I am currently in the process of building a Shaman as a fallback character in my current game. The main problem I am having is with the Shaman's Spirit Animal ability.
Spirit Animal
At 1st level, a shaman forms a close
bond with a spirit animal tied to her chosen spirit. This animal is her conduit to the spirit world, guiding her along the path to enlightenment. The animal also aids a shaman by granting her a special ability. See the Spirit Animal section on page 47.
A shaman must commune with her spirit animal each day to prepare her spells. While the spirit animal does not store the spells like a witch’s familiar does, the spirit animal serves as her conduit to divine power. If a shaman’s spirit animal is slain, she cannot prepare new spells or use her spirit magic class feature until the spirit animal
is replaced.
In the Spirit Animal section on page 47 there is the following line
The shaman’s spirit animal also grants her special powers. This ability uses the same rules as the wizard’s arcane bond class feature and is treated as a familiar (see pages 78 and 82 of the Core Rulebook),
except as noted below.
The way its worded makes me cautious as I cant tell if this means that the animal is selected from the Familiar list or is just treated like one.
Could someone please clear my confusion up as to whether the animal would need to be from the familiar list.
Since it follows the same rules as the arcane bond, then yes, it would have to be chosen from the familiar list.
Does a Spirit Animal grant the skill bonuses that a Familiar normally does? The rules are unclear on this (and Shardra doesn't help).
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This ability uses the same rules as the wizard’s arcane bond class feature and is treated as a familiar, except as noted below
Yes, you get the skill bonus, because it follows all the rules for a Familiar, except as noted.
Since there is no notation that Shaman do not get the skill bonus, they do get it.