How should the feat shaping focus work in a lvl4 hunter / lvl 4 pack lord combination?

[Night_Fox]

Hello and thanks in advance for any help. I am designing the above mentioned character as a back up and ran into a conflicting mechanics issue. The above character starts out 4 levels hunter then switches to druid archetype pack lord at fifth.I was planning on taking shaping focus which would allow him to use wild shape as a fifth level druid. However, once he reaches 6th level, improved empathic link from pack lord replaces the 6th level druid additional wild shape. Does that mean he will have the additional wild shape from druid lvl 2/character level 6 to
druid lvl 5/character lvl 9 and then lose that additional wild shape or will he still keep it since it is modified by a preceeding feat? Thanks again for any help.

[kadance]

In case there's any confusion, you don't qualify for Shaping Focus until your fourth level of druid (8th character level) since it requires the Wild Shape class feature that you don't have until then.

If you took it at Character level 8 (by retraining another feat), your druid level would be 4+4=8. A normal druid at 8th level has 3 uses of wild shape, but a pack lord druid only has 2 uses; which is what you would have.

[Night_Fox]

Good point, you are correct. However, the question would still be valid since the scenario would still apply at fourth level. The character would be effectively an 8th level druid once the feat was taken and improved empathic link doesn't kick in for 2 more levels of druid class. Thanks for correcting my oversight though.

[Night_Fox]

Sorry it would apply at 9th.

[Chess Pwn]

So it's not that you'd wildshape as an 8th level druid, but wildshape as if your druid was lv8. So if you've traded away your lv6 and lv8 upgrades of wildshape then the feats would just be duration and not grant any upgrades.

[Night_Fox]

Correct, I guess I should have worded it differently. He wild shapes as eigth Level but would only be druid 4.