(Note: English is not my first language, so please forgive any phrasing or terminology errors)

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Pun-Pun. It's a build based on the Sarrukh's Manipulate Form ability. It allows a player, by choosing a Serpent-kin race, specifically a kobold (which, despite looking like a dragon-kin, is classified as a Serpent-kin in Serpent Kingdoms) to acquire that ability by leveraging a familiar or a scaly ally.

Basically, the kobold uses Metamorphosis and the Assume Supernatural Ability feat from Savage Species to gain the traits of the creature they transform into. They then grant the Sarrukh's Manipulate Form ability to their snake familiar (or another scaly ally), which in turn grants it back to the player.

Once both characters have the Sarrukh's ability, they can infinitely boost each other's ability scores (temporarily increasing one's own score, then setting the ally's score to that new higher value, and repeating the loop) and gain infinite spell-like abilities at will.

However, the Pun-Pun build has some flaws and heavily relies on DM interpretation. Do you think this build, or a valid variant of it, is actually feasible in an ongoing campaign if you follow the Rules As Written strictly?

"For reference, here is a version of the Pun-Pun build: https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Pun-Pun_(3.5e_Optimized_Character_Build)

Hi guys. Soon I’m going to play a Descent into Avernus campaign adapted to 3.5 with some minor house rules. Level 3 characters, 32-point buy, standard gold, 1 flaw, fairly permissive about pulling material from sourcebooks; besides humans, we can take lesser aasimar, lesser tiefling, dwarf, or githzerai with +1 level adjustment. I had in mind making a Transmuter build heading toward War Weaver, with a strong bias toward buffs and CC as a support tactic. But after seeing what the rest of the party is like, I think we have very little damage and I can’t think of how to redirect the character without throwing everything away. We have a rogue 1/sorcerer 2 who I thought was going to go for rays with sneak attack and has ended up being a trapfinder with a mostly CC repertoire (and a runestaff with 1st-level rays); a cleric of Ilmater who is going to go for buffs and healing but not melee; and a paladin who, knowing the player, will end up being a rock of AC and saves but with no damage. Anyway, we have no damage anywhere and it looks like we’re going to have to kill enemies by pinpricks.

Any ideas? Without rambling too much and to give you a bit of context, the background I currently have on the table goes as follows: Edana is a young tiefling arcane initiate raised in Baldur’s Gate by Krista, a simple seamstress tricked into an Asmodeus pact by the avatar Quaervaxthanus; her mortal “father” Jason was possessed and destroyed, and her infernal parentage was revealed to her in adolescence. She fled with Krista to Elturel, where the Hellriders sheltered her and the order’s mage Sibas Carden trained her in arcana; she is now trying to become a Hellrider in her own right despite opposition from inquisitor Luras Zane. Her key hooks are guilt over sabotaging rival alchemist Sanya Brodin (costing her an eye), avoiding paladin Destrias Arrel after a reckless encounter left him infatuated, and the Asmodeus priest Alavin Ryler courting her mother while trying to become her mentor.

I've been playing since 3.0. I've reorganized added rules and done all sorts of things with the 3.5 content I have. I was curious what other people would consider the line into a new system. Kinda like a ship of Theseus situation.

I've finally convinced my 68 year old father (who lived through the whole satanic panic of the 1980s) to try D and D! Turns out the secret weapon was offering him the chance to play an awakened fox ranger with a French accent.

I'm trying to think of the best way to reflect a fox's chicken-hunting tendencies in his favored enemy. Can anyone remind me of the relevant rules on choosing subtypes as favored enemies? I was thinking of letting him take the "air" subtype as a favored enemy that could apply to air dragons, magical beasts and outsiders with the typing, but that feels potentially off.

Any ideas?

Seems like every post I read discussing 3.5e's mechanics turns into a debate / side discussion about playing pathfinder, or why pathfinder did said mechanic better.

I come from 5e and wanted to try a more in depth experience. I originally wasn't interested in Pathfinder, I just wanted to try 3.5. But it seems like many / most people experienced with the two advocate for Pathfinder over 3.5.

So, is there a reason to stick with 3.5 that is not just "I am too invested in 3.5e to justify making a switch" or sunk cost fallacy?

Is 3.5 that clunky that pathfinder is a complete upgrade?

What are the downsides to pathfinder over 3.5?

I'm playing a human cleric of Heironeous 3/Church Inquisitor 1 planning to go Ordained Champion.

Divine Metamagic is banned and we also nerfed the Ordained Champion to make it a bit closer to our taste in power level (changed the channel spell into something like a standard action attack + spell to avoid full attack + harm, and I can only quicken my max level minus 3 War spells). We also apply Able Learner for free and get Pathfinder feat progression: meaning that cross-class ranks don't cost double but still cap at the normal rate, and we get a feat at every odd level. We do not use flaws. Nightsticks are allowed but we decided they don't stack.

My basic idea was to be a decent melee cleric (almost a paladin) that does not overperform our barbarian, while giving buffs around and maybe minor control options. I will be sword and shield even if I know this will be weaker (but I don't think I'll be that far behind overall).

Domains for now are Good and War, + Inquisition from church inquisitor.

Stats are Str 14 Dex 10 Con 14 Int 12 Wis 16 (17) Cha 14

For now my feats are:

1st - Power Attack, Weapon Focus (Longsword), Improved Initiative

3rd - Divine Might (Complete Divine).

I plan to take Practiced spellcaster soon, maybe Cleave but I have no idea what to take in the next few levels.

Hi, I’m about to start playing in a 3.5e campaign on Friday & we are using T2 classes only. I decided to go with Generic Spellcaster (Arcane), I plan on being the party buffer & will be going into War Weaver when I’m high enough level & meet the prerequisites. Any idea what 2 first level spells I should grab up?

So I'm playing a bit of a weird build (Sorcerer into anima mage) and starting next level I'm gonna have my build planned starting to come online, but like, only in a very minor way, eventually I plan to use a persistent thunderlance as a full on melee weapon that lasts all day long. But at next level (likely after next session) I will have 3rd level spells, 1 free persist per day, which means upwards of 2 spells persisted at all times (If they are both 2nd level or lower via extend+persist). My first thought was toothed tentacle as it's my current go to combat spell. I'm not necessarily looking for the most over powered combo or the strongest combo, but a good and interesting one. Eagles splendor toothed tentacle is my current idea.

So I am going to be starting a new campaign in about 2 weeks. My DM has already approved what I am wanting to play ( it's completely cheese ).. a fang dragonwrought kobold loredrake.

What I want to do is try to get an insanely fast high ac character ( think speedy Gonzales). I have looked at blade dancer, battle dancer, monk, fist of the forest, ranger, and a few others.

Any recommendations that you think I should look into, whether it be classes or gear? Home brewed stuff is allowed

Thank you for your time

The Voodan is an obscure base class from the tail-end of 3rd edition, hidden away in the Ravenloft supplement/adventure anthology "Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends". As its name probably implies, this is a "D&D Voodoo Priest", tied to the Southern Gothic Louisiana-flavored domain of Souragne, and I was curious what people thought of it, both in terms of lore and in terms of crunch. In particular, I'm interested what the char-op'ers think of it and where it fits on the tier system.

For the unfamiliar, a mechanical breakdown... the Voodan has a D8 hit dice, with medium BAB, good Fort & Will saves, bad Ref saves, 4 skill points per level, and default proficiencies are light armor and simple weaponry.

The Voodan is a full spellcaster using Wisdom as its spellcasting ability score. It has access to all spells on the Bard, Cleric, Druid and Ranger spell lists. However, Voodans must choose a patron Loa; these spiritual guides are each associated with 3 of the 8 schools of magic and 3 cleric domains (all from the PHB by default, which gives me an idea for another thread) - the Voodan gets to select 2 schools of magic and 1 cleric domain from those under the providence of their patron Loa. Spells from these schools and this domain (Voodans do NOT get the associated domain power, to be clear) are cast as normally; spells NOT in these categories are cast as if they were one level higher. Voodans can also cast their chosen domain spells spontaneously.

The signature mechanic of the Voodan is its Gris-Gris class feature. In short, Voodans create small physical tokens as part of their spell memorization/prayer session - each spell has an associated gris-gris. If this gris-gris is taken from the Voodan, he cannot cast that associated spell. However, he can also give gris-gris to other characters, and they can use their action economy to cast the spell in the gris-gris! There is a caster level penalty for doing so (-1 for another Voodan, -2 for a fellow loa worshipper, -3 anyone else), but the Voodan's signature gimmick is still that they can effectively let the whole party cast the Voodan's spells.

Their other class features are:
* Turn/Rebuke Chosen Spirit: This is basically Turn/Rebuke Undead, except the Voodan gets to choose at character creation if they Turn or Rebuke rather than having it be alignment-based, and they can Turn/Rebuke a single creature type from Animal, Elemental, Fey, Outsider or Undead. At 6th level, they gain the ability to Turn/Rebuke a second creature type.
* Voice of the Spirit Realm: From 2nd level, the Voodan can use this spell-like ability (Cha modifier) times per day to emulate Speak with Animals, Speak with Plants, or Speak with Dead.
* Mount of the Loa: From 4th level, the Voodan can let a loa possess them for (2+Cha modifier) rounds once per day, gaining their choice of either +2 to an ability score, +2 to a saving throw, +1 to attack rolls and AC, or +4 skill points (divided as desired). They gain additional uses per day at levels 10 and 16.

While Cleric Domains are, of course, a mechanic iconic to the Cleric class, there was at least one other class in 3rd edition that also used them; the Voodan, a voodoo priest-themed class hidden in the Ravenloft supplement "Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends". Part of its mechanics was that it had to choose a patron amongst the Loa, the lesser spirits of animals, plants, places, locations, ancestors and concepts that served as the source of their power. Each patron loa was associated with three cleric domains, of which the Voodan got to choose a single one; the spells from this domain were added to the voodan's "core" spell list and could also be cast spontaneously. They were also associated with 3 of the eight schools of magic, but that's not relevant to this topic.

Now, the voodan writeup acknowledges that readers were likely to want to port the Voodan to settings outside of Ravenloft, and acknowledged it as much as possible. There's a lot of freedom to cook up your own patron loa with their own associated domains and spell schools. But Sword & Sorcery Studios were deliberately minimalistic with their portrayal of the Voodan, trying to make it so that you only really needed the Player's Handbook to run one. They didn't even acknowledge domains unique to the Ravenloft setting, like Salvation, Repose or Scrutiny.

So, I thought it might be fun to go over the official patron loa from Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends and nominate any other cleric domains that might make a good fit for them - for example, Ulwaddithri, the loa of plague, pestilence, decay and famine, might offer the domains of Suffering, Decay and Pestilence, no?

...I'm not sure if this is okay, but to make it easier and so people don't have to track down an actual copy of DT&DL to participate, here's a summary of the Souragnean major loa and their associated alignments and clerical domains:

• The Maiden of the Swamp is one of the two most powerful and iconic of the Souragnean loa. Depicted as a beautiful, hauntingly sad woman of fey mien clad in the garb of a peasant, she holds dominion over growing things, healing, and the protection of those lost in the wilderness. Her relationship with the Lord of the Dead is widely disputed; some believe she is his servant, and others his sworn enemy. Secretly, this latter is the truth, as the Maiden is responsible for the Lord of the Dead's current status and she deeply regrets assisting in his ascension. Her Alignment is Chaotic Good, and her associated domains are Animal, Healing, and Plant.
• The Lord of the Dead is the supreme loa of Souragne, the closest thing that Souragne's folks acknowledge to a conventional god. Depicted as a walking corpse clad in old-fashioned finery, such is the Lord of the Dead's authority that all corpses must remain unburied for four days, just in case he may desire their service, and many ceremonies are held to appease his wrath. Unbeknownst to the general population, this "loa" is actually the Zombie Lord Anton Misroi, the Darklord of Souragne, who evolved into something more spirit-like after the misguided tutelage of the deceived Maiden of the Swamp. His alignment is Lawful Evil, and his Domains are Death, Knowledge, and Repose.
• Brahmbei, the Oracle was once considered the supreme loa of Souragne, but he grew older and feebler, and now his authority has been taken over by the Maiden of the Swamp and the Lord of the Dead. He is still quite a potent spirit, and thus the people of Souragne pray to him for luck and knowledge... They just do so knowing that, in addition to his old willingness to deceive people in the short-term for the sake of guiding them to their greater destiny, he no longer sees as clearly as he once did and is prone to occasional fits of absent-mindedness. He is portrayed as a kindly old man, occasionally doddering but still possessed of a powerful presence and piercing gaze. His alignment is Lawful Neutral, and his domains are Knowledge, Law, and Luck.
• Kurkva, the Wailing One is the loa of sky, wind, cloud, weather and rain. Souragne voodan religion holds that originally he was betrothed to a singular loa who represented the earth, but she was shattered to create the many disparate loa of places, plants and animals, of which the Maiden of the Swamp is the most well-known. Grief-stricken by this, he became the loa of weather; the winds are his cries, the rains his tears, the thunder his shouts of anguish. For all his grief, Kurkva - depicted in art as a white-clad middled-aged man - is still bound by his duty as a loa, and he obeys the natural order as well as harkening to the requests of his followers in matters relating to the weather. Especially rain. His alignment is Neutral, and his domains are Air, Travel, and Water.
• Lethede, the Lady of Roads is a wandering loa whose portfolio encompasses travel, roads and journeying, both literal and metaphorical. She is the patron of travelers and the guide of the lost, both in the spiritual sense and in the physical sense. She is portrayed as a dark-skinned young woman whose tireless, determined features deny her weather-beaten, travel-worn garb. Her alignment is Lawful Neutral, and her domains are Protection, Strength, and Travel.
• Madris Orundi, the Dancer is amongst the most beloved and popular of the loa, for her portfolio is art, beauty and love. Young lovers are amongst her most ardent supporters and seekers of her patronage, but she also grants sparks of inspiration and creativity to artists of all kinds, and helps older couples maintain the love that drew them together in the first place. She is portrayed as a woman in early middle-age, still possessed of the beauty of her younger years, but with the grace, poise and wisdom of one who has had some time to live in the world. Her alignment is Neutral Good, and her domains are Good, Luck, and Protection.
• Ohuwaghnn, the Serpent King is one of the reviled dark loa, rarely worshiped and instead honored only to propitiate him and turn his wrath aside. Ohuwaghnn is the loa of predatory beasts and the myriad environmental dangers of the swamps, and he hates humans, yearning for a return to the days when the beasts ruled over the land. Artwork normally depicts him as a great serpent, though he's also sometimes depicted as a gaunt and sinister man with serpentine eyes. His alignment is Chaotic Evil, and his domains are Animal, Destruction, and Trickery.
• Ovun Borundir, the Warrior is the patron of all who live and die — and kill — by violence. Worshiped by professional soldiers and battle-crazed brawlers alike, Ovun Borundir cares not for the reasons why mortals fight, only that they do fight. Battle is his purpose, his meat and his drink, and higher causes are merely pretty justifications for that fundamental truth - though he lacks a true malice towards humanity and cannot be considered evil, merely indifferent. He is portrayed as a large man clad in armor, carrying a great mace and pierced by various swords and spears that seem to bother him not at all. His alignment is Chaotic Neutral, and his domains are Protection, Strength, and War.
• Sehkelo, the Queen in Gold, is the loa of the sun, mother of all loa relating to flame and light, disperser of darkness both literal and spiritual. Although she brings the oppressive heat of the long Souragnian summer, this is considered a necessary evil to her presence and her efforts to banish the darkness. She is the patron of those who seek to thwart evil and who seek knowledge for the betterment of all. She is portrayed as a blonde warrior woman clad in golden raiment, carrying a spear. Her alignment is Lawful Good, and her domains are Fire, Sun, and War.
• Tonthomba, the Burning Man is the wildest and most capricious of all the major loa. The rebellious and unpredictable son of Sehkelo, Tonthomba walks a meandering road; although his gifts of fire and flame are vital to civilization, he is also justifiably feared as one of the great destroyers, for he is easily angered and difficult to control. All civilized men and women pray to him at some point, honoring him for the light, warmth and other things they derive from his fire, but this worship is as much about propitiating him as honoring him. Those who take him as their primary loa tend to be devotees of chaos and destruction, with a natural inclination towards pyromania. He is usually portrayed simply as a great being of flame; when he appears as human, it is as a muscular young man with deep red hair and flaming eyes. His alignment is Chaotic Evil (yes, Evil, not Neutral), and his domains are Chaos, Destruction and Fire.
• Ulwaddithri, the Consuming One is the most reviled and loathed of all the dark loa, more hated than even Ohuwaghnn, more feared even than the Lord of the Dead. The Consuming One represents the poisonous air of the deep swamp, the wasting touch of sickness, the hollow suffering of famine. She is plague and want and all things unwholesome. Only madmen and misanthropes and the most evil of souls take her as their patron, with saner Souragneans instead striving desperately to propitiate her so that she will not share her rotting touch with them. Ulwaddithri is portrayed as a beautiful, seductive woman, save for her left arm and leg, which are wasting away to disease and rot. Her alignment is Neutral Evil, and her domains are Death, Evil, and Trickery.

What is the weirdest or most convoluted character you have ever played or had a player run in your campaign? What PC really stands out? Maybe not for an optimized build, just weird or "why would you take that?" For me as a player it was definitely my Half-Drow Ranger 10/Hexblade 13/Shadow Dancer 5/Mystic Theurge 2/Fatespinner 5 Jarrett of the Nine Blades - in that campaign he used an optional rule, I don't remember where exactly he got it from (maybe Unearthed Arcane or Arcana Unearthed?), that used a shortened experience table to rush your characters through levels because he wanted us to use his new Epic Level Handbook and we used a few alternate class features like the Shadowy Companion instead of Familiar for my Hexblade side. I currently have a player playing a Psychic Warrior 3/Soulknife 4/Duskblade 5 that has already told me he intends to add either Cerbremancer or Mind Mage and another playing a Psion 7/Crystal Proselyte 4(slowly transforms into living crystal & provides additional psionics) who decided to train as a Bard 2 and she also wants something like either Cerbremancer or Mind Mage later as well. Definitely not optimized, but it (mostly) made sense for the characters at the time.

Hello!

Basically, what it says on the tin.

Beginning with the assumption that NPC stats are (by default, DMG v3.5 p.110) rolled on a 3d6 we can generate the statistical distribution of intelligence scores in the 'general population'. From that distribution, we can derive its mean (10.5) and standard deviation (~2.96). Then it's a straightforward manner of mapping that onto the mean and standard deviation of IQ (100 and 15, respectively).

I've added some additional description to help characterize the scores, and example creatures as they appear in the SRD or MM.

I've also included some possible Human int. scores to give further context to exceptionally high scores.

Is any of this useful? Maybe,

Don't touch the Demilich.

Question as a legendary wizard at level 12 I can chose a second school to specialize in.
This is what‘s written on the manual:
Secondary Specialization (Ex): At 12th level, the wizard can select any school except for their specialty school or an opposed school; this school gains half the benefit of the wizard’s caster level boost from their arcane school ability. The wizard also treats this school as their specialty school for the purpose of any class feature or ability that would involve their specialty school such as genius insight.

So if I chose another school Il get the bonus and ability?
otherwise, how does it work?

Example divination as the sequent ability:

Divination

• Passive: You can always act in the surprise round evenif you fail to make a Perception roll to notice a foe, butyou are still considered flat-footed until you take anaction. In addition, you receive a bonus on initiativechecks equal to 1/2 your wizard level (minimum +1). At20th level, anytime you roll initiative, assume the roll resulted in a natural 20.
• Active: When you activate this school power, you can touch any creature as a standard action to give it an insight bonus on all of its attack rolls, skill checks, ability checks, and saving throws equal to 1/2 your wizard level (minimum +1) for 1 round.

to be more specific at level 1 a wizard must choose to specialize in one school of magic, gaining additional spells and powers based on that school. This choice must be made at 1st level, and once made, it cannot be changed.

Sorry for grammar.

I’d try to attach the manual but I wasn't able to.
Thank in advance

Working on a character build, I need buffs that enhance a weapon/melee fighter, that last for at least one whole turn (applying to multiple attacks in one turn) and only take a swift or free action.

Hello first time play dnd entered at a campaign alredy started at lv 8 I’m searching for any advise i can get

I’m playing a legendary wizard whit the “sub class“ Master specialist. Path of the prodigy (Evocation) (prohibited school Necromancy and Divination i intend to use opposition breakthrough for divination.

I Have the orb as a bounded item
No trait selected for now.
For metamagic Talent I have selective i need to chose another one.
As feat I have:focus spell - superior focus spell -Varisian Tatoo - Empower Spell.
For Arcane feat I have Creative destruction and Spell piercer.

The dm as banned Sacred geometry - Dazed spell
Ascendant spell
- Cherry Blossom spell can be applied only one time for spell.

we use the rule of pf1

Based on what I search online rime spell seem funny.

So I’m open to every advice you can give me
( I’m searcing for something like a build or a guide)
Thank in advance.
sorry for bad grammar

Coming from 5e, I think 3.5e's wider variety of more specific skills are more interesting and provide more ways to make your character unique.

However, I hear people say that many of the skills are useless and are so specific that investing ranks into them would be a waste for your character.

So what do you think?

Are some skills nearly useless / a trap for players?

I am running a campaign which has three parties on the same world, two on the same continent even, where PC levels run from 9th-10th to I think 18th (she's split caster/manifester so I'm not sure of her total level) with most in the middle teens. I've recently had a player ask me about using the Legendary Classes in my Legends & Lairs books. Has anyone ever used these? Seems like it could also be power monger move, but is it gonna break my game? Probably not, but I thought I'd see if anyone else has ever introduced them into an existing game.

Greetings once more! As I did 2 weeks ago, I have just revised my D&D 3.5 sheet in google sheets (THIS TIME, with Tabs and more Skills), and I wanted to share it once more. As before, let me know if you have any problems, and/or how I can improve it. I'll keep trying my best.

As before, I haven't added any automation in regards to external sources like feats and spells, but this time, I broke up the sheet into tabs and revamped the skills. The skills tab now displays whether a skill can be used untrained in red or green, and shows whether an armor penalty applies to the skill in red or green. It also has a system to calculate Skill Points, and automatically subtracts skill points based on whether the skills with ranks added are checked as class skills.

TODO: Improve the layout, improve the combat section, Improve the spellcasting section (maybe).

As always, it's free to copy and use.

Here is the Link: View permissions only.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J_i6Pyilx_HV7hLFW0ntlDMYB14hf4UcKWmAp4H75v4/edit?usp=sharing

Hey everyone,

Might be a dumb question but I’m new to 3.5 and I’ve seen a few videos on YouTube that say 3rd edition books like the monster manual 2 and 3 would need some basic conversation to 3.5 but reading through I’m still new enough that I’m not seeing a huge difference to how things are worded that would need changing.

My question is what conversation do I need to do to make them compatible with 3.5?

Is there a digital initiative tracker for 3.5e that includes the statblocks for creatures?

I would like to automatically sort the initiative order for my enemies and players, as well as be able to view the creature's AC 3 types, health, and abilities /skills in one place.

To my understanding 5e has something like this (Improved Initiative: https://improvedinitiative.app/ ) where you can drag in statblocks from the monster manual and place them alongside the characters, while seeing all of the enemies abilities- although I'm not sure it exists for 3.5e.

Juggling multiple separate sheets of paper or windows open on my computer is just not ideal, and this would greatly speed up combat for me, reducing cognitive load to run encounters. This would greatly reduce prep time and make the game smoother.

Hello! We're looking for dedicated players to join our long-term D&D campaign! Our DM has over 15 years of experience developing a custom world and heavily modified D&D 3.5 system. Unfortunately, due to changing life circumstances and commitments, our previous group has gradually broken down. We're now hoping to build a new group! Campaign Details:

• System: Heavily modified D&D 3.5 (lots of homebrew mechanics).
• Platform: Roll20 (Online).
• Timezone: UK.
• Schedule: Saturdays, 2 PM–11 PM (flexible depending on the group).
• Age: 18+ mature group.
• Experience: Beginners and veterans welcome!
• Playstyle: A mixture of combat, roleplay and exploration. Some sessions may be entirely combat, while others focus on roleplay and story.

Campaign: The Wishful Curse You awaken inside a mysterious complex with no memories of who you are or how you got there. A strange voice introduces itself as "Galobur". Why are you here? What happened to your memories? And who can you trust? Themes: Imprisonment, captivity, betrayal, deception, and scientific and arcane experimentation. This campaign is designed to introduce new players to our custom system. You won't need a backstory because everyone begins with amnesia! You'll create your character from scratch, and the DM is happy to discuss specific character ideas and requests that fit the setting. Even experienced 3.5 players will have new mechanics to learn, so patience and willingness to learn are important. What We're Looking For: Friendly, reliable players who can commit to regular sessions and want to enjoy a long-term campaign together. We understand real life comes first, but consistency matters! More Than Just D&D! We also play plenty of games together on Steam and would love to make new friends outside our weekly sessions too! Interested? Send me a message with your TTRPG experience, availability and what kind of character you'd enjoy playing! New players are absolutely welcome!

Pretty much the title, I'm curious what the community thinks is the better option.

The Races of Stone version, which is an alternate class feature for goliath druids:

Earth Companion (Ex): A goliath druid who takes the 6th-level racial substitution level can imbue her animal companion with the power of elemental earth. The animal companion’s Strength increases by 2, and its Dexterity is reduced by 2. Its natural armor bonus increases by 3.
It gains a burrow speed of 10 feet (or, if it has a burrow speed, that speed increases by 10 feet). The companion gains the earth mastery extraordinary ability (+1 bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls if both it and its foe touch the ground; if an opponent is airborne or waterborne, the earth companion takes a –4 penalty on attack rolls and damage rolls). It also gains damage reduction 5/magic as an extraordinary ability.
The companion’s type doesn’t change, but it gains the earth subtype.
If a goliath druid replaces her animal companion with a new one, she can apply this effect to the new companion, but only if the reduction in her effective druid level reduction would not make the new companion unavailable to her.
The previous companion loses the special abilities when it leaves the druid.
For the purpose of determining her animal companion’s bonus Hit Dice, special abilities, and so on, the effective level of the goliath druid who selects this substitution level is reduced by three, per the Alternate Animal Companions table on page 36 of the Player’s Handbook.

And the Elemental Companion from Complete Mage, which is an alternate class feature for druids of any race:

Every druid reveres nature, but some pay more respect to the fundamental building blocks of the natural world than to its flora and fauna. By forgoing her bond with the animal kingdom, a druid can instead take on an elemental creature as her companion.
Class: Druid.
Level: 1st.
Special Requirement: Knowledge (the planes) 1 rank, Speak Language (Auran, Terran, Ignan, or Aquan)
Replaces: You do not gain an animal companion, nor do you gain wild empathy.
Benefit : You gain the companionship of a Small elemental (air, earth, fire, or water; your choice). You must speak the language of your chosen elemental companion (Auran, Terran, Ignan, or Aquan, respectively).
Your elemental companion has the normal statistics of an elemental of its kind.
It does not gain any extra HD, natural armor adjustment, Strength or Dexterity adjustment, or extra tricks (it is intelligent enough to follow your spoken commands and thus needs no tricks). It gains all other special abilities normally granted to an animal companion, with the exception of Multiattack.
At 4th level, your elemental grows into a Medium elemental of the same kind. Its statistics change appropriately. At 10th level, you can choose for your elemental companion to grow to a Large elemental of the same kind, with the appropriate changes to its statistics. If you choose for your elemental to remain Medium, it instead gains 2 HD, +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, and damage reduction 5/—.
At 16th level, you can choose for your elemental companion to grow to a Huge elemental of the same kind, with the appropriate changes to its statistics. If you choose for your elemental to remain at its current size, it instead gains an additional +4 HD, +4 Strength, +4 Constitution, and damage reduction 5/—.
All these benefits stack with existing statistics except for the damage reduction.

The goliath version looks nice, but that -3 to druid level for determining its abilities kind of sucks, especially if you're already trying to get one of the good companions. The general one looks pretty sweet, too, except for not really getting bonus HD or the ability score or natural armor adjustments. Thoughts?