Hi all,
I was looking at feats and was wondering what you would choose? I'm going for a built that uses a 2handed blade and wildshape for combat. Wildshapes will also be used out of combat. The feral hunter is also a tracker and has to have good stealth.
I was thinking to take at least the feat Natural spell but am unsure what to take to increase my chance to hit with the blade. Since were going to encounter some supernatural ghosts and stuff I also want to take the feat: Eldritch Claws.
So what feats should I select to make my PC an ok sword fighter (not the best, but it should be fun to play). What feats should I take besides natural spell and eldritch claws? And what are good utility feats or should I skip those?
I want to play as a human for the extra feat :-)
Looking foreword to seeing your opinions :-)
When you wildshape, presumably into the form of an animal, your gear merges with your body, making you unable to use a two-handed weapon, or any manufactured weapon for that matter in combat.
The only exception I could think of would be the goliath druid, which allows you to wildshape into giants (and thus rather than your gear merging with your body, it grows with you).
As far as feats for a build like this would go, you'd be better off focusing on either natural attacks or two-handed attacking.
Off the top of my head...
Natural Attacks:
Improved Natural Attack (bite, claw, etc.)
Eldritch Claws
Vital Strike chain (if you wildshape into things that gain a single powerful attack, such as the mega hippo)
Natural Spell
Two-Hander
Power Attack
Furious Focus
Both:
Weapon Focus
If thematically you want to be someone who uses animal aspects to gain power, then the hunter might be worth looking into, or archetypes which grant animal aspect.
thematicly that is what i want, but i also want true animal shapes, not just aspects...
Im not going for the most efficiënt build, but it should be playable :-) ill look into the feats you mentioned, thanks! Other suggestions are also welcom :-)
Fighting in Wild-Shape and fighting with a two-hander work on very different levels, unless you're planning to Wild-Shape into something that can swing a weapon (like an elemental).
On a mechanical level, fighting in human form with a two-hander and then turning into a bear or something generally means either that you were better with the blade and shouldn't have turned into a bear, or that you should have just turned into the bear an hour ago because you're better in Wild-Shape, and then why even use the weapon? It's certainly not 'wrong' if it's your concept, but that's generally the practical side of it.
The idea is to focus on certain enemies in human shape and on other in wildshape. Do certain damage in a the one form and other damage in the other form. Therefor also the eldritch claws feat.
Not certain where the split should be made and how to do it... but it's fun to look into :-) I'm thinking the wildshape for fighting bigger enemies and supernatural (incorpeal, undead, demons...), the human shape for the rest? Maybe fight with poison damage when using the blade.
The question is, will these be 2 bad fighters or 2 specialists with focus on different enemies?
I am not sure what you seem to suggest is a good idea, since PF rewards specialisation. But that aside i Think going versatile human would be a good plan since +2 on a extra stat is good for what you plan. You want all physical stats and Wisdom as good as possible. And you could consider using a reach weapon in human form. That Way you Will actually be able to do different stuff in different forms. For a feat at level 1 combat reflexes, 3 power attack, 5 natural spell.
Your Bab is not great but str is your highest stat and you use feral focus to get more until items make FF obsolete.
Edit: A alternative could be a primal companion/divine hunter with out a pet. Pehaps the nobility domain to get divine Favor among other spells. This Will also leave you the animal companion class feature so you Can take animal soul at level 9 and use animal growth at level 10. With the large evolution you Will be huge:)
Power attack and Vital strike will be useful in both form.
Planar focus is powerful.
There's nothing stopping a character from being decent at both. However, Wild Shape is a powerful ability and the only major combat improvement a Feral Hunter gets - and it's better not to be entering Wild Shape during combat. So I would suspect that in the end, such a character is simply going to be making an arbitrary (if valid as role-playing) decision not to be in Wild Shape some of the time and then accepting that they're less effective that way.
If you're interested in creating a character who fights both ways, the thought that occurs to me is using the Aspect of the Beast feat to get natural claw attacks even in human form, so that when not using a claw-based Wild Shape, you fight with a blade in one hand and make a claw attack with the other. While normally this isn't a very efficient way to fight, it could be quite potent if combined with using a level of Monk, Dragon Style and Feral Combat Training (claw). With that setup your claw attacks while in Wild Shape massively exploit your strength, and your single natural claw attack in human shape goes from wimpy to punishing since you're now replacing the half strength and half power attack of a secondary natural attack with the wrecking ball that is a Dragon Style (claw)strike. It's even possible to work in limited two-weapon fighting so that you're attacking with blade, claw and unarmed strike - kind of complicated, but rather dangerous.
Many people told me that don't pick vital strike no matter what. However, as a draconic bloodrager, I found Vital Strike tree, while expensive, works very well with my two handed build. Yes, it's not very optimal, but I hit really hard like a boss in both normal form and dragon form. I can move to my target and still sink them easily. So do consider especially if you are going mythic and have means to enlarge yourself.
Feats that are useful for both combat forms are I guess a good way to go. Besides the eldritch claws and the natural spell I think I should aim at feats that improve both combat "styles".
Wildshape "style"
Eldritch Claws
Natural Spell
Maybe: Improved Natural Attack (bite, claw, etc.)
For both "wildshape and sword style"
Power attack
Vital strike
Other good feats for both styles?
@ BadBird
I'll look into "using a level of Monk, Dragon Style and Feral Combat Training (claw)".... sounds interesting! Tnx!
If you dip 1 level druid(ability of menhir savant is cool) or falconer ranger archtype, you can gain pack flanking and animal soul feat.
2H sword + animal growth + vital strike is great.
The thing with alchemist and other classes that can cast beast shape is that the shape is only 1 min per level... I want it too last longer...
I also looked into a druid4/ rangerX character with shapeshifting hunter and feral focus. This gets me beast shape 2 at level 8, 2 handed
Sword fighting feats from the ranger class. In the other topic about this class the advice was to take the feral hunter... But maybe you think differently? There is a trait that doubles the wildshape time (beast of society i think) so the duration is 16 hours per shape at level 8... I don't get animal features, but for that i could take the coldborn skinwalker. This is all within the pathfinder rules. We prefere to keep within the rules because else I could take a feat from a wayfinder that gives the animal shape of the skinwalker type i choose.. I could become a beast shape 2 bear at level 1 if i did that :-) looks overpowered to me :-)
What do you think about this alternative?
Druid/Ranger isn't really that different. You gain some bonus feats but have to spend more feats anyhow, though I guess Favored Enemy is probably more useful than the Animal Focus stuff.
In the end, 4 levels of Druid and Shaping Focus is enough to get 3x8hours of level 8 Wild Shape. If that's enough Wild Shape for you, then go ahead and get creative with the other side of the multiclassing - Guide Ranger, Scarred Rager Barbarian, Sohei Monk even - there's a ton of stuff that will do a lot more for your combat abilities than Favored Enemy. I've even toyed with the idea of a Druid 4/ Urban Barbarian X who fights as an Air Elemental, swinging a scimitar with Dervish Dance and Dex-Rage.