a spell. And Lobo would be a 6 HD wolf, maybe with some magic items as your party can spare them.