Improved Empathic Link (Su): The beast master gains an empathic link with all of his animal companions. This functions like an empathic link with a familiar, except the ranger can also see through a companion's eyes as a swift action, maintaining this connection as long as he likes (as long as the companion is within 1 mile) and ending it as a free action. The ranger can only see through the eyes of one companion at a time, and is blinded while maintaining this connection. This replaces the 6th-level combat style feat.
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Does this mean he can have a creature with darkvision (owl for example) and walk around like he pwnz the place?
Or is it used for "scouting"?
Note that while seeing through the eyes of the familiar he is blind and suffers all the penalties that condition - seeing oneself through the eyes of familiar helps him in certain ways but is not efficient for most purposes (for example because he sees the opponents he can target the right square but still suffers from the 50% miss chance because he sees the target from all the wrong angles, and still lose Dex bonus to AC against attacks).
I suppose if the companion is sitting on his shoulder or head or something, I would let him use the creature's eyes as his own. That would be kind of interesting.
(I have a vague, fuzzy memory of a cartoon character who looked like he was wearing a coonskin cap, but it was actually a pet raccoon that slept on his head...)