Animal Companions + Weapon Finesse

[x_Gabriel_x]

Just started up a Hunter for PFS and was reading guides on Hunters and ACs, and I have seen a few times, a small AC(such as the cheetah) due to being small, get Weapon Finesse for free, but ruling wise I can’t find that anywhere as being true.

Can someone point me to where that is stated or if its false?

Also, I’m looking to make a reach/trip build. I’m thinking of either regular Hunter, Divine Hunter, or possibly Sacred Huntsmaster Inquisitor. So looking for some advice on which would be the best option, as well as possible build routes in terms of feats, etc. Only played half a scenario, and only lvl 1 so I can change whatever

Currently I went with Combat Expertise and Improved Trip for my own feats (Human)

Any help and advice is greatly appreciated

[Renata Maclean]

Can't seem to find anything either. ACs (and animals in general) may take Weapon Finesse as a feat, and many Tiny animals in the Bestiary have Weapon Finesse as their only feat, which would seem to indicate that it's not free

[Syries]

Animal companions do not inherently gain all the abilities of their respective beastiary listings. Any abilities listed under their animal companion entry is what the AC has, but the companion starts featless. As such, you have to invest the weapon finesse feat yourself for you AC.

For a trip build, I would suggest 2 levels of barbarian and go the rest in Wild Child Brawler, and picking an animal companion you can be mounted on, such as a Big Cat at lv7. With Boon Companion and the trip feat line, plus the ferocious mount rage power, you can rage, charge, trip your enemy, make an attack of opportunity as the enemy falls, have your raging mount make an AoO as it falls, and then have your AC pounce. It's a terrifying thing to behold.

It's hard to make a good trip build with a class that isn't full BAB without really dedicating to the build, and even then you begin to miss out on other options in combat- and at high levels you'll experience a lot more flying enemies who can't be tripped.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

x_Gabriel_x wrote:

Just started up a Hunter for PFS and was reading guides on Hunters and ACs, and I have seen a few times, a small AC(such as the cheetah) due to being small, get Weapon Finesse for free, but ruling wise I can’t find that anywhere as being true.

Can someone point me to where that is stated or if its false?

Apparently "Tiny and smaller get Weapon Finesse for free" was a rule in 3.5. It's not in Pathfinder, so they gave Weapon Finesse to almost every such creature individually. At least that's my understanding. Also, familiars get its benefit for free with natural weapons for being familiars, regardless of size:

Familiars wrote:

Attacks: Use the master's base attack bonus, as calculated from all his classes. Use the familiar's Dexterity or Strength modifier, whichever is greater, to calculate the familiar's melee attack bonus with natural weapons.

In PFS they made it true again, possibly in the mistaken belief that it was in the PF rules:

FAQ wrote:

Can my familiar wield weapons or use magic items?

[...] Some Tiny familiars have the Weapon Finesse feat listed as one of their feats, even though they gain the benefits of Weapon Finesse for free from their size. Swapping out this feat does not deprive Tiny familiars of the ability to use its Dexterity to hit.

But the threshold is Tiny, not Small, so it doesn't come up for A/Cs.